Property auction prices bounce back

By
Andrew Oxlade
Last updated at 11:12 PM on 05th March 2010

The prices of properties sold at auction versus the rest of the market narrowed last month, according to a study to be published on Monday. The improvement will help steady the nerves of property owners and investors following signs of a reversal in fortunes for some of the main house price indices. Nationwide recently reported the first fall in house prices in 10 months while earlier this week Halifax said values had fallen 1.5% in February - the first monthly decline in seven months.
Despite the rise in prices of houses sold at auction, the outlook for the property market remains bleak
The reading on the Fathom-Zoopla Auction Price Index (API) in February was 79, suggesting homes under the hammer were sold at a 21% discount. In January the gap had widened sharply to 28%, sparking fears of a knock-on impact for the wider market. The auction price index appears, in recent years, to give some forward indication of market direction. Even though it improved in February, Fathom says the prospects for the market remain bleak. Andrew Brigden, senior economist at Fathom Financial Consulting, warned previously that January’s number was based on a relatively small sample and might have been affected by some one-off factors, such as the unusually cold weather. He added that given this month’s improvement, the Nationwide and Halifax surveys may improve in March. But his wider view of the market remains negative: ‘At -21%, the auction discount in February is nevertheless large by historic standards and the trend in the API remains downward. ‘There has been a clear weakening of prices achieved at auction since late 2009, which adds to survey evidence that the balance of power between buyers and sellers in the conventional market has begun to shift. ‘The index continues to point towards a further falls in prices achieved on the conventional market through 2010.’ 
 

Share this article:

Read more

Mortgage approvals fall by 17pc in January

Published: 2:21PM GMT 01 Mar 2010




A total of 48,198 loans were in the pipeline for house purchase during the month, the lowest level since May 2009 and the second consecutive monthly drop, according to the Bank of England.There was also a fall in total mortgage advances, with gross lending sliding to £10.24bn, down from £13.53bn in November. But unsecured lending was surprisingly strong during the month, with people borrowing £500m through credit cards, loans and overdrafts, once repayments were taken into account, the highest level since November 2008.
The rise was nearly double the £265m increase seen in December, and comes after consumers had repaid more than they borrowed during five of the previous six months. However, it was still well down on the levels seen during the peak of the credit boom, when consumers regularly increased their outstanding debt by more than £2bn a month.The figures on the housing market are in line with previously reported data, which showed activity fell sharply during January due to a combination of the freezing weather and the end of the Government’s stamp duty holiday.The British Bankers’ Association also said mortgage approvals for house purchase fell to an eight-month low, while the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reported a fall in activity among both potential buyers and sellers. Nationwide said last week that the drop-off in activity during January had led to a 1pc slide in prices during February – the first fall for 10 months.It now remains to be seen whether the slide in activity was caused by one-off factors, or whether it shows that the housing market recovery has run out of steam.Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics, said: “While bad weather may have played some part, this obviously adds to concerns over the sustainability of the upturn in the housing market.”Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said: “The marked relapse in mortgage activity in January reported by the Bank of England reinforces our suspicion that house prices are likely to be prone to falls in 2010 and they will be essentially only flat over the year.”The number of loans approved for people remortgaging continued to fall during January to 23,611, as low interest rates meant home owners had little incentive to switch to a better deal. There was also a fall in the level of mortgages agreed for people releasing equity or borrowing against a buy-to-let property at 23,035.But net lending, which strips out redemptions and repayments, held up better at £1.53bn, well up on the previous six- month average of around £1bn. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Sales slump awakens spectre of recession

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

The coldest winter since 1979 combined with the end of discounted VAT to send
high street sales plummeting in January, according to new figures.

The data from the Office for National Statistics has stoked fears that the
economy could be heading towards a double-dip recession.

