House prices: has the pendulum switched?
18 Jan 2011 [1 Comment | 308 views]
Something quite significant in the UK housing market may have happened in December. For the first time since December 2009, it appears new enquiries, that’s people coming in to estate agents and expressing an interest in buying, rose at a faster rate than new instructions, or so says the latest report from the Royal Institution [...]
House prices: what happened in 2010
11 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 280 views]
And so the trio was complete. This morning the Halifax released its latest housing survey, this time for December. With the Nationwide and Hometrack releasing their reports last week, we can now take a look back at 2010, and see what the prospects are for 2011. Firstly, what happened to average house prices in December? [...]
Are house prices 50 per cent too expensive?
23 Dec 2010 [4 Comments | 2,537 views]
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) reckons house prices will fall 2 per cent next year, but it is assuming interest rates will remain low. Elsewhere, a growing number of economists and columnists are talking about interest rates going up. This would be bad for the housing market. But actually, we reckon there is [...]
FTSE set to achieve new record next year, but housing market to be flat – early forecasts for 2011 roll in
17 Dec 2010 [0 Comments | 479 views]
It’s that time of the year when predictions start rolling in. Here are a couple of good ones. Gavin Oldham at The Share Centre reckons the FTSE 100 will hit a new all-time high next year, and the Council of Mortgage Lenders sees sharp falls in mortgage borrowing and a rise in mortgages in arrears [...]
UK house prices set to fall but not crash, suggests latest RICS housing market survey
14 Dec 2010 [1 Comment | 745 views]
As you probably know, this column can get pretty bearish on the UK property market. We were bearish before the financial crisis, and became even more so during the crisis. You would think, therefore, that we would be saying a lot of Told You Sos this morning as we report on the latest RICS housing [...]
House prices fall again, but bulls point to falling supply and bears point to falling wages
1 Dec 2010 [0 Comments | 340 views]
The last few days have seen the latest reports on house prices and mortgage lending from Hometrack and the Bank of England, and as of this morning, the Nationwide. And this is what they have said. Well, it won’t surprise you to learn that it’s not pretty. Hometrack had house prices falling by 0.8 per [...]
House price crash continues, but may come to halt next year
9 Nov 2010 [0 Comments | 512 views]
The latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) was out this morning, and this time the evidence from this most reliable of surveys points to strong falls in the months ahead, but a possible reversal next year. The evidence for further falls in house prices for the remainder of this year and [...]
House prices see biggest rise in 18 months
4 Nov 2010 [0 Comments | 245 views]
House prices rose 1.8 per cent in October, the biggest monthly rise since the spring of 2009. Does this mean the house price slump of late 2010 is over? Not on your Nellie. In fact, after falling 3.6 per cent last month, the biggest monthly fall ever recorded by the Halifax, it would have been [...]
House prices second dip gains momentum
1 Nov 2010 [0 Comments | 686 views]
The last few days have seen the release of reports from the Nationwide, Hometrack and the Bank of England. They all seem to point the same way: down. The Nationwide was the first of the triumvirate to release its report. According to the building society, house prices were down 0.7 per cent in October. Over [...]
Mortgage lending approaches cliff edge
25 Oct 2010 [0 Comments | 482 views]
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) and the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have both released a gloomy set of figures on mortgage borrowing over the last few days. In fact, the fall over the last 12 months has been pretty dramatic stuff. What are the implications for house prices? According to the CML, gross mortgage [...]
