UK Housing Market Update Who is benefitting from the Funding for Lending Scheme? The Funding for Lending Scheme was designed with the purpose of boosting new lending to firms and households. Although the impact on lending has been rather modest, at least in terms of the housing... 18th April 2013 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update Contradictory evidence on impact of 7% stamp duty rate Evidence on the impact of the new 7% stamp duty rate on activity in the £2m+ homes market is contradictory. Data from the Land Registry shows that transactions have held up. But agents report a... 12th April 2013 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update Forecast change The Chancellor’s ‘Help to Buy’ scheme is likely to provide some additional support to average house prices, over and above that already coming from the Funding for Lending scheme. We have amended our... 21st March 2013 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update Budget 2013 helps to keep house prices inflated We doubt many first-time buyers will be celebrating ‘Help to Buy’. Most just want to see house prices fall. But by saddling them with more mortgage debt, that is an outcome this policy will help... 20th March 2013 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update Will prime central London house prices continue to outperform? Interest in prime central London property may be waning, with improved sentiment in the euro-zone and poor rental yields both weighing on demand. Further large price gains are therefore unlikely, but... 15th March 2013 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update Budget 2013 – Can the Chancellor kick-start homebuilding? Further measures to boost homebuilding will reportedly form part of next week’s Budget. But past attempts have had little success. So what more could the Chancellor do, and with what effect? 13th March 2013 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update The FLS is giving smaller lenders a helping hand Smaller mortgage lenders are continuing to take market share from the established big lenders. Primarily, this reflects most big lenders consciously reducing the size of their mortgage books after... 5th March 2013 · 1 min read
UK Economics Update Funding for Lending Scheme not boosting lending yet The second set of data on the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) suggested that take-up of the scheme is increasing, but that lending is not yet rising as a result. 4th March 2013 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update Do we really need 240,000 new homes a year? Claims that we need 240,000 new homes a year are based on household projections which have significantly underestimated average household size. The provisional 2011 Census results strongly suggest... 20th February 2013 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update What does the depreciation of sterling mean for prime London property? The slight drop in the value of sterling in recent months has reduced the value of prime London property held by overseas buyers. But with the euro-zone crisis only contained, rather than solved, we... 24th January 2013 · 1 min read
UK Commercial Property Update Finally, permission-free conversions set to be allowed Two years after the initial proposal, and having appeared to have gone cold on the idea in the meantime, the Government finally looks set to allow permission-free conversions of commercial property... 22nd January 2013 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update Why has the FLS not helped bring down SVRs? The Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS), alongside other interventions, has helped bring down both long and short-term wholesale funding costs. But to date lenders have only passed these savings through... 17th January 2013 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update Will the pent-up demand for housing be unleashed soon? The latest survey on household finances from the Bank of England paints a fairly bleak picture of potential first-time buyers’ finances. And with the average deposit required by lenders still... 20th December 2012 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update Could 2013 bring a positive surprise to the housing market? The housing market could benefit from a number of positive surprises in 2013. In particular, two thatspring to mind are an acceleration of the take-up of the Funding for Lending Scheme, and ongoing... 14th December 2012 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update Taxing high-value property – will it make London uncompetitive? An annual charge on some owners of residential property worth over £2m is unlikely to have a material impact on London’s competitiveness. The main impact will be to lower the price of those homes... 5th December 2012 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Update First look at the impact of the Funding for Lending Scheme It’s still early days, but the first set of data for the uptake of the Funding for Lending Scheme are underwhelming. Only six of the 35 institutions signed-up had borrowed any money by the end of... 3rd December 2012 · 1 min read