Property Investment News and Analysis from Dominic Farrell.
Search
This Month
September 2010
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
Year Archive
Login
User name:
Password:
Remember me 
View Article  House price inflation easing off, Land Registry shows

House price inflation in England and Wales is running out of steam, according to the latest figures from the Land Registry.Although prices rose by 0.4% in July, the annual rate of increase fell back from 8.5% to 6.7%.

The figures chime with those of other surveys which have also suggested ...   more »

View Article  Mortgage lending 'picks up again'

Mortgage lending to home buyers picked up again in June, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) says.

Its figures showed that there were 52,000 new loans granted to home buyers, 19% more than in May and up 14% on the same month a year ago.

The CML said activity was ...   more »

View Article  House prices starting to fall, say surveyors

House prices are starting to fall, the latest survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has said.

It is the first time since July last year that its monthly survey has detected a downturn in prices.

Rics said this was because more homes were being put up for ...   more »

View Article  UK house prices rose 0.6% in July, Halifax says

UK house prices have continued to stabilise, according to the latest report from the Halifax.

Prices rose 0.6% in July, the Halifax said, reversing a fall seen in June, but values have changed little since the start of the year.

The annual house price inflation rate fell from 6.3% to ...   more »

View Article  Mortgage lending by UK banks fell in June

Mortgage lending by the major UK banks dipped in June compared with the previous month, figures show.

The number of mortgages approved for house purchases in the month fell to 34,813, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) said.

However, net mortgage lending was still 4.1% higher than a year earlier.

Meanwhile, ...   more »

View Article  UK home sales continue to increase

The number of homes sold in the UK in June rose by 21% from May to 86,000, HM Revenue & Customs has said.

The sales figures were the highest this year and were up 15% on the same month last year.

It means sales in the first half of 2010 ...   more »

View Article  Business leaders say Britain should still join euro

Pro-European British business leaders have told the BBC they still think the UK should join the euro in the future.

The BBC contacted senior business figures who had previously campaigned for Britain to join the euro in 2003.

Despite the debt crisis, only one of the eight to respond said ...   more »

View Article  House prices fell in May, Land Registry says

House prices in England and Wales fell by 0.2% between April and May, according to the Land Registry.

The annual rate of price change also fell, with prices 8.2% higher in May from a year ago, against 8.5% in April.

The average property value in England and Wales is now ...   more »

View Article  Budget key points: At-a-glance

Here are the key points of Chancellor George Osborne's first Budget, delivered on 22 June, 2010:

TAX

VAT: Rate will rise from 17.5% to 20% from January 4, 2011.

Personal income tax allowance: To be increased by £1,000 in April to £7,475 - worth £170 a year to basic rate ...   more »

View Article  Budget 2010: Britain on 'road to ruin' without cuts

Britain is "on the road to ruin" unless action is taken in the Budget on Tuesday to cut the deficit, Chancellor George Osborne has told the BBC.

Mr Osborne said the coalition had inherited "a truly awful financial situation" and he would set out a four-year plan to deal with ...   more »

View Article  Capital gains tax should not rise, business group warns

The chancellor should avoid introducing "punishing" tax rises which hit economic growth, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has said.

The BCC said it was concerned that George Osborne could use next week's Budget to unveil a rise in capital gains tax.

This is the levy firms or individuals pay ...   more »

View Article  House price inflation back to 10%, government says

Annual house price inflation is back in double-digits, according to government figures.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said prices in April were 10.1% higher than a year ago.

That was the highest rate of inflation since October 2007, when prices were on a downward trend.

UK house ...   more »

View Article  House prices fall says Halifax

House prices in May were 6.9% higher on an annual basis according to latest data from the Halifax. This was the largest increase in the annual rate of change – measured by the average for the latest three months against the same period a year earlier – since October 2007....   more »

View Article  House price inflation hits 8.5% in England and Wales

House prices in England and Wales are continuing to rise strongly, according to the latest figures issued by the Land Registry.

Prices in April rose by another 0.2%, pushing up the annual rate of increase to 8.5%.

This was the fastest rate of growth since September 2007.

Meanwhile, the number ...   more »

View Article  Bank of England unanimous over keeping rates on hold

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) was unanimous in its decision to keep interest rates on hold at 0.5% in May, minutes have shown.

