Property Market Fact File – August 2011

Bank Lending Rate
It has been confirmed that the Bank of England Monetary Committee have decided that the Bank Base Rate is to remain at 0.5% for a further month. It has been at this very low level for a record period, i.e. since 05th March, 2009.
Source: Bank of England

Mortgage Lending by the Major UK Lenders
According to initial data from the major UK lenders (which comprises Banco Santander, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide and Royal Bank of Scotland), total mortgage approvals for house purchase rose slightly from £4.9 billion in May to £5.2 billion in June. Remortgaging saw a small decrease, from £3.6 billion in May to £3.4 billion in June.
Source: Bank of England

Land Registry Average Property Prices in England and Wales
The Average Price of a property in England and Wales is now £161,479 as at the end of May 2011.
Source: Land Registry

Percentage Changes of Property Prices in England and Wales
The Monthly change in June in England and Wales was down £344, statistically a 0.0% change.
The Annual change to May in England and Wales was –2.5%.
Source: Land Registry

RICS survey overview.
The RICS Housing Market Survey for June suggests that the housing market is still quite weak. Both supply and demand for property have stayed low. Every region of the UK except London has seen falling prices, with the West Midlands seeing the largest falls for the second consecutive month.  East Anglia had the largest increase in newly agreed sales, while the highest level of new buyer enquiries during the month was in the South West.
Source: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

New Mortgages granted – June estimates
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that June’s estimated figures for gross mortgage lending in the UK is £12.6 billion. This is a rise of 16% from May’s figure of £10.8 billion, but a fall of 3% since last June. Gross lending was estimated as £33.5 billion in the second quarter of 2011, 11% higher than than the previous quarter but 3% lower than the same quarter in 2010.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders

New Mortgages granted – May figures
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that in May, 41,500 loans were made for house purchase, worth £5.9 billion, of which first-time buyer loans totalled 15,900, valued at £1.9 billion. 29,000 remortgage loans were made, worth £3.6 billion.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders

Regional trends in Rightmove Estate Agents Asking House Prices in England and Wales.
The largest increase in July is in Wales, where the average asking price is up by 0.9% to £170,405. This price is about the same as July 2010.
The largest decrease in asking prices by Rightmove registered estate agents in July is in East Anglia, where the average asking price is down 3.5% to £223,658, but this is 3.1% higher than in July 2010, making it the largest regional annual increase in house asking prices.
The largest annual regional decrease is Yorkshire & Humberside region for the third month in a row, which has seen asking house prices fall by 3.7% from July 2011.
Source: Rightmove

Halifax House Price Index figures.
The average price of a house by the end of June 2011 was £163,049, according to the Halifax House Price Index. House prices in June were 1.2% higher than in May. The quarterly figure showed a 0.5% drop. The figures show that house prices are 3.5% lower than at this time last year, measured by the average for the latest quarter against the same period a year earlier.
Source: Halifax

Nationwide House Price Index figures
Nationwide House Price Index figures published on 29th July showed that the average cost of a home in the UK was £168,731 during the month of July.  After seasonal adjustment, there is a 0.2% rise from June, and the annual rate now stands at –0.4%. The quarterly figure, said to be a better indicator of trend, stands at 0.3% increase against the previous 3 months’.
Source: Nationwide

Rightmove House Price Index figures
Rightmove’s July survey shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 12th June to 9th July 2011 was £236,597, a decrease of 1.6 % on the previous month. House asking prices are just 0.1% higher than a year ago. The number of new sellers is down by 12% on July last year.
Source: Rightmove

Asking Prices by Property Type
Rightmove have published figures showing National Asking Prices analysed by property type.
In the year to July 2011, the average change is an increase of 0.1%. Flats’ and apartments’ prices are performing well, at a 1.3% increase over the year. At the other end of the scale, detached properties’ asking prices decreased by 1.7%. Inbetween, semi-detached properties decreased by 0.8%, and terraced properties decreased by 0.4% since a year ago.
Source: Rightmove

Hometrack Monthly House Price Survey
Hometrack compile sample data monthly from thousands of Estate Agents in all 2,300 postcodes in England and Wales. The figures are weighted according to postcode, but not seasonally adjusted.
July’s figures are based on 5,000 responses, and show that currently the average amount of time that a house is on the market is 9.4 weeks, and that on average, 92.7% of the asking price is achieved.
8% of postcode districts reported a price increase in July, and 27% of postcode districts had a price decrease over the month.
Source: Hometrack

Outstanding Mortgage Debt
Average outstanding mortgage for the 11.4m households who currently have mortgages now stands at £109,003.
Total secured lending in the UK on dwellings stands at £1,421bn at the end of June 2011, with an annual growth rate of 0.7%.
Source: Credit Action

2nd Aug 11