Tag Archives: shows
Demand for rural land in the UK fell sharply in first half of 2016
Demand in the UK’s rural land market fell sharply in the first half of 2016 while supply continued to increase, albeit very modestly, the latest industry survey shows. This rise in supply relative to demand pushed 12 month price expectations deeper into negative territory with a net balance of 49% of contributors now expecting prices to fall, across all farm types, over the coming year. The data from the RICS/RAE rural land market survey also shows that yields on investment land drifted slightly down, to 1.6% and anecdotal evidence from respondents suggests that increased uncertainty due to the Brexit vote and resulting confusion over the future of CAP payments has weighed on the market. This has compounded the already subdued demand due to low commodity prices, the report points out and while commercial farmland continues to experience the worst of the current downturn with demand falling most substantially, blocks with a residential component also saw a sharp contraction in buyer interest. Indeed, some 19% more contributors reported a fall rather than a rise. Likewise, while expectations for prices at the 12 month horizon are slightly worse for commercial farmland, the outlook for mixed residential farmland turned markedly more negative in the first six months of the year with a net balance of 42% of surveyors expecting prices to fall rather than rise over the next year. The survey’s transaction based measure of farmland prices, which includes a residential component where its value is estimated to be less than 50% of total, edged down in the latest period and now stands at £10,750 per acre. Meanwhile, the survey’s opinion based measure, a hypothetical estimate by surveyors of the price of bare land, fell by 4% between the first half of 2016 and the second half of last year. Since 2015, the difference between the two measures has widened somewhat and RICS says that this may reflect several influences but the fact that the transaction based measure contains some residential element is probably a significant factor at the moment, given that residential prices in most parts have continued to rise steadily over the past year. According to surveyors, average arable land rents fell by 8.8% in the first half of the year and by 3.1% over the year as a whole. Average pasture land rents fell by 6.7% and by 7.3% respectively. The buyer profile has remained broadly unchanged over recent years with individual farmers still representing around 60% of purchases. Meanwhile lifestyle buyers compose around a quarter of the demand. Continue reading
Survey reveals over a quarter of UK tenants felt rushed into an agreement
Over a quarter of tenants in the UK feel that they were rushed into entering their tenancy agreement, particularly in London, a new survey has found. Overall 27% felt rushed and more than half regretted renting their current property, according to the research commissioned by Ocean Finance. Such is the competition in the rentals market that 1.5 million tenants, some 8% of renters, signed their tenancy agreement on the day they viewed the property. One in 10 said the turnaround between viewing and entering the tenancy was two to three days, and a similar number said they signed the agreement between four and seven days after the viewing. The survey found that 18 to 24 year olds are the most likely to act hastily when renting with 46% saying that they felt rushed into signing. By contrast, just 17% of those aged over 55 felt pressured to sign quickly to secure the property. Tenants in London felt under the most pressure to sign quickly to secure a house or flat with 40% rushing into it but renters in Northern Ireland also felt under the same amount of pressure. By contrast, just 12% of tenants in Wales felt the pressure to sign. Riddled with regret Of those tenants that say they felt under pressure to sign their agreement, half say that they wish they hadn’t done so with 10% saying the property is too cold, 9% that it was too small and 9% also saying it needed work done on it. Some 8% regretted their decision because they did not like the area, 6% said there was not enough garden, 4% felt it lacked character and 4% thought it was too old fashioned while 2% found it was too far away from amenities. ‘Our figures demonstrate just how hard it is to rent a property across much of the UK. The best properties are often snapped up within hours or even minutes. As a result, would be tenants feel under pressure to sign quickly to secure the property,’ said Ian Williams, Ocean’s spokesperson. ‘Sadly, half of those go on to regret their haste, finding themselves in a home that they don’t like or which doesn’t suit them,’ he added. Continue reading
New home lending rises in Australia as interest rates are cut
New home lending in Australia saw a healthy rise during June, up 2.3% and up 6.3% compared to the same month in 2015, the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows. The Reserve Bank of Australia cut its interest rate at the beginning of May so June’s housing finance results are the first month’s data to fully capture the effect of cheaper mortgage costs. According to Shane Garrett, Housing Industry Association (HIA) senior economist, prospective home buyers seem to have taken advantage of the lower interest rate environment. ‘June was also dominated by the close federal election campaign which was the source of some uncertainty across the economy. This data indicates that the benefits of lower interest rates trumped any reluctance by buyers to enter the market during the tight election race. It’s therefore likely that the interest rate cut will help bolster activity on the new home building side,’ he explained. A breakdown of the figures shows that the strongest growth in new home lending over the year to June 2016 was in Victoria with an uptick of 19.1%, followed by New South Wales with growth of 10.8% while there was a more measured increase in Queensland of 4.3%. Over the same period, there were substantial reductions in other states, most notably a fall of 20.7% in Western Australian, a fall of 17.7% in the Northern Territory and a more modest fall of 3.5% in Tasmania. New home lending to owner occupiers in South Australia and the ACT during June 2016 was comparable with the level a year ago. Meanwhile, the HIA’s New Home Sales Report, a survey of Australia’s largest volume builders, shows that total new home sales ended 2015/2016 on a higher note. The overall trend is still one of modest decline for new home sales but a bounce of 8.2% in June 2016 highlights the resilience of the national new home building sector, according to HIA chief economist, Harley Dale. ‘The overall profile of HIA new home sales is signalling an orderly correction to national new home construction in the short term, as are other leading housing indicators. Below the national surface, the large geographical divergences between state housing markets have been a prominent feature of the current cycle and that will continue,’ he explained. Comparing the second quarter of 2016 with the same period last year shows that detached house sales were down sharply in South Australia by 21.4%, in Western Australia by 27.5% and in down by 7.3% in New South Wales but up by 17% in Victoria and by 7.1% in Queensland. Overall the sale of detached houses bounced back by 7.2% month on month in June 2016 while multi-unit’ sales continued their recent recovery, up by 11.5% after a lift of 4.9% in May. In the month of June 2016 detached house sales increased in all five mainland states with the largest increase in Queensland at 14.9% and up by 9.1% in Western… Continue reading
