Further strong evidence emerged yesterday of an end to the fall in house prices both in the UK and also importantly, in the US.
In the UK, the Land registry has published its figures for June which show a 0.10% rise in House prices. Of all the various UK property price indices, the land registry is regarded as the [...]

 
By Stephen Knight, Executive Chairman, Checkmate Mortgages Ltd
 
Like many people, no doubt, I have recently been reinvesting funds which have matured from accounts paying 6%+, trying to get the best of the current derisory savings rates on offer.  This has led me to open several investment accounts online, and I have been astonished at the [...]

 
As readers of our blog will be aware, we have been iterating for some time that we believe the housing market is now at, or very close to, the bottom. This has a number of positive implications, not least of which is that lender’s appetite to lend should start to increase, given the knowledge that [...]

 
Supply and demand

 
In the discussion of house prices, most commentators and analysts tend to focus on the relationship between prices and individual or household incomes. These measures of affordability, some very crude and simplistic, others more sophisticated, tend in many instances to lead to the view that prices were bound to correct as the house [...]

 
… Continued…

 
If both the above lines play out, 2031 will see an net shortfall of an additional 2.5M dwellings.
 
 
Impact of under-supply on prices
 
The recent report from the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHAPU) in May 2009 highlighted the issue of supply on property prices, focusing on the lower quartile income earners, those most [...]

The truth is: the Mortgage market NEEDS securitisation
 
Over the past 18 months the word ‘securitisation’ has become synonymous with the credit crunch and has been demonised to such an extent that rational discussion of its future role in funding the mortgage market has become virtually impossible.
 
Whilst it is undeniably true that some of [...]

The latest Halifax House Price Index  was published yesterday showing an increase for the month of May of 2.60%. This follows on from both the Nationwide, which showed an increase of 1.20% for May and the land registry data which although always a month, behind showed prices essentially flat for April. It has been many months [...]

UK MORTGAGE MARKET - A NEW ERA
 
Stephen Knight, Executive Chairman, Checkmate Mortgages
 
My diary over the last few months has included meetings across our industry, and both inside and outside Government. From this activity it is clear to me that our market is undergoing fundamental change. Those who take into this new era a wish to [...]

Continuing our ‘green shoots’ theme, two interesting articles appeared in The Times today. The first cited a number of factors, including increasing activity in the housing sector and noted that the OECD, who last month had revised its forecast for UK GDP downwards, yesterday revealed that that its economic indicators for Britain had actually risen by 0.3 [...]

 
As most of you will have no doubt read in the media over the last few weeks,  there are various reports of ‘green shoots’ appearing in the economy. Certainly talking to friends and colleagues in and around the property market, there are increasing anecdotal stores of properties now starting to sell, particularly in the more [...]