Property Investment News and Analysis from Dominic Farrell.
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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  Fed cuts to 1%

A 1% interest rate got Alan Greenspan into trouble, being widely blamed - probably a bit too much - for stoking up the housing boom. But the Fed under Ben Bernanke is back there again, having cut by half a percentage point. In its statement the Federal Open Market Committee ...   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  Still no end in sight

THOSE looking for an end to America's housing bust will have to wait a little longer. Although sales of new homes rose slightly in September, prices are continuing to fall fast. On Tuesday October 28th the S&P/Case-Shiller index of house prices for ten cities showed a record decline of 17.7% ...   more »

View Article  Home repossessions and arrears rise as borrowers struggle

The number of properties repossessed by lenders in the second quarter of this year was up 71% on the same period last year, figures showed today.

Rising household bills and increasing mortgage costs resulted in 11,054 new possessions cases in the three months between April and June this year, compared ...   more »

View Article  Stick or twist - The first time buyer gamble

First time buyers who delay their decision to get on to the property ladder could find market conditions have moved in their favour, and not just because falling house prices mean they will need to borrow less money, says moneyfacts.co.uk.


In October 2007, figures released by the Halifax showed 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  Dominic Farell: Cyprus Property Rises 1% in September, RICS and Eastern Europe Gloom

Dear Investor,

Greetings from Cyprus where the temperature under my pergola is a hot 30C and it’s only midday!

I was invited to speak at the annual Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Real Estate Conference in Nicosia yesterday. The underlying theme was the impact of the global credit crunch, ...   more »

View Article  POLL-Housing market rout to last up to two years more

LONDON (Reuters) - Property prices will fall 15 percent this year, another 10 percent in 2009 and will take up to two years to stabilise despite the prospect of several more interest rate cuts, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

The poll of 38 analysts at banks, investment firms and ...   more »

View Article  Freddie Mac's September portfolio fell 37.9 percent

NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Freddie Mac (FRE.P: Quote, Profile, Research), the second-largest U.S. home funding company, on Friday said its mortgage investment portfolio shrank by an annualized 37.9 percent rate in September.

The portfolio decreased to $736.9 billion, the McLean, Virginia-based company said in its monthly volume summary. ...   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  A helping hand to homeowners

Some economists think the credit crisis needs to be fixed at its source—in America’s housing market

GOVERNMENTS across the rich world have taken drastic steps to save the banking system. As the fears of outright collapse recede, their focus has turned to improving the supply of credit to households and ...   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  Collapse in mortgage lending intensifies

The collapse in mortgage lending continued last month as banks further tightened the screws on home loans and would-be buyers shied away from the plunging housing market, new figures confirmed today.

The total amount of mortgage lending by banks and building societies last month fell to just £17.7 billion, the ...   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  The buy-to-let battle is on

Should landlords tough it out or cut their losses as property prices fall and decent mortgage deals become more scarce?

It has been an uncomfortable fortnight for Britain's army of landlords. House prices are falling faster than at any point in the past 50 years and experienced lenders have been ...   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  Dominic Farrell: It’s Been An Extraordinary Week – Don’t Blink Or You’ll Miss It!

It’s been an extraordinary week in many respects.  We’ve had the Irish and Greek governments guaranteeing 100% of depositors’ cash in their banks (and others following suit yesterday), a $700 billion rescue package approved by both the US Senate and House of Representatives, a meeting of the “Big Four” of ...   more »

View Article  Overseas property owners renting out to cover costs in current economic downturn

The credit crunch is having a major impact on overseas property owners who are finding it more expensive to visit their second homes.

The general economic climate means they are now trying to rent out their property but the rising cost of flights and travel is impacting that market too....   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  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  A guide on where to buy property abroad

Never mind the property slump in the UK. What about a villa in Thailand, a beachfront apartment in Venezuela, a safari lodge in Botswana or a house in Florida? Falling house prices may be deterring buyers over here but to some property investors, unstable politics, rioting, economic downturn and long-haul ...   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 »