Nottingham Letting Agent Property Blog

The buy to let market is still being forecast to grow, with more landlords adding to their portfolios, while growing numbers of first-time investors are predicted to enter the market. According to a survey from buy to let specialists, Paragon, first-time investor’s account for 23% of all buy to let business. Some 39% of their business came from existing landlords, and 31% was due to remortgages, demonstrating their confidence in the market The news comes as first-time buyers continued to struggle to get mortgages, and increasing numbers of lenders cut back on cut-price loans.During the first three months of this year...

Recent research by unbiased.co.uk has shown the average first-time buyer is trying to save deposit of £22,706, with the average first-time buyer property costing a little more than £153,000. Saving such a deposit allows them to access an 85% loan to value mortgage. The most competitive 85% LTV mortgage rates are around 3.34% for a two-year fixed rate repayment mortgage, but if first-time buyers were able to save £15,000 more, they would have access to a far greater range of mortgages, including 75% LTV deals. Securing the very best 75% LTV deal could mean getting a two-year fixed rate mortgage for...

The National Association of State Agents is hoping that today's budget will help first-time buyers by building more homes and overhauling the stamp duty tax system. According to the NAEA, the UK market is already overtaxed in comparison with other countries in Europe, and it thinks the government should be focusing its attention on revamping the stamp duty tax to help get the property market moving again. It feels the lack of housing and the tax burden on homeowners is preventing people from moving.It's widely expected the budget will be used to announce a major new house building programme to complement...

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has just released its figures for house purchases and remortgaging in January. Their figures show that 35,600 loans, worth £5.3 billion were given for house purchases in January. This figure is a 22% increase by volume, and a 23% increase by value compared to a year ago, but is 25% less by volume and 24% less by value compared to December 2011. This seasonal dip is completely normal and is due to cold weather, shorter days and lack of cash after Christmas.In January the number of loans for remortgaging fell, and remortgaging saw its first year-on-year...

The Council of Mortgage Lending has just published the results of its research into comparing the cost of owning a property versus renting. The report used data from the Valuations Office Agency and the CML's Regulated Mortgage Survey. Recent news reports seem to show that it's cheaper to have a mortgage than to rent, but other research has found home ownership is still more costly. The CML points out that when you ignore the need for a large deposit then home ownership can be cheaper than renting a similar property, but these costs only relate to a certain percentage of the...

The Nationwide announced property prices rose by 0.6% in February compared to January, marking the first monthly increase since November but warned this may only be temporary. It thinks the rise in house prices may be due to first-time buyers looking to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday before it expires on 24 March. If this is the case then house prices may hold up in the short-term before cooling again over the summer. The average home costs £162,712 which is an increase of £1,529 compared to a year ago, but is £6,019 less than the recent high which was...

According to a new study by RBS it's now more difficult for first-time buyers to get a foot on the housing ladder than in 2009 when the recession without its peak. The bank has calculated an ability to buy index which found that in spite of low mortgage payments, first-time buyers have less cash to spend due to tax and national insurance increases and the rising cost of living. Even when falling house prices and wage increases are taken into account, their ability to buy has declined. The areas most affected are the East of England, the East Midlands and London,...

The average cost of moving home is now £9,000, having increased by nearly 70% during the last decade. However those living in the south-east pay an average of around £16,500 while in London that figure is £19,500, according to a report from Lloyds TSB. When you combine these costs with the current demand for higher equity levels or large deposits by lenders, then it's easy to see why property sales are at record lows. However first-time buyers are currently paying considerably less at an average of £3,300 which is mainly due to lack of estate agents commission, lower solicitors fees and...

First-time buyers are expected to continue to find it difficult to get financing this year in spite of an increase in the number of cheap deals available to them. There are now 332 deals for those with a 10 % deposit, up from 199 a year ago and 114 two years ago. In spite of this in these experts estimate around half of those who have a 10% deposit and who apply for a loan will be refused. In spite of the fact that high-street banks appear to be encouraging first-time buyers with cash back deals or fee free mortgages, many...

Although 2011 closed with more mortgage lending activity and a higher level of housing transactions, the Council of Mortgage Lenders points out this is coming from low levels, and cautions against reading too much into those recent figures from the Bank of England. Gross lending reached £13.2 billion in November which is 7% higher than in October and 15% more than November 2010. However the CML is estimating that gross lending will have dropped to £11.7 billion in December which is mainly due to the holiday season, but even so this figure would still be 12% higher than December 2010 and...

