Summary of the Government's new Housing Strategy Initiatives

Summary of the Government's new Housing Strategy Initiatives

On 21^st November 2011 the Coalition government published its new housing strategy:- Laying the Foundations: a housing strategy for England.

So what new initiatives does the new strategy offer that will meet their claims?

READ THE SUMMARY HERE

What's the Latest News on New Builds?

What's the Latest News on New Builds?

With the government just setting out its latest housing strategy, NHBC's figures on new builds show the number of homes registered in the public sector was just 1,887 in October this year, 17 per cent lower than September (2,266) and compared with October 2010, there has been a 41 per cent drop.

Although year to date figures are up, the latest October figures suggest that although the new coalition government are trying to build more homes, to date, their policy of scrapping housing targets and shaving £4 billion off the house building budget the reverse has happened.

READ the lastest on New Builds

How will the Eurozone crisis affect the Market?

The Eurozone Crisis

There are some predictions that the current Eurozone financial crisis could wipe 10% off property prices in the UK, according to Taylor Wimpey. However, the real answer to how the crisis will affect you comes down to what problems the Eurozone will cause the UK.

The result of a continued Eurozone crisis is twofold for the UK. Firstly, should countries such as Greece and Italy ‘default' then this is likely to cause another credit crunch. The impact this will have is mainly on the provision of lending, as happened in 2007/8 when many mortgages were pulled and stringent criteria such as needing a 40% deposit to buy a home or have as equity to access reasonable mortgage deals. So a continuing crisis in the Eurozone is likely to make it tougher to secure mortgage lending, especially for the likes of first time buyers who have smaller deposits.

FULL ARTICLE CONTINUES HERE

Current and Future House Prices

Real Property Prices: Understanding what is happening in a Summer property market is always difficult due to the impact of the holiday season. This, coupled with the poor economic news of trouble in Europe, the USA being downgraded from its triple AAA rating, economic growth in the UK being worse than forecast and the stock market tumbling from nearly 6,000 to 5,000, could have caused the property market to stall dramatically. READ MORE

House Prices Forecast: Knowing what's going to happen in the future property market is a tough thing to get right for any pundit at the moment. In the current property market, predicting this at a national level is almost a fool's errand too as pockets of the country and certain property types are holding up remarkably well, whereas in some areas, the ‘double dip' in property prices is well and truly underway.What will happen to Christmas 2011?

Buy Property Investment to Renovate

Renovate Property

With the property market firmly in the doldrums unless you are lucky enough to afford £500,000 plus properties in wealthy areas of London and around the UK, many people are looking at investing in property, hoping to buy at a bargain price, renovate and sell on at a profit. The key question though is in a stable to falling market will renovating property for profit pay off?

Years of Sarah Beeny's Property Ladder has instilled a real desire in the UK to buy a wreck and turn it into a beautiful home which you can sell at a profit either now or later on. The problem though is making a profit out of renovation during a recession is quite tough - especially with the restrictions on mortgage lending. And that's why we aren't seeing many property programmes on our TV screens at the moment!

READ ON TO FIND OUT MORE about renovating property as an investment

First Time Buyers' Home Purchase Guide

Here is your FREE essential purchase guide for first time buyers from Kate Faulkner, MD of Designs on Property author of Which? Buy, Sell Move House. Kate says "It is vital to secure independent, professional advice from people that keep up to date with all the latest news and views on the property market to give you a real guide to buying your first home". Kate continues "many first time home buyers rely on parents or friends to guide and advise them on buying a first home, but their advice is only based on their experience of buying a home probably some years ago or recently, but their circumstances are completely different to yours." This is why Kate has produced a quick FREE five step guide to buying a first home.

VIEW FIVE STEP GUIDE HERE!

If you need to sell: Listen to your local Property Professionals!

If you need to sell: Listen to your local Property Professials!

Unfortunately many sellers will trust what they hear in the media a lot more than they will believe from their local estate agent. If the well known and trusted BBC say ‘prices are going up by 5%' we will believe them rather than a local agent telling us ‘prices have slipped by 5%'. For buyers it is the same, certainly in the first few months of their home hunt.

The problem though is most of the estate agents will give a more accurate idea of what's happening to property prices. At the moment, we have areas that are recovering to the dizzy heights of 2007 while other properties and areas are selling homes at half what they were worth a few years ago. And with few buyers around at the moment and the credit crunch squeeze still holding mortgage lenders back, sellers who don't carry out research to find out what their property is really worth from an agent that is currently selling similar property types, are likely to get left on Rightmove for some time!

READ ON for the full article