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 July stayed the same as May and June at £5.5 billion. Remortgaging rose slightly from June’s £2.5 billion to £2.8 billion in July.
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 £162,900 as at the end of July 2012.
The Monthly change in July in England and Wales was a rise of 0.8%.
The Annual change to July in England and Wales was a rise of 0.3%.
Source: Land Registry
Halifax House Price Index figures.
The average price of a house by the end of July 2012 was £161,094, according to the Halifax House Price Index published 6th August 2012. House prices in July were 0.6% lower than in June, but the quarterly figure showed no change. The seasonally adjusted figures show that house prices are 0.6% 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 31st August 2012 showed that the average cost of a home in the UK was £164,729 during the month of August. After seasonal adjustment, this is a 1.3% rise from July, but the annual rate is down by 0.7%.
Source: Nationwide
Rightmove House Price Index figures
Rightmove’s August survey (published 20th August 2012) shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 8th July 2012 to 11th August 2012 was £236,260, a decrease of 2.4% on the previous month. House asking prices are now 2.0% higher than a year ago.
Source: Rightmove
RICS survey overview
The RICS Housing Market Survey for July 2012 (published 14th August 2012) says that “Activity levels continue to contract†and that “Near term price outlook deteriorates although sales expectations remain positiveâ€.
The West Midlands once again saw the largest fall in house prices in the month, and again only London saw prices rising.
In the month of July, the East Midlands had the highest level of agreed sales, whereas East Anglia had the lowest. The North 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 the North of England, and the lowest in the West Midlands.
Source: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
New Mortgages granted – June Actual Figures
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that “First-time buyer activity helped sustain lending for house purchase in Juneâ€.
47,500 loans were made in June for house purchase, worth £7.1 billion. This is slightly higher than May both in number (1.7%), and in value (1.4%). These figures are 0.8% down and 1.4% up (respectively) than last June’s figures.
Of these, first-time buyer loans totalled 19,200, valued at £2.4 billion, which is up by 9.1% both in number and in value on last month. This is 3.8% higher in number and 9.1% higher in value compared to last June’s figures.
Home movers’ loans totalled £4.7 billion, and numbered 28,200. These figures are 3.4% lower than May in terms of number, and 2.1% lower in value. These figures are down 3.8% and unchanged (respectively) on last June.
The number and value of remortgage loans fell in the month – 23,400 loans worth £3.1 billion in June. These figures are 20.9% lower than last month’s in terms of volume, and 18.4% lower in value. They have decreased by 24.5% in number and 18.4% by value since last June.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
New Mortgages granted – July Estimates
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that July’s estimated figure for gross mortgage lending in the UK is £12.7 billion. This is a rise of 8% from June (£11.7 billion), and a 2% rise from last July’s £12.5 billion.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
Mortgage Arrears and Homes Repossessions Q2
The number of house repossessions in the second quarter of 2012 totalled 8,500, the lowest since the last quarter of 2010. The number of households with arrears of more than 2.5% in their mortgages was 157,400, which is slight drop on last quarter. However, there was a marginal rise in the mortgages with arrears of more than 10%, from 28,000 to 28,300 in the quarter.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
Buy-to-Let Mortgages Q2
The Council of Mortgage Lenders reports that during the second quarter of 2012, the total lent on buy-to-let mortgages was £3.9 billion (33,200 loans). This is a 5% increase on the previous quarter.
There are currently 1.416 million buy-to-let mortgages, with a value of £160.7 billion. This is up from 1.338 million (worth £153 billion) a year ago.
Source: Council of Mortgage Lenders
Regional trends in Rightmove Estate Agents Asking House Prices in England and Wales.
Rightmove’s August survey shows the asking price of a typical UK property in the period from 8th July 2012 to 11th August 2012 did not increase in any of the ten identified areas of England and Wales, although the North West saw no significant change. (Average prices there fell from £163,069 in July to £169,002 in August.)
The largest monthly decrease was of 4.2% in the South East, from £316,024 in July to £302,628 in August.
Even Greater London saw a decrease – at an average of £454,875, asking prices are 1.2% lower than in July. However, the Greater London area also had the largest annual increase of 8.8%.
Wales once again had the largest annual decrease – 5.2% down to an average of £162,736.
Source: Rightmove
Regional Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales.
