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 since 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 fell from £5.9 billion in March to £4.9 billion in April. Remortgaging stayed the same as March, at £3.1 billion in April.
Source: Bank of England
Land Registry’s Property Prices in England and Wales
The Average Price of a property in England and Wales is now £160,417 as at the end of April 2012.
The Monthly change in April in England and Wales was a fall of 0.3%.
The Annual change to April in England and Wales was a fall of 1.0%.
Source: Land Registry
Halifax House Price Index figures.
The average price of a house by the end of April 2012 was £159,883, according to the Halifax House Price Index published 4th May 2012. This is virtually the same as December 2011’s figure. House prices in April were 2.4% lower than in March, but the quarterly figure showed a 0.3% rise. The seasonally adjusted figures show that house prices are 0.5% 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 31st May 2012 showed that the average cost of a home in the UK was £166,022 during the month of May. After seasonal adjustment, this is a 0.3% rise from April, but the annual rate is down by 0.7%.
Source: Nationwide
Rightmove House Price Index figures
Rightmove’s April survey (published 21st May 2012) shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 8th April 2012 to 9th May 2012 was £243,759, a increase of only £22 on the previous month. This is statistically insignificant. House asking prices are now 2.0% higher than a year ago.
Source: Rightmove
RICS survey overview
The RICS Housing Market Survey for April 2012 (published 8th May 2012) says that there is still a “fragile level of confidence in the market†and that there was “a slight reversal in the improved tone to both activity and price indicatorsâ€. The West Midlands and Wales saw the largest falls in house prices in the quarter to April 2012, and again only London saw prices rising.
In the month of April, the Northwest of England had the lowest level of newly agreed sales, whereas the North (presumably meaning the Northeast) had the highest. East Anglia had the highest level of new buyer enquiries in the month, while Wales had the lowest. The highest level of new vendor instructions was in the North and East Anglia, and the lowest was in the East Midlands.
Source: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
New Mortgages granted – March figures
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that in a surge of activity in March 2012, (due in no small part to the Stamp Duty exemption), 51,200 loans were made for house purchase, worth £7.4 billion. This is much higher than February both in number (44%), and in value (40%). These figures are 31% and 30% higher (respectively) than last March’s figures.
First-time buyer loans totalled 24,000, valued at £3 billion, which is up by 74% in number and 76% in value on last month. This is 57% higher in number and 67% in value than last March’s figures.
The number and value of remortgage loans rose slightly in the month – 27,200 loans worth £4.3 billion in March. These figures are 25% higher than last month’s in terms of volume, and 19% higher in value. They have increased by 15% in number and 10% by value since last March.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
New Mortgages granted – April estimates
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that April’s estimated figure for gross mortgage lending in the UK is £10.2 billion. This is 19% lower than March (£12.6 billion), but a 2% rise from last year’s £10.0 billion.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
Regional trends in Rightmove Estate Agents Asking House Prices in England and Wales.
Rightmove’s April survey shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 8th April 2012 to 9th May 2012 increased in five of the ten identified areas of England and Wales. The largest increase in asking prices by Rightmove registered estate agents in the period is in the Yorkshire & Humberside region, where the average asking price is up 1.9% to £159,704. The East Midlands wasn’t far behind with a monthly increase of 1.8% to £167,995.
Once again, Greater London had the largest annual increase – at £469,314, asking prices are now 8.9% higher than a year ago.
The largest decrease is 2.0% to £265,335, which occurred in the South West, followed closely by the North West, which had a decrease of 1.9% to £164,228.
Annually, the region with the largest decrease was the North of England, where the average asking price is down 3.7% on last year to £150,282.
Source: Rightmove
Regional Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales.
The Land Registry’s April survey shows the prices of a typical UK property per region as follows:
The largest monthly increase was in Greater London, which saw an increase over the month of 5.1%, bringing the average house price in the region to £360,721. This is 5.1% higher than last year – the largest annual increase regionally.
