Tag Archives: housing
UK is running out of bricks to build new homes
A shortage of bricks is a contributing factor in rising house prices in the UK over the past decade with new research suggesting 1.4 billion are needed to meet demand. With demand for new homes growing it means that the number of bricks, the most used traditional building material in the UK, cannot keep up with development, according to research from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr). The UK’s construction sector would require a total of 1.4 billion bricks in order to resolve the housing shortage in the UK, the equivalent of the total amount which would be needed to build all the houses in Leicestershire. The research report says that between 2006 and 2016, the growing UK population triggered exponential growth in demand, and has now outgrown the number of houses being built. Given that in 2016 the average UK home is made up of 5,180 bricks, resolving the housing shortage of 264,000 units would require 1.4 billion bricks. While house prices are impacted by numerous macroeconomic factors, they are fundamentally driven by the supply and demand of housing units. The shortage of homes has led to sharp house price appreciation and prevented many prospective buyers from getting on to the property ladder. The 1.4 billion bricks deficit could in theory build several of the UK’s famous landmarks several times over including 740 Big Bens, 40 Tower Bridges, 3,090 Manchester Town Halls, 4,540 Warwick Castles and 5,830 Conwy Castles. There are concerns that the impact of Brexit could significantly worsen the issue. In 2015 some 85% of all imported clay and cement which are primary brick components, came from the European Union and the report suggests that depending on how trade negotiations develop, Brexit could have a considerable impact on supply. It also explains that the UK’s brick stock steadily declined between 2008 and 2013 and only partially recovered in 2014 and 2015. Two thirds of small and medium sized construction businesses faced a two month wait for new brick orders last year, with almost a quarter waiting for up to four months and 16% waiting six to eight months. This can partially be explained by the slowdown in building following the recession, it adds, but even although new homes are becoming smaller there are still not enough bricks. Over the past 100 years, the size of the average UK home has shrunk significantly. In the 1920s the average dwelling was 153 square meters and now it is approximately half the size at 83 square meter, meaning homes have shrunk by 46% in the last century. This is partly a result of the fact families are generally smaller, so require less space, however the decrease can also be explained by financial restrictions. As house prices have risen by 45% over the past 10 years house buyers have been forced… Continue reading
Negative equity rates down in the US but still affecting one in 10 owners
Negative equity is still affecting more than one in 10 home owners in the United States five years after the nation’s housing market recovery began, new research shows. Home owners who owe more than their homes are worth are nearly equally dispersed among urban and suburban communities in most metros across the country, says the latest report from real estate firm Zillow. But the numbers are falling. Nationally, some 12.1% of mortgaged home owners were underwater in the second quarter of 2016, down from 12.7% in the first three months of the year and below the 14.4% recorded a year ago. A breakdown of the figures show that 13.7% of owners in urban regions are underwater and 11.2% of those in suburban regions while Cleveland and Detroit have the greatest difference between urban and suburban negative equity rates. After the housing bubble burst, nearly a third of home owners in the United States were underwater on their mortgages. As the market recovered, many home owners have gained back the lost value on their homes, freeing them to sell or refinance. In most areas of the country, negative equity is nearly equally spread across urban and suburban areas. In 13 of the nation's largest metros, the share of urban and suburban homeowners who are underwater is within two percentage points. But some metros are seeing notable gaps in the share of underwater homeowners between urban and suburban areas. Cleveland and Detroit have the biggest difference between negative equity rates in urban and suburban neighbourhoods at 13.6% and 10.8% respectively. In these metros, home values in the main urban centres are trailing behind the overall region's recovery, and are still well off from their peak levels. By contrast, negative equity is equally common among urban and suburban areas in the Seattle area, where a more balanced recovery and strong economic growth have led to home values near or exceeding their bubble peak levels in urban and suburban areas alike. ‘At its worst, negative equity touched all kinds of home owners in all kinds of markets. The type of community a given home was in, urban or suburban, mattered little. Fast forward a few years, and the relative vibrancy of a given community and how it has performed over the past few years, and not necessarily its location in the city or suburbs, matters a great deal,’ said Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell. For the first time, all of the largest markets in the country now have negative equity rates below 20% and the data shows that Western metros with strong job and housing markets have the lowest rates of negative equity. Less than 5% of mortgaged home owners in San Jose, San Francisco, Portland, Denver, and Dallas are underwater. Continue reading
Hong Kong residential sales fell by 8% month on month in July
The volume of residential sales in Hong Kong fell 8% month on month in July after three months of growth in a row, the latest figures from the Land Registry show. Overall property prices remained stable and this was due to sustainable end user demand, according to the analysis in the latest monthly report from international real estate firm Knight Frank. It explains that the new build market, which contributed to about one third of total residential transactions in Hong Kong, is where major developers generated good sales in their recently launched projects. For example, Park Yoho Venezia in Yuen Long has sold 95% of its 62 units in its third batch of sales in July and The Ascent in Cheung Sha Wan was oversubscribed seven times and sold over 94% of its first batch of 125 units in one day. There have been some transactions in the otherwise muted land market. In one notable sale, a domestic site in Pak Shek Kok, Tai Po was sold at an accommodation value of HK$3,932 per square foot, up 19.2% from two years ago when the adjacent site was sold. However, the report points out that despite the recent pickup in sales, the surge in upcoming supply is expected to suppress growth in home prices. According to the latest data from the Transport and Housing Bureau, 93,000 new homes are to be provided in the coming three to four years. ‘Developers are expected to continue offering deep discounts and competitive mortgage schemes to attract buyers in order to offload inventory before a possible US interest rate hike in the coming months,’ the report says. ‘We maintain our forecast of luxury home prices falling 5% to 10% this year and mass residential prices dropping up to 10% over the year,’ it adds. The report also says that the Grade A office market in Hong Kong remained subdued in July as many large financial institutions continued to downsize which had a negative effect on leasing demand. This means that medium sized firms are using it as an opportunity to take up space released by multinational corporations and Knight Frank expects this trend to continue. By the end of the year Knight Frank expects central office rents to increase but in decentralised areas, such as Kowloon East, there is likely to be rental pressure due to increasing upcoming supply. Continue reading
