UK Property News - Archive

November 2008 - Mortgage lending up then down - according to figures from the Bank of England. Mortgage lending during September crept up slightly from the record low in August which saw the number of new mortgages at its lowest since records began. Some 33,000 new mortgages were approved in September - up around 1,000 from the previous month although this figure was only around a third of the level for the same period in 2007.

Figures dropped again for October to levels only slightly higher than August's.

The efficacy of the various bail out and financing packages that have been thrown at the finance crisis over the past month or so remains to be seen and borrowers and lenders remain justifiably cautious leading to minimal demand for mortgages. Prices are predicted to continue falling for at least another six to nine months with some industry analysts even more pessimistically predicting no upturn untill the end of 2009.

According to the UK Land Registry, house prices fell for the 14th consecutive month in October 2008 with a monthly drop of one and a half percent giving a year-on-year price drop of over ten percent.

October 2008 - Falling house prices and the stagnant market are reflected in the almost complete collapse of new mortgage lending in August together with the overall mortgage debt in the UK shrinking by almost £400,000,000 as nervous borrowers pay in more than they withdraw to reduce their mortgage size.

It's a buyers market as UK property drops in value on a week-by-week basis with flats suffering the greatest fall. Some new builds are being discounted by up to 50%.

October 8th - Some good news for borrowers, though as the base rate is cut to 4.5% with mortgage rates looking set to fall by a similar amount.

September 2008 - House Prices continue to fall as major developers and builders lay off construction workers. The UK housing market continues its downward trend in the light of depressing news on the economy with mortgage approvals continuing to bump along at record low levels.

Owners that don't urgently need to sell their houses are staying put and many sellers are discounting heavily to try and generate interest but despite this, property sales are at their lowest for almost 30 years.

Consumer confidence is low in the face of redundancies, a pessimistic business community and ever rising energy costs.

June 2008

More gloom on housing front. Surveys from some of the major players in the UK property market indicate a steady fall in house prices with a possible fall in value of up to 20% during 2008. Fears of a price drop and the continuing 'credit crunch' making mortgages more difficult to obtain and more expensive have ensured that the number of mortgages over the last months has remained low.

May 2008

Fewest new mortgages for 33 years say Council For Mortgage Lenders. According to recent figures from the CML the first quarter of 2008 saw the fewest number of new mortgages since 1975. First time buyers were also at record low levels as the credit crunch continued to bite on the UK housing market.

Recent actions by the UK government to increase the flow of money available for new mortgages are yet to show significant results and the outlook for property prices is steadily downward for the foreseeable future. Predictions for house prices drops through 2008 vary between a conservative 5 - 10% and a thoroughly scary 20% over the year.

 

Slight drop in prices during April. Last month saw an estimated 1% - 2% drop in prices and figures from the Bank of England indicated that new mortgage approvals were at their lowest since the 1990's as first-time-buyers find it more and more difficult to raise the increasingly large deposits that banks and building societies are asking for.

As the lenders have moved to limit possible exposure to bad debts, mortgages have become more difficult to find and more expensive and demand for property has slowed further with new mortgage approvals running at just over half of this time last year.

April 18th 2008

Bank Frees up cash to fund Mortgages - The Bank of England announced plans this week to swap government backed bonds for mortgage assets with banks and building societies. It is hoped that this will encourage banks to lend more to each other and help free up cash for lenders who are currently underfunded due to the credit crunch.

Banks have been finding it increasingly difficult to borrow money in order to lend it on to their customers and this lack of funding has made mortgages and remortgages more difficult to find and more expensive. Leading bankers met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown earlier this week to discuss the current funding issues.

It's been widely predicted in the City this week that RBS which owns Natwest has plans for a rights issue to raise cash from its existing investors. The bank, which has recently used a large chunk of its cash reserves to purchase a major Dutch bank is expected to make an announcement next week.

House prices continue to fall as we move into early summer with the market remaining quiet and vendors having to discount quite substantially in order to shift their properties.

April 1st 2008 The housing market continues to look flat according to more reports this week. Predictions from building societies, banks and estate agents for 2008 are that the year will see either zero growth or a slight drop in house prices - which, if it happens, will be the first drop in 13 years.

Lenders provided just under 44,000 mortgages to home buyers in February, slightly up over the previous month, but down a third over the same period last year.

The number of different mortgages available has also fallen sharply with big reductions in the number of finance packages available in the sub-prime (poor credit history) marketplace and buy-to-let areas. As well as being more cautious about who they lend to, the mortgage providers are also asking buyers to put down bigger deposits.

March 12th 2008 Chancellor Alistair Darling has delivered his first budget and it is being termed as the 'hangover budget', due to his rise in alcohol duties, increasing by 2 per cent above the rate of inflation for the next four years.