PM says budget stabilised the economy, while mortgage rates are ‘individual decisions for the banks’
Keir Starmer has conceded he was disappointed in the UK growth figures last week, but denied that his government’s budget was responsible for a recent rise in mortgage rates.
The prime minister told journalists travelling to the G20 summit in Rio: “What we have done with the budget is to stabilise the economy and that, in my view, was the essential first step.
Continue reading...Speculation Rachel Reeves to raise tax in budget thought one reason for some homeowners cashing out
Growing speculation about a capital gains tax (CGT) raid in October’s budget appears to have prompted a surge in the number of larger homes being put up for sale, the UK’s biggest property website says.
Rightmove said in the week ending 9 September there had been “a flurry of activity at the top end” of the market. The number of larger homes – defined as four-bedroom detached houses and all five-bedroom and larger properties – being listed for sale in Great Britain was 15% more than in the same period last year. And in the east and south-west of England, which include some of the UK’s most popular coastal and countryside hotspots, the percentage was over 20%.
Continue reading...Mortgage payers and business owners vainly hope cut to 5% signals return to pre-pandemic era of cheap borrowing
Mortgage payers and business owners will be hopeful that a cut in interest rates to 5% by the Bank of England this week signals a return to the pre-pandemic era of low borrowing costs.
Unless much lower interest bills arrive soon, thousands of homeowners and businesses could be forced to sell up.
Continue reading...Local authorities will be allowed to turn unsold homes from developers into affordable housing
China will cut mortgage rates and allow local authorities to turn unsold homes from developers into affordable housing, in a series of drastic measures by Beijing aimed at propping up the country’s faltering property market.
The People’s Bank of China said it would scrap the minimum rate of interest and reduce down-payment ratios to 15% for first-time buyers and 25% for second homes. It will also create a 300bn yuan (£32.8bn) facility to support local state-owned companies to buy homes at reasonable prices, it said in a series of statements on Friday.
Continue reading...Banks may follow suit after UK weather-related claims on home insurance reach new high
Britain’s biggest building society has stopped granting mortgages on some properties where there is a high risk of flooding but said this affected only “a very limited number” of homes.
Nationwide’s head of property risk, Rob Stevens, said the lender used mapping technology to identify which homes were vulnerable to flooding, and it would decline to grant a mortgage to buy a property it deemed to be at high risk.
Continue reading...Pre-tax profits drop to £2.3bn between January and March, down from £2.6bn last year
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Profits at Barclays tumbled 12% in the first quarter, as higher UK interest rates weighed on demand for mortgages and loans and its investment bank was hit by a backdrop of economic uncertainty.
The UK bank said pre-tax profits fell to £2.3bn in the first quarter, down from £2.6bn last year, when it reported the strongest quarterly profit since 2011 after a string of interest rate hikes by the Bank of England.
Continue reading...Lower mortgage rates lead to increased buyer and seller confidence, says Halifax
UK house prices rose 2.5% in the year to January, recording the biggest increase since January last year, as lower mortgage rates and fading inflationary pressures led to increased buyer and seller confidence, Halifax has said.
January marked the fourth consecutive monthly rise, with a 1.3% uplift on December, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender said, with the average home costing £291,000, £3,9000 more than in December.
Continue reading...Nationwide says average property price was £258,557 in November, £5,231 down on same month last year
UK house prices rose for a third consecutive month in November as the market responded to hopes that mortgage rate costs had peaked.
Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society, said prices rose 0.2% month on month in November, after a 0.9% rise in October and a 0.1% rise in September. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.4% fall in prices in November.
Continue reading...Britain’s biggest mortgage lender forecasts 5% drop over this year and another 2.4% decline in 2024
UK house prices will continue to slide this year and in 2024 and will not start to recover until 2025, Lloyds Banking Group has forecast.
The lender, which owns Halifax and is Britain’s largest mortgage provider, said that by the end of 2023 UK house prices would have fallen 5% over the course of the year and were likely to decrease by another 2.4% in 2024.
Continue reading...High mortgage costs result in sixth straight month of sellers being forced to reduce prices, says Halifax
UK house prices fell at the fastest annual rate in 14 years in September, as high mortgage costs fuelled a sixth consecutive monthly drop in a “buyer’s market”, according to Halifax.
Halifax, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, said prices fell by 4.7% in September, the biggest year-on-year decrease since 2009.
