Property Investment News and Analysis from Dominic Farrell
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View Article  Housebuilder's sales plunge by 27%

HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey today reported a 27 per cent plunge in house sales since the summer and warned there was no immediate end in sight for the UK property slump.

The group said net reservations averaged 165 a week since July 1. Britain's biggest housebuilder - which owns the George ...   more »

View Article  UK landlords seeking to buy to take advantage of bargain property prices

One in five landlords in the UK expects to buy more properties in the coming months, taking advantage of bargain prices, according to a survey.

Although the current credit crisis has hit landlords in all kinds of ways including increased mortgage rates and falling prices, they are still generally optimistic ...   more »

View Article  UK is in recession, says Bank of England Governor Mervyn King

Britain is now in recession after the banking system came closer to collapse than at any time since the beginning of the First World War, according to the Governor of the Bank of England.

Mervyn King has become the first major UK economic policymaker to warn explicitly that Britain is ...   more »

View Article  CBI urges interest rate cut

Pressure is building on the Bank of England to reduce interest rates this week after Britain's biggest business lobby called for a sharp cut and City economists warned of "a deeper and longer" recession than initially feared.

Economists at UBS slashed their global growth forecasts in response to "the dramatic ...   more »

View Article  Halifax raises mortgage rates

There was another blow for homeowners today as it emerged the UK's largest mortgage lender is about to reduce its range and put up prices on the remaining deals.

Halifax, which is to become part of Lloyds TSB after shares in its parent company HBOS collapsed at the start of ...   more »

View Article  Inflation easing sees way for ECB rate cut

For eurozone interest rates to fall, it has long been clear that the European Central Bank would have to be able to say inflation was under control. On Thursday Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, indicated that the banking crises in the US and Europe, and a rapidly deteriorating eurozone growth outlook, ...   more »

View Article  House prices fall in September

LONDON (Reuters) - House prices fell for a 12th month running in September to stand 6.2 percent lower than they were a year ago, a survey by property consultants Hometrack showed on Monday.

The drop of 1.0 percent on the month to 165,300 pounds was bigger than the 0.9 percent ...   more »

View Article  Buildings razed turning British cities into 'bombsites'

The levy on empty shops, offices and warehouses, which was introduced in April, is aimed at landlords who left buildings deliberately empty as they waited for rents to rise.

It intended to reduce rents, raise property supply and earn the Treasury almost £1 billion in tax.

Opponents of the tax ...   more »

View Article  Persimmon fury at stamp duty delay

HOUSEBUILDER Persimmon yesterday blamed Government dithering over stamp duty for the creation of more confusion in the now stagnant housing market.

Chief executive Mike Farley said the failure of the Government to announce firm plans for deferring stamp duty had “caused further delay and uncertainty” in a market suffering the ...   more »

View Article  Cities best for student landlords

The city of Durham offers the best returns to landlords investing in student property with annual yields of nearly 14 per cent, research showed today.

Despite Durham having one of the smallest student populations in the UK, the city's relatively low house prices combined with its high rents enables landlords ...   more »

View Article  Councils push to become mortgage lenders

NLGN has been campaigning for local authorities to be able to offer financial support to those affected by the credit crunch. It hopes this would stave off repossessions and evictions, prop up the housing market to prevent remortgage difficulties and support first-time buyers to buy locally.

Currently, the NLGN is ...   more »

View Article  Sales halted by uncertainty, say estate agents

Estate agents have warned that the government's refusal to commit to suspension of stamp duty on house purchases is leading to a freeze in house sales as potential buyers hesitate until any tax changes are announced.

But ministers and Whitehall officials yesterday closed ranks against calls for a stamp duty ...   more »

View Article  Repossessions rise by 41%

The number of homeowners having their properties repossessed jumped by 41% in the first half of this year to its highest level in 12 years, figures showed today.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said 18,900 properties had been taken into possession by lenders over the six months to June, ...   more »

View Article  Fast not slow at Northern Rock

February 2008 was a bad month to buy a bank, even if the purchase price was zero and you had £27bn of loans to protect. Given the slump in the housing market, the government's "investment" in Northern Rock, the mortgage lender it had to nationalise after a depositor run last ...   more »

View Article  Chancellor considering stamp duty deferment plan

Alistair Darling, the chancellor, is considering a plan to allow people to defer paying stamp duty when they buy a home.

