to get if you don’t have a hefty deposit. Investors have also been returning to the market quite strongly in recent months, appearing to be taking advantage of the static house prices and the low buy-to-let mortgage rates.
The highest demand is still for detached or semi-detached houses while there is a much lower demand for flats – in fact demand for flats has declined every year since 2007 and in some places is 80% lower than it was in 2007.
House buying and selling transactions
are still lower than they were a year ago, but the graph clearly shows that they are on an upward trend again and if the increase we have seen in August were to continue then it would be a much more positive year.
LettingS agency view The average rent in England and Wales rose by 1.2% to £713 per month in August, surpassing the previous record high of £705 in July. This is the largest monthly increase since August 2010. This is one of the busiest times of the year for the rental market with many students looking for accommodation for the first time and others moving into rental accommodation in order to secure their first jobs.
This is exacerbated by the number of people pushed into rental accommodation because they are unable to get a mortgage all of which together creates a surge in demand and pushes up rents. Many people are starting to feel the squeeze imposed by higher rents however, especially if they overspent on summer holidays and as a result rental arrears grew by 19.5% in August. In addition this month, letters have been sent by many local councils to people on housing benefit announcing that they will reduce the amount of housing benefit that they will pay and advising benefit recipients either to move to cheaper properties or to negotiate with their landlords for lower rent. It will be interesting to see what effect this has on rental income in the months to come and whether some landlords do indeed reduce their rent or just replace the tenants with others than can afford the higher rents. n
mortgage introducer OCTOBER 2011 51
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60