Docklands News

Mortgage approvals fell to their lowest level in two years as interest rate rises put off buyers, new Bank of England figures suggest. They slumped to just over 46,000 in November. This is down from 57,875 in October and 68,969 in November 2021 – a 33% fall year-on-year. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a more buoyant total of 55,000, despite the turmoil in the housing market after the September mini-budget. Remortgaging approvals fell 37% in November compared to the previous month, and down 30% compared to November 2021. The value of net mortgage debt owed by individuals in November increased from £3.6bn to £4.4bn. “The sharp fall in house purchase mortgage approvals in November comes as no surprise, given the tentative fall in quoted mortgage rates from October's high levels and the withdrawal of some lenders in the wake of the mini-budget,” Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said. 

BBC News (04/01/2023)   City AM (04/01/2023)   Daily Mail (04/01/2023)   Financial Times (04/01/2023)  

Savills has revealed that popular parts of north and east London have seen a 2.2% fall in house prices in the last three months of 2022. The estate agents' quarterly tracker of "prime" property prices said that prices in these areas - which include parts of Hackney, Islington, Shoreditch, and Clerkenwell - have fallen more sharply than in other areas where cash buyers are more prevalent. Savills' analysis also found that north-west London - which included Hampstead, St John's Wood, Primrose Hill, Maida Vale and Little Venice - was least affected, with prices down just 0.3% between September and December. Buyers in this area tend to be wealthy and are more likely to buy properties without mortgages, Savills said. 

The Daily Telegraph (28/12/2022)  

While Rightmove data shows that house prices in some regions have risen by up to 20% since 2019, the latest predictions from the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast a 9% drop by the third quarter of 2024. The OBR says the prices will fall £26,550 by summer 2024, with the decline driven by “significantly higher mortgage rates as well as the wider economic downturn.” Elsewhere, Zoopla expects price growth to dip into negative territory as the market adjusts to weaker buying power and concerns over the economic outlook. Capital Economics and Oxford Economics expect prices to fall by 12% in 2023, while Lloyds, Pantheon Macroeconomics and the Centre for Economics and Business Research have each forecast an 8% fall. Nationwide expects a 5% drop but, in a worst-case scenario, it said values could plunge by 30%. 

Daily Mail (28/12/2022)   The Daily Telegraph (28/12/2022)  

Michael Gove has claimed that opposition to new housing developments could be reduced if there was a greater focus on design and the “heart and soul” of places. He criticised “indifferent or insipid” planning and suggested that the potential of some public spaces was being squandered as a result of poor design and maintenance. Mr Gove said: “Much of the opposition to new housing developments is often grounded in a fear that the quality of the new buildings and places created will be deficient and therefore detrimental to existing neighbourhoods and properties." He added: “If a general improvement in the standard of design reassures the general public that this will in fact not be the case, then they may be less likely to oppose it.” Mr Gove was speaking in the foreword to a report by the Policy Exchange think tank arguing for the creation of a new national school of urban design and architecture. The intake for the new school would include architects, planners, designers, engineers and consultants in an attempt to break down divisions between these fields. The report says that although the school would “seek to wholeheartedly revive traditional architecture from the annals of obscurity to which contemporary architectural education has unfairly consigned it”, but it would also offer a “broad range of other stylistic approaches”. 

City AM (28/12/2022)   The Daily Telegraph (28/12/2022)   The Independent (28/12/2022)  

York saw the country’s biggest house price increases in 2022, data from Halifax shows, with prices in the city up 23% compared to a year ago and 41.9% higher than they were at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. The average price in the city has risen by about £70,000, passing the £300,000 mark. Other areas to see significant increases over the last 12 months include Woking, Surrey, at 19% and Chelmsford, Essex, (16.8%). Prices in the East Midlands towns of Kettering, Derby and Wellingborough all rose by between 15% and 16%, while Swansea was the highest riser in Wales, with prices up 17.5%. Leicester was the worst-performing area this year, with average prices dropping by 3.6%. Kim Kinnaird, director of mortgages at Halifax, said: “Overall 2022 was another year of rapid house price growth for most areas in the UK.” adding that “unlike many years in the past, the list isn’t dominated by towns and cities in the South East.” 

Daily Express (30/12/2022)   The Sun (30/12/2022)   The Times (30/12/2022)  

Developer Linkcity has received approval for Phase 4 of its masterplan for the Hallsville Quarter scheme in Canning Town. The latest phase includes a seven-storey mixed-use block containing 377 purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) rooms and 6,090 sq ft of ground-floor, flexible commercial floorspace. The overall masterplan comprises 1,148 homes, over 322,900 sq ft of leisure and retail space, a health centre and community facilities close to Canning Town underground station.

Property Week (15/12/2022)