Category Archives: Real Estate

Moody’s cuts China credit outlook to negative as economy slows

Posted on by

Rating agency says Beijing may need to bail out local governments as property sector collapses

China’s ability to repay its government borrowing has been downgraded by the credit rating agency Moody’s, which said the ripple effects from a crisis in the property sector would undermine efforts to revive its flagging economy.

Moody’s warned that Beijing would need to bail out local and regional governments and state-owned enterprises that were struggling with rising debts, hampering efforts to boost investment and growth.

Continue reading...

UK house prices rise for third straight month as mortgage rates fall

Posted on by

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...

Chinese shadow bank admits £30bn shortfall after ‘management ran wild’

Posted on by

Zhongzhi, a wealth manager with links to China’s ailing property market, says it is ‘severely insolvent’

One of China’s biggest financial conglomerates with links to the country’s ailing property market has admitted a shortfall of nearly £30bn as it warned investors that it is “severely insolvent”.

Zhongzhi, an asset and wealth management company in China’s shadow banking sector, said its total assets amounted to 200bn yuan (£22.5bn) against obligations of up to 460bn yuan, in a letter to shareholders issued on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

‘Call their bluff’: shopping around on home loans can save money – even with high interest rates

Posted on by

Many mortgage lenders reporting increased competition, meaning savvy borrowers can negotiate for a better deal

In real estate, everything is negotiable, including your mortgage.

While many lenders have withdrawn cashback incentives in recent months, there are still large discrepancies between the best and worst mortgage offers in the market, which means many borrowers are paying too much.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

UK housing market is past its ‘peak pain’, declares Savills

Posted on by

Upmarket estate agent says prices will start to bottom out in 2024 as interest rates fall and will return to growth in 2025

Britain’s housing market is past “peak pain” and prices look likely to bottom out by next summer, according to the estate agency Savills.

The average UK house price is projected to fall by 3% in 2024, after a 4% drop this year, the upmarket estate agent and property advisory firm said in its five-year outlook.

Continue reading...

UK house prices will not stop falling until 2025, Lloyds predicts

Posted on by

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...

Buyer’s market fuels fastest fall in UK house prices in 14 years

Posted on by

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...

Supply shortages and mortgage rate rises push UK rents to highest point ever

Posted on by

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...

Evergrande founder ‘being investigated for suspected crimes’

Posted on by

Chinese group’s statement about chair Hui Ka Yan piles on the woe for once top-selling property developer

The founder of China’s Evergrande is being investigated over suspected “illegal crimes”, the group has said, as creditors become increasingly concerned about the prospects of the world’s most indebted property developer.

Evergrande Group, which has more than $300bn (£245bn) in total liabilities, did not say whether Hui Ka Yan was still in a position to run the company, or what crimes he was being investigated for.

Continue reading...

Evergrande halts share trading as woes mount for China’ property giant

Posted on by

Suspension comes a month after developer resumed trading and follows its chair reportedly being put under police surveillance

Embattled Chinese property giant Evergrande has suspended share trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange only a month after it resumed trading after a 17-month suspension.

Trading in its two other units – the property services and electric vehicle groups – also stopped at 9am on Thursday, according to notices posted by the stock exchange.

Continue reading...

The decision to demolish the Mast Quay flats is a rare triumph for planners

Posted on by

The unequal battle between major developers and cash-strapped councils means the reach of town hall enforcement officers is declining

The decision by the Royal Borough of Greenwich to say enough is enough and order the demolition of 204 homes at the Mast Quay development in south-east London casts a spotlight on one of the most unequal battles in the public realm – between major developers and town hall planners.

And it is one that often enrages the public. Greenwich’s gambit has cheered community groups who say they are feeling increasingly powerless to challenge, even with the help of the planning system, the might of developers.

Continue reading...

Chair of China’s Evergrande reportedly put under police surveillance

Posted on by

Another missed bond payment raises doubts over future of world’s most indebted property developer

The chair of China’s Evergrande Group has reportedly been put under police surveillance as another missed bond payment casts further doubt over the future of the world’s most indebted property developer.

Hui Ka Yan, who founded Evergrande in 1996, was taken away earlier this month and is being monitored at a designated location, according to Bloomberg.

Continue reading...

Proportion of UK house sellers cutting asking price reaches ‘highest in over a decade’

Posted on by

More than 36% of properties have had asking price cut at least once — the highest figure since 2011

UK house sellers are cutting their asking prices at the fastest rate in more than a decade, after high interest rates dampened demand for property this summer.

The proportion of homes on the market which have had at least one price reduction is at its highest level since January 2011, the property website Rightmove has reported.

Continue reading...

UK ‘mortgage meltdown’ looms amid ‘terrifying’ growth in arrears

Posted on by

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...

Demolition of Marilyn Monroe’s house halted after widespread outrage

Posted on by

Los Angeles officials intervened to block the tearing down of the property and are considering it for historic preservation

The final home of Marilyn Monroe – and the only residence she ever owned independently – will remain standing for now after Los Angeles officials intervened to block the property’s demolition.

The news that the new owners of 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, where Monroe died at age 36, filed for demolition permits had attracted widespread outrage. Los Angeles city councilwoman Traci Park said she received hundreds of calls urging her to save the Spanish colonial-style house in the city’s Brentwood neighborhood.

Continue reading...

Lords to debate mandating swift bricks in new UK homes

Posted on by

Hollow bricks are ‘easy win’ to help several endangered species, say experts and Zac Goldsmith who is tabling amendment

An amendment to make swift bricks mandatory in new housing will be debated in the House of Lords this week in what campaigners call a “golden opportunity” for the government to halt wildlife decline.

The change to the controversial levelling up bill is being tabled by the Conservative peer Zac Goldsmith, who resigned from government over Rishi Sunak’s “apathy” towards environmental issues.

Continue reading...

Owners of 100,000 properties held by foreign shell companies unknown despite new UK laws

Posted on by

Loopholes are used to obscure ownership of two-thirds of English and Welsh properties held by foreign shell companies

More than two-thirds of English and Welsh properties held by foreign shell companies do not report the identity of their owners, according to analysis that found significant flaws in laws meant to prevent oligarchs from hiding their wealth.

The UK government hurriedly introduced a register of overseas entities in August 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February that year, in an attempt to “flush out corrupt elites laundering money through UK property”. However, critics said there were severe flaws in the rules from the start.

Continue reading...

UK house prices fall at fastest rate since 2009, says Nationwide

Posted on by

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...

UK home sales in 2023 will be lowest in a decade, says Zoopla

Posted on by

Interest rate rises on mortgages are weakening demand, property website says

The number of UK homes sold this year is expected to fall to the lowest level in more than a decade, as the soaring cost of mortgages puts off homebuyers.

House sales reaching completion are expected to fall 21% year-on-year to about 1m in 2023, the lowest level since 2012, according to a report from the property website Zoopla.

Continue reading...

Homebuilder shares tumble as UK housing market weakens – business live

Posted on by

A profit warning from housebuilder Crest Nicholson has compounded fears of a housing market slowdown, as Rightmove data reveals a further drop in asking prices

AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said that while weak house price data (as was “hardly a surprise”, Crest Nicholson’s profit warning has “laid bare the the scale of the impact of a housing slowdown on the housebuilding sector.”

Sales of new homes have plunged alarmingly and, while not all developers in the space are created equal, the news, allied to Rightmove’s latest reading on the property market, has had a knock-on effect on share prices in the rest of the sector this morning.

The £7,000 drop in the average asking price observed by Rightmove in the last month, allied to a big drop in transaction volumes, is the kind of statistic to make estate agents distinctly uneasy.

Continue reading...