Docklands News

House prices have dropped 1% year-on-year, the first such drop since 2012, according to the latest Halifax House Price Index. The cost of a typical UK property is now £286,532, down from £286,662 in April, while property prices have fallen by about £3,000 over the last 12 months and by around £7,500 since the peak in August. Kim Kinnaird, the director at Halifax Mortgages, said: "As expected, the brief upturn we saw in the housing market in the first quarter of this year has faded, with the impact of higher interest rates gradually feeding through to household budgets, and in particular those with fixed-rate mortgage deals coming to an end." She added: "This will inevitably impact confidence in the housing market as buyers and sellers adjust their expectations." 

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Houses are taking twice as long to sell as they did a year ago, with rising mortgage rates making it harder for buyers to afford homes. On average, it took home sellers 49 days to find a buyer in May, up from 26 days in the same month in 2022, according to analysis of Connells Group data by Hamptons. Four-bedroom houses were slowest to sell, with it typically taking 60 days to agree a sale in May - more than double the 27-day average recorded in May 2022. Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, said demand for smaller homes has increased as buyers have downgraded their expectations and opted for cheaper properties. "Upward pressure on mortgage rates over the last two weeks runs the risk of freezing some buyers out of the market," she said. 

The Daily Telegraph  

Housebuilding activity in the UK has contracted at the fastest pace since the first Covid lockdown, according to the latest construction purchasing managers' index from S&P Global and the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply. Work on residential building projects fell for a sixth month in a row in May, with the reading for activity in the housebuilding industry dropping to 42.7, the lowest figure in more than 14 years. Despite the decline in residential development, the PMI survey showed that total construction activity in Britain had risen to a measure of 51.6 in May, driven by increases in commercial building and civil engineering activity. However, John Glen, chief economist at the institute, said the drop-off in residential development "will send a chill down the spine of the UK economy". 

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London's prime property market has seen a recovery in the first third of 2023, thanks to the return of global travel and a weak pound. Sales of luxury properties above £5m have risen by 40% compared to the same period last year, with buyer demand up 35% above the five-year average. However, transactions on properties below £2m have declined by 3%. The upmarket sector has reported an uptick in supply, with the number of sales instructions 16% higher this year, pushing the number of exchanges up by 8%. Average prices in prime London remain broadly flat, falling 0.1% in the year to May.

City AM (31/04/2023)  

Business leaders have warned that London needs a surge in house building in the suburbs and green belt if the city is to capitalise on a once-in-a-generation chance to transform post-COVID. A report by Business LDN found that the city's "acute housing shortage both blights Londoners' lives and constrains the capital's international competitiveness". While brownfield land should be prioritised for redevelopment, researchers said that this alone will not meet the scale of the city's housing need and building on "poor quality" green belt land should be considered. City Hall analysis shows London now requires around 66,000 new homes a year to provide enough housing for current and future Londoners, but only an average of around 36,000 a year are currently being built. 

Evening Standard (26/05/2023)  

First-time buyers are facing a tough market as they are up to £9,000 worse off compared to last year due to the end of Help to Buy and soaring mortgage rates. The average monthly repayments have increased by £354, equating to £4,252 extra per year for the average £250,000 home outside London. In London, where the average first-time buyer property is £450,000, repayments are £755 a month more, or £9,058 a year. The study, conducted by the Liberal Democrats, has sparked calls for a new scheme to replace Help to Buy. The calculations were based on a 5% deposit, repayments over 25 years, and a 2.79% five-year fixed-rate mortgage taken out in 2022 compared to a 5.01% rate now without Help To Buy. "There has never been a worse time to be a first-time buyer," said Lib Dem housing spokesman Helen Morgan.

Daily Mail (29/05/2023)