He is committed to bringing forward proposals later this year to kick-start the flagging housing market, and one option would be to allow buyers to put off paying stamp ...   more »

View Article  Picturesque second homes come onto market as property prices fall

Slumping house prices are rejuvenating the property market in picturesque locations as city dwellers sell off their second homes, according to estate agents.

In recent years houses in many fashionable rural and coastal areas have become so popular as investments that very few changed hands.

But the economic downturn over ...   more »

View Article  Property Investors Unfazed By the Credit Crunch & Still Buying Property Abroad

Experienced investors aren’t fazed by the credit crunch and still intend to buy property, especially in foreign markets, the Jet-to-Let Magazine Annual Conference survey has revealed. 

The Jet-to-Let Magazine 2008 Annual Conference recently took place at The Hilton Metropole in London. The conference was attended by a wide range ...   more »

View Article  Negative equity hits 250,000 - and there is worse to come

After months of gloomy forecasts, analysts have finally confirmed the news that homeowners had been dreading for months: that large numbers of British householders have slipped into negative equity.

According to the investment bank Citigroup, a quarter of a million of them now owe more than their properties are worth ...   more »

View Article  House prices suffer record annual fall

The gloom enveloping the US housing market intensified yesterday as home prices dropped at the fastest annual rate since records began 20 years ago.

The S&P/Case Shiller national house price index fell 14.1 per cent in the first quarter of this year, compared with the same period a year earlier, ...   more »

View Article  US house prices in sharpest fall for 20 years

American house prices are collapsing almost five times as quickly as during the last US recession in 1991, with losses expected to double before any recovery begins, new data showed today.

Residential property values fell 14.4 per cent over the first quarter of 2008 compared with the same three months ...   more »

View Article  Number of homes on market surges but buyers stay away

Pressure on house prices in England and Wales intensified this month as a "buyers' strike" took a firmer grip and the volume of houses for sale continued to rise, a market survey shows.

Prices fell for the eighth month in a row, falling 0.5 per cent during the month after ...   more »

View Article  House prices fall as buyers 'go on strike'

House prices falls are accelerating as home buyers "go on strike", according to the latest analysis of the housing market.

The average house is now worth 1.9 per cent less than a year ago, a report from Hometrack will say today.

This is the largest fall recorded so far by ...   more »

View Article  Why first-time buyers should head overseas

Trying to get on the property ladder? It pays to look abroad

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Having a property abroad strikes many of us as a great lifestyle opportunity, but a growing number of UK first-time buyers looking overseas are more interested in sidestepping Britain's challenging property market than the ...   more »

View Article  House prices to fall 7% in '08, warns CML

UK house prices are expected to fall around 7% this year and property transactions in England and Wales by some 35%, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

It reckons just 770,000 property deals will go through in 2008, having predicted a 14% drop from 1.18m to 1.01m last ...   more »

View Article  NI homeowners facing repossession

The number of Northern Ireland homeowners facing repossession orders after failing to keep up with mortgage payments is up by more than 30%.

The number of writs issued is at its highest level for five years.

More than 750 writs have been issued in the first quarter of this year, ...   more »

View Article  Rugby players feeling the crunch as property investments tumble

Rugby players are the most robust of sportsmen, well able to withstand a battering on the field that would shatter the body and spirit of lesser mortals. But some of the game’s finest players have taken a hit in the property market hard enough to make even the stoutest second-row ...   more »

View Article  LSH full steam ahead on London Overground property portfolio

LSH will provide portfolio management across the entire London Overground network, which has been set up following the acquisition of the former Silverlink Metro service, for the duration of the two-year contract.

The network, which includes 50 stations, is set for over £1.4bn of investment in the next few years. ...   more »

View Article  Londoners lower prices in bid to sell homes

House sellers have cut their asking prices sharply in Greater London in a bid to attract buyers, property website Rightmove says today.

Prices fell by 0.9% from March to April to an average of £403,545. However, that was still 6.2% higher than a year ago.

Rightmove added that prices suffered ...   more »

View Article  First Direct puts mortgages on hold

First Direct today became the latest lender to withdraw from the mortgage market, as it pulled out of offering mortgages to anyone other than existing customers.

The bank, which is owned by HSBC, said it was taking the "drastic" step after being overwhelmed with applications following recent moves by rival ...   more »

View Article  U.S. existing home sales post surprise rise

Sales of U.S. existing homes rose in February for the first time since July as prices posted a record drop from their year-ago level, but economists said it was unlikely the market had reached a bottom.

The National Association of Realtors on Monday said sales of previously owned homes rose ...   more »