INTRODUCTION
New year, same story, house prices are still rising….and fast. 2021 saw record growth fuelled by low interest rates, stamp duty holidays, lockdown savings, stock shortages and government incentives. General sentiment is still high, but a lot of the experts are predicting we will start to see a cool off early this year…let’s wait and see.
HOUSE PRICES - UK House Price Index
The UK HPI is based on completed housing transactions. Typically, a house purchase can take 6 to 8 weeks to reach completion. Therefore, the price data feeding into this 2021 UK HPI will reflect sales agreed in April.
UK
- Average Price UK £271,000 - November 2021
- Annual Price Change 10% - November 2021
- Monthly Price Change 1.2% - November 2021
London
- London Average Price = £519,934 - November 2021
- London Annual Price Change = 5.1% - November 2021
- London Monthly Price Change = 0.2% - November - 2021
HOUSE PRICES - HALIFAX HPI
The Halifax uses its own database of approximately 300,000 mortgage approvals per annum (ca. 25% of all mortgages) as a basis for its monthly house price reports. Because it uses approved loans rather than completed mortgages, the Halifax can obtain data earlier than the Land Registry
UK
- Average Price: £276,091 - November 2021
- Annual Price Change: +9.8% - November 2021
- Monthly Price Change +1.1% - November 2021
TRANSACTIONS (October 2021)
The provisional seasonally adjusted estimate of UK residential transactions in October 2021 is 96,2900, 16.4% lower than November 2020
RENTAL INDEX MARKET (October 2021)
Data is gathered from our tenant referencing service, and our rental amounts are based on actual achieved rental prices with accurate tenancy start dates in a reported month, rather than advertised costs (HomeLet)
- Average rent in UK = ££1,060
- Annual Variation for the UK = +8.3% (year on year)
- Average rent in London = £1,752
- Annual Variation for London = +12.6% (year on year)
- Household Rent To Income Ratio UK: 34% (single earner)
“We expect to see more people move home in 2022, with some choosing to wait until the ongoing effects of the pandemic have reduced before moving to a new rental property. In 2022 we’d expect to see rental values grow in line with wages and inflation, but increased demand and pressures on housing stock could see us reach record growth in 2022.” - Homelet
News
Growing numbers of first-time buyers bought properties to rent out last year as the stamp duty holiday prompted more would-be landlords to make investments.
The average cost of a home in the capital hit £520,000, up 5.1 per cent in a year and 0.2 per cent in the month, according to latest Land Registry data.
The rise was the slowest for any region in the country and only half the national annual rate of 10 per cent. The average cost of a home across the UK stood at £270,700.
UK rents rose for the fifth consecutive quarter in Q4 2021, according to the Deposit Protection Service. Continued pressure on rental property supply was named as the cause of the rise, with average rents reaching an average of £834 in the final three months of last year, an increase of £16 (1.96%) on the previous quarter
Hodge has seen a 173% increase in the number of holiday-let mortgage applications in 2021 compared with 2020, according to new figures. The new data also found the average holiday-let property mortgaged by Hodge has also increased year on year by £50,000 and now sits at £404,000
Mortgage Market News
The cost of living increased by 5.4% in the year to December, shows the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) calculation. This is the highest level recorded since CPI inflation was first measured, in 1997.
Paragon Bank has launched four new five-year fixed rate products for buy-to-let (BTL) borrowers. The mortgages are available at 70% LTV and 75% LTV and are aimed at portfolio landlords, be they individuals, limited companies or limited liability partnerships - For properties with an energy performance certificate rating of A to C, rates start at 2.95%.
A total of £4.4bn – or £12m per day – was borrowed through an equity release product in 2021, a new market report from Key details. The average amount taken out increased rapidly too, by 23% on the year, to £104,792.
The average rate for two-, three- and five-year fixes all increased in the second week of January, shows Moneyfacts’ latest report - The average rate for a two-year fix rose 3 basis points to 2.41%, the average rate for a three-year fix went up by 13 basis points, to 2.47%, and the average rate for a five-year fix ticked up by 3 basis points, to 2.68%.
A record 47,400 UK buy-to-let firms were established last year, a 14% jump on 2020, according to data from Hamptons.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined financial organisations in the UK for a total of £568m in 2021.
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