Docklands News

Data from HMRC shows that the number of houses sold in the UK has fallen. Across the UK, 82,120 transactions were estimated to have taken place in April, marking a 25% drop compared with April 2022. At 67,220, residential property sales were also 8% lower in April 2023 than in the previous month. HMRC's report said the drop in sales between March and April “appears particularly large”. It said: “The number of transactions in March was high due to a combination of factors including a larger number of working days relative to April and the final month for purchases to be completed under the Government's Help To Buy equity loan scheme”. Andrew Montlake, managing director of the mortgage broker Coreco, said that while buyers have been “returning and getting used to the new mortgage rate environment", the fact that loan rates are starting to increase again “will undoubtedly have an effect on buyer affordability, mortgage choice, and therefore transaction levels going forward".

City AM (31/05/2023)   Daily Mail (31/05/2023)   The Daily Telegraph (31/05/2023)   The Independent (31/05/2023)  

Three unusual floating homes are up for sale in the Poplar Marina, near Canary Wharf, offering two bedrooms, a bathroom, a lounge area, a mini-kitchen and a deck with views of the waterfront for around £242,000. The average cost of a property sold in the same area in the last 12 months is £579,000. Ian Barr, managing director of Waterlodge, the company that makes the floating homes, said the aim was to create distinctive but affordable homes in prized locations. "They are more off-the-wall than your standard bricks-and-mortar property, but provide affordable waterfront luxury", he said. The waterproofing on the homes is good for 25 years, according to Waterlodge, which claims its homes are "virtually unsinkable".

Business Insider (21/05/2023)  

New research by Middleton Advisors shows that homebuyers should keep their property for at least nine years to avoid making a loss on their investment. However, Londoners can expect to make a return on their property investment in less time due to a greater number and higher turnover of homes in the capital. The data shows that people who buy flats and terraced properties, which make up the majority of London housing stock, own them for less time than those who are buying detached and semi-detached houses. On average, people are keeping their properties much longer, with the research indicating that private-sector buyers tend to retain their properties for 20.2 years. Over each of the possible 20-year periods since 1952, average UK housing has grown in value by an average of 8.7% a year, a higher median rate of growth than the FT All-Share Index, which averages 6.8% by the same measure.  

Evening Standard (25/05/2023)  

House prices rose by 4.1% annually, despite slower growth than a year ago, according to the UK house price index. The average property price fell by 1.2% in March to £285,009. However, the market is showing resilience, with confidence returning as inflation falls and the economic outlook brightens. The biggest annual increase in value was the 5.2% rise to £483,994 for detached houses. Prices in Wales have risen by 4.8% to £214,000 over the past year, and by 3% to £185,000 in Scotland. In Northern Ireland, they rose by an average of 5% to £172,000.

The Times (24/05/2023)  

England needs 616,000 extra homes each year to accommodate record numbers of migrants, according to the Centre for Policy Studies. The think tank said current house building targets were based on outdated assumptions of some 170,500 migrants arriving in England each year. Even if net migration reaches 700,000 a year, as some analysts have predicted, 500,000 homes would still need to be built annually. The Home Office has privately predicted that another 1.1m foreign workers and students would come to the UK in 2024 unless ministers intervene. Kristian Niemietz, head of political economy at the Institute for Economic Affairs think tank, said concerns about the pressure of increased migration on the housing market could be resolved by a more flexible planning system. 

The Daily Telegraph (23/05/2023)  

Around 116,000 households will soon see the cost of their mortgage jump, with Financial Conduct Authority data showing that their fixed-rate deals will come to an end this month. If they do not secure a new deal and move on to their lender’s standard variable rate, they could face an interest rate of 7.49% or more. Moneyfacts data shows that the average two-year fixed rate mortgage in June 2021 was 2.59%, but now stands at 5.26%. For five-year fixes, the average was 2.92% in 2018 but is now 4.97%. UK Finance figures show that more than 76,600 borrowers missed payments worth at least 2.5% of their outstanding balance by March, while 750 properties were repossessed in Q1 – 50% more than in the previous quarter. More than 1.4m people are coming to the end of fixed-rate mortgages this year. 

The Times (20/05/2023)