D_Property
May 2, 2018
Landlord confidence across a range of measures remained stable or increased in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the end of last year, according to a recent survey of 1,043 landlords carried out by BDRC on behalf of Paragon. While still weak compared with historic levels, this quarter’s figures make welcome reading after a sharp dip in confidence following the announcement of new tax measures for landlords in 2015 and a further fall after the introduction of tighter underwriting rules for buy-to-let mortgages last year. Landlords in the East of England were most positive about the future, with over half (53%) of those surveyed indicating that they felt upbeat about the prospects for their own […]
April 30, 2018
The latest house price report from Nationwide shows a property market lacking in any real momentum. According to the figures released this morning, annual house price growth saw a slight increase of 0.2% on the month – picking up to 2.6%. Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, commented on the figures: “There was a slight pickup in UK annual house growth in April to 2.6%, from 2.1% in March. House prices rose by 0.2% over the month, after taking account of seasonal factors. February saw a softening in house purchase approvals to 64,000 cases, following a surprise rise in January. These figures are broadly in line with our expectations and close to the average for the last […]
April 24, 2018
Equity release lending in the UK has more than doubled in the last two years to reach £870 million in the first quarter of 2018 resulting in almost £10 million of housing wealth being withdrawn a day. The value of quarterly lending in the first three months of 2018 increased by 25% year on year, according to the figures from the Equity Release Council which said that product innovation and flexibility has led to new customers rising by 22%. The figures also show that the average initial instalment on a drawdown lifetime mortgage was up 4% from the final quarter of 2017 to £64,785 while the average lump sum lifetime mortgage was down 5% to £96,483. […]
April 24, 2018
The majority of landlords in the UK are finding it hard to keep up with the raft of regulatory changes and get to grips with complex compliance issues that have affected the private rented sector. New research reveals that almost one in 5 landlords, that is 18.2%, said they find it impossible to keep up with constant regulation changes with a further 29.9% saying they find it very difficult and another 31.2% finding it quite difficult. There are over 145 individual laws and more than 400 regulations relating to the private rented sector, making it harder than ever for landlords, particularly accidental landlords to keep up with change and compliance. The survey from property marketplace The […]
April 24, 2018
One year on from the triggering of Article 50 and Britain’s exit from the European Union is finally starting to take positive steps forward. An agreement on a transition deal announced on Monday 19 March saw the pound surge, with predictions it could grow further by the end of the week. For residential property investors, this should be encouraging, however, according to Andy Foote, director at SevenCapital, Brexit was never a huge threat for the residential property market: Since the first announcement of Brexit, residential investors – new and seasoned – have been wavering over decisions on residential property in the UK. In fact, one of the most commonly asked questions over the past 12 months […]
April 19, 2018
The latest data and analysis from UK Finance has revealed that mortgage lending for first-time buyers, home movers and remortgagors all saw an increase during February when compared to the previous year. Total homeowner purchases, which combine both home movers and first-time buyers, reached 50,000, the highest level for February since 2007. This morning’s figures show that there were 25,200 first-time buyer mortgages completed in February 2018, some 2.4% more than in the same month a year earlier. The £4bn of new lending in the month was 2.6 per cent more year-on-year. The average first-time buyer is 30 with a gross household income of £41,000. There were 24,800 home mover mortgages completed in the month, the […]