House prices news
Latest House prices news
Halifax warns housing market slump set to accelerate
Britain's biggest mortgage lender Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) has issued a trading statement claiming that house prices will fall by nine per cent in 2008. The revised forecast comes after analysts decided that a previous prediction of a "mid-single digit" drop was too optimistic given the downturn in the housing market. The move comes comes after the Halifax ...
19th Jun 2008
South East outperforms UK housing market
Strong demand for property in the South East helped the region to record significantly higher price growth than the UK average last year, according to a new study. Research by Knight Frank indicates the South East saw prices rise by an average of seven per cent in 2007, with some affluent areas in South Buckinghamshire and East Sussex notching up increases of up to 19 per ...
18th Jun 2008
House prices news archive
House market facing prolonged slump
Property prices could continue to fall until the end of 2010, according to a poll of industry analysts. Nearly four in ten of members of the Society of Business Economists (SBE) believe that the housing market slump will continue for the next two years, with 44 per cent expecting it to bottom out by 2009. One in five of the economists, surveyed by ITV1's Tonight show, argue ...
16th Jun 2008
Housing market hits record low
Property transactions have slumped to their lowest levels since 1978, according to new data from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). The average number of transactions per surveyor during the past three months to May fell to 17.4, down from 18.5 in April. Rics spokesperson Jeremy Leaf claimed this slowdown poses "a very real danger to the wider ...
11th Jun 2008
House prices set for 50% drop
The downturn in the UK housing market could wipe nearly 50 per cent off the average value of a home, according to an index of property price futures. Futures trading suggests that prices will fall by ten per cent this year before accelerating over the next three years, culminating in a 23.5 per cent decline in 2011. The 47.5 per cent drop will only be recovered by 2017 ...
9th Jun 2008
Rental property market remains buoyant
Demand for rental property continues to significantly outperform the housing market as a whole, according to the Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla). The organisation claims that the proportion of letting agents unable to meet demand has climbed to a record 39 per cent. Ian Potter, the head of operations at Arla, said: "In many places this has had a ...
9th Jun 2008
Gulf bank encourages investment in UK commercial property
Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House (GFH) has called on investors to snap up British commercial property following the recent downturn in prices. Bahrain-based GFH claims that up until a short while ago such investments "simply did not make sense" due to the spiralling cost of entering the market. However, falling property prices now make the UK an ...
6th Jun 2008
Prices continue to fall as housing market slump accelerates
The price of an average home has fallen by nearly £13,000 over the past twelve months following a 2.4 per cent drop in May, according to the Halifax House Price Index. The rate of this latest decline was significantly higher than the 1.3 per cent fall recorded by Halifax in April. Rival lender Nationwide recently noted a 2.5 per cent drop in May, the biggest monthly ...
5th Jun 2008
Homeowners 'should consider equity release to counteract falling property prices'
Consumers planning to withdraw equity from their homes should act quickly to avoid being stung by declining property prices, according to a financial expert. Alex Edmans, Saga personal finance adviser, said: "With falling property prices customers will see a reduction in the amount of equity they can raise, therefore if you are considering arranging equity release in ...
4th Jun 2008
House prices continue downward trend
House prices fell for the eighth successive month in April as buyers continue to struggle in the current economic climate. Data released by the Land Registry shows that the average price of a home now stands at £183,626 after a 0.2 per cent monthly decline. House price inflation also dipped 0.9 per cent during the same period to 2.7 per cent. The largest regional drop ...
2nd Jun 2008