020 7538 0102
UK city house prices rose by 2.9% over the 12 months to January 2019 – but with marked regional variations. The latest HometrackCities Index, which looks at house prices across Britain’s top 20 major cities, showed prices are rising fastest at 6% in Leicester, followed by 5.8% in Belfast and 5.4% in Manchester. However, house price inflation in London was virtually flat at 0.2%, the second slowest growth outside of Cambridge. Three of the bottom four cities for growth did still have the highest average house price, with London, Cambridge and Oxford all above £400,000. The data also showed that the weakest housing markets have the longest sales periods and largest discounts; in Aberdeen and inner London, discounts on asking prices reach 7% on average, with it taking 16 weeks to sell, on average.
City AM (01.03/2019)
Orchard Wharf, a 23-storey tower in Canning Town, set amid a crescent of stepped-height apartments, offers 338 properties overlooking the River Lea. Close to Canary Wharf, but around 30% cheaper, apartments can be had from £460,000. Help-to-Buy is available.
Evening Standard (26/02/2019)
Brexit could lead to a drop of 3% for London house prices, according to new research. “There will be a palpable shock to the UK economy in terms of GDP, inflation, job creation, etc”, warned Tony Williams of Building Value. “This will spill over dramatically to the residential market, with London bearing the brunt given the international catchment of prospective buyers,” he added. If Britain and the EU are unable to reach an agreement, a drop in housing prices would also be coupled with a weak pound, according to Reuters, making homes in the capital more attractive to foreign investors.
City AM (22/02/2019)
Remortgaging in London reached a decade-high last year as customers locked into competitive deals and a large number of fixed rate loans came to an end, according to UK Finance data. The number of new homeowner remortgages in the capital rose to 60,400 in 2018 - up 6.2% on 2017 and the highest annual figure since 2008. The £18.8bn of remortgage lending was 8.3% higher than 2017, the finance industry trade body said. First-time buyer mortgages completed in London climbed to 11,000 in the final quarter of the year, with £3.1bn of new lending.
City AM (27/02/2019)
The number of buy-to-let mortgage products currently available is at its highest since the credit crunch, according to Moneyfacts. Landlords now have the choice of 2,162 buy-to-let mortgages, meaning the number of products has not been higher since October 2007, when 3,305 products were available. “It is encouraging that buy-to-let landlords have more mortgage choice than they have had at any time in almost 12 years. Total product numbers have increased by 397 over the past year and by 706 over the past two years to stand at 2,162 products today,” said Darren Cook, finance expert at Moneyfacts.co.uk.
Your Mortgage (25/02/2019)
The Telegraph looks at the underappreciated areas of London where homes can still be snapped up at reasonable prices - including Bromley-by-Bow, just 12 minutes away from Canary Wharf, and even closer to Stratford Westfield and the East Bank cultural area. Mount Anvil, in a joint partnership with Peabody, is breaking ground on Three Waters, a 307-apartment waterfront scheme set beside a plaza with a coffee shop and plenty of spaces for new businesses. Prices start from £371,500 for a studio apartment and owners have access to 24-hour concierge – a bargain for the area, according to Mount Anvil’s Tony Usher “At £750 per sq ft, it’s a very competitive price point – lower than Stratford (at around £1,200), Hackney Wick (£1,100 to £1,200) and Canary Wharf (£1,000 to £1,450)”, he explains.
The Daily Telegraph (18/02/2019)