Colour Investments Property Investment

Is the title of an article in The Times’ Bricks and mortar today. 

It talks about a lack of supply in new-builds as developers have to pick and choose which developments they build and which they bail out of.  With a continuing high demand for property in the UK we have seen a mini boom in some areas in the new-build sector.  Bristol is one area which they highlighted as having avoided the new-build ‘over-supply’ and where they are still selling in great numbers week after week.

Smartnewhomes.com also reported that the price of new homes across the UK has increased by 2.1% over the past 12 months.

I hear so many people talking about the depressed property market – particularly on the new-build front, but this goes to show that most of the doom and gloom is, as usual, utter rubbish.

Nationwide has today unveiled a major simplification of its core mortgage range and launched a broker exclusive prime range via The Mortgage Works.

Along with a simplified and straight-forward product range it is also reducing products rates by up to 96 basis points. The same core mortgage product range will also be available via telephone, its branches and mortgage brokers.

The core mortgage product range available from Nationwide via mortgage brokers will include two, three and five-year fixed rates and two and three-year tracker rate mortgages. The two-year products come with a choice of £896 or £0 product fees and a £500 product fee discount remains available for first-time buyers on three and five-year fixed rates and three-year tracker products.

The super-mutual has also simplified its lending limits and has moved to the following structure across its range:
LTV Max Loan
95% £250,000
90% £500,000
85% £750,000
80% £1,000,000

But Nationwide says it also recognises that many mortgage brokers appreciate choice and to that end Nationwide’s specialist lending brand The Mortgage Works has today launched a brand new range of prime mortgages.

Available exclusively to brokers, TMW’s prime mortgage range includes free valuation on purchases, capped trackers, early repayment charge free trackers, a range of cash back options and a lifetime variable rate product. Other highlights to the range include a two year early redemption charge free tracker from 2.99% up to 75% LTV, and a range of two, three, four, five and seven-year fixed rate mortgages from 2.59%.

Paul Howard, head of corporate accounts at Nationwide,says: “This is a big big range of products that we think brokers will find very useful and a customer will only be able to get them by going to an intermediary.”

- source Mortgage Strategy

Annual UK residential property prices in England and Wales have remained positive for six months in a row with a rise of 8.5% in April, the highest yearly change since September 2007, new figures show.

The monthly rise from March to April was 0.2%, taking the average UK property value to £165,596, the data from Land Registry’s flagship House Price Index shows. Based on actual UK property sales, it is regarded as the most reliable of the regular indices to be published.

All regions in England and Wales experienced increases in their average property values over the last 12 months. The region with the highest annual house price change is London with an increase of 14.8%, the seventh consecutive months of price growth. The monthly change house prices in London is 1.6%, bringing its average property value to £341,487, compared with the average for England and Wales, which stands at £165,596.

In London the borough of Kensington and Chelsea saw the highest annual property price growth at 21.2% while Camden saw the highest monthly price growth at 3.3%. The region with the smallest annual price rise is Yorkshire & The Humber with a movement of 0.7%.
The North East experienced the greatest monthly rise with a movement of 3.1%.

These UK property figures are consistent with other recent property price indices. The latest one from Nationwide showed a 1% month on month increase in prices and 10.5% annual growth. Halifax reported a 0.1% monthly growth and year on year growth of 8.8%.

- Source Propertywire