Helping Innovate Property (HIP) – Blog, Housing Market News and Articles

Since the demise of Home Information Packs, the housing Market is somewhat flooded with an over supply of property. Houses are selling, but not as fast as most people would like, many properties being on the market for many months and even in some cases, years.

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With banks gradually starting to lend again and while interest rates are still low; now could be considered a good time to be thinking about remortgaging, so as to secure a good rate of interest for a few more years.

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The state of the property market was hot news a year ago but with the general election and World Cup fever, some of the recent developments seem to have been missed by the national press. This absence is quite surprising as there has been a boost of optimism and the buy to let market has undergone a significant change led by one of the largest lenders; The Mortgage Works (TMW).

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The Right to Buy scheme, introduced under the Housing Act 1985, is a great way for council tenants to climb that all important first rung of the property ladder. It allows a qualifying tenant to purchase their council property at a significant discount.

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The government’s mortgage rescue scheme, which is not to be confused with commercial schemes which may describe themselves as mortgage rescue but are really sell to rent schemes, is a state funded, not for profit scheme which aims to help home owners stay in their homes where they would otherwise be repossessed and evicted.

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What a lender needs to do before it can repossess a property, what happens when a house gets repossessed and what to do if your home is at risk from repossession

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The latest craze to affect the property market is “sell to rent back scheme”. You’ll see lots of adverts on national television (usually during the daytime) and it seems every week there is another leaflet through the door. These schemes have a bad reputation, but is that justified?

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After the government bail out of the UK banking system in 2009, there is a now 50% tax levy on all future bonuses. Traditionally we enter “bonus season” in Q2, we expect to see buyers to start investing from this point and despite the new tax constraint the majority of banks have announced their intent to assign significant bonuses.

However, it is estimated that the bonus payments will be lower than in previous years and a larger proportion of payments will be made in shares and other types of investments. Looking to 2010, it is yet to be apparent what extent this will negatively affect sales volumes. In essence, bonus money will continue to play a central factor in the housing market and many cash rich individuals will still invest in the UK and abroad.

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Since the economy entered into recession what seems like an age ago, the knock on effect to private landlords has been felt across the whole country.

According to telegraph.co.uk the number of Buy-to-Let repossessions doubled over the last year as tenants experienced difficulties in keeping up with the monthly rental payments.

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Nationwide have published their monthly report stating that house prices have risen for the fourth consecutive month. In August, it is claimed that we have seen property prices increase by 1.6% making the average house price in the country £160,000. However, is this the recovery most are looking for?

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Nationwide Building Society has announced that it is cutting the price of many of its fixed and tracker rate mortgages by up to 0.50%. This comes as welcome news as the banks and building societies have held what some have described as inflated rates.

With effect from 4 August 2009, will include the following:

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