Housing

There was victory for a group of mortgage borrowers last week when Court of Appeal judges ruled West Bromwich Building Society had wrongly upped interest rates for about 6,000 customers. However, despite the legal wrangle being described as a ‘David and Goliath’ type duel, not everyone was pleased for the little people winners. That’s because the borrowers concerned were landlords, a group which is fast becoming one of the most vilified sectors of society. But if the buy-to-let critics could put their prejudices aside for a moment they’d see that a victory for landlords this time is a win for consumers everywhere. The court case came about after a controversial decision

A recent Coffee House blog quite rightly noted that many British people are concerned that high levels of immigration have hurt their jobs, wages and quality of life, and noted too that this anxiety is understandable as workers have had a rough ride in recent times. Yet the authors, self-styled data-crunchers from the LSE, say that ‘the bottom line is that EU immigration has not significantly harmed the pay, jobs or public services enjoyed by Britons’. One might think that the lack of harm, let alone significant harm, is a poor argument for anything. On pay, real wages are little different from a decade ago. The counterfactual — which surely is

Am I a ‘doomeranger’? If a new survey is to be believed then, yes, that’s exactly what I am. In a twist on the phrase ‘boomerang generation’ – used to describe young people who, not long after leaving home, move back in with their parents – some PR whizz has coined ‘doomeranger’ to mean adults who return to the nest years after moving out. These so-called doomerangers (who make up 14 per cent of the population) often have families of their own and have been forced back in with mum and dad after a bad break-up or financial problems. Thankfully I didn’t fit into either of those categories when, five

When I was first getting on the housing ladder in the late nineties, the idea of taking out a mortgage you never intended to pay back was pretty normal. Interest-only mortgages were widely available to first-time buyers like me. It was a good way to get us onto their books. Over time, as I did, we’d convert to a repayment version, and everyone’s happy. In the post-financial crisis world, though, borrowing or lending debt never intended to be repaid is frowned upon. The self righteously prudent (or just plain rich) are dying to crow to those left stranded with a decreasing choice of interest-only mortgages that ‘it’s people like you

When the baby-boomer generation bought their first homes they were typically in their twenties, took out a 25-year loan, and fully expected to be mortgage-free long before they hit the big Six-Oh. Bring on the cruises and the two-seater sports cars. With an empty nest, no debts to speak of and a final salary pension, life for some really could look like those ads where elegantly greying couples wandered hand-in-hand on the beach. Ha! That was then. Today’s first-time buyers are far more likely still to be paying off a mortgage well into their sixties and possibly beyond. Borrowers are signing up in ever greater numbers to ultra-long term loans of 30

Every month, some 1,500 households across the country tell us what they think has happened to the value of their home over the last month, and what they expect to happen to its value over the next year. This data is then crunched into something called the House Price Sentiment Index, or HPSI for short. The name doesn’t trip off the tongue, but the index, produced in conjunction with Markit Economics, gives us a good glimpse into the housing market. Sentiment is important for housing — it can determine decisions by discretionary buyers, those who are not motivated by necessity, such as a move for work, for school or to

Rising house prices and a lack of properties has prompted many homeowners to improve rather than move. And who can blame them? According to the latest Halifax House Price Index, property values took a massive leap in the 12 months to the end of March, rising more than 10 per cent to £214,811. This is the biggest rise since July 2014. It’s no wonder that homeowners are deciding to improve their own property rather than make do with the lacklustre stock on the market. But spare a thought for those on the receiving end of an eager neighbour undergoing renovations. As more people decide to make improvements, many could find themselves facing disputes

Proof, if proof was needed, earlier this week that property prices in the capital are out of control. Research by Savills estate agents found that house prices in the London commuter belt increase by more than £3,000 for every minute the property is closer to the city by train. What’s that you say? £3,000? Per minute? In the North of England that would buy you six months rent in an attractive suburb of a major city. Add into the equation that the average house price in inner London is £606,000, and house prices across the country continue to climb – the UK average is more than £212,000. No wonder then that

The news for landlords seems to keep getting worse. Following a clampdown on tax relief and a huge hike in stamp duty on rental properties, the Bank of England announced yesterday that lenders will soon be forced to introduce substantially tougher borrowing standards when it comes to buy-to-let mortgages. The Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) revealed that banks and building societies will be required to be far more cautious when it comes to loans for landlords. This means tighter checks on whether borrowers will be able to cope with higher mortgage rates, as well as greater scrutiny of owners of multiple rental properties. The PRA’s announcement is the latest attempt by policymakers to

On the radio this morning the subject of high-rise housing was being discussed, the hook being the new film adaptation of JG Ballard’s High-Rise. Tower blocks are widely considered to be a disaster today; they took largely working-class populations out of often sub-standard (but potentially very nice) terraced houses into technically better housing that was in reality often isolated and unsafe. Yet, despite this hindsight, I feel we’re making something of the same mistake again, with the current rush for skyscrapers across the city – with some 435 high-rise buildings now approved. Some of those being proposed and planned, such as the Paddington Pole and the new tower in Notting Hill

Take a quick look at the UK buy-to-let market and you might find it tough to understand exactly what it is that makes it so very popular. Dealing with tenants is difficult and boring. House prices have a horrible tendency to go down as well as up (Londoners — ask anyone living in the north of England about this). And rents have long been so low relative to prices that getting a worthwhile net yield is all but impossible after costs. Given this, you might wonder, why on earth would 14.5 per cent of all mortgage lending in the UK in the third quarter of last year have been to

Housing is now the biggest domestic public policy failure since the Second World War. A broken market that doesn’t meet the needs of middle income households, rising prices that see little response in supply of new homes and, if we’re honest, politicians who seem incapable of making a difference. The starkest mismatch between supply and demand is in home-ownership. Most people want to own their own home, but the number able to do so is in freefall – with young people hit hardest of all. New figures that I release today show that the number of home-owning households headed by under 35s has fallen by over a quarter of a