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UK house prices up over 10% year on year, latest index shows
Annual house price growth in the UK had edged above 10% in March with the market also seeing price growth on a monthly and quarterly basis, the latest index shows. Property prices increased 10.1% year on year, taking the average price of a home to £214,811, the data from the Halifax index shows. It also records month on month growth of 2.6% compared with February and quarterly growth of 2.9% in the first three months of 2016. But the quarterly rate of change was just below the 3% recorded in February. The annual rate of growth was higher than the 9.7% rise recorded in both January and February and has been within the 8% to 10% range for nearly the whole period since the start of 2015. The monthly increase in March more than offset February’s 1.5% fall but the index report points out that the quarter on quarter change is a more reliable indicator of the underlying trend as monthly house price changes can be volatile. Flat prices have risen more sharply than prices for other property types since 2008, according to recent separate Halifax research. The 57% increase in the average price of a flat is significantly higher than the 37% rise for all residential properties over the period. Detached homes recorded the smallest rise at 20%. Terraced and semi-detached houses saw price rises of 38% and 34% respectively. A considerable proportion of the national rise in flat values has been due to the rapid increase in flat prices in London with growth of 62%. However, flats represent a much higher share of the property market here than elsewhere. Half of sales in London are flats compared with the UK average of 17%. Worsening sentiment regarding the prospects for the UK economy and uncertainty ahead of the European referendum in June could result in some softening in the housing market over the next couple of months, according to Martin Ellis, Halifax housing economist. ‘Current market conditions, however, remain very tight with an acute supply/demand imbalance continuing despite an improvement in the number of properties coming on to the market for sale in recent months. This, together with continuing low interest rates and a healthy labour market, indicate that house price growth is set to remain robust,’ he said. Russell Quirk, chief executive of eMoov, pointed out that much of the increase in March could be due to buy to let landlords rushing to beat the introduction of an extra stamp duty tax on additional homes at the beginning of April. ‘Although it looks like good news for UK homeowners on the surface, this increase could be artificially inflated due to the stamp duty changes. When coupled with the fact that interest rates are still at a rock bottom and keeping the market buoyant, it’s hard to tell exactly how the market will go,’ he said. ‘It will be interesting to see what happens next month once the stamp duty dust has settled and… Continue reading
Premium properties selling well in Scotland, but prices are down
Premium property sales in Edinburgh increased year on year in January, but the average sale prices was down, according to new research on the Scottish residential market. Across Scotland, 535 premium properties were sold in January, up from 494 a year ago. A total of 5,330 mainstream market properties under £300,000 were sold in January, up from 4,144 in January 2015. The average value of a house in Scotland in January was £163,610, down from £166,682 in January 2015. A total of 148 properties over £300,000 were registered as sold in the Scottish capital in the first month of the year, up from 131 in 2015, 136 in 2014 and 109 in 2013, the data from estate agency Strutt & Parker shows. Indeed the average sale price in January was £227,899, down from £236,696 in January 2015 and the premium market share, that is the percentage of all sales that were greater than £300,000, was 21.1%, down from 23.9% in January last year and the 40% recorded in March at the height of the sales rush before the introduction of Land and Buildings Transaction Tax. ‘It is very encouraging to note that registered sales are up year on year. The average price is down but by a relatively insignificant amount and it is not something I am worried about. In many respects the sales market is still adjusting to the unprecedented rush of premium sales before the introduction of LBTT last year, which saw record numbers of premium sales and the average price in Edinburgh spike at £320,257,’ said Blair Stewart, partner in Strutt & Parker's Edinburgh office. He pointed out that looking back at 2015, the value of Scottish property sales increased 8.2% on 2014 and the number of transactions was up by 4.5%. Edinburgh sales in particular were up 8.3% to 11,991, which was largely a reflection of the LBTT effect. ‘LBTT aside, however, the Edinburgh premium market has grown steadily in recent years from the lows seen in 2009. It has shown strength in the early months of 2016 and we have some very exciting new properties on our books so I am reasonably optimistic about where we are,’ added Stewart. In the market area covered by Highland Local Authority, premium sales in January numbered 18, down from 37 in December and 25 in November, but up from 12 in January 2015, 13 in January 2014. The premium market share stood at 7.9% in January, down from the 10.9% high recorded in March. In Aberdeenshire premium sales registered in January at 42 were down on the same month a year ago when 61 such sales took place. This cooling contrasted with a strong finish at the end of 2015 which saw 122 and 120 premium sales respectively in November and December. The data average property price in Aberdeenshire in January was £203,329, down from £229,476 at the start of 2015. According to David Strang-Steel, partner in Strutt & Parker's Banchory… Continue reading
House price growth slows in Auckland
Residential house price growth in Auckland, New Zealand, slowed in the second half of 2015 but are still higher than where they were at the same time last year. The latest data show that average price at $822,024 in February was up 1.3% on the average price for January and up 10% year on year while the median price at $738,000 was down 2.9% on January but up 7.5% on last February. ‘While prices are down from their record highs, based on past trends, prices in coming months are most likely to build modestly,’ said Peter Thompson, managing director of agents Barfoot & Thompson. ‘This trend has occurred over the past nine years where Auckland house prices have followed a cycle of falling in the first quarter of the year and then rising from autumn on. We have now had two months of trading where prices have been higher than they were in their equivalent months last year, and in the past that has meant prices have risen throughout the year,’ he explained. He added that the most significant figures in February’s data were that sales numbers stalled and new listings doubled while the number of properties sold at 698 was the lowest in any month for three years. ‘The reason was that at the start of February the number of properties on the market was at its lowest number for 20 years, and buyers had limited choice. However, as the month progressed more properties were listed, and we finished the month with 2,060 new listings, the highest number in the past six months. There are currently an extremely high number of properties in the pipeline for settlement in March and April,’ Thompson pointed out. ‘At month end, we had 3,318 properties on our books, the highest since March last year, and we anticipate an extremely busy period through autumn. Another factor that affects the average and median sales price in the early part of the year, is the summer break results in a relatively low number of sales in the $1 million plus price category,’ he added. The data shows that throughout last year, on average, some 332 properties a month were sold in the $1 million plus price category, but in February the sales in this price category was just 187. Sales of properties for under $500,000 in February made up 20.6% of all sales, whereas throughout last year they averaged 14.9% of sales. Meanwhile, the latest data from Statistics New Zealand show that building activity reached a record high in the last quarter of 2015, with an increase from the previous quarter in Auckland but a decrease in Canterbury. The total volume of building work rose 2.5% from the previous quarter, with rises of 2.8% for residential buildings and 2.3% for non-residential buildings. ‘This is the most building activity we’ve seen since the series began 26 years ago, with total activity slightly higher than the previous record,’ said Statistics New Zealand… Continue reading