Read more

Mortgage lending slumps to 10-year low as stamp duty holiday ends

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

By
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:04 PM on 18th February 2010

Mortgage lending dived to a 10-year low last month as the housing market slumped following the end of the Government’s stamp duty holiday, figures showed today.Total mortgage advances dived by 32 per cent to £9.1 billion during the month, the lowest level since February 2000, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.The sudden drop will fuel fears that the housing market is heading for a second price crash, following recent warnings that the recent recovery is unsustainable.The group said there was typically a fall-off in lending during January, as househunters put moving plans on hold over Christmas.
The number of new mortgages has slumped after the stamp duty holiday ended
But it said this year’s drop was larger than usual, and had been caused
by people rushing to push through their purchases before the stamp duty
holiday ended at the beginning of this year.The drop in lending comes after the group reported a ’surprisingly strong’ figure for December, with mortgage advances jumping by 14 per cent during the month, bucking the usual seasonal trend.

It attributed the rise to increased demand as people buying properties costing up to £175,000 tried to complete their purchases before the threshold at which stamp duty kicks in returned to £125,000 at the beginning of this year.It said 55 per cent of homes purchased during the month cost less than £175,000, with 10,300 first-time buyers purchasing a property for between £125,000 and £175,000 - 63 per cent more than in November.But the CML warned that the rush by buyers to cash in on the stamp duty holiday in the final months of last year was likely to lead to a drop in activity during the early months of 2010.CML economist Paul Samter said: ‘We remain in a period of uncertainty for the housing market and economy at large.’The market certainly improved over the second half of last year and started 2010 in better shape than most would have predicted 12 months ago.’More recent developments have been influenced by the end of the stamp duty holiday and are likely to foreshadow a larger than usual seasonal drop-off in activity in the early part of this year.’

Read more

UK housebuilding hits lowest since 1946

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

Housebuilding fell to its lowest level for more than 60 years in 2009 - with
just 118,000 new homes completed, according to government figures.

The number is the lowest since 1946, when official records began and
represents a 17 per cent drop on the number completed in 2008.

Read more

MPC unanimous on halting emergency money

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.



By Angela Monaghan, Economics Reporter


Published: 6:45AM GMT 18 Feb 2010

Minutes
of the MPC’s February meeting showed members voted 9-0 not
to extend quantitative easing (QE), which effectively ended the £200bn
programme because the full amount had been spent on asset purchases by the
end of January.

Economists had predicted a split decision – with one member voting to
extend QE – given that the Bank’s latest Inflation Report last week assumed
inflation would be below the 2pc target for much of the three-year forecast
period.

Read more

Isa take-up soars by 53pc

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.



Published: 3:23PM GMT 17 Feb 2010




There were 14.2m Isa accounts, including both cash and stocks and shares ones, at the end of March last year, up from 9.3m in March 2000, a year after they were first launched, according to Halifax.The group said at least one person in 37pc of households had an Isa, with people in the South East most likely to have one at 44pc. People paid a total of £37.48bn into the accounts during the 2008/2009 tax year, 32pc more than was invested in them during the year in which they were launched.
But the average amount paid into each account has actually fallen, dropping to £2,636 last year, down from £3,064 in 1999/2000. People collectively had £169.5bn held in Isas at the end of last year, an 11-fold increase in real terms on the £12.3bn that was held in them in March 2000.Cash Isas were more popular than their stocks and shares equivalent, accounting for 58pc of all money saved in 2009, despite the fact that people have the option of saving twice as much into shares ones.The situation is very different from when the product was launched in 1999, when 90pc of money invested during the first year was put into stocks and shares accounts.Suren Thiru, an economist at Halifax, said: “It’s clear that Isas hold an enduring appeal with savers with take-up growing some 53pc over their history.”People aged over 50 can save up to £10,200 each tax year into an Isa, up to £5,100 of which can be in a cash Isa. Those aged under 50 can currently save up to £7,200 each year in one of the accounts, including up to £3,600 in cash, but their limits will rise to be in line with those for the over-50s from the start of the new tax year in April. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Bank voted unanimously to halt money scheme

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

The Bank of England’s rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously
earlier this month against expanding the Bank’s quantitative easing (QE)
programme, it was revealed this morning.

Minutes published by the Bank revealed that all nine members of the the
committee felt that leaving the size of the asset purchase programme
unchanged — at £200 billion — “were more persuasive”.

Read more

‘I still think UK should be part of the euro,’ says Mandelson as EU fights to stop Greece destroying the currency

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.

