House values grow by £11 per day - Plus all the latest property news

Posted by The Oracle Group on 26th July 2019 -

INDUSTRY

House values grow by £11 per day

House values in the UK have grown by an average £11 a day since January, according to analysis by property website Zoopla. An average of £2,046 was added to each home in six months. Homeowners in the West Midlands saw the biggest increase, at £36.58 per day, but Londoners lost £71 daily. After London, Scotland was the next worst performer with an average property value fall of £20.59 per day or £3,768. In terms of towns, homeowners in Berkhamsted, Herts, have seen the most value added, with the average home there gaining £185.11 each day in value or £33,875 in total. Zoopla's Laura Howard said: "The UK housing market gained £60bn in value during the first six months of the year."Daily Mirror, Page: 16   Daily Express, Page: 15   The Sun, Page: 16   The I, Page: 55   The Scotsman, Page: 16

Record year for Help to Buy

The Help to Buy scheme that helps first-time buyers on to the property ladder could be extended, the new housing secretary said. Robert Jenrick said “all options are on the table”. The pledge came as fresh figures showed that last year was a record for HtB purchases, with a 9% increase in the number of homes bought in England in the year to April compared with the 12 months before, reaching a total of 52,404. The average price of properties bought through the scheme across England reached £300,487 at the end of April, up 4%.The Times, Page: 13

Estate agent fee costs ranked

Estate agent comparison website GetAgent has revealed where home sellers are pay the most to sell their home based on the average percentage fee being charged. Estate agents across the UK are charging an average fee of 1.2%, equating to a fee of £3,846 on the average house price, the data shows. The highest percentage fees per postcode are in East Ayrshire, where agents in the KA15 postcode are charging 2.9% to sell a home. On the average house price of £89,729, this equates to just £2,646. At 0.6%, PH7 in Perth and Kinross, IV19 in Highland, PA20 in Argyll and Bute and KA2 in East Ayrshire are the postcodes home to the lowest average fee in the UK.Daily Express   The I, Page: 53

Buyers dream of the beaches of St Ives

St Ives, Cornwall, has been named the most popular seaside town onRightmove. The property website revealed that potential buyers searched for property in the South West seaside resort, where asking prices have risen 29% in the past five years to £396,619, more than any other coastal location. Cornwall is home to three of the top 10 most in-demand seaside towns on Rightmove, with average asking prices rising by 1.8%  between July 2018 and July 2019, with Penzance and Newquay making up number two and three.Daily Mail

Movers stay close to home

Homebuyers who are upsizing are more often moving only as far as the next suburb, according to analysis by Savills. It looked at where families with children up to age four moved to in 2018. In a search for bigger properties, better value and better schools, it found the top destination was often the borough next door - but still close to family. Lawrence Bowles of Savills says: "The majority of people do not move far from their existing communities.”The Times, Bricks and Mortar, Page: 11

eBay for property disrupts auction business

A new “eBay for property” aims to lure those wary of traditional auction rooms. Digital online auction site BidX1 launched in the UK in January last year, raising £75m in the UK for sellers of both residential and commercial property. “We’re running at an 80% success rate, while the industry average is around 70%,” says head of residential auctions Richard Watson. “Part of that is down to BidX1 having greater visibility and transparency about exactly who is bidding.”Evening Standard

PLANNING

Jenrick rejects green belt housing

The new housing secretary Robert Jenrick has appeared to rule out building new homes on the green belt. Mr Jenrick told City A.M: "Boris Johnson has been clear that he doesn't believe that we should be building on the green belt", adding he was "interested in ways in which we can further liberalise and improve the planning system". "I will certainly be looking at a whole range of options in the days and weeks ahead so we can turbocharge this agenda," he added.City AM, Page: 5

Shop conversions rising

Analysis of change of use applications in town centres by insurer Direct Line for Business found that the biggest shift is away from retailers like butchers and bakers, travel agents and post offices. Research revealed that six in in 10 applications to local councils in England and Wales were requests to convert shops into other types of business, compared to just 18% of applications who asked permission to convert other types of premises into shops - a net loss of 43%. A third of applications wanted to convert sites into restaurants and cafes, while further 11% were to convert properties into pubs and bars.Daily Express, Page: 24

