Present property information headlines have a tendency to color an image of falling home costs. However a narrative in Which? journal on the 1st of December indicated that common costs – based mostly on official Land Registry figures – have fallen by solely 0.1% previously 12 months. The typical value of a house within the UK stays near the all-time excessive of £293,000 recorded in November final 12 months.
In opposition to that background, let’s take a peek at among the different property information.
Home Value Index: November 2023
When it compiled its home value index for November, the web listings web site Zoopla recorded a considerably steeper annual dip in common home costs – down 1.2% to £264,600 in contrast with the common value only one 12 months in the past.
Though rising mortgage rates of interest have dampened demand, says Zoopla, the amount of transactions holds fairly regular because the variety of houses in the marketplace reached a six-year excessive.
This has created one thing of a consumers’ market, with sellers granting reductions of a median of 5.5% or £18,000 on the marketed value.
Zoopla forecasts a continued decline in common costs in the course of the course of 2024, however the fall could possibly be arrested if mortgage rates of interest are diminished.
Flat conversions might not want planning permission
Throughout his Autumn Assertion to Parliament on the 25th of November, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt revealed authorities plans to abolish the necessity for planning permission when house owners select to transform a single home into two flats.
In its protection of the proposals, the Mail On-line acknowledged that the transfer is proving controversial as a result of it may deny native communities the fitting of enter to modifications that would alter the character of the world.
Nonetheless, the federal government – and supporters of the plans – argues that the proposed “permitted growth proper” would encourage a rise within the provide of houses each for lease and on the market whereas additionally serving to to decrease the common value of extra inexpensive dwellings.
Slashing the necessity for crimson tape may assist to extend the variety of inexpensive houses, say commentators, though a better variety of residents will exacerbate parking issues and doubtless invite opposition from these already dwelling within the neighbourhood.
As much as 50% of southern England landlords trying to promote up
The exodus of landlords from the purchase to let market continues apace – although with notable variations within the south of England in contrast with the north, argued an article in Landlord Zone on the 30th of November.
Landlords in components of southern England, for instance, are promoting up and leaving the market altogether on the alarming charge of 52%. Whereas half of the present variety of landlords are leaving on this a part of the nation, the speed is “solely” 26% and 22% within the northern conurbations of Leeds and Manchester respectively. Throughout the nation as an entire, the proportion of landlords giving up their purchase to let companies is round 17%.
The explanations for the north-south divide are many and various. At the very least one purpose superior for the distinction in attitudes amongst landlords is that the north has seen a better charge of development within the value of residential property previously 12 months – creating the impression of it being a safer place for funding than the south of the nation.
Older renters transferring to cheaper areas and smaller houses
In opposition to the background of rising rents and a dearth of accessible properties, older tenants want to cheaper components of the nation and customarily smaller houses through which to maneuver, based on a narrative in Landlord Immediately on the 30th of November.
The pattern is supported by figures on the forms of tenancy agreed by older renters with incomes of between £30,000 and £70,000 a 12 months. On this pattern, a latest survey indicated that in the course of the first six months of this 12 months fewer than half of latest tenancies have been for houses with three or extra bedrooms (the rest have been for one and two-bedroom rental properties.
Throughout the identical interval in 2020, nevertheless, 57% of latest tenancies have been for houses providing three or extra bedrooms.
