Posts tagged ‘House Prices’
Going for gold: Olympics add almost £60,000 to house prices
The Olympics are 66 days away today, but their impact is already being felt in London and beyond when it comes to UK house prices.
It's not just about the sport, asking prices of homes near Olympic and Paralympic venues have increased by an average £60,000 in the past year
Asking prices for homes in areas close to Olympic and Paralympic event venues, including those outside London, have increased by 14% in the past year, adding an average £59,928 to property values, according to new research by FindaProperty.com.
Around London
In London SW1, home to The Mall and Horse Guards Parade, both of which will be used as Olympic venues, average property prices have increased by 48% in the past 12 months. Olympic events taking place here include Beach Volleyball, the Marathons and the Olympic Cycling Road Races. The average value of property in this exclusive area of the capital is now £1,499,952 – up from £1,015,321 a year ago.
Asking prices of homes in Earls Court, in West London, where the Volleyball competition will be held, rose 38%, adding £298,021 to the cost of homes in the area within 12 months.
Outside London
Outside London, house prices in areas surrounding the venue for the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing competitions in Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour in Dorset increased by 25%. Prices increased by £38,552 to an average £190,645.
Renting
Asking prices for renting a home near an Olympic or Paralympic event venue have also been affected with prices increasing by an average £152 per month (9%) in the past year.
Tenants in Stratford, East London – home to the 2012 London Olympic Park where there are 10 separate event venues, can expect the highest Olympic rental premiums with rents up 38% (£433) year-on-year, bringing the average monthly cost to £1,575.
In a similar vein, asking rents for homes in Greenwich, south east London, where the North Greenwich Arena and Greenwich Park venues are located, have increased 32% (£523) in a year to £2,143 per month.
That’s not a bad result for the legacy Olympics, especially considering we’re still some time away from the opening ceremony.
Winter recovery for property market
It was good news for most homeowners across the UK today as new FindaProperty.com figures showed both sales and rental asking prices rose for the first time since September, with London and the South East leading the way.
After a quiet winter, the property market has warmed up in the first month of 2012 as those selling their homes set their sights on higher prices. Overall, the average asking price of a home in the UK is up 0.3% compared to the same time last month to £218,114 – or 1.1% up on prices a year ago.
While some areas are still experiencing falling asking prices, regions such as London and the South East are continuing to drive the market upwards. In London, homeowners are now asking an average £460,386 for a home in London, which is 1.6% more than they wanted last month and 7.3% more than a year ago. The average price of a home in the South East is also up to £271,367 or 0.5% compared to the same time last month, while rental asking prices here increased by 0.8% in January.
Part of these increases are down to seasonal growth – where property prices steadily rise between January and June, but some of the boost to prices may also be a result of first-time buyers attempting to complete on sales before their stamp duty holiday on homes between £125,000 and £250,000 ends at the end of March.
Those who don’t owe their own homes had to find slightly more for rent last month after rental asking prices rose by 0.3% to an average of £864 in January. This increase was most sharply felt on homes to rent London and the North East, rising by 1.3% and 1.0% to £2,113 and £597 respectively. However, rents in the West Midlands fell for the first time since August 2011, experiencing a decrease of 3.3% in January, down to £652. Rents in Yorkshire and the Humber also fell sharply, by 0.9%, to £553.
Merry Christmas … plus the property year in review
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
As 2011 draws to a close we’d like to wish you all a merry Christmas and a healthy and happy new year.
Property festive: We wish you a merry Christmas
Here at FindaProperty.com we’re also pausing to reflect on what’s been a very busy year on the property front and to pick out some of the top stories of the year.
First-time buyers
The endangered species of the property market, first-time buyers faced a tough year on the home front. Even though interest rates remained at historic lows and prices held steady or in many cases came down, those looking to take that first tentative step onto the property ladder and buy a home were rarely seen.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reported there are now 200,000 FTBs a year compared with around 500,000 before 2008. And it’s a story of affordability. The CML says the average deposit for a first-buyer home is now 20%, which means finding a national average deposit of at least £25,000, or significantly more than that in London and some other cities.
