Round-up | NEWS


Analysts positive despite largest fall in house prices in 14 years


AVERAGE HOUSE prices have seen their sharpest drop since 2008 according to the latest Halifax House Price Index. The index shows that the average house price fell by 2.3% in November to £285,579, which was the third consecutive fall and the largest since October 2008.


The report also showed that the annual rate of growth fell in November from 8.2% to 4.7% with growth slowing in every UK region bar the North-East. With the Bank of England hiking interest rates from 2.25% to 3% triggering a low number of mortgage approvals. Although some analysts have been predicting a crash in the UK housing market of as much as 20%, others are more optimistic.


Halifax mortgages director Kim Kinnaird said: “When thinking about the future for house prices, it is important to remember the context of the last few years, when we witnessed some of the biggest house price


ISH returns to Messe Frankfurt in 2023 with ‘solutions for a sustainable future’


ISH, EUROPE’S largest bathroom trade fair is returning to the Messe Frankfurt exhibition centre on March 14-17, 2023, with a focus on “marketable solutions for a sustainable future”. The show is held every two years and in 2021 was a digital-only event as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2023, organisers are expecting around 2,000 exhibitors to present their solutions for renewable sources of energy, sustainable water usage and clean air. Around 70% of exhibitors are expected to come from countries outside Germany, including Italy, Turkey, Spain, China, Poland, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Sweden and Switzerland, spread across the two main areas of the fair – ISH Water and ISH Energy. Based in Halls 1 to 6, ISH Water focuses on modern bathroom design and sustainable technology in the use of water. Visitors are promised innovative products and solutions for the lifestyle-oriented bathroom and a hygienic drinking- water installation.


In Halls 8 to 12, ISH Energy will showcase innovative heat-generation products, especially heat-pump technology as well as modern heat distribution and delivery systems. It will also focus on cooling, air conditioning and ventilation technology.


PJH launches new initiative to ‘protect independents against online pricing competition’


KBB DISTRIBUTOR PJH has launched its Bathrooms to Love BOND initiative which, it says, aims to protect independent displaying retailers from online pricing competition.


PJH says the Bathrooms to Love BOND, which stands for Brand assurance, Online price protection, New and exclusive product ranges and Display showroom support, will provide online price protection by preventing products from its Bathrooms to Love portfolio from being sold ‘like- for-like’ via e-commerce websites at reduced prices.


As part of the inititaive, PJH has introduced ‘Your Label’ which will allow retailers to sell products from its


February 2023 ·


Bathrooms To Love range via their own e-commerce website under their own names which it claims will essentially prevent consumers from searching for the same product at cheaper prices. Brett Jenkinson, head of retail customer experience PJH, said: “Being able to support our bricks and mortar retail customers against the challenge of online pricing is important for PJH, and pivotal to our continuous goal of providing a first choice service. Bathrooms to Love BOND, together with Your Label underlines this commitment to our independent bathroom retailers, helping them differentiate their product offering and therefore


protecting them online price discounting. 15 against


increases the market has ever seen. Property prices are up more than £12,000 compared to this time last year, and well above pre-pandemic levels (+£46,403 vs March 2020). “The market may now be going through a process of normalisation. While some important factors like the limited supply of properties for sale will remain,


the trajectory of mortgage


rates, the robustness of household finances in the face of the rising cost of living, and how the economy – and more specifically the labour market – performs will be key in determining house prices changes in 2023.” Meanwhile, experts at Cornerstone


Tax are forecasting a rise between 5% and 8% as foreign investment, driven by the decline in the value of sterling, making the housing market 10% cheaper. Cornerstone Tax chairman David Hannah was adamant: “There will be NO crash and NO 10-20% fall in property prices that we saw in the Noughties. The UK property market has tended to be more stable than any other global market in property.” He added: “We have faced a massive set of instabilities. We’ve had two years of the pandemic, necessary pandemic spending, we’ve had the war in Ukraine and that has increased inflation which has led to a massive increase in interest rates. “In early 2023, we will see slow


demand. Only those people that are forced to sell will see a small fall in prices, however, over the whole of 2023, I expect to see low to mid to single-digit growth over the UK property market – between 5% and 8%. Despite the negative headlines we have been seeing, there is an underlying pressure on the market and that is leading to upward pressure on prices.” Hannah concluded: “We have a growing number of people that want to move to the UK. The first is the overseas investor who regards UK property as a safe haven for their money because the country they principally live in is not economically or politically safe. The second are those who want to become second homeowners. The third and final group are those who want to leave their birth country and are in need of a home. All of these factors over the course of the next 12 months, I believe, are what will support the UK market and leave it with a modest and steady rate of growth.


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