Tuesday, 30 November 2010
House price news, information and discussion - HousePriceCrash.co.uk
Monday, 29 November 2010
Contagion strikes Italy as Ireland bail-out fails to calm markets - Telegraph
Spreads on Italian and Belgian bonds jumped to a post-EMU high as the sell-off moved beyond the battered trio of Ireland, Portugal, and Spain, raising concerns that the crisis could start to turn systemic. It was the worst single day in Mediterranean markets since the launch of monetary union.
The euro fell sharply to a two-month low of €1.3064 against the dollar, while bourses slid across the world. The FTSE 100 fell almost 118 points to 5,550, while the Dow was off 120 points in early trading.
"The crisis is intensifying and worsening," said Nick Matthews, a credit expert at RBS. "Bond purchases by the European Central Bank are the only anti-contagion weapon left. It needs to act much more aggressively
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Worst real estate deals - Telegraph
Foxtons: The London estate agent must have looked a good buy when private equity group BC Partners paid £390m to founder Jon Hunt for it in May 2007. But with house prices at the top of the market and the financial crisis around the corner, the deal turned into a debt fiasco. After more than a year of talks over restructuring approximately £300m in debt, creditors Bank of America and Mizuho agreed a refinancing deal in return for a majority stake.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/69505...
Housing market falls further as first time buyers shut out - Telegraph
The housing market is in its worst state for 18 months, according to a leading house price survey which suggested a "whole generation" of first time buyers were being shut out.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/houseprices/8117329/Housing-mark...
First-time home buyers face mortgage misery 'until 2020' | Money | The Observer
Banks will not lend to first-time buyers at "pre-crunch" levels until 2020, academics claim today in a study that raises the prospect of a bleak decade for young people in Britain.
The research paper, written for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, says that young people should expect "considerable barriers to home ownership" for years to come. It finds that people still aspire to be homeowners but increasingly expect that this is unlikely to happen early in their working life.
UK property prices need to drop another 20% to be affordable, according to economists | Europe | News
Residential real estate prices in the UK need to fall by another 20% to make properties affordable, economists claim.
Property economist Capital Economics said only a fall of a fifth to bring the average price down by around £33,000 to £130,000 will bring properties within reach of buyers. It is also says that the lack of mortgage credit and the weak economic outlook also point to prices falling through the rest of this year and 2011 and it is predicting a fall of 10% in 2011. ‘We believe that to put the market on a more sustainable footing, prices need to drop by around 20%,’ said Ed Stansfield, chief property economist at Capital Economics. Stansfield said evidence that lenders are refusing decent value home loans to anyone who does not have a large deposit, coupled with figures showing a drop in mortgage approvals, point to further price falls. But commercial property could be an investment worth considering. He believes the UK’s economic recovery will remain ‘sluggish’, inflation worries will ease and the Bank of England base rate is likely to stay low, helping to create relatively benign conditions for the UK commercial property market. ‘The spread between interest rates and the Investment Property Databank All Property Yields Index is close to its 10 year high, which means that commercial real estate has the ability to generate income today with potentially high returns on capital investment,’ he explained. Stansfield also pointed out that a recent Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors survey heralded a greater demand for commercial property space. Meanwhile, a report published by the Home Builders Federation has identified a first time buyer crisis. It said the typical young buyer needs a deposit of £37,233 to buy an average starter home costing £155,139. Without help from a parent, they would need to save 45% of their income for five years to raise this sort of money. The situation is even worse in high price areas, such as London, where the average deposit for a first home has topped £62,000. The HBF blames a chronic shortage of new properties. Meanwhile, buyers are taking advantage of falling prices with the return of gazundering. Up to 25% are attempting to renegotiate the sale price downwards at the last minute, say estate agents.
This story relates to: Property UK Property Prices property bubble property fraud property hot spots property management property market property prices property show uk [SEE ALL]
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Saturday, 27 November 2010
BBC News - Rise in second homes 'forcing locals out'
Families are being forced out of their local areas as more buyers seek second homes in rural locations, the National Housing Federation has warned.
Friday, 26 November 2010
Why property investors are buying up UK shopping malls - Telegraph
Capital Shopping Centres is preparing a £1.6bn deal to buy the Trafford Centre, making the Manchester shopping centre the most expensive single property asset in the UK.
Now wait a minute, was this shopping mall not featured on The Apprentice a few weeks back, could Alan Sugar be............
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/81567...
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Graphs > Average house price - HousePriceCrash.co.uk
Are we steadily returning to normality?
Source: Nationwide
Last updated: Q3 2010
This graph is only updated on a quarterly basis.
Peak of the last housing boom This looks like a molehill compared to where we currently are.£115,243.
Graphic will not load, so check the link:
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/graphs-average-house-price.php
Is it time to get back into the property market? - MoneyWeek
You are here: Home> Features > Is it time to get back into the property market?-->Is it time to get back into the property market?
