Property Market Fact File – July 2012

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 rose from £5.0 billion in April to £5.6 billion in May. Remortgaging slid slightly from April’s £3.2 billion to £3.1 billion in May.
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 £161,677 as at the end of May 2012.
The Monthly change in May in England and Wales was a rise of 0.5%.
The Annual change to May in England and Wales was a rise of 0.4%.
Source: Land Registry

Halifax House Price Index figures.
The average price of a house by the end of May 2012 was £160,941, according to the Halifax House Price Index published 7th June 2012. House prices in May were 0.5% higher than in April, and the quarterly figure showed a 0.8% rise. The seasonally adjusted figures show that house prices are just 0.1% 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 28th June 2012 showed that the average cost of a home in the UK was £165,738 during the month of June. After seasonal adjustment, this is a 0.6% fall from May, and the annual rate is down by 1.5%.
Source: Nationwide

Rightmove House Price Index figures
Rightmove’s June survey (published 18th June 2012) shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 13th May 2012 to 9th June 2012 was £246,235, a increase of 1% on the previous month. House asking prices are now 2.4% higher than a year ago, and double what they were in January 2002, when the index started.
Source: Rightmove

RICS survey overview
The RICS Housing Market Survey for May 2012 (published 12th June 2012) says that “Activity was more or less stable in May”, but “the outlook for prices deteriorated relative to last month”. The West Midlands and Wales once again saw the largest falls in house prices in the quarter to May 2012, and again only London saw prices rising.
In the month of May, the North of England had the highest level of newly agreed sales, whereas London had the lowest. East Anglia had the highest level of new buyer enquiries in the month, while Scotland had the lowest. The highest level of new vendor instructions was in the Northwest, and the lowest was in London.
Source: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

New Mortgages granted – April figures
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that “following the surge of activity in March, April saw a significant fall in house purchase lending”. 36,000 loans were made for house purchase, worth £5.3 billion. This is much lower than March both in number (-30%), and in value (-28%). These figures are 3% and 2% lower (respectively) than last April’s figures.
Of these, first-time buyer loans totalled 12,600, valued at £1.5 billion, which is down hugely by 48% in number and 52% in value on last month. This is 12% lower both in number and value compared to last April’s figures. Home movers’ loans totalled £3.8 billion, and numbered 23,400. These figures are 3% higher than last year, both in terms of number and value, but down 15% and 14% respectively on March.
The number and value of remortgage loans also fell in the month – 25,100 loans worth £3.1 billion in April. These figures are 12% lower than last month’s in terms of volume, and 14% lower in value. They have decreased by 4% in number and 3% by value since last April.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders

New Mortgages granted – May estimates
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that May’s estimated figure for gross mortgage lending in the UK is £12.2 billion. This is 24% higher than April (£9.9 billion), and a 13% rise from last year’s £10.8 billion.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders

Regional trends in Rightmove Estate Agents Asking House Prices in England and Wales.
Rightmove’s June survey shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 13th May 2012 to 9th June 2012 increased in six 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 South West, where the average asking price is up 1.9% to £270,380. London wasn’t far behind with a monthly increase of 1.7% to £477,440.
Yet again, Greater London had the largest annual increase ­– at £477,440, asking prices are now 8.8% higher than a year ago.
The largest decrease is 1.8% to £187,294, which occurred in the West Midlands. The same region had the largest annual decrease of 2.8%.
Source: Rightmove

Regional Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales.
The Land Registry’s May 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 2.6%, bringing the average house price in the region to £365,359. This is 7.7% higher than last year – the largest annual increase regionally.
The largest monthly decrease in price is the North East, where the average price is down 1.9% to £99,492, which is 3.5% lower than a year ago.
The largest annual price decrease was again the Yorkshire & Humberside region, where prices fell by 3.9% over the year, to £117,371.
Source: Land Registry

Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales by County/Unitary authority.
The Land Registry’s May survey shows the prices of a typical UK property per county or unitary authority as follows:
The greatest monthly price increase is in Merthyr Tidfil, where the average price is up by 5.4% to £70.951. However, this is only a 0.1% annual increase.
The greatest monthly decrease in price is Hartlepool, where prices fell by 4.6% to an average of £75,758. This same area saw the second greatest annual fall in prices too (10.4%).
The largest annual drop was North East Lincolnshire, which saw a fall of 10.5% on last year, to £77,018.
Cardiff had the largest annual increase – a 3.7% rise over the year to an average of £144,844.
Source: Land Registry

