House Price Spy Blog

According to the National Housing Federation (NHF) UK house prices are set to increase by 40% over the next 5 years to an average of around £300,000. They also confirmed that the average home is 11 times annual earnings of the average person.

The most interesting part of the report stated that house prices have risen by over 150% while average earnings have risen by only 35% which leaves many with a huge leap to get on the property ladder.

This will make depressing reading for many on the lower end of the earning spectrum and will need to be addressed by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling in years to come. Affordable housing was one of the main pledges of Gordon Brown’s leadership.

Offset mortgages are gaining in popularity, but what are they? Who are they perfect for and What do they do?

Offset mortgages were first introduced in the 90s from Australia and allowed borrowers to use any money they had in current accounts to reduce their total payment. Any money you have in your current or savings account can be offset against your borrowings reducing your payments and allowing you an extra degree of flexibility in making larger or smaller payments depending on your circumstances.

They are not however perfect for everyone as they may have higher rates and rely on you having money in your current account.

Offset mortgages have become really competitive with the rise in borrowing rates and are now offered by most mortgage lenders. There has been a 49% increase in these types of mortgage in the last year according to lenders.

House Price Spy is one year old!!! It seems like only yesterday that our team had the idea of giving FREE property sale details with stats and information to everyone without restrictions on number of searches.

The House Price Spy team has certainly learned a lot since the site went live about property, property finance and moving/selling and buying. Having just moved home myself all this came in really useful and the House Price Spy system worked a treat. Its hard to imagine entering the property market without knowing the final sale price of each property!!

We intend to completely overhaul the way the site looks and add in more functions for members without interrupting or altering the quality of the service we provide!!! Just a general make over and add in a few cool search facilities and tools to make House Price Spy even better!!

This is the best time of year to do DIY and major surgery on your home, whether you plan to sell in the near future or not. Always popular are extensions, but there are a few things you should bear in mind first.

Any work should be made in either the same style as your home or a complimentary style. Try walking around your neighbourhood seeing other properties and what types of extensions work with what types of property. Victorian styles may not suit certain types of modern extensions so beware prior to starting.

If you are going to need planning permision then make sure you get this sorted by a qualified legal professional. You dont want to get to the situation where you need to change or scrap what you have done further down the line.

Consider loft extensions, kitchen extensions and any other extensions that may add to the value of the property.

The data on House Price Spy ranges from Jan 2000 to May 2007 for Scotland and April 2000 to May 2007 for England and Wales. Before these dates there was no central property data system available in the UK.

The data was last updated on 26/7/2007

This data is updated each month from the Land Registry, ROS and the Royal Mail.

Northern Ireland does not have a similar system.

No other site has a more complete or accurate list of property sales in the UK.

Users of these data sources are licenced and regulated strictly and occasional corrections may even be made.

So Gordon Browns’ in and Tonys out. But what will that mean to the UK property market?

Gordon Brown will today announce his policies and tactics for the next year including tackling the rising price of UK housing (with respect to earnings). Under the final years of Tony Blairs leadership ‘house price inflation’ rose steadily raising fears that the gap between those who can afford to step onto the property ladder and those stuck needing a foot up had risen too much, with Tony Blair not wanting to upset the apple cart by too many changes at the 11th hour. We have now seen that they are considering increasing the amount of new housing built in the UK and raising interest rates (Via the Bank Of England) to combat inflation, with some ‘first time buyer’ tax breaks expected. Previous protection to certain peices of Greenbelt land may be lifted allowing housing development.

More will be anounced today with PM Gordon Brown announcing his targets and plans for 2007 onwards.

Government body The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU) are claiming that the UK is a 20 years away from a housing shortage which will result in home costing 10 times yearly salary!! The current value is 7 times yearly salary.

There are 168,000 houses being built in the UK, however if this is not raised to over 200,000 the housing market will become increasingly hard for buyers.

If there was a housing shortage this would hit first time buyers more acutely, lack of buying power and borrowing potential will price many first time buyers out of the property ladder. House prices have doubled in the last 10 years and this rate of increase is twice the rate of salary increase.

The predicted housing shortage mirrors the lack of affordable housing available when city councils decided to move large numbers out of town during the 1960s, hopefully there will be a more permanant and better thought out solution than giant tower blocks left to decay.

Read more At the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU) site

A few brief details on Inheritance Tax or IHT, such as who has to pay for it? Whats it for? and how much will I have to pay? etc…

Inheritance Tax is a tax payable on a persons death based on the value of their estate and certain significant gifts made during their lifetime. Inheritance Tax must be paid within 6 months of death and interest will be due on this amount.

Inheritance Tax has a threshold amount of £300,000, below this amount you will avoid paying anything.

What is covered by Inheritance Tax ? All your worldly goods such as property, vehicles, household contents, bonds, shares, bank accounts. You deduct any provable dues such as funeral expenses, bills, charity donations etc. Assets-Deductions-Exempt items-Threshold(£300,000)=Inheritance Tax Consideration.

Inheritance Tax is charged at 40%.

Read more about Inheritance Tax at the official HMRC site

As a follow up to my previous blog about rising utility bills I thought I would add in a little bit about utility price comparision companies who promise lower utility bills. While everyone is probably aware of these companies I thought I would say a few words.

These companies all promise to lower your bills, but is it worth it to change your utility supplier? The answer to this question depends on who your supplier is and your total energy consumption, if you are with one of the less competitive utility providers then its worth a change, however if you dont use a significant amount of energy then there will be little difference either way. You will be asked these questions and these companies will calculate the best options and let you choose.

Lower utility bills could also be as much about how you use energy and your home as much as your supplier; energy conservation measures like modern appliances (opposed to older less efficient models), insulation and double glazing all make a significant difference. Have a look at the The Energy Saving Trust official site

Here are a few pointers to save more cash:

1. All utility comparision sites are free for customers to use

2. All utility comparision sites are regulated by the energy watchdog Energywatch’s Confidence Code

3. All utility comparision sites are independent of a specific provider ensuring impartiality. While each site is impartial they do receive a small commission from providers when a customer changes to that provider

4. Consider combining gas and electric providers to reduce bills

5 You have a cooling down period to change your mind after confirming the change (see small print for details)

6. Consider changing your bill period or method of payment to reduce overall payments

7. When prices are similar use quality of service and safety features to find the best choice

Competition between utility providers gives lower utility bills for everyone, but most people dont have the time to switch. However, the way I look at it you wouldn’t leave your savings in a low rate bank account so why pay more that you have to for your bills? Millions of pounds are saved every year by customers switching their gas and electric to a better value provider, an average of over £100 per household. These companies do all the hard work for you and you dont even need to fill in any forms so what do you have to lose!

To see our utility price comparisons section Visit House Price Spy

Hopefully everyone that uses the site has got used to the House Price Spy Preferences section which allows members to control the way the site works and make your use of the site easier and quicker. For those who still have yet to use this little piece of genius login and click on ‘Preferences’ on the top blue bar.

House Price Spy Preferences lets you manage what newsletters and alerts you get and their frequency.

House Price Spy Preferences update you personal details, these allow us to give users more suitable geographic and general information.

House Price Spy Preferences allows you to update your email address.

House Price Spy Preferences also allows you to customise the site depending on what information you want and dont want.

If you are in any doubt about what you can and cant do in the Preferences section have a quick look it was designed to be straightforward. We will add more stuff to the site periodically to improve the functionality of House Price Spy.