For a decade, investing in property looked like a dead cert. All you had to do was buy property and then sit back and watch it soar in value. But now the good times are officially over. Britain is in the grip of a full-blown house price crash. In fact this is already the worst house price crash on record, far bigger than the slump in the 1990s, with house prices back to 2004 levels (roughly where they were when MoneyWeek first started warning our readers not to invest in property).
But we know all this already. What we really want to know now is, how much worse can things get? Surely, having fallen so far, there must be good news on the horizon for the property market.
Unfortunately the answer is a resounding 'no'. In this indispensable guide we reveal why property prices will continue to fall, how long it will take before the market recovers and how much further property prices will fall by.
Our property experts also explain why the worst is yet to come for the US housing market - and why that could spell bad news for us in the UK.
Don't miss this exclusive guide brought to you by Money Week Magazine, the must-read magazine for every time-pressed person who wants to keep up with, and make money from, the world of finance and investing.
Act now and you can instantly download our essential guide - 'When will house prices bottom out - and how will you know?'. In addition you will receive 4 trial issues of Money Week Magazine delivered directly to your door.
We highly recommend that you act quickly whilst this offer is available.
To read this report right away, for FREE, just sign up for 4 FREE trial issues of MoneyWeek and we will give you instant access to download your report now.
Obviously this is a pictch from moneyweek.
My contacts say that property will not do too much for the next two years.
It will just channel sideways.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Nationwide_confirms_chopping_agency_network_in_est ... - Estate Agent Today
Nationwide confirms chopping agency network in estate agents' offices
Wednesday 24th November 2010Nationwide's nework of 130 agencies, most of which are based in estate agents, definitely face the axe, after the mutual made huge losses on its rock-bottom, over-generous 2.5% tracker rate mortgages.
The agencies facing the chop operate under the Nationwide banner.
The closures were decided in SEptember but confirmed by a Nationwide spokeswoman this morning. They come as part of a slimming-down exercise, after the lender made a loss of £300m in the last six months because most of its customers are on its base rate mortgage, capped at just 2% above Bank of England base rate of 0.5%. Had it charged 4%, it would not have made the loss.
From estateagentoday.co.uk
Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Mortgage lending at its lowest since 2001
Gross mortgage lending by the UK’s leading High Street banks stood at a mere £7.6 billion in October, with the total at its lowest since February 2001 and having fallen 16.1% over the last 12 months.
Latest figures from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) also show net mortgage lending (gross lending with repayments and redemptions stripped out) at £1.7 billion, up from £1.5 billion in September but below on the prior six month average of £1.9 billion.
So, we're coming up to Christmas, what does this tell us?
Property in Soho, W1: local knowledge - Telegraph
London has changed so much,
must have been amazing in Soho in the 1950's
and after the war.
Monday, 22 November 2010
'If you have to ask, you can't afford it': Super-rich house hunters are changing face of London for ever - Property, House & Home - The Independent
This was a house fit for an oligarch: indeed, it was expressly designed for such. House 6, in Cornwall Crescent, is one of two grand Regent's Park mini-mansions going into what estate agents call the super-prime market: the luxury, £15m-plus, "if you have to ask you can't afford it" central London bracket. Oddly, despite the nation's straitened circumstances, the super-primes are thriving.
The Independent | Property | Property News and Latest Property Information
You could call it alternative shopping," muses Paul Hedge, sitting in a butter-coloured leather and rosewood Ico Parisi chair from the 1950s. "We never go out intending to buy anything. But we've had to get cabs home from the theatre, because we happened to see a chair just lying on the pavement on the way there, and we couldn't let it go." A lot of knowledge, it seems, is a risky thing, particularly if what you know about is mid-century modern furniture and you happen to be passing a well-stocked skip or the sort of charity shop that hasn't been subjected to an intervention by Mary Portas. "Once you know what something is, and you've recognised it, you can't just leave it behind.
Sunday, 21 November 2010
BBC News - Mortgage 'mistake' complaints upheld by Ombudsman
Some customers of the Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks who were charged too little on their mortgages, have fended off demands to pay arrears.
The customers took their complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which has upheld some of them.
The Yorkshire bank said only a "very small number" of customers had complained successfully.
Duke of Westminster Tops Ranking of Real-Estate Investors Based in Britain - Bloomberg
The Duke of Westminster, who controls a London estate with the world’s most expensive office space, remains the richest property investor based in Britain, according to Estates Gazette.
