HOUSING NEWS

UK house prices leapt another 9.5% in the year to May, boosted by the government’s stamp duty holiday which ends this month. The Halifax said prices rose by more than £22,000 to an average of £261,743. But it said buyer preferences are shifting “in anticipation of new, post-pandemic lifestyles”. “There’s greater demand for larger properties […]

UK house prices are soaring. Official figures show they have been increasing at their fastest rate for more than a decade despite the country being gripped by a pandemic. The UK’s biggest building society, the Nationwide, has described the UK housing market as “bouyant”. Potential first-time buyers and movers may have more of a sinking […]

Banks and building societies want ministers to extend help for those struggling to pay their mortgage owing to the financial effects of Covid. Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) is a loan available to some people in the UK on benefits, which is usually repaid when their property is sold. Applicants have to wait for 39 […]

The “mad rush” to buy properties to take advantage of stamp duty holidays waned in April, official figures suggest. Transactions fell by 36% compared with the record level of UK home sales in March, according to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). An extension to the deadline for stamp duty relief into the summer is likely […]

The number of homes being put on the market is failing to meet demand from buyers, resulting in rising property prices, a report has found. The frequency of “for sale” signs slowed in April, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). One prospective buyer told the BBC that homes with gardens had “disappeared” […]

UK homeowners borrowed a record £11.8bn more on mortgages than they repaid in March, according to figures from the Bank of England. This net borrowing level was the highest of any month since comparable data began in 1993. The market was stoked up by stamp duty holidays and by low mortgage rates. These factors encouraged […]

UK house prices rose by 7.1% compared with a year ago, the Nationwide has said, prompting one analyst to suggest the market is “on the boil”. The building society said the average property price had risen by £15,916 in the last year, to reach £238,831. The Nationwide said increased savings during lockdown meant some first-time […]

The stamp duty holiday in England and Northern Ireland ends on 30 June – but changes to the amount buyers have to pay will then be staggered. The tax has been suspended on the first £500,000 of all property sales in England and Northern Ireland since July 2020. What is the stamp duty holiday? The […]

Share High Street lenders are now starting to offer mortgages to borrowers offering a deposit of just 5% under a new government guarantee scheme. The policy, announced in the Budget, is designed to help more first-time buyers secure a home. But the launch comes as average house prices in the UK continue to rise to […]

The masterplan to help people upgrade the UK’s homes has been “botched” and must be urgently overhauled, MPs say. The environmental audit select committee says the Green Homes Grant (GHG), which offers people up to £10,000 for insulation, is so inept that it is actually damaging the building sector. It adds that 19 million UK […]