The Land Registry’s July survey shows the prices of a typical UK property per region as follows:
The largest monthly increase was in London, which saw an increase over the month of 2.7%, bringing the average house price in the region to £367,785. This is 6.5% higher than last year, which is the highest annual rise of all the regions.
The largest monthly decrease in price is the North East, where the average price is down 2.1% to £98,557, which is 3.8% lower than a year ago. This is nearly the largest annual decrease, which was in the North West, where the average house price is down 3.9% to £109,235.
Source: Land Registry
Analysis of Land Registry’s House Prices in England and Wales by County/Unitary authority.
The Land Registry’s July survey shows the prices of a typical UK property per county or unitary authority as follows:
All the extreme changes are in Wales, with 8 counties and authorities seeing no price movement at all in the month.
The greatest monthly price increase is in Powys, where the average price is up by 3.9% to £157,429. This region of Wales also saw the greatest annual increase – up 7.7%.
The greatest monthly decrease in price is also in Wales – Blaenau Gwent, where prices fell by 5.6% to an average of £66,545.
The largest annual drop was in Merthyr Tydfil, which saw a fall of 8.4% on last year, to £70,008.
Source: Land Registry
Latest Property Sales Volumes by price range
According to the Land Registry’s July Report, in May 2012, 50,083 sales transactions took place in England and Wales, and 6,894 in London. This represents a slight rise of 2% in England & Wales, and a rise of 7% in London since last May’s figures, (50,083 and 6,442 respectively).
In the price bracket between £1.5 million and £2 million, the volume of sales rose significantly in both London and the rest of England & Wales. In London it rose from 34 to 95 – a rise of 179%, and in England & Wales it rose from 49 to 132 – a rise of 169%.
However, at the other end of the market (below £250k), in both England and Wales and London, the volume fell: by 1% from 37,227 to 36,775 in England & Wales, and by 10.5% from 2730 to 2443 in London.
Source: Land Registry
Land Registry Quarterly Sales Volumes
In the quarter from February to May 2012 (the latest for which figures are available), the average number of house sales per month was 49,343. This is up on the same quarter in 2011, when the average was 46,531 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 11th August 2012, the average change over all property types is an increase of 2.0%. All types of property (which Rightmove classify) are up on last year. Terraced properties’ prices showed a 2.3% increase, while Flats’ and Apartments’ prices have done much better, at a 4.1% increase over the year. Detached property asking prices rose by 2.0% since last year, and semi-detached properties rose by 1.1%.
Source: Rightmove
Land Registry’s Average Prices by Property Type
The Land Registry’s July average price figures analysed by property type show that the prices for all types of property have rose by 0.3% in the year since July 2011. The average price is now £162,900.
Flats & Maisonette properties rose by 2.2% to £155,314 over the year, but Semi-detached properties only rose by 0.1%, to £153,339. Detached properties stayed much the same (from £256,405 to £256,496), but Terraced properties fell by 0.4% to an average of £123,097.
Source: Land Registry
Outstanding Mortgage Debt
The average outstanding mortgage for the 11.3m households who currently have mortgages is estimated at £111,196 in June 2012.
Total secured lending in the UK on dwellings was £1,252 billion at the end of June 2012. This is up from the previous June’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.
August’s figures (published 27th August) show that the average amount of time that a house is on the market has remained steady at 9.5 weeks. Regionally, this ranges from 5.4 weeks in London to 12.7 weeks in the East Midlands.
On average, 93.0% of the asking price is achieved, ranging from 94.1% in London, down to 90.8% in the North West.
Only 3.6% of postcode districts reported a price increase in August, falling from 10.8% in June and 7.2% in July, but 27.1% had a price decrease over the month, down from 23.4% in June and 31.6% in July.
Source: Hometrack
Rightmove’s analysis of asking prices by London Borough.
In the period from 8th July 2012 to 11th August 2012, the asking prices in Hillingdon rose by 2.7% (£364,459), closely followed by 2.6% in Hounslow (£537,446). These were the top two boroughs in terms of rising prices.
In Merton, asking prices fell by 5.3% in the month – the lowest change in London. The average house price in Merton is now £443,665. Enfield was next with a drop of 4.4% to an average of £331,043.
Over the year, Haringey saw the largest increase (21.0%) to an average price of £549,197. All boroughs saw an annual increase, but the lowest was Bromley, where average asking prices have risen by 1.8% over the year to £337,384.
Source: Rightmove
Next Monthly Market Fact File due in early October.