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 in June stayed the same as May at £5.5 billion. Remortgaging slid slightly from May’s £3.0 billion to £2.5 billion in June.
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 £161,777 as at the end of June 2012.
The Monthly change in June in England and Wales was a rise of 0.1%.
The Annual change to June in England and Wales was a rise of 0.9%.
Source: Land Registry
Halifax House Price Index figures.
The average price of a house by the end of June 2012 was £162,417, according to the Halifax House Price Index published 5th July 2012. House prices in June were 1.0% higher than in May, but the quarterly figure showed a 0.3% drop. 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 1st August 2012 showed that the average cost of a home in the UK was £164,389 during the month of July. After seasonal adjustment, this is a 0.7% fall from June, and the annual rate is down by 2.6%.
Source: Nationwide
Rightmove House Price Index figures
Rightmove’s July survey (published 16th July 2012) shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 10th June 2012 to 7th July 2012 was £242,097, a decrease of 1.7% on the previous month. House asking prices are now 2.3% higher than a year ago.
Source: Rightmove
RICS survey overview
The RICS Housing Market Survey for June 2012 (published 10th July 2012) says that “Activity levels continue to contract”.
The West Midlands and Wales once again saw the largest falls in house prices in the quarter to June 2012, and again only London saw prices rising.
In the month of June, the North West of England had the highest level of agreed sales, whereas the West Midlands had the lowest. The North West also had the highest level of new buyer enquiries in the month, while the East Midlands had the lowest. The highest level of new vendor instructions was in Scotland, and the lowest in the West Midlands.
Source: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
New Mortgages granted – May Actual Figures
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that “the slump in activity that followed the end of the first-time buyer stamp duty holiday appears to have been short-lived”. 48,300 loans were made in May for house purchase, worth £7.2 billion. This is much higher than April both in number (33%), and in value (36%). These figures are 24% and 29% higher (respectively) than last May’s figures.
Of these, first-time buyer loans totalled 18,100, valued at £2.3 billion, which is up by 43% in number and 53% in value on last month. This is 22% higher in number and 28% higher in value compared to last May’s figures. Home movers’ loans totalled £4.9 billion, and numbered 30,200. These figures are 29% higher than April, both in terms of number and value, and up 25% and 29% respectively on last May.
The number and value of remortgage loans also rose in the month – 27,900 loans worth £3.5 billion in May. These figures are 11% higher than last month’s in terms of volume, and 13% higher in value. However, they have decreased by 10% in number and 8% by value since last May.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
New Mortgages granted – June Estimates
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that June’s estimated figure for gross mortgage lending in the UK is £11.9 billion. This is a drop by 5% from May (£12.5 billion), and a 5% drop from last June’s £12.6 billion.
The quarter to June 2012 was estimated at £34.2 billion, which is 2% higher than the first quarter this year, and 3% higher than the second quarter of 2011.
Total lending in the first half of the year is estimated at £67.9 billion, which is 7% higher than the £63.7 billion in the first half of last year
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
Regional trends in Rightmove Estate Agents Asking House Prices in England and Wales.
Rightmove’s July survey shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 10th June 2012 to 7th July 2012 increased in only one of the ten identified areas of England and Wales. This increase in asking prices by Rightmove registered estate agents in the period is in the West Midlands, where the average asking price is up 2.0% to £191,121. (This area had the largest decrease last month.)
Yet again, Greater London had the largest annual increase – at £460,304, asking prices are now 6.4% higher than a year ago.
However, the Greater London area also had the largest monthly decrease of 3.6%.
Wales had the largest annual decrease of 1.9%, down to an average of £167,121.
Source: Rightmove
Regional Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales.
The Land Registry’s June survey shows the prices of a typical UK property per region as follows:
The largest monthly increase was in Wales, which saw an increase over the month of 2.5%, bringing the average house price in the region to £118,847. This is 0.2% higher than last year.
The largest monthly decrease in price is again Yorkshire & Humberside, where the average price is down 0.3% to £117,908, which is 1.9% lower than a year ago. This is the largest annual decrease.
The largest annual price increase is London, where prices rose by 6.3% over the year, to £359,476.
Source: Land Registry
Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales by County/Unitary authority.
