House Price Spy Blog

The total debt including mortgages has risen by 10% in the last year to £1.55Trillion.

The average borrow is over £8,500

The amount of that which is related to credit cards has risen 5% in the last year.

The continued rise in house prices has been blamed for these figures, The Bank Of England has taken measures to curb property inflation and there are signs this month that prices (or at least increases) have dropped with average prices dropping in Edinburgh and a slower rise in London.

Figures produced by Credit Action a registered charity.

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!!

The mortgage interest rate is due for review on the 6th of September 2007 but what will the Bank Of England do?

The Bank Of England have shown that they are taking a pragmatic stance to reduce inflation and curb borrowing under these circumstances and more increases in the base rate are expected next month. Only time will tell, but this could be depressing news for homeowners especially first time buyers.

Get the details hot off the press from the Bank Of England.

Only time will tell, House Price Spy will keep you fully updated on any changes!

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.

With all the stories that have been around last week regarding the lack of affordable housing It raises the question that with flooding also in the news this week, can we keep building in ‘flood plains’?

To keep abreast of the increasing need for afordable new build housing it is claimed that we will need 140,000 new houses per year whereas only a few hundreds ar enow being bult across the country.

What is the permanant solution to this problem?

After having a look at what Gordon Brown said since my last blog I dont think he has said much wheih was unexpected and will not really changed the way we tackle a possible housing shortage in the UK. A summary of Gordons housing policy is as follows:

Assistance to community housing (mainly in the North of England and the Midlands)

Home Information Packs - See Clarkes earlier blog…

Tax breaks for ‘Carbon Neutral’ homes

Priority purchase scheme for first time buyers and key workers.

This is all well and good but apart from the last point there are more ways they could have tackled this problem. This crisis is due to the total number of properties on the market compared with the rising population not how green the properties are and if they are in an established community or not. New build houses often have to create their own communities from scratch.

Tonys initial warcry was ‘Education, Education, Education’ and Gordos appears to be ‘Location, Location, Location’.

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.