Continue reading...Average rental property receives three times more enquiries from prospective tenants than in 2019
Private home rents in Great Britain have increased to their highest point on record after shortages in supply and mortgage rate rises combined to push the cost up by 10% over the past 12 months.
The average rent for new properties being put on the market now stands at a record £1,278 per calendar month outside London in the July to September period, according to Rightmove.
Continue reading...Jump in borrowers unable to make payments with landlords particularly hit and ‘worse to come’
Mortgage arrears jumped by 13% in the second quarter of the year to the highest level since 2016, according to Bank of England figures that underscore the stress in the UK mortgage market.
Rising interest rates and unemployment over recent months have put pressure on household disposable incomes, forcing some families to cut or suspend their monthly mortgage payments.
Continue reading...August 5.3% drop comes as sales completions down by about 40% in first half of year compared with 2021
UK house prices fell 5.3% in August compared with the same month last year, the fastest annual drop in 14 years, according to Nationwide Building Society.
The lender said the fall, which was the biggest since July 2009, when the global economy was in the depths of the financial crisis, was driven by soaring mortgage costs, which are putting off potential buyers. Average house prices are more than £14,500 lower than they were a year ago and mortgage approvals have plummeted by a fifth compared with pre-pandemic levels.
Continue reading...Administrative hold-ups leave buyers missing best mortgage deals and some owners unable to sell
Long delays in registering properties with the Land Registry across Great Britain are causing frustration among homeowners and buyers with some being left out of pocket as a result.
Latest figures from His Majesty’s Land Registry show that it is taking almost two years for some applications to make changes to the register to be completed.
Continue reading...Rise to 5.25% comes as no surprise but Bank of England’s language will frighten many
If it isn’t hurting it isn’t working. That was the message from John Major, then chancellor, in 1989 during a previous period when interest rates were being used to combat high inflation. And it was the message rammed home by the Bank of England on Thursday.
Any hard-pressed households or struggling business looking for comfort from Threadneedle Street would have been disappointed by news that the pain will continue and is likely to intensify. Interest rates may not yet have peaked.
Continue reading...Average price of property drops by 2.6% year on year in June as mortgage rates climb
UK house prices experienced their biggest annual fall in 12 years, according to Halifax, the latest sign that soaring interest rates on mortgages is bringing a halt to the housing boom.
The average price of a UK home tumbled 2.6% year on year last month, the largest annual decrease the lender has reported since June 2011, a significant acceleration from the 1.1% decline record in May.
Continue reading...Rate is at highest level since last November, and average two-year fix is now 6.47%
A typical five-year fixed mortgage deal in the UK now has an interest rate of more than 6%, putting further pressure on borrowers who are hoping to buy a home or reaching the end of their existing deals.
Data from the financial information firm Moneyfacts shows the cost of a five-year deal for homeowners rose to 6.01% on Tuesday, up from 5.97% on Monday. It is the highest level since last November, after mortgage rates had been driven up by the mini-budget chaos of last autumn.
Continue reading...Anguished families talk about how the Bank of England’s 13th consecutive interest hike is affecting them – and their fears for the future
Liam, 36, a senior IT manager and married father-of-one from Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of millions of homeowners whose mortgage payments will rise even higher after the Bank of England on Thursday put up the base interest rate to 5% – a 15-year high.
Together with his husband, Liam bought his four-bedroom house in 2019 for £269k, and the couple’s three-year mortgage deal, refixed at 1.64% in 2020 just before the first lockdown, expired in March.
Continue reading...The midweek inflation bulletin could be the most significant piece of government data published this year
This Wednesday will mark the longest day of the year and not long after the sun comes up the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will publish its latest cost of living bulletin. To say the data is eagerly awaited is an understatement. There is unlikely to be a more significant piece of official data released in the current parliament.
The reason is simple. Despite raising interest rates 12 times since December 2021 in an attempt to quell upward price pressures, inflation is proving harder to shift than the Bank of England imagined.
Continue reading...Work on residential building sites slips in May to weakest level since 2009
Britain’s housebuilders are cutting back on the construction of new homes amid signs that potential buyers are being spooked by the prospect of increases in mortgage rates over the coming months.
The latest report on the construction sector found that work on residential building sites slipped in May to the weakest level since 2009, apart from when sites were locked down during the Covid pandemic.
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