Property Investment News and Analysis from Dominic Farrell
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View Article  Rates tipped to hit all-time low

The Bank of England is expected to cut interest rates to the lowest level in its 315-year history when it makes its monthly decision later.

With rates currently at 2%, the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee is tipped to announce a reduction of between 0.5 and one percentage point.

This would ...   more »

View Article  Lending Levels Will Increase In 2009

The 2009 housing market forecast from Assetz predicts that although there will be some moderate house price falls in the first half of the year, the second half will see the property market start to bottom out.

Sales activity is also expected to pick up in the latter half of ...   more »

View Article  Nationwide in 95% mortgage market

Nationwide has launched a new mortgage for existing borrowers who have just 5 per cent equity in their homes.

The lender is the first to re-enter the high loan-to-value market following a mass withdrawal by mortgage providers earlier this year as property prices started to fall.

Nationwide’s new deal is, ...   more »

View Article  Mortgage lenders seek greater clarity as the lending slump continues

There were 39,900 house purchase loans in October, worth £5.5 billion, according to new data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

This was an increase of 14% in volume and 10% in value from September, but an annual decline of 52% in volume and 57% in value.

The rise in ...   more »

View Article  Mortgages issued for house purchases rise for first time in six months

The number of loans for house purchase - issued to first-time buyers and home movers - rose to 39,900 in October, up 4,900 on the previous month. And the number of remortgages rose to 70,000 in October, up 8,000 on the previous month, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders....   more »

View Article  CML may drop house price forecast

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said that it may abandon its annual house price forecast due to the market downturn.

The trade body, which is currently finalising its forecasts for 2009, said it was considering not predicting what would happen to house prices during the year because of the ...   more »

View Article  Base rate cut shows complexity of modern economy is lost on Brown

It's been forgotten in the ensuing credit crisis, but as recently as July last year Gordon Brown was calling for more long-term fixed rate mortgages as a way of controlling house prices.

If he’d taken his own advice and bought a 25-year fixed rate loan, the sort of thing he ...   more »

View Article  First-time buyers 'benefiting from more affordable housing market'

The number of people on modest incomes buying their first home has jumped by 16% during the past four months, figures showed today.

Spicerhaart Financial Services said the increase in purchases by first-time buyers earning less than £40,000 suggested property was becoming more attainable at the lower end of the ...   more »

View Article  Gazundering is back With prices plunging,it's a buyer's market and the gazunderers are out in force

Rick and Carrie Horne had it all planned. He had just accepted a promotion in Plymouth, another baby was on the way, and they were moving to a perfect family home in Newton Abbot, 35 miles away. Then everything came crashing down: the day the couple were due to exchange ...   more »

View Article  Prices of homes dropping at fastest rate since 1952

The average price of a house in Britain is £30,000 less than it was a year ago, Nationwide said yesterday, with prices tumbling in the year to October at their sharpest rate since 1952.

Britain's biggest building society said prices fell 14.6% over the past 12 months to £158,872, and ...   more »

View Article  Lloyds TSB borrowers stopped from switching to interest-only deals

The bank introduced the new rules earlier this week, preventing borrowers with a low amount of equity in their homes from opting to pay just the interest on their mortgages.

Switching to an interest-only deal is one way that borrowers can reduce their monthly repayments if they are struggling to ...   more »

View Article  Fewer home loans for first-time buyers

Just 40 home loans are available to those with deposits of 5pc, who are often first-time buyers. This is a fall of almost 50pc in just a week, according to Moneyfacts, the financial information group. In July last year the figure was 1,079.

Borrowers with deposits of 10pc of the ...   more »

View Article  Persimmon forced to write down £600m

HOUSEBUILDER Persimmon today announced a further £600m write down on its landholdings as it reported more house price falls in the stricken property market.

The Charles Church builder said house prices had fallen further since the end of its half-year, with cancellation rates on house reservations also soaring to around ...   more »

View Article  NEW GOVERNMENT GUIDANCE ON ARREARS AND REPOSSESSIONS

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said new guidance was being given to the courts to halt actions to repossess properties unless all alternatives had been "fully examined".

Around 18,900 people lost their homes during the first half of the year, 48 per cent more than during the same period of 2007 ...   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  Northern Rock accused over level of repossessions

Debt charities have accused Northern Rock, the state-backed bank, of “aggressively” repossessing the properties of mortgage borrowers who have been struggling to meet repayments.