HOUSING

Housing minister champions social homes

Scotland’s housing minister Kevin Stewart says Scottish councils are now delivering more, high quality homes for social rent, and the Scottish Government is investing £3.3bn, the biggest investment in affordable housing since devolution. June figures show that the government is on track to hit its target of 50,000 affordable homes by 2021, of which 35,000 are for social rent. Writing in the Herald, he says ministers must continue to listen to and address the challenges facing different councils - rural housing issues, empty homes, or the adverse impact of short-term lets.The Herald, Page: 15

Two-bed properties fall out of fashion

The two-up, two-down is becoming an endangered species as the proportion of houses built with two bedrooms has halved since the turn of the century. Analysis of latest official figures by modular homes developer Project Etopia shows that 9% of all new private properties completed in 2017-18 were two-bedroom houses, compared with 17% two decades ago.The I, Page: 53

FIRMS

Capco splits Earls Court from core business

Capital & Counties (Capco) has confirmed it will separate its Covent Garden business from its troubled Earl’s Court development, which has dropped in value. The announcement was made in the property development firm’s results for the half year to the end of June, in which Capco said the value of the Earl’s Court interests had dropped by 11.5% to £599m. Meanwhile Covent Garden has seen a 0.5% increase in total property value to £2.6bn. CEO Ian Hawksworth said the separation would “allow each business to pursue independent strategies and deliver long-term value.”City AM   Financial Times

Colette Grant exits Grant Property

Grant Property co-founder Colette Grant has sold her interest in the business to fellow co-founder Peter Grant and stepped down as a director as she looks to expand her other corporate interests, but remains a "major client, friend and supporter" of the firm.The Scotsman, Page: 33

TAX

PM’s property plans

Martina Lees and Anne Ashworth in the Times look at how Boris Johnson being Prime Minister may affect the housing market. They say that Mr Johnson wants to cut stamp duty on homes worth more than £1.5m from 12% to 7%, and could also halve the levy for homes worth more than £500,000 and scrap it for those below £500,000. Mr Johnson, they suggest, could also look to a broader reform that switches the stamp duty burden from buyers to sellers. Elsewhere in the paper, Ms Ashworth says that Mr Johnson must deliver stamp-duty reforms – alongside reassurances on the economy - to “encourage optimism about the outlook for the market”.The Times, Bricks and Mortar, Page: 10   The Times, Bricks and Mortar, Page: 4  

INFRASTRUCTURE

O2 to launch 5G in October

O2 has announced it plans to turn on its 5G mobile network in October, with the next-generation service initially launched in six towns and cities across the UK, including Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, Slough and Leeds before expanding to a total of 50 towns and cities by summer 2020. It is last of the UK's major network coverage providers to roll out 5G. O2 also said it is considering investing in new full-fibre broadband infrastructure.BBC News   The Daily Telegraph

ECONOMY

Economists draw up modern index of prosperity

Proposals have been drawn up by a team of Cambridge economists to replace GDP as the standard measure for national prosperity with one that includes social and environmental capital. Researchers at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy have published a first draft of principles that they believe will “improve economic measurement [and] guide effective economic policymaking”.The Times

OTHER

Housing secretary expert in multi-million pound property

The new housing secretary presides over a multi-million property empire with his American wife, the Mail reports. Robert Jenrick and his wife Michal Berkner, a lawyer, own a £1.1m Grade I-listed country house in Herefordshire and two £2m homes in London. In total, the family's property portfolio is valued at £6.3m. Former Ukip candidate Roger Helmer commented: “Robert does know a lot about housing but I suspect it's more at the top end, and I wonder how much he knows about how to fix the bottom end of the market.” Meanwhile, Attorney General Geoffrey Cox has been ordered to apologise to MPs for twice breaking parliamentary rules over his second property. Mr Cox acknowledged he had received rental income from his former London home and apologised for declaring this in the MPs' register of interests three months after the 28-day deadline.Daily Mail, Page: 10-11   BBC News   The Daily Telegraph, Page: 5   Daily Mirror   The Independent

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