Present property information headlines have a tendency to color an image of falling home costs. However a narrative in Which? journal on the 1st of December indicated that common costs – primarily based on official Land Registry figures – have fallen by solely 0.1% prior to now 12 months. The common worth of a house within the UK stays near the all-time excessive of £293,000 recorded in November final yr.
Towards that background, let’s take a peek at a few of the different property information.
Home Worth Index: November 2023
When it compiled its home worth index for November, the net listings web site Zoopla recorded a considerably steeper annual dip in common home costs – down 1.2% to £264,600 in contrast with the common worth only one yr in the past.
Though rising mortgage rates of interest have dampened demand, says Zoopla, the quantity of transactions holds fairly regular because the variety of houses available on the market reached a six-year excessive.
This has created one thing of a patrons’ market, with sellers granting reductions of a median of 5.5% or £18,000 on the marketed worth.
Zoopla forecasts a continued decline in common costs in the course of the course of 2024, however the fall could possibly be arrested if mortgage rates of interest are decreased.
Flat conversions could not want planning permission
Throughout his Autumn Assertion to Parliament on the 25th of November, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt revealed authorities plans to abolish the necessity for planning permission when homeowners select to transform a single home into two flats.
In its protection of the proposals, the Mail On-line acknowledged that the transfer is proving controversial as a result of it might deny native communities the correct of enter to modifications that might alter the character of the realm.
Nonetheless, the federal government – and supporters of the plans – argues that the proposed “permitted improvement proper” would encourage a rise within the provide of houses each for hire and on the market whereas additionally serving to to decrease the common price of extra reasonably priced dwellings.
Slashing the necessity for crimson tape might assist to extend the variety of reasonably priced houses, say commentators, though the next variety of residents will exacerbate parking issues and doubtless invite opposition from these already residing within the neighbourhood.
As much as 50% of southern England landlords seeking to promote up
The exodus of landlords from the purchase to let market continues apace – although with notable variations within the south of England in contrast with the north, argued an article in Landlord Zone on the 30th of November.
Landlords in components of southern England, for instance, are promoting up and leaving the market altogether on the alarming price of 52%. Whereas half of the present variety of landlords are leaving on this a part of the nation, the speed is “solely” 26% and 22% within the northern conurbations of Leeds and Manchester respectively. Throughout the nation as an entire, the proportion of landlords giving up their purchase to let companies is round 17%.
The explanations for the north-south divide are many and various. Not less than one motive superior for the distinction in attitudes amongst landlords is that the north has seen the next price of development within the worth of residential property prior to now yr – creating the impression of it being a safer place for funding than the south of the nation.
Older renters transferring to cheaper areas and smaller houses
Towards the background of rising rents and a dearth of obtainable properties, older tenants wish to cheaper components of the nation and usually smaller houses through which to maneuver, in line with a narrative in Landlord As we speak on the 30th of November.
The development is supported by figures on the kinds of tenancy agreed by older renters with incomes of between £30,000 and £70,000 a yr. On this pattern, a current survey indicated that in the course of the first six months of this yr fewer than half of recent tenancies had been for houses with three or extra bedrooms (the rest had been for one and two-bedroom rental properties.
Throughout the identical interval in 2020, nonetheless, 57% of recent tenancies had been for houses providing three or extra bedrooms.