If you are currently trying to rent out your property you might have noticed that things are a little slower at the moment, and this fact is borne out by research which shows this time of year generally suffers from a market slowdown as people concentrate on festivities rather than searching for a new home. According to Findaproperty.com, rental prices dropped by 1.5% last month, and look set to fall again until the New Year is underway. Earlier on in the year rental prices reached new highs at £890 a month for an average sized property, equivalent to half the average monthly...

The Bank of England is forecasting that many people may not be able to buy their first home until they reach middle age, and it expects home-ownership numbers to drop significantly, with the percentage being forced to rent predicted to carry on rising. This bleak prediction comes as a new report shows repossession levels rising, with fears that they could double over the next two years. Standard & Poor’s report shows around 35,000 families being repossessed each year, but predicts this figure could increase to nearly 70,000 which would be close to the all-time high of 75,500 recorded in 1991. According...

The first-time buyer taxpayer guarantee scheme was announced last week, allowing people with just a 5% deposit to buy a home in England with the government underwriting the rest of the deposit. At first glance this sounds like a fantastic idea, but experts have been quick to point out its flaws.The scheme is only available for new build homes, but this type of property has suffered the highest percentage of loss in value since the credit crunch began, and experts are worried prices could fall even further. The average price of a new home has fallen by nearly £40,000 from £260,000...

The plans announced on Monday to boost the property market have been welcomed, but some experts are concerned that they won't have a significant impact for quite some time. The measures included a brand-new £400 million fund to boost house building, and builders will be able to obtain grants to develop land currently considered economically unviable. However this £400 million fund is expected to provide funding for just 16,000 new homes, when estimates put the need for new houses as being anywhere between 100,000 and 500,000. First-time buyers will also be able to borrow up to 95% of a property's value,...

Chancellor George Osborne has just announced a radical new scheme designed to help first-time buyers get on the property market, as the government will guarantee low deposit mortgages. The scheme is aimed at helping people who are unable to raise enough cash for a deposit, as this is currently one of the biggest barriers towards securing a good mortgage rate. This mortgage indemnity guarantee is likely to increase the attractiveness of first-time buyers with small deposits to lenders as it would protect them from any loss should their home fall into negative equity. The lender would be able to claim the...

The concession on first-time buyer stamp duty is due to end next March, but the Council of mortgage lenders is asking the government to reconsider as data shows the previous concession on stamp duty caused a spike in sales followed by a slump. The CML is worried that ending this concession could prompt another slump which would obviously not be very good news given the fragile state of the market.HM Revenue & Customs is due to publish a report on the impact of this current concession, but it seems unlikely that the cost to the government has been very high due...

A new report by Savills predicts that rents will rise more than house prices over the next five years. The report, which has to be music to every landlord's ears has made this forecast due to rising demand for rental property. It thinks it unlikely that the current supply of rental property will keep pace with demand, and that competition amongst renters will push rents up. It is predicting that average rents could rise by as much as 20.5% by the end of 2016, which is pretty amazing when compared to house price growth which is predicted to be just 6%...

The latest report from the Land Registry for residential property in England and Wales shows property prices fell by 2.6% in September, with the average home costing £162,109. Prices decreased by an average of 0.3% from August to September, and of course only London is bucking the trend, with price movement of 2.7%. The Northwest also saw prices rise by 1%; property prices in the North East saw the largest monthly fall with prices moving by around 3.9%, and annually prices have decreased by 8.2%.The most recent figures show that the number of completions for house sales throughout England and Wales...

According to the housing charity Shelter, private rents in the UK are unaffordable in a massive 55% of local authorities, and 38% of families with children who rent homes privately have had to cut back on essentials such as food to be able to afford to pay the rent.Shelter’s research found that rents have increased by one and half times the rate of incomes during the ten years up to 2007. The study went on to say that rents in 8% of England’s local authorities were very high, taking up around half of take home pay, while just 12% of areas...

Gross mortgage lending has increased by 10% compared to a year ago, but in spite of this analysts remain cautious and think the long-term outlook is still pretty subdued. Mortgage lending for August was around £13.4 billion, which is a 6% increase on the £12.6 billion lent in July, and is the highest monthly total since July 2009, and the highest monthly total for August since 2008 when mortgage lending reached £19.3 billion.According to the Council of Mortgage Lending, the underlying market appears to be quite stable, even though activity is still subdued, and the August figures offset the weaker than...