| UK
House Prices Situation at 27 7 2007: Limited growth
outside London/South-East
UK
House Prices Forecast: Very little growth for the next
6-12 months
House
Price Nightmare For Flood Victims
Flood
victims in areas such as Tewkesbury, Gloucester and
Hull are likely to find that repairing the damage caused
by the floodwaters is only the beginning of their problems,
according to estate agents in Yalding, Kent - the scene
of severe flooding in autumn 2000.
Their
experience was that the value of properties in flood-hit
areas dropped by as much as 30% immediately after the
floods - and did not really begin to recover until several
years afterwards, when people started to forget about
the floods.
However,
it's not all bad news, according to James Best-Shaw,
partner at Cluttons estate agency in Yalding. According
to Best-Shaw, one of the main factors contributing to
price devaluation was the fact that many homeowners
could not get insurance for their properties - preventing
potential buyers being able to secure a mortgage on
them.
This
situation has now changed, with the insurance industry
now more open to insuring properties in flood-risk areas
- albeit at higher premiums.
Nationwide
& Rightmove Confirm Market Slowdown
The
latest House Price reports from both
Nationwide and Rightmove have confirmed that house price
inflation is falling steadily.
Nationwide
reported a growth in average house prices
of just 0.1% in July, bringing its annual rate to 9.9%.
Rightmove
was a little more optimistic, with an average growth
rate of 0.3% for July - but a very similar annualised
rate of 10.3%.
Mortgage
lender Northern Rock went even further, with Chief Executive
Adam Applegarth commenting that if London house prices
were stripped out of the figures, the current annual
rate of house price inflation "is
almost certainly down about the 4% level".
HIPs
Arrive (Finally…)
Homeowners
looking to sell a property with 4 or more bedrooms will
soon have to deal with arranging a HIP (Home Information
Pack) for their property.
The
long-awaited and controversial HIPs are due to be introduced
on 1st August - but only for properties with 4 or more
bedrooms.
This
has given rise to perhaps the most absurd piece of new
jargon this year - the HIP replacement room - a 4th
bedroom that has been given another name (e.g. study)
to enable the house to be listed as a 3 bed property,
and thus be exempt from HIPs.
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