Shelter, the homeless charity, has published figures showing that the number of repossessed homes on Northern Rock’s balance sheet jumped by 68 per cent in first ...   more »

View Article  Lenders at odds over mortgage promise as home loans slump again

As number of mortgages falls, lenders are worried about details of the bailout

Mortgage lending is continuing to fall, leading home-loan providers warned, as they demanded further clarification of the small-print in the Government's bank bailout which appears to require a return to levels of advances last seen in 2007....   more »

View Article  Housing slump could be over next year, MPs hear

A drop in home loan rates by a further half point could turn the housing market around by next year, an economist says

The housing market slump could be over as soon as next year if the cost of home loans falls by a further half-point, a leading housing market ...   more »

View Article  House prices to fall by another 15pc, says Knight Frank

House prices are likely to fall by a further 15pc and will not fully recover until 2015, new research says.

According to upmarket estate agent Knight Frank, the housing market will continue to decline until late 2009 or early 2010 and will not return to the peak of levels it ...   more »

View Article  CML reports decline in August lending

The UK's Council of Mortgage Lenders has reported that the house purchase lending in August 2008 was at GBP6 billion, 63% lower than in August 2007.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has said that the first-time buyers accounted for just under a third of the total house purchase lending ...   more »

View Article  Interest rate cuts overshadowed by spectre of recession

Interest rates across the world were slashed yesterday as central banks took unprecedented emergency action in an effort to contain the worst economic threat since the Great Depression.

Hours after the Government unveiled a £500 billion rescue package for the British banking system, the Bank of England joined forces with ...   more »

View Article  Finance crisis: Banks slash interest rates, UK homeowners should benefit

More than four million home owners will enjoy an immediate cut to their mortgage repayments after interest rates were slashed by the Bank of England as part of a coordinated global response to the financial crisis.

The Bank was joined by the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank ...   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  Blinded by dogma

Central banks' obsession with inflation is stopping them from tackling a far more pressing threat

Again, too little, too late. While the finance sector and the world's debtors must have noticed that central banks co-ordinated a 0.5% cut in interest rates, be sure they cared little. The fact is, this ...   more »

View Article  Iceland's economic woes cause shivers through British economy

Its currency, the krona, has fallen 27 per cent against the dollar this week, while its largest bank Kaupthing – which has lent money to many British entrepreneurs and businesses – started to ask its clients for more money to help it shore up its balance sheet.

Iceland's problems emerged ...   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  Bank must cut rates before it’s too late

How can there be any doubt that the Bank of England will cut interest rates next week? Just look around. Collapsing banks, bankrupt retailers, frozen credit markets, rising unemployment, gloomy consumers, tumbling stock market and now manufacturers at their most pessimistic for 17 years.

Yet there is doubt. Even after ...   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  No meltdown, says MPC member

Prospects for the economy are far better than those prevailing during earlier recessions in the 1970s, 80s and 90s, despite turbulence in financial markets, according to Andrew Sentance, a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee.

The outlook now is merely for weaker growth, not meltdown, he said ...   more »

View Article  Lender HSBC cuts mortgage rates

Bank HSBC said it is lowering interest rates for its fixed-rate mortgage loans in response to a fall in funding costs.

HSBC, the country's biggest bank by market capitalisation, is from Monday cutting its standard two, three and five year fixed-rate loans by 0.56 percentage point to 6.27 percent.

The ...   more »

View Article  Accountants confirm effect of UK economic downturn
One in five UK accountants have confirmed that their clients have been refused credit or had funding restrictions imposed in the light of the credit crunch. The findings, from a survey conducted by Invoice and Asset Based Lender, Venture Finance, provide the first real evidence that UK SMEs are starting ...   more »
View Article  Recession fears push pound down

The pound has hit a record low against the euro and a two-year low against the dollar amid fresh fears about the UK sliding into recession.

Gloomy housing and manufacturing data and comments from the Chancellor about the UK's economic woes are to blame for the pound's decline, traders said. ...   more »

View Article  Mortgage lending figures give some hope

The number of new mortgages agreed by leading banks edged higher last month, raising hopes that the worst of the drought in the home-loans market may have passed.

A total of 22,448 loans for house purchase, rather than remortgaging, were approved by banks during July. Although this was still a ...   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 »