Tag Archives: government
UK parents lending to offspring to help buy a home set to reach £5 billion in 2016
Parents are set to lend over £5 billion to their offspring to buy a home by providing deposits for over 300,000 mortgages, purchasing homes worth £77 billion in 2016, according to new research. It means that the so called Bank of Mum and Dad is the equivalent of a top 10 mortgage lender in the UK and will be involved in 25% of all property transactions that take place in the country this year. Research from financial services group Legal & General and economics consultants says that this is likely to continue as long as the supply problem persists in the UK housing market. ‘The Bank of Mum and Dad plays an increasingly vital role in helping young people take their early steps on the housing ladder,’ said Nigel Wilson, chief executive officer of Legal & General. He pointed out that younger people today don’t have the advantages the baby-boomers had, including cheap housing that delivered windfall gains. ‘People will always want to help family members as it is a natural thing to do. Relying so heavily on the Bank of Mum and Dad however risks increasing inequality as many young people today are not lucky enough to be able to access parental support when buying a home, or can’t afford to buy even with parental help,’ Wilson explained. ‘We have a supply problem in housing as we are simply not building enough houses. We need to build more, especially as the Bank of Mum and Dad could soon start to experience a funding crisis of its own,’ he added. The research also found that the Bank of Mum and Dad’s average financial contribution is £17,500 or 7% of the average purchase price. Some 256,400 purchases are likely to be assisted by parent with a further 22,500 and 27,000 supported by grandparents and other family members or friends respectively. Some 57% of Bank of Mum and Dad contributions are gifts, 18% are loans with no interest and 5% are loans with interest. The report suggests that the Bank of Mum and Dad will not run into a nationwide ‘funding crisis’ for another generation, around 2035, but the regions with the highest and fastest growing house prices will face this problem much sooner. London is already at the tipping point when it comes to such funding. In 2016 London home owners that received some financial assistance from family and friends, got an average of 6.2% of their home’s total purchase price from the Bank of Mum and Dad. This represents 51% of the average Bank of Mum and Dad household net wealth in London, excluding property assets. In the South East, the average family contribution towards a loved one’s home purchase will cross the 50% mark in 2025 while for the East of England this will happen in 2028. Families clearly cannot continue to use all of their net wealth to help their offspring onto the housing ladder without putting their own financial stability at risk. This… Continue reading
Global business putting investment in UK commercial property on hold due to Brexit concerns
International businesses are postponing investment in the UK in the wake of uncertainty about the country’s membership of the European Union ahead of a referendum in June. The latest UK Commercial Market Survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) indicates that demand for UK commercial property among international investors has stalled. It says that short term uncertainty has contributed particularly to falling international investment demand in central London and rental and capital value projections have been scaled back since the announcement last year that a referendum would be held. On top of this only 6% of the RICS survey respondents believe that Brexit, the term given to a UK decision to leave, will have positive impact on the country’s commercial property sector The demand indicator among international investors for UK commercial property is now at its lowest level since RICS records began in 2014 with just 5% of members surveyed reporting increased interest from overseas companies over the last three months. This is a considerable drop from 36% in the second quarter of 2015 Uncertainty caused by the EU referendum has been cited by 38% of RICS members working within the sector as the reason why major international retailers and other businesses have been nervous of investing in Britain. Should Britain leave the EU, some 43% of respondents feel that it would have a negative impact on the commercial property sector and only 6% said a Brexit scenario would have a positive impact on the commercial property sector. RICS says that some international firms are drawing up contingency plans to shift their headquarters in the event of Brexit. Overseas firms based in the UK occupy large swathes of real estate, and their departure could harm office occupancy rates, and the local economy. Likely beneficiaries of a Brexit are Paris, Frankfurt and Dublin, although the report said London was likely to remain a magnet for investment. The report points out that while investment rates have eased, they are not frozen. ‘There is no doubt that since the EU referendum became a certainty following the general election last May we have seen a decline in interest from overseas investors in UK commercial property,’ said RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn. ‘At least in the short term, we know that international retailer and service providers are finding the UK market less attractive,’ he added. The report also suggested that British farmers, many of which rely on payments from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy to pay their rents, would take a big hit if the UK leaves the EU. The RICS EU Referendum Paper shows that a range of key industries from residential housing to construction and rural have been hit by short term uncertainty. However, across the board, in the longer term steady growth is still predicted across rural, land and built environment sectors. It suggests that in the event of Brexit, farmers will most likely lose access to the EU single market and CAP. The question… Continue reading
Mortgage lenders concerned about impact of banking reforms on UK housing market
First time buyers and housing associations in the UK could bear the brunt of banking reforms which affect credit risk, it is claimed. Proposals from the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision to revise its standardised approach for credit risk could adversely affect parts of the UK housing market, according to the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA). The Basel framework ensures that banks, building societies and other deposit taking institutions have sufficient capital for the underlying risks they bear. While supporting this objective, the IMLA has raised significant concerns over some proposed revisions in the latest Basel consultation, which it argues are not justified by differences in risk and could limit access to mortgage finance in key areas of the UK housing market. In particular, one of the most serious impacts could be on lending to UK housing associations. By preventing lenders from taking into account borrowers’ financial strength, the Basel proposals could see loans to many housing associations redefined and subject to much higher capital requirements, despite the exemplary payment track record and their government regulated status. The same proposals mean the regulatory cost of buy to let lending could far outweigh the risks involved, as they do not accommodate the fact that many buy to let borrowers are substantially more financially secure than the average owner occupier. IMLA also strongly disagrees with proposals which could distort mortgage pricing and push up the cost of higher loan to value (LTV) mortgages, which are relied on by many first time buyers to become home owners. Doing so could incentivise them to seek out unsecured ‘top up’ loans to fund their house purchases with a lower LTV mortgage, which would be potentially harmful to their finances. The IMLA’s consultation response highlights how aspects of the Basel proposals could create a ‘bizarre’ situation where unsecured lending can be given a lower risk weighting than secured lending to the same borrower. It could also penalise lenders that have adopted conservative lending standards and create an artificial incentive to lenders to remortgage or ‘churn’ customers, creating outcomes that would not be deemed good for either the customer or the lender. ‘It is vital to have the right checks and balances in place so lenders can provide mortgage finance where there is a legitimate need while maintaining a stable UK housing market,’ said Peter Williams, IMLA executive director. ‘The Basel consultation sets out with the important aim of ensuring capital requirements are appropriate to the underlying risk, but we are concerned that the current proposals will not meet this goal,’ he explained. ‘Government and industry need to work together to bring greater balance to the UK housing market. This includes ironing out the technical details of the Basel proposals to defend consumer interests across all housing tenures,’ he added. Continue reading
