United Kingdom - Real Estate

[behappyalways]

Is this a bubble?

Buyers flock to buy £285,000 'messy' flat
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/107 ... -flat.html

[behappyalways]

Hong Kong buyers send London real estate soaring
http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/27/news/ec ... l?iid=Lead

[behappyalways]

London house price bubble moves to the suburbs
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... burbs.html

[behappyalways]

Grosvenor Estates sale marks top of London property market
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... arket.html

[behappyalways]

The $240 million apartment: London's property frenzy
http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/07/news/ec ... d=HP_River

[behappyalways]

Bank of England Governor issues warning over housing inflation
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/bank ... ation.html

[behappyalways]

Why are house prices rising so quickly?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/pers ... ickly.html

[winston]

UK Is Latest To Curb Spiralling House Prices

LONDON: The Bank of England (BoE) sought to put the brakes on Britain’s surging housing market yesterday by announcing a cap on home loans and tougher checks on whether borrowers can repay their mortgages.

The bank’s financial policy committee (FPC) said that from October, it would only allow 15% of new mortgages to be at multiples higher than 4.5 times a borrowers’ income.

http://iphone.malaysiandigest.com/busin ... rices.html

[winston]

London house prices soar 26% in a year, fastest pace in 27 years

LONDON: London house prices soared 26 percent over the past year in the biggest annual jump since 1987, as the economic recovery and record-low interest rates stoked a boom in one of the world's most expensive property markets.

The rise, shown in a Nationwide survey on Wednesday, is expected to put pressure on the Bank of England to bring forward its plans to raise interest rates, a move that would be the first tightening by a major central bank since the financial crisis hit.

Across Britain, house prices rose at their fastest rate in over nine years, Nationwide said, while the average London property hit a record 400,000 pounds, or $681,000 for a dollar buyer forced to grapple with rocketing prices and the strongest pound in nearly six years.

Foreign money has poured into London property, seen as an attractive bet by everyone from Russian oligarchs to U.S. technology titans, prompting a domestic scramble for homes that many locals cannot afford without potentially crippling debt.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has warned the housing market poses the biggest domestic risk to financial stability and signalled that Britain could be the first major Western economy to tighten monetary policy since the 2008 crisis.

Prices in the British capital are now around 30 percent above their pre-crisis highs and more than twice the level in the rest of Britain, said Robert Gardner, chief economist at mortgage lender Nationwide which collated the data.

Countrywide, house prices rose 1.0 percent in June after a 0.7 percent rise in May, taking the annual rate of increase to 11.8 percent - the biggest since January 2005, according to Nationwide.

Stricter checks on borrowers' ability to pay back mortgages were introduced in April and have weighed on the approval of home loans. Some fear these could become unaffordable when interest rates eventually rise from a record low.

Sterling [GBP/] hit a fresh near 6-year high against the U.S. dollar. Over the past 12 months, sterling is up 14 percent against the U.S. dollar. So far this year, sterling has risen 4.5 percent on a trade-weighted basis.

Last week it said that no more than 15 percent of new mortgages could be to people seeking to borrow over 4.5 times their annual income.

Around 10 percent of loans fall into this category nationally, rising to roughly 20 percent in London. But Nationwide said this cap and new tighter affordability checks were unlikely to slow house price growth in the short run, but that the prospect of higher interest rates might.

Source: Reuters

http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Busi ... in-a-year/

[winston]

Malaysian developers keen to tap London market

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian developers are keen to tap the London property market with a handful of the new players sizing up the market there.

Knight Frank Malaysia Sdn Bhd associate director, Herbert Leong, said these companies were looking for sites of less than two hectares which offered them the opportunity to regenerate the property.

“The developers are keen on central London and the real estate consultancy had brought a few companies for site inspection,” he said this at a media briefing on the London property market here yesterday. Leong said one of them was an infrastructure firm eager to make a foray into the property sector.

“Many Malaysian companies want to divert their focus overseas, and London offers them a lucrative return despite the requirement of a huge capital investment,” he said

Among the established developers that have had a foothold in London include SP Setia Bhd, Berjaya Group and Eastern & Oriental Bhd.

Meanwhile, Knight Frank Asia-Pacific Head of Research, Nicholas Holt, said east London was a rising area that developers and investors should look into.

“The ongoing large-scale redevelopment projects mean that east London, such as Newham, Tower Hamlets and Greenwich boroughs, is in demand for both new homes and jobs,” Holt said.

The Crossrail project, to be completed by 2018, was expected to boost the property prices in east London by 23% by then, outperforming a 19% rise of the Greater London, he said.

The project, costing around £15bil (about RM82bil), is one of the most ambitious transport construction projects undertaken in London.

Source: Bernama