 
Quick Move Blog
Monday, 17 September 2007
The mortgage lender, Nationwide, expects house price growth to roughly halve next year as the global credit crunch exacerbates a rise in mortgage rates.
Nationwide group economist Fionnuala Earley expects house price inflation to slow to around 3% in 2008, down from a projected 7% in December this year.
The anticipated decline partly reflects an abrupt tightening of credit market conditions this summer, triggered by fears over rising defaults against sub-prime mortgages in the US.
Analysts say the credit crunch, which last week forced UK mortgage lender Northern Rock to seek emergency funding from the Bank of England, will force all mortgage providers to raise their rates as they pass on generally higher borrowing costs to their customers.
Friday, 14 September 2007
Rightmove says there was a 41% slump in the number of 4 bed houses for sale during August, when Hips started.
It says the knock-on effect was to push down the average asking price for all properties by 2.6% or £6,298.
Miles Shipside of Rightmove said: "Whilst there was a surge of 'four-bedders' coming on to the market for just one week at the end of July, there has been a much greater dearth of them in the four weeks since."
Rightmove said that until August, there were 40,000 houses with four bedrooms or more coming on the market each month.
The corresponding figure for August, however, was just 23,400, while in the first week of September there were only 4,159 such properties on offer, compared to a normal weekly average of about 10,000.
Thursday, 13 September 2007
The UK housing market is continuing to slow down under the effect of higher interest rates, according to the latest report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Its latest survey reveals that in August slightly more surveyors saw prices fall locally than saw them rise.
This was the first time this had happened since October 2005.
The survey contradicts the evidence of all other house price surveys, but Rics said enquiries from new buyers had also fallen for the ninth month in a row.
"Affordability is at its most stretched in over a decade and many will worry that rising mortgage repayments will prove a step too far," said Ian Perry of Rics.
"The market will soften further, going into the autumn, reducing some impetus from those that have been chasing a rapidly-moving target," he added.
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Despite today's announcement that several buy to let lenders are increasing their interest rates, a new report from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) suggests that the boom in buy to let is set to continue.
The report suggests that persistently high house prices and unsettled market conditions means that rental demand will continue to rise. The buy to let market is continuing to grow at the fastest pace in history, seeing rental demand soar in line with rising house prices as a low-cost, temporary solution.
The currently high UK interest rates have put the price of borrowing beyond many at the lower end of the market, with house prices continuing to grow year on year beyond the reach of those looking to get on the first rung of the property ladder.
As a result, more and more people are turning towards rental property for financial reasons, combined with an upsurge in investment in property, seeing growth in the sector remain strong over the last few years. Furthermore, with the popularisation of the buy to let model in the media, it is proving continually stable in terms of growth from investors.
Additionally with rental income rising at the fastest rate ever recorded, there is no sign of any slowdown in investment in rental property for the foreseeable future as interest rates continue to suppress new home buys and consumer mortgage applications.
However the tightening credit environment derived from the US sub-prime sector looks likely to begin to have an impact on the availability of buy to let mortgages in the UK, which have until now been readily available even to first time investment borrowers.
With banks fearing tying up liquidity against long-term mortgages, analysts are predicting that investors may find they have to work harder to secure initial investment finance against a buy to let investment project.
Two buy to let lenders, Advantage and Edeus, both raised their interest rates yesterday, following the example of Northern Rock and Alliance & Leicester.
Advantage's increase from 4.79% to 5.54% would add £1,500 to the annual bill for someone taking out a £200,000 mortgage.
The forecast increase could prick the boom in the buy-to-let market, which has surged over the past few years with investors disenchanted in the collapse of the pension system. There are an estimated 400,000 private investors in Britain, owning almost one million properties.
One leading buy-to-let lender yesterday predicted that others would be forced to put up rates.
If you're struggling to meet mortgage costs on your buy to let investment, call Quick Move Now 0800 068 3366. We can buy your unprofitable property quickly, often within 7 days, so you don't have to lose any further money.
According to a new report from the Dept of Communities & Local Govt (DCLG), average house prices in the UK are increasing again. Its latest survey shows house prices rising by 2% in July to an average of £218,479.
The annual rate of house price inflation rose from 12.1% to 12.4% the highest since March 2005.
These headlines rates, however, do high large regional differences. The report shows London prices soaring with house prices rising at 19.1%. In the South East, prices are rising at 11.9%. Outside of these two areas, prices has slowed down to 10.6% from 10.9% in June.
