UK estate agents on average sold around 14 homes in the last four months; this is the lowest seen since 2009. The things that led to the sluggish housing market are the economy uncertainty and the lack of mortgage lending; this was reported by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Rics have said that more surveyors reported price fall compared to the amount of price rise. They are also expecting prices still to fall then rise in future months.

Alan Collett, housing spokesman for Rics has commented; “worsening economic picture will gradually begin to have a more material impact on sentiment and discourage potential house purchasers, even if they have mortgage finance available.”  Read more...

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has held the UK interest rates at a low of 0.5% for the record amount of time.

Due to concerns for the economy, economists suggested that the interest rate remained unchanged as they don’t believe the economy would survive an increase. Figures provided by the Banks have shown that savers have lost out on £43bn due to interest rates being so low.

Figures have shown that mortgage brokers have gained £51bn.

George Osborne, Chancellor, has put policymakers under increased pressure as he admitted on Tuesday that the economy has weakened and all hopes of growth have been revised down.  Read more...

Mortgage approvals to house buyers are starting to pick up. 49,239 mortgages were approved but not lent on to house buyers in the month of July. This is the third monthly increased and shown approvals to be up 3% from this time last year.

Mutual mortgage companies have approved an additional 16% worth of mortgages compared to last year. Completed sales this year have been stagnated so far, and HMRC confirmed that 79,000 homes were sold in July in the UK. Although that made the record for highest sales this year it is still lower than last year’s figures.  Read more...

The Government are failing to see the under lying problem of shortage of homes on the housing market, The National Housing Federation have said that the shortage of homes has caused rents to rise and home ownership rates to decrease.

Although the housing market is going downhill due to the short fall of the properties available, the government are making more public land available for building. NHF have said that if the government invested in more affordable housing then they would see a faster economic recovery, it will also help the housing market dramatically.  Read more...

First time buyers are struggling with the mortgage market/housing market being so rigid at the moment. They are stuck in a dilemma as to whether to save for a mortgage deposit or go into a rental house knowing that the market for rental is increasing slightly.

First time buyer black spots are covering 11 regions of the UK which might wipe out first time buyers all together, but also causing the UK rental market to increase their monthly rents. In the normal market climax 40% of potential purchasers are first time buyers but as the market at a low currently the first time buyer’s percentage is 23% which is dropping further in many regions of the UK.  Read more...

Persimmon, house builders, have said that the housing market is looking to be stable but the economic situation at the moment makes it more challenging to keep it this way. During the first six months of 2011 the number of properties sold was down by 5% compared to 2010 leaving the figure at a low 4,439 properties. The average selling price fell by 4% leaving it tallied at £162,647.

Persimmon seen there pre-tax profits fall by a massive 41% compared to the previous figures from last year as they had a big one off boost by land being valued for a lot more than it was worth.  Read more...

Private rents throughout the UK have yet again risen seeing the average monthly rent at £705. Last month showed an increase of 0.6% which was the sixth additional month that the rental market had made a dramatic change.

Rents were rising £29 per month which compared to last year is so much higher; these were found out by the LSL property services.

Rents in London have seen a massive increase since this time last year, 7.1% higher taking their average rental income up to £1,009 per month.  Read more...

Property valuers have said that it is only existing home owners that will benefit from the low rates whereas first time buyers are still going to struggle as they are facing a squeeze.

Coventry building society has slashed there fixed rate mortgages to less than 3.5% which is the first time that this has happened. Some of the other banks and building societies including in the slash of rates are; Nationwide, Northern Rock, Skipton and Barclays.

E.surv surveyors have said that even though rates have been cuts and there have been more than 90% of deals within the market place at the moment. Loan approvals for people on a low or medium income have fallen quite drastically.  Read more...

According to latest figures for CML the mortgage market is showing no signs of picking up. Lending for house buyers and remortgagers fell by 1% in July, compared to last year in July this is a fall of 6%.

CML have warned that the sales of houses might fall further in upcoming months but as the market stands at the moment its stable.

Bob Pannell, CML’s chief economist has commented, “Underlying house purchase activity may drift lower over the coming months. As a result, UK interest rates look like staying lower for longer.”  Read more...