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New home building in UK needs to address the needs of older people too, says report
New home building in the UK to cope with the country’s chronic shortage of housing should not concentrate just on the needs of first time buyers and younger people, according to a new report A new report from the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC-UK) whilst the Government’s focus on first time buyers is understandable faster progress in helping these younger generations get on the housing ladder would be made if more energy was put into meeting the housing needs and aspirations of their parents and grandparents. The report calls for more housing to be built by local authorities, a wider range of commissioners of new house building, better rental offers for older people with secure tenancies, more shared ownership options for older people and overall greater choice for older people in general needs housing. The authors argue that the lack of new housing supply has contributed to the rampant increase in house prices in recent decades and this in turn has resulted in housing wealth becoming the principal driver of inequality in the UK. It suggests that providing a better choice of options for older people looking to downsize would unlock substantial equity that could be made available to invest in new homes whilst releasing existing family homes into the market. ‘Finding ways in which local authorities can promote, support, finance and commission new homes will be critical to achieve the Government’s house building targets and in ensuring greater commissioning of homes suitable for older people,’ said Sir Michael Lyons, co-author of the report. ‘We need a better rental offer with secure tenancies and confidence of rent stability to encourage older home owners looking to release capital to provide an income in later years and to help fund housing for their children and grandchildren,’ he explained. ‘The increased opportunities for self-build, of self commissioning that government is promoting could be an attractive option for those who have equity but feel there is a lack of choice to meet their aspirations or those for whom retirement settings do not appeal,’ he added. According to Ben Franklin, head of economics of ageing at ILC-UK, supporting the country’s current and future housing needs must be a key pillar of a new social contract between the state and the individual. ‘For more than a decade we have simply not been building sufficient homes to meet demand. This is having a detrimental impact on the livelihoods and wellbeing of people across all ages,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately this is not going to change any time soon unless we make some radical changes to the system. The UK’s population is growing and is ageing which will only exacerbate the current crisis. In this context, supporting the housing needs of older people can be one important component of a strategy to revitalise the nation’s housing,’ he added. Continue reading
Families pay almost £44,000 extra for home in good primary school area
Families in the UK are having to pay a price premium of almost £44,000 to buy a property near the best performing primary schools, new research has found. Many parents want their offspring to get the best start in life and they are prepared to move home to make sure they are in the catchment area for those first crucial years at school. According to the research by online estate agents HouseSimple, the average premium paid is £43,773 to be in the catchment areas for the top 50 state funded primary schools across England that received the highest rating by Ofsted in its latest report. The research revealed that average property prices in streets that are close to these best schools are 18% higher than average property prices for the area postcode. Of the primary schools commanding the biggest premiums to live near to, more than half are in the South of England. The schools adding the biggest premium to local property prices are St Luke’s Primary School in Brighton and Hove and Crowland Primary School in Haringey, adding 45% or £151,121 and 44% or £193,816 respectively. But according to HouseSimple figures, there are some areas offering better value to live close to outstanding schools. Properties surrounding The Mayflower Primary School in Essex, Henry Cavendish Primary School in Lambeth and Highfields Primary School in Leicester have recently sold without buyers having to pay a hefty premium. ‘Many parents will go to great lengths to get their children a place at the best local state funded primary school. But there is a price to pay for the best free schooling,’ said the firm’s chief executive officer Alex Gosling. ‘Private education is out of reach for many families, which is why there is high demand for places at top rated state primary schools. But there aren’t enough places to go around, which has led property prices in the catchment areas of popular primary schools to rocket in recent years,’ he explained. ‘Attending an outstanding state school can offer an education as good as, if not better, than paying to go private, but with property prices close to the best state schools commanding average premiums of 18%, paying the price to live close by certainly doesn’t equate to a free education,’ he added. Continue reading
UK prime property prices up by an average of 0.3% in final quarter of 2015
Prime property prices in the UK increased by an average of 0.3% in the final quarter of 2015 despite a strengthening economy and low interest rates, according to the latest report. Beyond London prices of prime residential property saw muted price growth of 2.4% on average across 2015, but this was much lower than the 4.5% seen across the wider UK mainstream housing market. The situation reflects a general absence of urgency among buyers in the prime property market, says the report from international property services firm Savills. It explains that the resulting lack of upward pressure on prices was fairly uniform across the regions though markets in the London commuter zone performed marginally better, boosted in particular by the performance of prime property in high value towns and cities where annual growth averaged 5.4%. By contrast prime country property in London’s hinterland only saw annual growth of 1.9%. Across the country the performance of larger country houses has been most constrained with values of larger rectories and manor houses seeing little if any growth over 2015, reflecting a thinner stream of demand for the most expensive prime properties. The report also explains that higher value homes have been most affected by successive increases in stamp duty that culminated in the changes introduced in December 2014, which have also held back the prime property market in London. This has had a knock-on effect on demand flowing out of the capital, interrupting the ripple effect which we would otherwise expect at this point in the housing market cycle. The impact of taxation has also been noticeable in the prime housing markets in Scotland where the introduction of LBTT has meant that average price growth of just 0.4% in the past 12 months, though prime property in Edinburgh and Glasgow has performed more strongly. Across all areas smaller prime properties have performed best with those below £1 million showing annual price growth of 3.7%, much more in line with the wider housing market. Generally these markets have been the most buoyant, with greater levels of transactional activity. Looking ahead, in the short term Savills says that the demand for good quality family homes is likely to continue to underpin modest price growth across the prime regional markets, with appetite for larger higher value homes remaining more price sensitive. The firm is expecting price growth of 2.0% to 3% in 2016, which means sellers will need to remain realistic in their asking price, but which presents an opportunity for committed buyers. However, thereafter Savills expects the ripple effect to be restored as the market adjusts to higher transactional costs and buyers more actively seek to exploit the price differentials both between London and the commuter zone and the commuter zone and beyond, which have widened significantly over the past 10 years. The report also points out that Chancellor announced further changes to stamp duty in the 2015 Autumn Statement introducing a 3% surcharge on additional homes, the sales of… Continue reading