By
Sam Fleming and Kirsty Walker
Last updated at 6:48 PM on 11th February 2010

No10 won’t confirm if British taxes will fund Greek bailoutEuro down on vague promises of a dealVan Rompuy: Eurozone ready to take ‘coordinated measures’Deal will take the form of loans, says Polish PM
Lord Mandelson sparked incredulity tonight by insisting that Britain should join the euro at a time when the single currency is embroiled in the worst crisis in its history.The Business Secretary played down turmoil in the eurozone by claiming that the euro had been a ‘remarkable success’ story and insisted that it was in Britain’s long term interests to sign up in the future.But Lord Mandelson was accused of ‘living in cloud cuckoo land’ after EU leaders failed to quell the financial market panic over Greece’s fiscal crisis.
Lord Mandelson, pictured speaking at Nottingham University today, said it would be in Britain’s long-term interests to be part of the eurozone

Eurozone leaders pledged ‘determined and co-ordinated’ action to help Greece deal with its vast deficits, as they attempted to shore up the euro. But traders were alarmed at the lack of any detail surrounding the plan, prompting a sell-off late in the session. The euro slid as much as 1 per cent to $1.36 against the US dollar. It was little changed against the pound at 1.13 euros. Economist Richard McGuire of RBC Capital Markets said: ‘It’s more moral support, really, than any kind of detailed promise of aid, which I don’t think will wash with the markets for long.’EU nations led by France and Germany met yesterday to discuss out a rescue plan for Greece during a crucial summit in Brussels.After the meetings EU President Herman Van Rompuy said eurozone members would take action ‘if needed to safeguard financial stability’. Any eventual plan is expected to involve a mixture of loans or guarantees from the richest eurozone nations, combined with technical support from the IMF and European Central Bank. But no further details were forthcoming from Brussels, sending tremors through markets. Despite the turmoil, Lord Mandelson said the crisis had done nothing to dampen his enthusiasm for Britain eventually joining the single currency.He admitted that being outside the eurozone had given the UK more freedom to respond to the present downturn, but he insisted: ‘I think in the longer term it would be in Britain’s interests to be part of the eurozone.’
No
to austerity: Greek public sector workers carry a banner that says ‘We
are struggling to live’ at a  protest in Athens yesterday. Thousands
marched to protest the government’s attempts to ease its debt crisis
with pay freezesSpeaking on BBC Radio 4’s World at One, he added that the euro had
been a ‘remarkable success’, he said. ‘It is strong and that is why it
is going to remain intact.’Matthew Elliott, chief executive of
the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Greece is a living example of why you
should never give up control of your own currency, and Lord Mandelson
must be living in cloud-cuckoo land if he thinks we should still join
the Euro. ‘If anything, we should be taking powers back from
Brussels and moving towards a relationship where we are friends but
ultimately control our own destiny.’He added: ‘There is no way
that British taxpayers should bail out Greece or the Euro. The British
economy and public finances are in a bad enough state as it is without
dishing out yet more of our money to solve the EU’s self-inflicted
problems.’Gordon Brown today insisted Greece’s woes were a
eurozone problem, but he refused to deny that British taxpayers could
be forced to contribute if Greece were forced to go to the IMF.Britain
is the fourth largest contributor to the IMF’s emergency bail-out fund.
If taxpayers’ money is used to help prop up the shattered eurozone
economy, it would cause anger at home - given the scale of Britain’s
own deficit and the fact that it is not a member of the single currency.Asked
if Britain could be involved in any bail-out plan, he replied: ‘There
is international support available, as negotiated at the G20 summit,
but the discussions at the moment are within the euro area.‘The
issue is what the euro area wants to do. Greece is part of that area,
its debt is in euros, and the summit discussion is on what Greece and
the euro area can do to benefit the Greek position.’Senior
British officials insisted it was unlikely that Britain would be forced
to bail-out the Greeks. ‘It is simply not going to happen,’ said one.
‘The idea was not even discussed.’A Treasury source added: ‘You
have a very clear signal that the eurozone will if necessary step in,
but they are clear at the moment they don’t need to. We (Britain) are
contributing zero.’Any EU budget support for Greece is likely to
come with stringent conditions, to ensure that Athens fulfils its
austerity plans and to reassure European voters that their taxes will
not be diverted to propping up Greece. Eurozone leaders are
desperate to avoid being seen to simply bail-out Greece as there are
concerns that it may be forced to do the same for other countries which
are struggling with large deficits - such as Spain, Portugal and
Ireland.
‘No proposal for Britain to bail out Greece’: Chancellor Alistair Darling in London todayGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel said Greece ‘will not
be left on its own, but there are rules and these rules must be adhered
to’.
Germany is likely to put up the most money. But the rescue
plan is set to infuriate conscientious German taxpayers, who will be
forced to prop up a country that embarked on a reckless spending spree
and mislead the EU over the state of its finances.
Greece’s deficit has spiralled to more than 12 per cent of economic output in 2009 - more than four times the eurozone’s limit.
Prime
Minister George Papandreou’s new government has announced sweeping
spending cuts that will freeze salaries and cut bonuses, and increase
the average retirement age by two years to 63. He has pledged to cut
his countries deficit to 3 per cent by 2012.
Despite major doubts
over whether Greece can achieve this, eurozone countries see a joint
eurozone bail-out as the least worst of the options available.
The
prospect of Greece going cap-in-hand to the IMF or pulling out of the
euro altogether would be disastrous for the future of the single
currency and the EU.
Shadow Europe Minister Mark Francois: ‘This
is first and foremost a matter for the Eurozone and, while the full
details of what has been agreed have yet to emerge, we hope that Greece
can successfully sort out its debt problems.
‘But what this
whole episode has already shown is how right we were to keep the pound.
We have not been tied into interest rates or exchange rates that don’t
suit us.
‘So it’s incredible that Peter Mandelson still thinks
it’s a good idea for Britain to join the euro. It shows how Labour
can’t help themselves putting ideology before what’s good for Britain.’
Tensions: A masked woman hurls confetti at riot police guarding the Greek Parliament during the Athens protests yesterdayA Downing Street spokesman said: ‘We welcome the euro area
Member States’ commitment to ‘take determined and coordinated action to
safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole.
‘As today’s statement makes clear, Greece has not requested any financial support and the euro area is taking the lead.’
Austrian
Chancellor Werner Faymann said he expected an aid package for Greece to
be a combination of technical help from the IMF and loans by eurozone
countries.
He said: ‘We are not talking about a donation or
subsidies, we are talking about loans with interest which we provide to
help a country in order to avoid irritations on financial markets and
crises nobody can handle anymore.’