The Duke, whose name is Gerald Grosvenor, had assets with an estimated value of 6.8 billion pounds ($11 billion) at the end of September, the magazine said in its annual ranking of the 250 wealthiest people in the industry. David and Simon Reuben again ranked second with 5.43 billion pounds, while Earl Cadogan and his family were third with 2.5 billion pounds.
http://tiny.cc/cmg0n
Saturday, 20 November 2010
More cheer for landlords as rents go up again and arrears fall
Friday, 19 November 2010
Great article about the Euro
New property slump alert as lending falls to a 30-year low. (Times)
High inflation unavoidable - duck now
Telegraph: Jailed counterfeiters aren't a patch on the Bank of England
The British and US governments are printing money to create inflation – to reduce their debts, says Jeff Randall. In his book Crisis Economics, Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University, predicts that inflation will return to advanced economies in 2012 if governments opt to monetise deficits (they have), or the glut of easy money fuels a fresh asset bubble (it has – just look at commodity prices), or the dollar continues to weaken (it has).
New property slump alert as lending falls to a 30-year low. (Times)
New property slump alert as lending falls to a 30-year low. (Times)
The British and American housing markets are at risk of a double-dip downturn that poses significant risks to recovery, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned yesterday. The report came as Britain’s Council of Mortgage Lenders
Thursday, 18 November 2010
Mortgages: Repossession numbers continue to fall
The number of homes repossessed in the UK is continuing to fall as low interest rates help homeowners to keep paying their mortgages.
Lenders seized 8,900 homes in the three months to October - a drop of 5% compared with the previous quarter, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said.
This was the fourth quarter in a row that numbers have dropped since they reached a peak of 12,200.
A nation of entrepreneurs
Jane D'Arista: "Head of World Bank suggestion return of gold standard is grasping at straws"
The Real News Network: Parasitical Capital Not Lack of Gold the Problem
Quote "Nicholas Kaldor, who was a British economist and who wrote very presciently in 1970 that when we went to the fiat dollar standard, that we would be taking a nation of entrepreneurs, i.e. the US, and making us a nation of rentiers... Meaning that we would be living off other people. And that we would be an empire like the Roman, featuring bread and circuses to our people"
http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/index.php Looks like a very good site.
Problem resolution specialist
Brits abroad
Overseas property offers Brits 'better life abroad'
Brits are increasingly aware of their overseas property options.
Problem resolution specialist
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
UK house prices
UK house prices show first year-on-year fall
House prices in England and Wales dipped 0.1pc in October from a year earlier, giving the first year-on-year fall since January as a stand-off emerged between buyers and sellers.
Problem resolution specialist
UK house prices: April-June 2010
UK house prices: April-June 2010
Average house price
£230,562
| House type | Average price |
|---|---|
| Detached | £328,778 |
| Semi-detached | £199,475 |
| Terrace | £186,704 |
| Flat | £219,033 |
Annual change in house price
22.9%
Quarterly change
-1.8%
Total number of sales: 156,219
Sources:
England and Wales
Land Registry of England and Wales, Crown copyright. The information above is based on figures provided by the Land Registry of England and Wales. Figures for England and Wales are for the period April to June 2010.
Problem resolution specialist
Expats finding a home in London
07 Nov 2010
Problem resolution specialist
Tuesday, 16 November 2010
'World's smallest apartment' on sale in Rome
A former porter's closet measuring five square metres (55 sq ft) has gone on the market in Rome at £43,000.
The property, which is being described as the world's smallest apartment, lies in the heart of the Italian capital, which has become one of the world's most expensive cities for property, but is barely large enough to contain a single bed.
The owner of the bijou property says he has been inundated with queries since putting it on the market a few days ago.
Presented as a "compact bedsit", it is located on Piazza di Sant' Ignazio, a picturesque square overlooked by an enormous Renaissance church.
Problem resolution specialist
Monday, 15 November 2010
London commercial property 'to perform strongly'
The commercial property markets in London and France are likely to perform well compared with other European regions in the near future, Capital Economics has suggested.
Kelvin Davidson, property economist at the research consultancy, said that London would "perform best" of all European commercial property markets, while France is also likely to be "near the top".
Homeowners feel the pain of government cuts
On Thursday this week, winter storms were lashing the cliffs at Saltdean, near Brighton.
In such weather, having a secure home seems even more important than usual.
But Amanda Copeland, who lives in a bungalow in Saltdean with her three young children, believes she is about to lose hers for good.
"There's probably a good likelihood this house will be repossessed within the next year or so," she says.
Amanda is one of a quarter of a million homeowners in the UK who receive a benefit called Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI).
But as a result of some of the first government cuts to take effect, that benefit was cut by 40% from 1 October.
She, and more than 100,000 others, now face a shortfall in their mortgage payments.
For the full article...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11743245
Greetings and some property news
Housing market falls further as first time buyers shut out
The housing market is in its worst state for 18 months, according to a leading house price survey which suggested a "whole generation" of first time buyers were being shut out.
Full Article
Greetings friends from the BPM
it was a pleasure to meet you.
This will be an online resource for the Property Investment field.
Watch this space.