The Land Registry’s June survey shows the prices of a typical UK property per county or unitary authority as follows:
The greatest monthly price increase is in Blaenau Gwent, where the average price is up by 10.9% to £77.191. This region of Wales also saw the greatest annual increase – 6.6% up.
The greatest monthly decrease in price is also in Wales – Bridgend, where prices fell by 4.8% to an average of £75,758. This same area saw an annual fall in prices of 3.7%.
The largest annual drop was again North East Lincolnshire, which saw a fall of 8.8% on last year, to £77,872.
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 7th July 2012, the average change over all property types is an increase of 2.3%. All types of property (which Rightmove classify) are up on last year. Terraced properties’ prices showed a 2.1% increase, while Flats’ and Apartments’ prices have done much better, at a 4.1% increase over the year. Detached property asking prices rose by 2.6% since last year, and semi-detached properties rose by 1.5%.
Source: Rightmove
Land Registry’s Average Prices by Property Type
The Land Registry’s June average price figures analysed by property type show that the prices for all types of property have risen by 0.9% in the year since June 2011. The average price is now £161,777.
Flats & Maisonette properties fell by 0.3% to £150,289, but Semi-detached properties rose by 0.7% over the year, to £153,673. Detached properties rose from £252,494 to £254,780, but Terraced properties rose highest by 1.6% to an average of £123,355.
Source: Land Registry
Outstanding Mortgage Debt
The average outstanding mortgage for the 11.3m households who currently have mortgages is estimated at £111,261 in May 2012.
Total secured lending in the UK on dwellings was £1,252 billion at the end of May 2012. This is up from the previous May’s £1,241 billion.
Source: Credit Action
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 show that the amount of time that a house is on the market creeping up and is now at an average of 9.5 weeks. Regionally, this ranges from 5.3 weeks in London to 12.5 weeks in the North East.
On average, 93.1% of the asking price was achieved in July, ranging from 94.2% in London and the South East, down to 91.3% in the North West.
Only 7.2% of postcode districts reported a price increase in July, falling from 10.8% in June and 11.6% in May, and a massive 31.6% had a price decrease over the month, down from 23.4% last month and 12.1% the previous month.
Source: Hometrack
Latest Property Sales Volumes by price range
According to the Land Registry’s June Report, in April 2012, 41,244 sales transactions took place in England and Wales, and 5,593 in London. This represents a fall of 19% in both regions since last April’s figures, (50,721 and 6,869 respectively).
The only the price bracket to rise in England and Wales was between £800,000 and £1 million, which rose from 420 to 431 (3%). The same price bracket was also the only one to see a rise in London, where the figures rose from 198 to 213 (up 10%).
However, a little higher up the market (above £1 million), in both England and Wales and London, the figures fell by 43% – from 825 to 468 in England & Wales, and from 557 to 318 in London.
Source: Land Registry
NHBC Figures for new homes
NHBC have released figures for new home registrations for June and the second quarter of 2012. They show that the total number of registrations in the second quarter fell by 24% on the same period last year (25,798 compared to 33,820).
In this quarter, private sector registrations fell by 10% (21,608 down to 19,526), but public sector registrations fell by 49% (from 12,212 to 6,272). This varied from region to region, with East Midlands having an increase of 13% (1,941 to 2,202), and Wales almost doubling (96% increase from 613 to 1,201), but Greater London dropping 48% from 6,831 to 3,297.
In the month of June, the number of new homes registered dropped 43% from 14,565 last June to 8,328 this June. In the private sector, 6,685 new homes were registered, which is 26% down on last June’s 9,029. The remainder were private sector new homes, showing a huge drop of 70% from 5,536 to 1,643.
Source: NHBC
Rightmove’s analysis of asking prices by London Borough.
In the period from 10th June 2012 to 7th July 2012, the asking prices in Hackney rose by 0.6% (£534,973), closely followed by 0.4% in Greenwich (£293,880). These are the only boroughs which saw a rise in average prices. In Brent, asking prices fell by 8.9% in the month – the lowest change in London. The average house price in Brent is now £621,880.
Over the year, Camden saw the largest increase of 16.4%, to an average price of £926,428. The only borough not to have seen an annual increase was Brent, where average asking prices have fallen slightly (by 0.1%) over the year.
Source: Rightmove
Next Monthly Market Fact File due in early September.
