The latest house price figures from the Nationwide show the average cost of a UK home falling by an annual 15.9%, in December. During the month values took another 2.5% dip, taking the average cost of a property down to £153,048, or £29,000 less than a year earlier. According to the building society’s index, prices [...]
The Building Societies Association (BSA) has published the results of its latest Property Tracker survey, which indicate that more people believe that now is a good time to buy a home. Forty-six per cent of those surveyed were, to some extent, positive about making a purchase, compared with 34% in September and 27% in July. [...]
Estate agency, Connells, is selling its 17% stake in Rightmove. The decision by the UK’s second-largest residential property agent is a further ill wind for the housing market, particularly as Connells’ 21 million shares in the website are being offered at a discount on the market price. Connells was instrumental in setting up Rightmove eight [...]
HSBC is proposing to increase its mortgage lending by 20% in 2009, making up to £15 billion available to UK homebuyers and remortgagers, in total. The bank, which also provides home loans via its online brand, First Direct, has been less affected by the credit crisis than some of its High Street rivals because of [...]
Estate agents that have so far survived the housing market downturn can look forward to a review of the market by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), in 2009. The watchdog has promised to take a comprehensive look at the sector and will be involving both consumer groups and industry bodies. In a similar study [...]
The director general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has warned that mortgages will continue to be in short supply into 2009. Speaking at an industry conference earlier this week, Michael Coogan explained that there are many reasons for this, including an overall shrinkage of the UK mortgage market and the difficulties faced by [...]
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has reported a sharp rise in the number of people losing their homes because they are unable to keep up their mortgage payments. In the three months to the end of June, repossessions of residential properties rose 71% to 11,054. The figure compares with 6,476 during the same three months [...]
Rightmove is cutting staff numbers by 20% and making 60 people redundant. The property website, which advertises around 90% of homes for sale in the UK, has seen sales plummet and is now joining High Street estate agents in laying-off staff. The company says that while these are the first redundancies it has made as [...]
The downturn in the property market is forcing 60,000 homeowners a month into negative equity. According to the credit rating agency, Standard & Poor’s, research suggests that 335,000 homes will be worth less than their mortgages by the end of October, a rise of 260,000 over four months. If the trend continues, the number of [...]
A Professor of Finance from Imperial College Business School in London is predicting that UK house prices could fall by a further 5% to 10% before the market bottoms out. Addressing a committee of MP’s, Professor David Miles proposed that the property market should stabilise once house prices are 20% below their peak of summer [...]
Nationalised bank Northern Rock has had to withdraw some of its savings deals after a flurry of deposits has put it close to breaching state ownership rules. Since it was nationalised in February, Newcastle-based Northern Rock has been offering some of the best savings rates, making it highly attractive for concerned savers to put their [...]
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has reported that the average selling price of a UK home is now 9% below the asking price. Rics chief economist, Simon Rubinsohn, warns that the gap could widen in the coming months as vendors are forced to accept lower offers in a shrinking market. Figures from leading [...]
Rightmove has reported a 1% fall in the asking price of the average home in the month to 13th September. The decline is below the 2.3% recorded by the property website in August but puts the average asking price at £227,438 or £14,204 less than a year ago. The firm has also noted a slight [...]
A crisis on Wall Street is likely to put further pressure on the UK’s frozen mortgage market, which had been showing signs of a thaw in recent weeks. Over the weekend talks to rescue investment bank, Lehman Brothers, ended in disarray and the 158-year-old institution is today filing for bankruptcy protection. The bank is a [...]
New research from fool.co.uk shows just how dramatically the mortgage market has swung in favour of those who have large deposits. According to the financial website, home buyers looking for a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 60% can access around 4,588 mortgage products. For those even better placed and needing to borrow less than 60% of [...]
House sales are at their lowest for 30 years. Latest figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) show that in the three months to the end of August estate agents sold an average 14.4 homes, or 1.1 properties per week. The level of transactions is 47% below August 2007 and compares with average [...]
The chief executive of HBOS, which owns Halifax, the UK’s largest mortgage lender, has warned that house prices are unlikely to begin a recovery before 2010. According to Andy Hornby, confidence in Britain’s housing market will not return until banks can raise significant sums on the wholesale financial markets. In addition, house price deflation could [...]
Property search engine, Globrix, has reported that the majority of homes for sale in the UK have now been on the market for over 90 days. The company’s research has revealed that the proportion of properties unsold after 90 days has risen from 25% at the beginning of the year, to 53% in August. The [...]
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is demanding a review of Home Information Packs (Hips) because the slowdown in the housing market means that some of the packs are out of date before a property is sold. The packs were intended to simplify and speed up the house selling process but the majority of [...]
Housing developer, Persimmon, has reported a 30% fall in sales of new homes in the six months to the end of June. The company sold 5,501 new homes during the period, down from 8,002 in the first half of 2007. Blaming the UK’s shrinking mortgage market for plummeting sales, Persimmon has also revealed that the [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
About | Privacy | Disclaimer | Resources | XML Feeds | Press Releases | Directory | Contact us
