DATA: Rightmove reported UK asking prices rose 0.4% in year to Jul 2024
They report(PDF) a “a bigger July drop than usual” in their non-seasonally adjusted asking price index. They also report “The number of sales being agreed remains encouraging at 15% above the same period a year ago” and “The number of new sellers coming to market is a steady 3% above last year”.
DATA: HMLR reported UK house prices rose 2.2% in the year to May 2024
They report this was higher than last month’s revised figure of 1.3%. Low sample counts continue to hamper the Land Registry index with the index level consistently revised downwards over recent years and the latest index figures for London looking particularly susceptible to future revisions.
DATA: ONS reported Consumer Price Index rose 2.0% in year to Jun 2024
The rate was unchanged from the previous month.
DATA: ONS published UK labour market overview
They report “The early estimate of payrolled employees for June 2024 increased by 16,000 (0.1%) on the month and increased by 241,000 (0.8%) on the year, to 30.4 million” and “Annual growth in employees’ average regular earnings (excluding bonuses) in Great Britain was 5.7% in March to May 2024”. Meanwhile, work on improving the Labour Force Survey is continuing.
DATA: ONS reported UK private rents rose 8.6% in year to Jun 2024
This figure was below the “record-high” annual rise of 9.2% in March 2024 and they also report “In England, rents inflation was highest in London (9.7%) and lowest in the North East (5.9%)”.
DATA: ONS reported £1.1billion of SDLT receipts in Jun 2024
The non-seasonally adjusted figure (covering both residential and commercial transactions) was 2% lower than the previous month but 4% higher than the same month last year. This series is a useful leading indicator for HMRC transactions.
DATA: ONS published mid-2023 population estimates for England & Wales
See Chart of the Week for more detail. They also revised their UK population estimates for mid-2011 to mid-2022 following the publication of Census data.
POLICY: The King’s Speech
The background briefing notes provide more detail on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill’s proposals to “accelerate housebuilding and infrastructure delivery” by “streamlining the delivery process for critical infrastructure”, “further reforming compulsory purchase compensation rules”, “improving local planning decision making by modernising planning committees”, “increasing local planning authorities’ capacity”, and “using development to fund nature recovery where currently both are stalled”. However, there is still a lack of detail on how these will actually help achieve the government’s housebuilding target.
REPORT: MHCLG published English Housing Survey 2022-23 reports
Following the publication of the headline report in December last year, this week’s reports and factsheets cover: energy, housing quality and condition, rented sectors, affordability and cost of living, future homeowners, satisfaction and complaints, and security of tenure.
REPORT(PDF): IMLA published Market Briefing: June 2024
The report covers the housing and mortgage markets. On the buy-to-let mortgage market, it reports “Perhaps because affordability had become so challenging, lenders have responded by reducing buy-to-let pricing relative to their owner-occupier offerings on a like-for-like basis. The average 2-year 75% LTV buy-to-let mortgage rate in May was 4.66%, 0.53% below the same figure for owner-occupiers, the largest pricing gap in favour of buy-to-let on record. Until 2022, owner-occupied mortgage pricing was consistently cheaper.”
REPORT: Savills reported on unlocking Section 106 delivery
They report “Demand for Section 106 homes has dropped off sharply, primarily driven by severely constrained financial capacity amongst Registered Providers and a renewed emphasis on investment in existing stock” and “Urgent resolution is required to prevent a more prolonged impact on housing supply”.
REPORT: Savills reported on the development land market
They report “UK greenfield and urban land values maintained their resilience in Q2 2024, taking the annual change to -3.2% and -5.7% respectively, compared to a low of -8.0% and -8.7%”.
REPORT: Policy Exchange reported on The UK’s Broken Housing Market
They report “The UK is experiencing a crisis of housing affordability, both in the purchase price of a homes and in the private rental sector. The principal driver is a chronic undersupply of new housing in the face of persistent demand, and the underlying cause of this shortage is a planning system that heavily constrains the availability of developable land” and provide a number of recommendations.
REPORT: Centre for Cities reported on planning and Bristol
They suggest “Bristol is an example of how planning reform – including green belt reform – could remove constraints on the economic performance of the UK’s biggest cities”.
REPORT: TwentyCi published Property & Homemover report for Q2 2024
They report “The residential property sector continues to gain significant momentum in Q2 2024” and “Sales Agreed are up by 15.1% compared to Q2 2023”. They also report “The uplift in transactions is being driven almost exclusively by”: “Those over 46 years of age” and “With an annual household income of more than £50,000”.
REPORT(PDF): BPF and Savills reported on build-to-rent in Q2 2024
They report “The number of completions has remained above the number of starts for the third quarter in a row” and so “there has been a sharp contraction in the number of homes currently under construction, down -19% compared to Q2 2023”.
CORPORATE: The PRS REIT published Q4 update
They report “Occupancy and rent collection remained at very high levels and arrears were low” and “Rental growth over the 12 months to 30 June 2024 was 11.7% across the portfolio, similar to the previous quarter”.
Chart of the Week
This week ONS published mid-2023 population estimates for England and Wales. The estimates show “the year to mid-2023 saw the largest annual increase in at least 75 years, growing by almost 610,000 to 60.9 million”. They estimate “that 1,084,000 people immigrated to England and Wales from outside the UK, while 462,000 emigrated; this makes net international migration to England and Wales 622,000” and “Natural change (the difference between births and deaths) was 400 in the year to mid-2023; this was the lowest figure since the year to mid-1978”.
