Falling prices may push 5million homeowners into negative equity

5 million homeowners could land up with mortgage more than value of their property by end of 2009, as house prices continue falling, reveals research by the GfK NOP group.

It has estimated that 3.8 million homeowners are already in or likely to face negative equity with 1.2 million more to add to the number by end of 2009, if house prices go down further by 10 to 20%. Read the rest of this entry »

Doing away with agents will harm interests of property industry

The current downturn in house sales and extreme difficulty in selling houses has led to FSBO (Property For Sale By Owner-s) approach, rise in advertising on property portals and sacking of agents, predominantly for sale of second homes overseas. These measures give greater exposure to property and enhance chances of selling. Read the rest of this entry »

Lloyds and RBS to increase mortgage lending to homeowners and SMEs

Following Northern Rock’s announcement of lending £14 billion over next 2 years, Lloyds banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) are also increasing mortgage loans to SMEs and homeowners in exchange for taxpayers’ assistance of £500 billion. Read the rest of this entry »

Newly formed group asks for 100,000 affordable homes

A new lobby group has urged the Government to construct over 100,000 affordable homes in a span of next 2 years.

The 2020 Group, comprising of housing associations, local authorities and unions and headed by the ex-Government housing adviser, Kate Barker, is insisting that a construction programme on a massive scale, costing around £6.3 billion, can help kick-start sagging economy.  Read the rest of this entry »

Buy-to-let boom is getting over, as rents suffer big drop

The early predictions from analysts that buy-to-let boom will be short-lived are getting confirmed by the rental returns that are falling sharply and tenants, suffering job losses, are failing to pay rent. This in turn is making it extremely difficult for landlords to meet mortgage repayments. Read the rest of this entry »

Record 18% fall in house prices for year

According to the UK’s largest building society, Nationwide, house prices fell by 17.6% since February 2008, while the drop was 1.8% in February 2009. The mortgage lender informed that average cost of home now stands at £147,746 and predicted that the UK housing market would still be falling down. Read the rest of this entry »

Landlords under pressure as rental arrears start building

Buy to let investors are under tremendous pressure as much as mortgage lenders due to surge in arrears. The latest data from the National Landlords Association indicates that 74% of calls seeking advice pertain to tenants not paying rent. Read the rest of this entry »

House builder Redrow hit by big sales slump

The housing downturn has hit house builder Redrow very hard, as its sales tumbled down by 50% and revenues fell sharply.

According to company report, number of completed home sales was 1,042, as against 2,111 sold in the same period in 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

Marginal rise in Mortgage approvals in January, reports BBA

The British Bankers’ Association has revealed slight increase in number of mortgage approvals in month of January.

BBA reported that banks had sanctioned 23,376 mortgages in January, the highest number in last four months and up from 22,416 that were approved in December 2008. But the number is still less by 43% when compared with January 2008.  Read the rest of this entry »

Alarming rise of 54% in home repossessions

The rise in home repossessions is alarming as revealed in the data by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). A large number of homeowners in the UK are losing their property.

Repossessions in the year 2008 rose by 54% to 40,000, making it a 12-year high, although this figure was less than forecasted by the CML. Read the rest of this entry »