Property market news
NAEA Urges Chancellor to Revise Stamp Duty and Make Green Policies Smarter
Stewart Lilly, President, National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is calling on Chancellor Alistair Darling to use the March Budget to ease the immediate problems facing people in the housing market today.
With first-time buyers being priced out of the market at the bottom end the NAEA is calling for a revision to Stamp Duty and [...]
Gross lending in January reaches 11%
Gross mortgage lending rose to an estimated £26.5 billion in January, up 11% from £23.9 billion in December, and reached a similar level to January 2007 when it was £26.6 billion, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
This is a good performance given the unsettled market conditions since last summer. Typically lending is lower in [...]
Record fall in number of homeowners in 2007
The number of people who own their home fell by a record 83,000 in 2007, according to figures published a leading bank yesterday. There are now only 85,000 more households in England occupied by their owners than there were five years ago. The preceding five-year period, meanwhile, saw an increase of 697,000.
The decline in home [...]
Phil Spencer: How to fight your way out of a housing market slowdown
With the credit crunch squeezing and the cloud of a downturn in house prices looming, the property market has become an unpredictable place. Sellers cower at home waiting for the storm to pass, while all but the boldest of buyers are holding onto their cash until they see what is happening with interest rates and [...]
Recent Rate Cuts Should Ease Affordability Into 2008
While mortgage affordability deteriorated in 2007, the CML expects the two base rate reductions since December will help to ease debt servicing burdens into 2008.
Affordability for first time buyers worsened through 2007. By December first-time buyers typically contributed 20.7% of their income towards mortgage interest, compared with 17.9% in December 2006. The increase in typical [...]