The MPC said that while the UK economy was performing as expected, uncertainty had been caused by the impact of public debt problems in ...   more »
View Article  House prices up 6.6% in past year, the Halifax says

House prices have gone up by 6.6% in the past year, according to the latest Halifax house price survey.

Although this was the fastest annual rate of increase since October 2007, the mortgage lender stressed that the trend in recent months has been for price rises to slow down.

Prices ...   more »

View Article  House price inflation hits 10.5%, says the Nationwide

The annual rate of UK house price inflation has hit double figures for the first time since June 2007, according to the Nationwide.

The building society said that house prices in the UK had risen by 10.5% in the year to the end of April.

Prices rose by 1% in ...   more »

View Article  Mortgage lending in steady rise say banks

Mortgage lending rose slightly in March but borrowers continued to pay off loans and overdrafts, according to the major UK banks.

The number of mortgages approved for house purchases stood at 34,905 in March, up 5% on the previous month, the British Bankers' Association said.

The group added that low ...   more »

View Article  London values blossom against nationwide recovery

While nationwide property prices are showing small shoots of recovery, London is seeing a bigger rise in values according to the latest haart London Property Index.

Nationally, it has been reported that there has been a 0.7 per cent increase in house prices. In the capital, however, there was a ...   more »

View Article  First-time home buyers face price rise, DCLG says

First-time buyers faced house prices that were 8.9% higher in January than a year earlier, government figures show.

The average price paid by those buying their first UK home was £149,924 in January, the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said.

This rose by 0.2% compared with December and ...   more »

View Article  Gordon Brown warns economic storm not over

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned Britain of economic "bumps in the road" ahead but vowed "we will weather the storm together".

And in a pre-election swipe at his political rivals, he said "now is not the time to turn back", adding: "I will not let you down."

He also ...   more »

View Article  UK economy's outlook improving, surveys suggest

Surveys from two industry bodies suggest there is growing optimism about the recovery of the UK economy.

The employers' organisation the CBI said service sector firms saw business stabilise in the last three months.

The manufacturers' lobby group the EEF also said its members were seeing improved levels of business. ...   more »

View Article  Mortgage approvals drop sharply

Figures revealing a sharp drop in mortgage approvals in January have confirmed that the UK housing market made a slow start to the year.

The Bank of England said that the number of home loans approved for house purchases in January fell by 17% compared with the previous month.

The ...   more »

View Article  House prices rose by 2.9% in 2009, says government

House prices in the UK rose by 2.9% last year, according to the latest government house price survey.

Prices rose by 3% in England, 3.8% in Scotland and 1% in Wales, but fell 6% in Northern Ireland, the Department for Communities and Local Government said.

The figures suggest that the ...   more »

View Article  Stamp duty change prompts rush by house buyers

A rush to beat the end of the stamp duty concession saw a big rise in loans made to house buyers in December, says the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

There were 62,800 such loans, up by 23% from November and 90% higher than in December 2008.

The number of ...   more »

View Article  Bank of England warns inflation will exceed 3%

The UK's inflation rate will rise above 3% in the coming weeks, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, has predicted.

Presenting the Bank's quarterly inflation report, Mr King said the increase in VAT and higher petrol costs would push up prices.

But, he added, inflation would then ...   more »

View Article  House prices rise by another 0.6%, the Halifax says

House prices have risen for the seventh consecutive month - rising by 0.6% in January compared with December, the Halifax has said.

The average UK home was valued some 3.6% higher in January than a year earlier, at £169,777.

The figures show the continued trend of rising prices which has ...   more »

View Article  Davos 2010 ends with bankers on the defensive

Bankers have indicated that they may agree to far-reaching reforms, as the World Economic Forum in Davos ends.

Top regulators warned that they could take drastic action to take some of the risk out of the financial industry.

However, the annual meeting of some of the world's most powerful business ...   more »

View Article  Home buyers get more options

‘Cash is King’ has been the rule for some time for those buying a property, but new analysis from moneysupermarket.com has shown that providers are beginning to loosen the purse strings with more products now available to mortgage borrowers with lower deposits or equity in their properties.

Deals with an ...   more »

View Article  Spending cuts 'could hit affordable housing'

The number of planned affordable homes built over the next 10 years could be halved by government spending cuts, a housing campaign group has warned.

The government has pledged to build three million new homes by 2020, a third of which would be affordable.

The National Housing Federation said pre-Budget ...   more »