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 August rose slightly to £5.8 billion against the previous three months’ £5.5 billion. Remortgaging fell slightly from July’s £2.8 billion to £2.4 billion in August.
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 £163,376 as at the end of August 2012.
The Monthly change in August in England and Wales was statistically insignificant (0%).
The Annual change to August in England and Wales was a rise of 0.7%.
Source: Land Registry
Halifax House Price Index figures.
The average price of a house by the end of August 2012 was £160,256, according to the Halifax House Price Index published 6th September 2012. House prices in August were 0.4% lower than in July, and the quarterly figure was down by 0.3%. The seasonally adjusted figures show that house prices are 0.9% 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 2nd October 2012 showed that the average cost of a home in the UK was £163,964 during the month of September. After seasonal adjustment, this is a 0.4% fall from August, and the annual rate is down by 1.4%.
Source: Nationwide
Rightmove House Price Index figures
Rightmove’s September survey (published 17th September 2012) shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 12th August 2012 to 8th September 2012 was £234,858, a decrease of 0.6% on the previous month. House asking prices are now just 0.7% higher than a year ago.
Source: Rightmove
RICS survey overview
The RICS Housing Market Survey for August 2012 (published 11th September 2012) says that “New buyer enquiries dip for fourth successive monthâ€.
Yorkshire & Humberside saw the largest fall in house prices in the month, and yet again only London saw prices rising.
In the month of August, the North had the highest level of agreed sales, whereas the West Midlands had the lowest. Wales had the highest level of new buyer enquiries in the month, while the West Midlands had the lowest. The highest level of new vendor instructions was in the North of England, and the lowest was in Wales.
Source: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
New Mortgages granted – July Actual Figures
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that “a rise in lending to home movers was the main driver of an increase in house purchase lending in Julyâ€.
49,500 loans were made in July for house purchase, worth £7.6 billion. This is higher than June both in number (4.7%), and in value (7.0%). These figures are up 5.3% and 7.0% (respectively) than last July’s figures.
Of these, first-time buyer loans totalled 19,000, valued at £2.5 billion, which is down by 1.0% in number but up by 4.2% in value on last month. This is 8.0% higher in number and 13.6% higher in value compared to last July’s figures.
Home movers’ loans totalled £5.1 billion, and numbered 30,500. These figures are 8.2% higher than June in terms of number, and 8.5% higher in value. These figures are up 3.7% and 4.1% (respectively) on last July.
The number and value of remortgage loans rose in the month – 24,100 loans worth £3.2 billion in July. These figures are 3.0% higher than last month’s in terms of volume, and 3.2% higher in value. However, they have decreased by 23.5% in number and 20.0% by value since last July.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
New Mortgages granted – August Estimates
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that August’s estimated figure for gross mortgage lending in the UK was £12.6 billion. This is a slight fall of 1% from July’s (£12.7 billion), and a 4% fall from last August’s £13.1 billion.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
Home Builders Federation figures
Home Builders Federation’s latest Housing Pipeline Report states that the number of planning permissions granted in England in the second quarter of 2012 was 28,300 residential units. This is a 32% fall on the previous quarter, and a 3% fall on last year.
23,300 were private approvals, which is a 33% fall on Q1 2012 and 9% lower than Q2 2011. Social housing approvals in this quarter dropped to 3,200, a fall of 41% on Q1 2012 but unchanged from a year ago.
HBF say that the number of units approved during the first half of this year was up 4% on a year ago, but still way below the quarterly average of 64,500 in 2006/7.
Source: Home Builders Federation
Regional trends in Rightmove Estate Agents Asking House Prices in England and Wales.
Rightmove’s September survey shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 12th August 2012 to 8th September 2012 increased in only two of the ten identified areas of England and Wales, although Wales saw a drop of only 0.1%. (Average prices there fell from £162,736 in August to £162,495 in September.)
The largest monthly increase was in East Anglia, where asking prices rose by 4.3% over the month from £219,729 to £229,231. East Anglia’s annual increase (5.0%) was topped by London, where asking prices rose by 6.6% to an average of £456,237.
The largest monthly decrease was of 2.3% in the North, from £148,139 in August to £144,795 in September. Asking prices here have decreased by 0.4% since last year.
Wales once again had the largest annual decrease – 2.7% down to an average of £162,495.
Source: Rightmove
Regional Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales.
The Land Registry’s August survey shows the prices of a typical UK property per region as follows:
The largest monthly increase was in the North East, which saw an increase over the month of 0.8%, bringing the average house price in the region to £100,934. However, this is 0.3% lower than last year.
The largest monthly decrease in price is Wales, where the average price is down 2.4% to £115,887, which is 3.2% lower than a year ago. This is the largest annual decrease.