The largest monthly decrease in price is the West Midlands, where the average price is down 2.7% to £126,527, which is 4.1% lower than a year ago.
The largest annual price decrease was the Yorkshire & Humberside region, where prices fell by 5.6% over the year, to £115,783.
Source: Land Registry
Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales by County/Unitary authority.
The Land Registry’s April survey shows the prices of a typical UK property per county or unitary authority as follows:
As stated above, the highest monthly price increase is Greater London, where the average price is up by 5.1% to £360,721. This is the largest annual increase.
The next highest monthly increase is in Hartlepool, where prices increased by 2.2% to £79,319 this month.
The largest monthly decrease in price is Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire, where prices fell by 3.6% to an average of £76,195. This same area saw an annual fall in prices too (6.5%).
The joint largest annual drops are in south Wales – Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire - which both saw a fall of 10.9% on last year, to £151,915 and £137,990 respectively. The Merthyr Tydfil region of Wales had the next largest decrease – a 10.1% drop over the year to an average of £64,062.
Source: Land Registry
Rightmove’s Asking Prices by Property Type
Rightmove have published figures showing National Asking Prices analysed by property type.
In the year to 9th May 2012, the average change over all property types is an increase of 2.0%. Terraced properties showed a 3.9% annual increase, while flats’ and apartments’ prices have done nearly as well, at a 3.6% increase over the year. Both semi-detached and detached property asking prices rose by 1.5% over the year.
Source: Rightmove
Land Registry’s Average Prices by Property Type
The Land Registry’s April average price figures analysed by property type show that the prices for all types of property have fallen by 1.0% in the year since April 2011. The average price is now £160,417.
Detached properties were the only type to rise – by 1.0% to £257,767. Semi-detached properties fell by 1.3% over the year, to £151,073 and Flats & Maisonette properties fell by 1.6% to an average of £149,508. Terraced properties fell by the largest amount – 2.1% to an average of £120,862.
Source: Land Registry
Outstanding Mortgage Debt
The average outstanding mortgage for the 11.2m households who currently have mortgages is estimated at £111,419 in March 2012.
Total secured lending in the UK on dwellings was £1,250 billion at the end of March 2012. This is up from the previous March’s £1,240 billion.
Source: Credit Action
Buy-to-Let Mortgages
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that during the first quarter of 2012, the total monies lent on buy-to-let mortgages was £3.7 billion (32,300 loans). This is a 5% drop on the previous quarter, but a third higher than the first quarter of 2011.
There are currently just over 1.4 million buy-to-let mortgages, with a value of £159.4 billion.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
Mortgage Arrears and Homes Repossessions
The number of house repossessions in the first quarter of 2012 totalled 9,600, the same as the first quarter of 2011. The number of households with arrears of more than 2.5% in their mortgages was 157,800, (1.4% of all loans). This is lower than the 170,500 figure at the end of the previous quarter.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
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.
May’s figures show that the average amount of time that a house is on the market has stayed the same at 9.3 weeks. Regionally, this ranges from 5.1 weeks in London to 13.9 weeks in Wales.
On average, 93.1% of the asking price is achieved, ranging from 94.6% on London, and 91.2% in the North-East.
11.6% of postcode districts reported a price increase in May, compared to 13.7% in April.
Source: Hometrack
Latest Property Sales Volumes by price range
According to the Land Registry, in February 2012, 43,331 sales transactions took place in England and Wales, and 6374 in London. This represents a rise of 9% and 10% respectively since last February’s figures, (39,670 and 5,772 respectively).
In the price range of over £1 million, figures fell in England and Wales from 478 to 462 (-3%), whereas in London the figures rose from 297 to 322 (+8%).
By contrast, at the lower end of the market (below £200k), London’s figures fell from 1,329 to 1,325, a statistically insignificant fall, whereas in England and Wales, however, the figures show a rise from 24,034 to 25,912, which is a rise of 9% over last February.
Source: Land Registry
Next Monthly Market Fact File due in early July.