Lunchtime news Tuesday 23 September 2023

The number of repossessed properties coming to auction has more than doubled during the past year. However, auction houses are reporting their lowest levels in sales on record, with almost half of all properties failing to sell. At the same time last year 71 per cent of properties were selling at auction. Auctioneers are now making around 10 per cent of their sales after the auction is over.

Mortgage approvals for August dropped to a record low – falling 64 per cent from a year ago, while the value of gross lending was down 27 per cent on a year earlier. The figures from the British Bankers’ Association indicate that the state of the housing market, with falling property prices, was continuing to have an impact.

According to research from the Co-Operative Bank first-time buyers are delaying getting married or having a family as they save money for a deposit on a property, and they are lowering their expectations of what they can afford as the credit crunch bites. First-time buyers believe they must now save nearly £20,000 to get on the property ladder and they think it will take around two years to raise the money. Half of those questioned said they were prepared to forgo eating out and taking holidays to save the cash, double the figure a year earlier.

Grainger, the UK’s largest residential landlord, has called for reforms to be made to the private rented sector. It warns the government that the sector is more important than ever and will play an increasingly vital role in housing supply as difficulties in obtaining mortgages continues. Grainger is asking for an industry-led licensing process with codes of conduct in place; more secure tenancy deals for tenants; offering financial incentives for residents to invest in homeownership; and a change in planning policies to encourage new housing schemes to let.

Meanwhile rental demand has risen 65 per cent during the past year, and is its strongest ‘for decades’. Web-based estate agents Your Move said the growth in demand went beyond normal seasonal fluctuations and was due to the rise in people delaying buying a home and the ongoing mortgage drought, which left many struggling to get a mortgage. Strong demand for rented accommodation has not translated into an increase in rents as more sellers are putting up their homes for rent rather than sell in the current economic climate.

And finally, an obscure wartime law has been used to force a south west London council into buying a park for £1.6 million when its true worth has been valued at just £15,000. The gardens once housed properties which were bombed during the second world war, but a law is still in force that requires homes damaged during this period be automatically rebuilt. The park’s owner won a battle at the Court of Appeal to have the land valued as if it had homes on it. The council is thinking of appealing to the House of Lords.