London prices are 5% higher than last year – this is the highest annaul increase.
Source: Land Registry
Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales by County/Unitary authority.
The Land Registry’s August survey shows the prices of a typical UK property per county or unitary authority as follows:
All the largest changes are in the North, with 5 counties and authorities seeing no price movement at all in the month.
The greatest monthly price increase is in Hartlepool, County Durham, where the average price is up by 4.8% to £83,240. This is 0.9% up on last year.
The greatest monthly decrease in price is Blackburn with Darwen, Lancashire, where prices fell by 3.6% to an average of £72,171. This is 4.1% down from last year.
The largest annual drop was Halton, Cheshire, which saw a fall of 8.9% on last year, to £94,765 –there was a monthly drop of 2.2% here. Greater London saw the greatest annual increase – up 5.0% to £364,059 – although there was no significant change month on month.
Source: Land Registry
Latest Property Sales Volumes by price range
According to the Land Registry’s August Report, in June 2012, 56,077 sales transactions took place in England and Wales, and 7,512 in London. This represents a fall of 3% in England & Wales, and a fall of 4% in London since last June’s figures, (50,083 and 7,805 respectively).
In the price bracket of over £1 million, the volume of sales in the month rose in both London and the rest of England & Wales. In London it rose from 299 to 427 – a rise of 43%, and in England & Wales it rose from 478 to 647 – a rise of 35%.
However, at the other end of the market (below £250k), in both England and Wales and London, the volume fell: by 6% from 43,828 to 41,158 in England & Wales, and by 20% from 3,318 to 2,646 in London.
Source: Land Registry
Land Registry Sales Volumes
In the quarter from March to June 2012 (the latest for which figures are available), the average number of house sales per month was 52,715. This is up on the same period in 2011, when the average was 51,044 sales per month.
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 8th September 2012, the average change over all property types is an increase of 0.7%. All types of property (which Rightmove classify) are up on last year. Terraced properties’ prices showed a 0.3% increase, while Flats’ and Apartments’ prices have done much better, at a 2.0% increase over the year. Detached and Semi-detached property asking prices both rose by 1.5% since last year.
Source: Rightmove
Land Registry’s Average Prices by Property Type
The Land Registry’s August average price figures analysed by property type show that the prices for all types of property have rose by 0.7% in the year since August 2011. The average price is now £163,376.
Flats & Maisonette properties rose by 0.4% to £152,023 over the year, but Semi-detached properties rose by 0.9%, to £154,774. Once again, Detached properties stayed much the same (from £255,531 to £255,562), but Terraced properties rose by 1.5% to an average of £125,329.
Source: Land Registry
Outstanding Mortgage Debt
The average outstanding mortgage for the 11.2m households who currently have mortgages is estimated at £111,523 in July 2012.
Total secured lending in the UK on dwellings was £1,253 billion at the end of July 2012. This is up from the previous July’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.
September’s figures (published 1st October) show that the average amount of time that a house is on the market has risen to 9.9 weeks. Regionally, this ranges from 5.8 weeks in London to 13.3 weeks in the East Midlands.
On average, 93.0% of the asking price is achieved, ranging from 94% in London, down to 91% in the North West.
6% of postcode districts reported a price increase in September, a rise from 3.6% in August but a fall from 7.2% in July. 23.6% had a price decrease over the month, down from 27.1% in August and 31.6% in July.
Source: Hometrack
Rightmove’s analysis of asking prices by London Borough.
In the period from 12th August 2012 to 8th September 2012, the asking prices in Enfield rose by 3.4% (£342,314). Redbridge was the next best performer, with an increase of 1.9% (£292,264). These were the top two boroughs in terms of rising prices.
In Kingston-upon-Thames, asking prices fell by 8.1% in the month – the lowest change in London. The average house price in Kingston is now £593,398.
Kingston-upon-Thames also saw the largest annual decrease, where average asking prices have fallen by 2.0% over the year. The only other borough to have experienced an annual drop is Sutton, wthere the average asking price fell by 0.7%, to an average price of £332,506.
Source: Rightmove
Nationwide sub-regional analysis of average house prices over the last 10 years.
Analysing the price rises over Great Britain by region over the last ten years shows some remarkable differences.
In Aberdeen City and the Aberdeen & Moray region of Scotland, house prices are now 130% and 131% higher, respectively, than they were in 2002. At the other end of the scale, house prices in Swindon, Wiltshire, are only 22% higher than they were then, and only 23% higher in the South East of Northern Ireland.
In London, house prices in the boroughs of Westminster and Hackney are 91% higher than in 2002, whereas in Enfield, prices have risen only by 32% in the same ten year period.
Source: Nationwide
Next Monthly Market Fact File due in early November.