blackmorebonds-blog

[blackmorebonds-blog]

UK Property Market Update

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve given any commentary on the “state of play” in the UK real estate market. As the uncertainty of BREXIT continues to overshadow anything positive in our great nation and seems only to serve to nullify government from any other activities, there are however some surprising insights into the UK Property space. The latest figures from Nationwide are out and they show that house prices are, basically, flat across the UK. Which is actually fantastic news, and here’s why.... The British housing market is ticking along nicely The average house price in the UK rose by 0.6% year-on-year in August, according to Nationwide.

The chart is broad strokes and obviously hides regional data which still shows London and the South East to be cooling, but this had to happen. We saw evidence not 2 years ago that a U.S Property fund were sweeping up London Mayfair assets at £5,000.00p/sqft. Yes, £5,000! This simply wasn’t sustainable. BREXIT or no BREXIT - London and the surrounding areas were always going to cool. Whilst nowhere is booming, it’s also clear to see that nowhere is crashing and we are seeing a nice period of stabilisation. What we are finding with our own developments is that people are still buying. In fact, more enquires than ever are coming to us and buyers are merely just looking to negotiate a deal - perhaps a furniture pack thrown in or legal fees paid. Mortgage lending saw a solid rise in July, in terms of both the amount loaned out, and the number of loans written. This Is a great fundamental in terms of where the market actually is. Over the next 6 months Blackmore will complete on at least 4, possibly 5 new developments and at current count, over 55% of all the units across the sites are reserved, exchanged or similar. BREXIT is now in its most uncertain phase, the UK are at loggerheads with its European counterparts, and yet our property industry continues to thrive. We still have an insurmountable housing shortage and the government will have to continue to help ease that crisis. We for one are excited for the coming years in what we see as an opportunity to really earn our stripes, doing deals and continuing to grow and thrive as a group.