Tag Archives: economy
Greenwich in London sees largest house price growth in last 12 months
The London Borough of Greenwich recorded the biggest rise in house prices among major UK towns and cities over the past year, according to new research. The study, based on house price data from leading lender the Halifax, shows that the average house price in this south east corner of the capital was 24.6% higher than in the previous year, increasing from £263,183 to £328,044 in 2014. The Halifax report says that this is a significantly faster increase than in London as a whole, which saw price growth of 13% over the same time. Ealing, in West London, experienced the second biggest rise in average house prices with an increase of 24.5%, the research also shows. Crawley in Sussex with growth of 22.4% saw the third largest rise and is the only town outside London making the top 10. And overall some nine of the 10 areas with the strongest price growth in the past year are in London. These include Tower Hamlets with growth of 22%, Kingston upon Thames at 21.4% and Sutton in south London at 20.7%. Sheffield is the top performing area outside the south with prices rising by an average of 13.7% over the past year. Over the past five years, the South Yorkshire city has seen a significant increase in employment, particularly in managerial, professional and technical skilled occupations. This may have been a key factor in helping to boost housing demand, and hence prices, in the city. The towns experiencing a decline in the average value of homes over the past year are all outside southern England. Bury in Lancashire saw a fall of 4.8%, Keighley in West Yorkshire was down 4.4% and Nuneaton in Warwickshire down 3.2%. Four of the 10 weakest performing towns are in the North West. Besides Bury, they are St. Helens with a fall of 2.6%, Preston down 2% and Rochdale down 0.9%. ‘A number of towns and cities have recorded significant rises in house prices over the past 12 months. Nine of the 10 best performing areas are in the capital, and therefore within easy reach of central London,’ said Craig McKinlay, mortgage director at the Halifax. ‘Continuing improvements in the economy, rising employment and low mortgage rates will no doubt have supported housing demand and, combined with shortage of homes coming on to the market, will have contributed to rising property values,’ he explained. ‘At the other end of the spectrum, several of the towns experiencing price falls in the past year are still suffering from relatively weak employment conditions, which may have had an adverse impact on their local housing markets,’ he added. Continue reading
Property price growth in London now behind five other UK cities
Property growth in London now lags behind five other UK cities as the capital’s house price growth has dropped by two thirds in just three months. Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton, Bristol and Birmingham property markets have seen faster growth than London in the last quarter, according to the latest cities house price index from Hometrack. It also shows that while overall UK house prices have risen by 8.9% year on year, the rate of house price growth in the last quarter has slowed across 16 of the 20 cities. The firm is predicting house price growth of 2% in 2015. House price inflation in London at 0.5% was the same average growth as Manchester, Portsmouth. Some key cities saw price growth diminish, most notably Aberdeen down 0.4% and Cambridge down 0.2%. Other cities showed a pronounced slowdown in price growth such as Oxford seeing a quarterly rise of just 0.3%, Cardiff at 0.2% and Bournemouth at 0.1%. But Scottish cities bounced back with Edinburgh at 1.8% growth and Glasgow at 0.9%, both continuing to register above average rates of growth as demand feeds back into the market after the independence. However, house prices are above their 2007 peak in eight cities with London up 30.5%, Cambridge up 28.7% and Oxford up 21.9%, but these are also the markets starting to register the clearest slowdown. This translated to an average annual increase in London property values of £57,000, which is nearly four times the national average of £15,200 and almost twice the UK’s average income. Liverpool recorded the lowest increase in values with just £3,000 added to house prices in the last year. ‘The high growth cities over the last year are now recording the fastest slowdown and this is most pronounced in smaller cities such as Cambridge and Aberdeen. The Aberdeen economy is closely related to the health of the oil industry and a weakening oil price is impacting the housing market,’ said Richard Donnell, research director at Hometrack. ‘The slowdown in London, which we identified in, will act as a drag on the UK rate of house price growth over the next 12 months. The rate of growth in house prices is starting to lose momentum across other cities in southern England, while across the rest of the country modest levels of house price appreciation continue as prices rise off a low base,’ he explained. ‘Overall we expect modest UK house price growth of 2% in 2015, which is more in line with earnings growth. Significant pent-up demand has feed back into the market in the last two years pushing house prices higher in all cities but the underlying rate of growth is now slowing across the majority of markets,’ he pointed out. He also said that the introduction of mortgage market affordability tests in the middle of 2014 has reduced the overall impact of low mortgage rates on house prices. ‘A… Continue reading
Most UK regions see strong annual rental market growth
Nine out of 12 UK regions saw rental price rise in November compared to the same month last year, according to the latest rental index. However on a month on month basis there was the traditional autumn with nine out of 12 regions recording lower rental prices compared to October 2014, the findings from the Home Let index shows. It means that the average monthly private rent in the UK is £874 per month or £702 excluding London and Scotland saw strong rental price growth with an 8.7% increase in November 2014 compared to the previous month and 11.7% up on the same month last year. Overall the regions that have experienced the highest growth compared to this time last year include Scotland, Greater London, and the West Midlands, with rental prices 11.7%, 11% and 8.7% higher than this time last year, respectively. Regarding the autumn dip, with the exception of Scotland, the East Midlands and the South West all saw lower rental prices in November than in October. Scotland recorded a monthly increase in rental prices of 8.7% with the East Midlands and the South West recording monthly increases of 1.5% and 1.4% respectively. The index report says that the recent dip in prices reflects typical seasonal movement in the rental market and sits within the context of a market that remains strong. Annually, only three regions of the UK recorded lower rental prices in November 2014 compared to the same month last year. The North West dropped 3.6%, the North East fell by 2.5% and Wales was down 2%. ‘We see the autumn’s moderation in rental growth as broadly in line with the typical seasonal effect that often sees rental prices balance or even slip into reverse in many areas of the country at this time of year,’ said Martin Totty, chief executive officer of the Barbon Insurance Group of which Home Let is part. ‘The outlook for the private rented sector remains positive for several reasons, the pace of house building is unlikely to have a significant effect on the supply of property to buy or to rent in the short term, high house prices, and a mortgage market where lending criteria remains constrained, are combining to ensure that the demand from tenants needing rented accommodation remains strong,’ he explained. ‘In terms of seasonal highs we see Scotland bucking the trend of the rest of the country, the rapid growth in the Scottish rentals market reflects the strength of the economy north of the border, particularly in oil-rich Aberdeen, which has a thriving rentals sector, but also in other Scottish cities and throughout the country,’ he added. Continue reading
