Housing revival puts pressure on mortgage lenders

The unexpected revival in the housing market continued in August with prices rising by an average 1.6 per cent over the month and housebuilders returning to sites in some of the country’s worst-hit regions.

Nationwide’s latest index showed that the average house price rose from £158,871 to £160,224 in the past month, bringing the total increase since the start of the year to 3.2 per cent.

The three-monthly rate of change rose from 2.7 per cent in July to 3.3 per cent in August — its highest level since February 2007, although house prices are still 14.4 per cent below their peak in October 2007, the building society said.

Separate figures from the National House-Building Council (NHBC) show that confidence in the housing market has persuaded housebuilders to start work on new homes in the East Midlands, West Midlands and Northern Ireland. Housebuilding in these regions was up by 12 per cent, 8 per cent and 36 per cent respectively in the three months to July, compared with the same period last year.
The NHBC recorded a 9.4 per cent rise in the number of new starts across Britain to 23,661 between May and July compared with the previous three-monthly figure to June.

Imtiaz Farookhi, chief executive, said: “The Midlands was one of the earliest regions to feel the effects of the recession and its housing market one of the hardest-hit. Our statistics suggest that there are now clear indications of recovery.”

The rebound in house prices has astonished commentators, who had predicted falls of between 10 per cent and 15 per cent this year.

Martin Gahbauer, chief economist at Nationwide, attributed the rise to very low interest rates. “The fall in debt-servicing costs has meant that fewer homeowners are under immediate financial pressure to sell than might have been expected in a recessionary economic background with rising unemployment,” he said. “As a result, fewer second-hand properties have come on to the market than is normally the case in recessions, which has contributed to moving the balance of supply and demand more in favour of sellers over the course of 2009.”

The clearest evidence of this imbalance is in London, according to Savills, the global property consultancy, which said yesterday that it had received a boost from cash-rich foreign buyers snapping up property in the capital.

However, its performance figures reveal that property companies are still reeling from the effects of the downturn. Pre-tax profits at Savills plunged by 99.7 per cent to only £100,000 in the first half of 2009 as property markets around the world continued to suffer from a lack of demand. The figure was up slightly on a full-year loss of £7.7 million in 2008.

Jeremy Helsby, chief executive, said that growth in the residential market in London and the return of buyers in the Asia-Pacific region had helped to keep it in the black, but blamed the overall slide on poor tenant demand for commercial property in Europe and a lack of debt finance for homeowners and businesses.

Market analysts said that Nationwide’s figures should persuade lenders to start offering better mortgage deals. The lack of finance has been the biggest obstacle to the many potential buyers trying to take advantage of lower prices.

Nicholas Leeming, director of propertyfinder.com, said: “Recovery in the housing market is great news for all of us. Higher prices will lift many out of negative equity, encourage others to move and spend money, and remove any last excuses the banks have for not lending people money to buy a home. There are real bargains to be had in the market at the moment. Lenders, afloat on a sea of public money, must enable us to take advantage of cheaper homes.”

Renewed confidence from Bovis and Persimmon, the housebuilders, as they reported their half-year results this week was echoed by other companies that depend on the housing market.

Travis Perkins, the builders’ merchant, said that it had seen a switch among its customers, who include DIY-enthusiast homeowners and “white van men”, from decorating and outdoor products to bigger projects such as kitchen and bathroom refurbishments and extensions.

However, the supply of new homes is still a long way below past averages and behind government targets.

Mr Farookhi said: “We are seeing new sites starting across the regions, which suggests confidence by builders that the recovery is sustainable. However current activity levels remain well below those that we had become accustomed to before the recent downturn.”

Figures from Grant Thornton, the accountancy, show that another of the consequences of the downturn for construction companies has been a rise in the number of higher-value mergers and acquisitions.

The value of deals rose by 38 per cent to £34.7 million in the three months to July this year from the previous three months, despite a 60 per cent decrease in the volume of deals.

Be cautious around the cooker

A kitchen is key to the appeal of a house, as that other television phenomenon of the past decade — the property show — has always told us.

Big Brother has also, unintentionally, sent out the message about the importance of this room. The kitchen-dining room has been the place in which the programme’s contestants were happiest to hang out, a domestic arrangement that mirrored real life.

At the height of the housing boom, as many as half a million dining rooms a year were being knocked through into kitchens to create this type of eating and living space that so enhanced a property’s value.

The wacky kitchen fit-out of Big Brother’s current series serves as a useful illustration of the new rules for anyone contemplating a revamp in the new housing climate, where prices are stabilising and rising in some places but finance is still difficult to raise.

You can install an expensive, idiosyncratically styled kitchen — but only if you have no plans to sell in the near future. Estate agents say that buyers — who may already have struggled to obtain a mortgage — do not have the additional borrowing power that will allow them to replace a kitchen that is not to their taste.

Buyers are more attracted to kitchens that will at some stage need a total makeover, because this presents some opportunity to build up equity in a market where prices are not expected to start appreciating strongly in the near future.

Homeowners who wish to stay put are also showing financial caution in their kitchen makeovers: it is OK to be out and proud about Ikea units.

In certain circles, it is even smarter to reclaim something from one of those skips now lining suburban streets and repaint it.

articel by KLIK