Taylor Scott International News
The south east and east of England are likely to see the strongest house price growth in the UK in 2015 with Scotland also likely to be a strong performer, according to the latest outlook report. The south east is expected to see overall growth of 5.8% this year with the east of England and Scotland both at around 5.8%, according to the report from Strutt & Parker, with Greater London at 5.1%. The firm’s five year outlook also sees these regions having some of the strongest growth with price inflation of 22.8% predicted for the east of England, 22.7% for the south east, 19.8% for Greater London and 18.5% for Scotland. Other areas of interest include the south west with five year growth of 16.5% expected. ‘From our Housing Futures research we know that there is a huge aspiration to live there,’ said Stephanie McMahon, Strutt & Parker’s Head of Research ‘Our national survey showed that 15.6% of respondents who said they had plans to move within the next five years wanted to live in the south west, particularly for retirement and lifestyle reasons,’ she explained. ‘That said, our survey also showed that taking into account all respondents, and analysing by age, that the south west was one of the areas that would experience a large exodus of people between the ages of 18 to 29, indicating that older people have perhaps greater flexibility in their working styles,’ she added. The outlook report predicts house price growth of 15.7% for Northern Ireland over five years, 15.4% for the east midlands, 14.2% for the west midlands, 13.4% for the north west, 11.7% for Yorkshire and Humber, 11.3% for Wales, and 10% for the north east. The report also explains how major developments and events are likely to affect house prices. For example, central London, most notably locations such as Farringdon and Shepherd’s Bush are seeing rises due to the Crossrail infrastructure project. Outside of London, the electrification of the Great Western line with the first stages due to open in 2017 between London, Oxford, Newbury, Bristol and Cardiff means that property prices could rise and homes in the south east, Oxford and Bicester could benefit from the train line from Marylebone being brought into Oxford. The report mentions that there is real concern about potential interest rate increases in 2016 even although they are likely to come incremental shifts. This could affect first time buyers and also home owners with interest only mortgages. Another concern on the horizon is the Bank of England having powers over the buy to let market which could limit the sector and looking further ahead the referendum on whether the UK should remain in the European Union has the potential to have an effect on markets. ‘The EU Referendum will take place before the end of 2017. The lobbying has already begun and will escalate over the coming months. Although an immediate and direct impact on the majority… Taylor Scott International
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