This week was packed with reflection and reform. Reflection on property prices, mortgages and movability. Reform for those still paying rent on the home they own. Welcome to another UK Property News Recap.
Leasehold reform
Michael Gove kick-started the week by presenting his leasehold reform bill to Parliament. Billed as the Government’s “long-term plan” for housing, after years of deliberation, he certainly wasn’t wrong about it being “long!”
Believing slow and steady wins the race. Gove chose to abstain from abolishing leasehold for new flats to push through other reforms before the next election.
Rightmove Trading Update 2023
Property portal, Rightmove, released its full year outlook for 2023. Despite an uncertain property market, profits were up largely due to Estate Agents having to pull out all the marketing stops, to get their listings noticed.
Rightmove overall full year outlook for 2023:
ARPA growth of £112-£116
Rev growth of 8% -10%
Underlying Operating Profit growth of 7-8%
Zoopla HPI November 2023
Zoopla HPI November 2023
Zoopla’s HPI for November 2023 showed those who can still afford to move, are shopping around for a bargain, sifting through UK Estate Agents well stocked rails to secure an average discount of £18,000. Further price reductions in London & the South East, averaging £25,000 proves a draw for those keen to avoid a commute.
Despite demand remaining 13% lower than 2019 levels, in this 2023 winter sale, sales volumes have increased 15% on last year & 5% on 2019 levels. This is due to cash rich & deposit heavy buyers choosing to move when the price is right & there is less competition.
Money and Credit
On Wednesday the Bank of England released its Money & Credit October Data which showed some buyers were on the move again with net approvals for house purchases increasing 3,700 over the past month to 47,400 in October. Overall though the amount lent tumbled, with gross lending falling from £18.1billion in September to £16.2 billion in October 2023.
UK Housing Supply Statistics
On the same day, UK housing supply statistics were released
Annual housing supply in England remained largely unchanged on 2020-21, down by only 70 dwellings, amounting to a total of 234,400 net additional dwellings in 2022-23.
This total was made up of:
– 212,570 new build homes
– 22,160 change of use between non-domestic & residental
– 4,500 conversions between houses & flats
– 640 other gains (caravans, house boats, etc)
Offset by 5,470 demolitions
UK Monthly Property Transactions
High interest rates and low market confidence continued to suppress UK monthly property transactions for October 2023. Transaction volumes were down 21% when compared to October last year & 3% on last month when seasonally adjusted.
I’d expect this descent to continue over the winter before potentially picking up again around spring time.
Nationwide HPI
Tentative optimism that rates are on the turn next year brings some buyers out ahead of the new year. This was reflected in Nationwide’s November HPI, which showed house prices limp upwards for a third consecutive month increasing 0.2% in November 2023 reducing the reduction in annual house price growth from -3.3% in October, to -2.0%.
And that concludes another UK Property News Recap.
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