Analysis of Nationwide’s UK House Prices Index report for Q2 2012.
In Quarter 2 of 2012, the average UK house price has been calculated (after seasonal adjustment) as £164,955 by the Nationwide. This is 1.0% lower than Q1/12, and gives an figure of 1.1% decrease since the same quarter last year. For the third successive quarter, the most expensive region in the UK to buy a property is, not surprisingly, London, and the least expensive region is Northern Ireland (again).
House prices in Northern Ireland are now 10.6% down on last year, and 1.9% down on last quarter, standing at an average of £110,422, with the City of Belfast seeing the highest prices.
On the other hand, London had an increase in house prices of 1.2% on last year, and a 1.0% increase on last quarter. The average price is £302,399, and Westminster is the most expensive borough.
House prices in England have stayed the same over the quarter, and dropped only 0.1% over the year. The North West is the cheapest place in England to buy property at the moment, and the average price in England is £186,671.
Wales’ quarterly change was a drop of 1.1%, and an annual decrease of 5.3%. The average price in Wales is £131,840, and Cardiff is the most expensive area.
Scotland’s house prices dropped 2.0% on last quarter, and 2.3% from last year, to an  average price of £136,182. Aberdeen City is currently the most expensive place to buy a house in Scotland.
Looking at towns and cities within England, Liverpool and Nottingham performed best, with house price increases of 10% and 9% respectively since quarter two last year.
The worst performance in England was Carlisle, where prices dropped by 13% in the year, while Belfast in Northern Ireland saw a drop of 15% and Edinburgh in Scotland dropped by 6% in the same period.
Source: Nationwide

Rightmove’s Asking Prices by Property Type
Rightmove have published figures showing National Asking Prices analysed by property type.
In the year to 9th June 2012, the average change over all property types is an increase of 2.4%. Terraced properties showed a 3.3% annual increase, while Flats’ and Apartments’ prices have much better, at a 5.2% increase over the year. Both Semi-detached and Detached property asking prices rose by 1.7% over the year.
Source: Rightmove

Land Registry’s Average Prices by Property Type
The Land Registry’s May average price figures analysed by property type show that the prices for all types of property have fallen by 0.4% in the year since May 2011. The average price is now £161,677.
Flats & Maisonette  properties rose by 2.3% to £153,018, and Semi-detached properties rose by 0.3% over the year, to £152,965.  Detached properties hardly moved – from £254,511 to £254,407, whereas Terraced properties fell by 0.2% to an average of £122,165.
Source: Land Registry

Outstanding Mortgage Debt
The average outstanding mortgage for the 11.3m households who currently have mortgages is estimated at £111,218 in April 2012.
Total secured lending in the UK on dwellings was £1,352 billion at the end of April 2012. This is up from the previous April’s £1,240 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.
June’s figures show that the average amount of time that a house is on the market has risen slightly to 9.4 weeks. Regionally, this ranges from 5.1 weeks in London to 12.9 weeks in the East Midlands.
On average, 93.1% of the asking price is achieved, ranging from 94% in London, and 91.8% in the North West.
10.8% of postcode districts reported a price increase in June, falling from 11.6% in May and 13.7% in April, and a huge 23.4% had a price decrease over the month, down from 12.1% last month and 12.4% the previous month.
Source: Hometrack

Latest Property Sales Volumes by price range
According to the Land Registry’s May Report, in March 2012, 58,609 sales transactions took place in England and Wales, and 8,550 in London. This represents a rise of 25% and 28% respectively since last March’s figures, (46,742 and 6,662 respectively).
In the price range of between £1 and £1.5 million, figures fell in England and Wales from 473 to 261 (-45%), and in London the figures fell from 270 to 157 (-42%).
However, at the lower end of the market (between £200 and £250k), in England and Wales, the figures show a rise from 7,036 to 10,396, which is a rise of 48% over last March. London’s figures rose from 1,443 to 2,398, a rise of 66% over last March.
Source: Land Registry

Home Builders Federation figures
Home Builders Federation’s latest Housing Pipeline Report states that the number of planning permissions granted in England in the first quarter of 2012 was 36,761 residential units. This is 33% up on the previous quarter, and 10% up on last year.
31,078 were private approvals, which is a 37% rise on Q4 2011. Social housing approvals in this quarter, however, dropped to 4,313, a fall of 28% on Q1 2011.
HBF say that approval levels are still nowhere near the 60,000 per quarter required to meet demand. Currently, 100,000 homes are being built per year, but demand is for 240,000.
Source: Home Builders Federation

Rightmove Analysis of asking prices by region, adjusted for inflation, since the peak of August 2007.
In June’s report, the only region to have seen prices rise higher than inflation since the peak of August 2007 is Greater London, where asking prices are now 3% higher than they were then. All other regions have seen the “real” price of houses fall – in Wales, by as much as 24%. Even the South-East saw asking prices fall by 11% over the period.
Source: Rightmove

Next Monthly Market Fact File due in early August.

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