Did you know ....
- A full-time employee in England typically expect to spend around 7.8 times their workplace-based annual earnings on purchasing a home; this is a significant improvement from the previous year when the ratio was 8.0.
- In England and Wales, 4.2% of all new houses were sold as leasehold in 2018, down from 13.3% in 2017.
- Energy efficiency is the main reason why home movers would purchase a new build property. In a survey conducted by the ONS respondents aged 55+ felt even stronger, with over 70% citing it as a main reason compared to 58% of younger respondents (under 34).
- According to Zoopla, ‘Garden’ was the most popular search term throughout 2020 for both buyers and renters. The Property Academy Home Moving Trends Surveys 2020, analysed by Dataloft, found that for buyers and renters whose priorities had changed since the start of the pandemic, a garden had become more important to 67% of renters and 64% of buyers.
- Across England and Wales, almost half (43%) of all private rental sector properties (both houses and flats) fall within Dataloft's definition of suburban areas, 41% urban and 16% rural.
- In October 97,532 mortgages were approved, an annual increase of 51.1%, representing the backlog caused by lockdown and the post lockdown surge in demand. Gross mortgage lending was £21.5bn, an annual decrease of -0.2%, almost back to normal.
- The current Help to Buy scheme has been extended. Previously homes needed to have been built by December 2020, this has now been extended to February 2021. The deadline for the legal completion of sales remains the same, 31 March 2021. The new Help to Buy scheme, replacing the current scheme, will come into place from 1st April 2021 and run until March 2023 as planned.
- From April 2021 non-UK residents will face an additional 2% Stamp Duty Land Tax levy on residential property purchases in England and Northern Ireland. However, the weakness of the pound will continue to drive demand.
- The biggest increase in sales agreed since the end of lockdown has been in the prime market, the number of properties sold subject to contract above £1 million was 100% higher than the same week in 2019, and properties priced between £750,000 to £1 million saw a 119% increase (Rightmove/Knight Frank).
- According to Rightmove sales agreed are up 50% in October 2019 and there are c.650,000 sales going through the buying and selling process, 67% more than at the same time in 2019.