Nottingham Letting Agent Property Blog

The number of mortgage approvals dropped to just 43,450 in March, which is the lowest level seen since December 2010, in spite of the government and property industries attempts to kick start the market by encouraging first-time buyers. In March there were 7% fewer approvals than in March last year, and this is the first year-on-year fall in approvals since May 2011. In February there was an 11% fall in the number of approvals, and suggests market conditions could be worsening which is disappointing news as recently there has been a period of growth.Much of this fall in approvals was down...

More than a third of homes for sale have had their price reduced at least once since being listed, with Glasgow, Blackpool and Maidstone being the worst affected. The average discount from the original selling price is £19,580, or 7.5% which is £1,000 more than price reductions seen this time last year. According to Zoopla, homeowners are slashing their prices in an effort to attract buyers, and apparently if all these reductions were added up they would total around £2.5 billion. The current levels of discounted properties are at a new high as sellers come to terms with the fact that...

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...

The Association of Residential Letting Agents is predicting a mixed year for the private rental sector, and even though recent measures unveiled by the government could help to get the housing market going once more there are concerns that things may get worse before they get better. It will be quite some time before the full impact of the new measures can be assessed and in the meantime it is expected that there will continue to be a lack of rental property. A recent survey showed that nearly three quarters of ARLA members had more potential tenants than available rental properties,...

The Council of Mortgage Lenders recently published its forecasts for the housing and mortgage market in 2012, after confirming that it expects gross lending in for 2011 to reach a total of £138 billion, with net lending accounting for £9 billion. It is forecasting gross lending for next year to reach £133 billion, with net lending accounting for £5 billion based on current predictions for a weaker economy.It is estimated that housing transaction numbers will reach 852,000 this year while figures for next year are expected to be around 825,000. However the CML is forecasting more repossessions next year due to...

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,...

A report from PricewaterhouseCoopers says that the property market in the UK is entering a ‘mini ice age,’ with those who bought property between 2006 and 2008 being amongst the most badly affected. The report warns that prices may take a decade to recover to their former peak, and that when adjusted for inflation there is nearly a 50% chance that prices could still be under water in 2020. When prices were at their peak the average home cost £200,000, while that figure is now and just £160,000, and John Hawksworth, chief economist at PwC says "There is a near 50%...