Read more

Northern regions ‘enjoy strongest house price growth’

Published: 12:01AM GMT 27 Jan 2010




The average cost of a home in Yorkshire and Humber soared by 130pc during the Noughties, jumping from £55,574 in 1999 to £127,852 at the end of last year, according to Halifax. The North and North West saw strong growth of 120pc and 112pc respectively during the period, while in Wales house prices increased by 122pc to average £137,316.At the other end of the scale, price growth was slowest in London during the decade, with the average cost of a property rising by 80pc to £255,473, followed by the South East at 85pc. The average cost of a home in Scotland rose by 94pc during the 10 years, while in Northern Ireland prices ended the decade 99pc higher than they started it.
Redruth in Cornwall saw the biggest price jump at 207pc, followed by Penzance, also in Cornwall, at 188pc and Ramsgate in Kent at 181pc. The cost of the average home in the 10 best performing towns rose by at least 160pc between the end of 1999 and the end of 2009.Across all regions of Britain, house prices rose by an average of 105pc during the 10 years, the biggest increase in real terms seen during any decade in the past 50 years. Despite property losing a fifth of its value between mid-2007 and mid-2009, the average house price still rose from £81,596 during the final quarter of 1999 to £167,020 in the three months to the end of December 2009.Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: “The Noughties was a significant decade for house prices. The majority of towns that experienced the strongest price growth began the decade with lower than average property prices, which provided the platform for bigger price gains.”Seaside towns fared particularly well as the attraction of having a home on the coast helped to boost demand.” Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Next Page »