This latest report contradicts the opinions of mortgage lenders who have argued that property prices rises are starting to slow down. However, their claims may be more valid, since they are based on surveys conducted in August.
Mortgage rates have reached a 9 year high, as a result of the latest turmoil in the financial markets.
The standard variable rate rose by almost a quarter percent last month to 7.69% - the highest level since 1998 when interest rates we 1% higher than now. This is a direct result of the banks' credit crunch, where banks have stopped lending to each other leading to a rise in their own borrowing costs.
Howard Archer of Global Insight comented: "A substantial number of homeowners will see their mortgage bills rise markedly during the latter months of the year as the cheap fixed-rates that they took out two years ago expire." He also predicted that the recent problems could push house price growth down "sharply".
The Abbey will today become the first mortgage lender to raise its mortgage rate on a range of tracker mortgages. Standard Life is expected to follow suit tomorrow.
As well as raising their costs, lenders are showing less patience towards borrowers who fail to keep up with their regular payments, experts have found.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said recently that there had been a 30 per cent rise in repossessions in the past year.
With the average Standard Variable Rate having increased from 6.4 per cent in the past year alone, a family with a £100,000 mortgage will now be paying an average of £108 more in interest each month, or £1,290 a year.
David Owen, the chief European economist at Dresdner Kleinwort, said: "Lenders are giving far less of a grace period to borrowers than ever before. If you are considered a more risky proposition, you are more likely than previously to lose the house."
If you're finding it difficult to cope with mortgage rates increases, give Quick Move Now a call on 0800 068 3366 - we could be able to help you.
Monday, 10 September 2007
From today, anyone selling a 3 bedroom house on the open market, is required to have a Home Information Pack.
We would like to stress again, as private buyers of property, Quick Move Now does not require you to have a Home Information Pack (HIP) if you sell your property to us.
This offers a number of advantages to you: it saves you money - around £500/£600 for a report. Crucially it saves you time - there are reports that there are not enough trained inspectors available to prepare reports, leading to long delays in having them prepared.
Without the need for a HIP, we can continue to buy houses very quickly and save you the cost of a report! Call Quick Move Now today on 0800 068 3366 and see how we can help you.
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
The average house price in the UK has almost reached £200,000, according to the latest survey from the Halifax.
According to their report house prices rose by 0.4% in August, taking the average price to £199,770.
The lender is now predicting that prices will slow down this autumn, as the past year's five rate rises take effect.
"The increase in mortgage rates since last summer is having an effect on housing affordability and will bite further during the coming months," said Martin Ellis, the Halifax chief economist.
"Negative real earnings growth in the first six months of this year, and rising food prices, are also reducing the income households have available for housing."
The Halifax suggests that the market would slow down soon with lenders approving fewer mortgages during the summer months, interest from new buyers has fallen for eight months in a row, and actual property sales in July were 10% lower than a year ago and the increase in interest rates is continuing to affect people's disposable income.
"Prices rose by 1.6% between June and August, compared with 4.5% in the three months to March," said Mr Ellis.
"Whilst the market remains robust, this provides further evidence that house price inflation has slowed since the beginning of the year."
Monday, 3 September 2007
The number of residential properties offered at auction rose by 32% in Q2 2007, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has said.The increase was pushed by repossessions, as affordability conditions deteriorated following interest rate hikes, said the RICS research.
In the second quarter of 2007 there were 5 120 residential properties sold at auction, the highest number of sales in over two years and a 22% rise on the previous quarter. RICS estimates that houses sold at auction will continue to increase to in excess of 45 000 in 2008, amounting to 124 repossessions per day.
The highest concentration of auction activity took place in the North West of England, where 826 properties were sold. The North West has seen the biggest quarterly pick up in repossession orders of any UK region and has also seen the largest number of repossession orders outside London six months prior, which may be now materialising into actual repossessions.
Merseyside previously saw a particularly acute rise in growth in repossession orders during Q4 2006 rising by 60% on the previous year.
RICS economist Oliver Gilmartin said: "With the full impact of interest rate rises in 2007 yet to filter through into higher mortgage costs we continue to expect a rise in the number of homes going under the hammer into 2008.
If you are facing repossession, act now by calling Quick Move Now. We can help prevent your house being repossessed and selling for a knock-down price at auction. Call us now 0800 068 3366.
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