Housing minister Grant Shapps recognised the problems faced by first-time buyers when he launched the goverment’s new housing strategy earlier this year, saying an “entire generation” have been blocked from the housing ladder and pledging to put this group at the centre of Government efforts to get the property market moving again.
Renting
The UK’s move towards being a nation of renters, rather than buyers, was probably the biggest single property story of the year.
FindaProperty.com research found the typical national monthly rent reached £890 in October – the highest average we’ve ever recorded for a home to rent- which accounted for 46 % of average monthly household net earnings. Renting was further thrust into the spotlight by homelessness charity Shelter and their disturbing landmark report into the affordability of the private rental sector.
Latest FindaProperty.com figures for December show rents are down slightly – partly down to a seasonal change, but this adjustment doesn’t change the fact that more of us are expecting to stay in our rented homes for longer. Recent FindaProperty.com research found 26 per cent of home searchers had “no issue” with renting long term.
House prices
House prices generally held steady in 2011. FindaProperty.com’s November asking price data showed the average price of a home at £215,385, 0.5% down on the previous month, but still 0.7% higher than a year ago. London’s status as an international city meant it operated as an independent market and the latest figures showed prices continued to increase there – by 0.7% last month, bringing the average price of a London home to £453,956.
Seeking the first-time buyer: the property market’s endangered species
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
First-time buyers are fast becoming the endangered species of the property world. Even though interest rates are at historic lows and prices are holding steady or in many cases coming down, those looking to take that first tentative step onto the property ladder can be as hard to find as the little-seen Siberian tiger.
First-time buyers: The Siberian Tiger of the property world
But it’s not necessarily price that’s keeping first-timers away from bricks and mortar. After all, it’s now more affordable to buy a home than at any time since December 2007, according to the latest FindaProperty.com House Prices and Affordability Index.
The average first-time buyer currently needs to find a deposit of £48,782 to buy their own home, £2,371 less than they needed last month and only the third time in almost four years that the typical first-time buyer deposit has dipped below £50,000.
So what kind of cash are we talking about? The average asking price for a typical first-time buyer home is now £153,537 – 0.3 per cent cheaper than it was in September. It’s the fifth time in as many months that first-time buyer homes have dropped in price: they are now at their lowest point this year.
Even though prices and affordability are coming down, the reality of shelling out for a home still bites for many first-time buyers. London remains the most expensive place for first-timers to flex their home owning muscle – a property in the capital costs 7.8 times the typical first-timers’ salary. In the South East, it costs 4.7 times, in the South West 4.5 times and in Wales 4.4 times. Yorkshire and the Humber, Scotland and the North East all have first-time buyer properties that cost 4 times the average salary, while those in the East of England are paying 3.9 times, in the West Midlands its 3.8 times, in the north west its 3.7 times, while in the East Midlands, property is most affordable at 3.5 times the average buyers’ salary.
All of this makes first-time buyer finance critical. It’s encouraging that mortgage lenders are starting to come to the party with larger loans – so long as strict criteria are met – in the interests of easing the way forward.
Meanwhile, the government’s FirstBuy scheme allows approved buyers to purchase a new build home with a five per cent deposit, while many developers are offering their own version of the scheme where they loan up to 15 per cent of the price, leaving the first-timer to finance 85 per cent.
We can only hope these schemes and improved mortgage offers continue to sustain the first-time buyer and keep the breed in good health and away from extinction.
The FindaProperty.com House Prices and Affordability Index – November
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
Average asking prices for UK properties decreased by 0.1% (£317) between September and October and now stand at £219,535. However, prices are still 0.7% (£1,473) higher than a year ago, accordin to the The FindaProperty.com House Prices and Affordability Index for November 2011. Read the full report.
