Naughties see biggest rise in house prices
January 21st, 2010
House prices in the UK have risen by a massive 273% since 1959 according to figures published by the Halifax. The last 10 years alone have seen house prices rise by a huge 62%, just beating the Eighties where growth was 61%. The accolade for the worst performing decade goes to the nineties where property prices fell by 22% in real terms.
The jump in housing prices during the eighties can be attributed to the introduction of the Right to Buy Scheme, which also counted for the fall in the number of people in rented accommodation from 33% of the population in the sixties, to just 9% by the start of the nineties, however the rental market is making a come back with that figure now rising to 14% by the end of 2008.
Happy investing!
Recovery in the Buy-to-Let market
January 20th, 2010
LSL property services, owners of Your Move and Reeds Rains reported that buy-to-let landlords enjoyed a 7.6% annual return in 2009.
Landlords saw their properties rise in value 3% and their rental income a further 4.6%. This is a great improvement on the 8.8% loss suffered by property investors in 2008, due mainly to a £23000 depreciation in the value of their property along with a lower rental income.
David Brown, the Commercial Director for LSL, attributes the rebound to the reduction in available rental properties created when many buy to let landlords put their properties on the market during the first signs of a recovery over the summer.
Happy investing!
Confidence Returns to the Housing Market
January 19th, 2010
The public’s confidence in the UK housing market is back. Figures show a massive 81% of people expect to see house prices continue to rise over the next 6 months with property website Zoopla predicting the average increase being around 5.4%.
Nicolas Leeminig, Commercial Director of Zoopla said, “This time last year, confidence in the property market was at rock bottom, but a year is a long time in the housing market and while the recovery is still in its infancy, optimism is now back to levels not seen since the credit crunch began in 2007.”
Happy investing!
The Property Market makes a buoyant start to 2010
January 18th, 2010
Property website Right Move said record numbers of people logged onto its website to view property at the start of January. Volumes are up 26% compared to the same time last year.
With the current number of potential buyers continuing to outnumber the properties available on the market, along with dramatically low number of new builds being completed due to developers calling a halt to many building projects at the end of 2008, house prices are being pushed steadily upwards. The start of January saw the price increase trend from 2009 continue, with houses prices rising 1.2% in the first 2 weeks.
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Rents rise as the property market recovers
January 15th, 2010
Between October and November 2009, rents increased by 0.1% making November the 7th consecutive month of increases. Rents have been slowly rising during 2009 and rental prices look set to get back to 2008 levels sooner rather than later.
Nottingham has seen a 4.5% increase in rents with the average rental increasing from £578 at the end of 2008 to £603 at the end of 2009.
Excess property supply led to a decrease in rents at the end of 2008/start of 2009. Research shows the number of properties available dropped by 3.5% in October and 10% in November.
These decreases are also having an effect on how quickly properties are becoming occupied with prospective tenants moving more quickly to snap up tenancies with the average number of days properties are taking to be let dropping from 71 days in Jan to just 55 days by December, down 22.5%.
Compare this to the number of days a house is taking to sell. The decrease in the number of days properties are left unoccupied is all good news for the landlord as this means fewer days without an income from your investment.
Happy investing!
Growing confidence in the housing market
January 14th, 2010
World Wide Property Group have release a survey showing the general public’s growing confidence in the housing market.
In November, just 57% thought that house prices would continue to grow in 2010. Asked the same question in December, a huge 68% responded positively with 1 in 5 of these expecting the rise to be as high as 10%.
Kevin Wilkes, Managing Director of the World Wide Property Group said “I it just goes to show that people are getting on with their lives and putting economic fears behind them.”
The survey also stated that 82% of those questioned were quoted as saying that property still offers the best investment potential of any investment.
Happy investing!
New Buy-to-Let Rates
January 13th, 2010
As predicted earlier in the week, at least 5 lenders in the Buy-to-Let market have now reduced the rates in their Buy-To-Let Range whilst also increasing the number of products they can offer their customers.
Ray Boulger from John Charcol, one of the countries leading Independent Mortgage Lenders has stated “Lenders are becoming more comfortable with the wider economy most noticeably the bounce in house prices and the expectation that interest rates will remain low or some time resulting in far less repossessions than initially expected.
Happy investing!
House prices had a mixed December
January 12th, 2010
House prices continued to rise in December but at a slower pace than in either October or November, the latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has revealed.
House prices in the North and West Midlands dropped for the first time in 11 months with the East Midlands holding steady.
The survey showed the Christmas break had shown a slowing down of interest from potential buyers, but that they were still out numbering the potential sellers therefore overall we still saw a rise in the average house price to £200k+.
“It is likely that the new year will see more interest and activity in the market as those who held back start to market their property with renewed optimism,” said RICS spokesperson, Jeremy Leaf.
Happy investing!
Great Mortgage Deals Available
January 11th, 2010
The Nationwide has recently announced it has great deals on Fixed Rate mortgages starting at just 3.69% for a 2 year fixed deal. Their tracker rates start at just 2.94% on loans up to 70% loan to value.
Nationwide has made a number of cuts to its House Purchase and Re-mortgage range of products so I am sure it won’t be long before its buy-to-let range follows suit.
Many lenders have begun to increase the number of products they have available for personal borrowers after slashing the number of products earlier in 2009 and this again will help keep the interest rates down.
All this is excellent news for investors, as lower rates always mean a higher return on your investment
Happy investing!
Buy to let, Profession or Hobby?
January 7th, 2010
A survey released today from specialist lender CHL Mortgages revealed landlords think buy-to-let is increasingly becoming a market for professional landlords, rather than speculative investors.
The survey showed 81% of landlords are positive about the future for buy-to-let, with 38% planning to buy further properties. Only 13% are ready to sell and 53% happy to sit tight with the properties they own already.
Many landlords now manage their properties themselves, suggesting their role as buy-to-let landlord is a profession rather than a hobby, but 34% would still like to use the services of a lettings agent.
At Happy Homes we always ensure your property is managed through the most professional letting agents to give you completely hassle free investing.
Happy investing!