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.