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UK homes have increased in value almost three times faster than their occupants' salaries over the past decade, according to new analysis. The average UK home has risen around 43% in value between 2008 and 2018, from £160,954 to £229,861. But over the same period the average salary has only increased by 15%, from 24,606 to £28,860. If wages had increased at the same rate as house prices over the period, the average annual UK salary would now be £35,187, according to the research by mortgage broker Private Finance. The firm’s managing director Simon Checkley said: "Over the past 10 years, as homeowners worked hard to earn an income, their home has done the same - arguably even more successfully."
City AM (01/10/2019) Daily Express (01/10/2019) Daily Mirror (01/10/2019)
London has moved out of "bubble-risk" territory for the first time in four years, according to a new UBS report, which however warns that the heady days of soaring house prices in the capital - which are around 10% below their mid-2016 peak - are long gone. Claudio Saputelli, head of real estate at UBS Global Wealth Management, said: “Many households simply lack the funds required to meet the banks’ financing criteria, which we believe poses one of the biggest risks to property values in urban centres.”
City AM (01/10/2019)
Knight Dragon has abandoned plans for a 500,000 sq ft film studio at Greenwich Peninsula, following the news that approval has been granted for another major film studio in Dagenham East. The developer will instead devote the space to more housing space; the number of homes has been increased from 15,730 to 17,487, with the amount of affordable housing increasing from 3,930 units, or 25% of the total housing, to 4,884, or 30%. Knight Dragon said the increase in housing provision was in line with the draft London Plan’s revised requirements for the area. Greenwich Bourough Council is expected to make a decision on the revised masterplan early next year.
Property Week (20/09/2019)
House price growth in the UK is at its slowest since 2012 at 0.7%, with London affecting the overall picture with a 1.4% drop over the past year alone. However CBRE’s new Borough by Borough report shows four of its top five locations for house-price growth in the capital in the past five years were in east London: Barking & Dagenham (51%), Newham (49%), Waltham Forest (44%), Bexley, in southeast London (42%), Redbridge (41%) and Havering (40%). CBRE attributed the boost to post-Olympic regeneration, the redevelopment of industrial sites, emerging tech hubs and young professionals looking for greater affordability.
The Sunday Times (22/09/2019)
The Mayor of London is on track to fall short of his 2019-20 new housing target. Sadiq Khan promised to build between 17,000 and 23,000 new affordable houses in 2019-20, a minimum of 4,250 per quarter. But fresh statistics from the Greater London Authority (GLA) budget monitoring committee showed City Hall started builds for just 2,672 affordable homes in the first quarter. And only 37,187 houses - less than a third of the overall target - have been started as of the beginning of the second quarter.
City AM (23/09/2019)
Despite continuing Brexit uncertainty, a total of 85,931 mortgages were approved by the main high street banks in August and mortgage approvals for home purchases were 3.2% higher than in 2018, according to data from UK Finance. Remortgage approvals were 0.1% higher and approvals for other secured borrowing were 0.4% lower than August last year. Mike Scott, chief property analyst at Yopa, comments: “This suggests that housing market activity has now completely recovered from the slowdown around the first Brexit deadline in March. A new slowdown may soon begin, as the October deadline draws closer and the political uncertainty seems no closer to resolution, but it is likely that the market will again recover quickly once the short-term outlook is clearer.”
City AM (25/09/2019)