UK Housing Market Focus Permission-free conversions: a watershed proposal? The government’s proposal for permission-free office/industrial to residential conversions is pretty radical and, relative to what might otherwise have occurred, we estimate that the proposals could... 17th June 2011 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus Borrowers more exposed than ever to rising rates The low starting point for interest rates, the high share of mortgages at variable rates of interest and the record level of mortgage debt relative to earnings mean that borrowers are more exposed... 23rd May 2011 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus Budget 2011: Still banking on Plan A The Budget was a fairly cautious affair, with the Chancellor introducing a fiscally neutral package of measures and hence sticking closely to the existing austerity plans. Nonetheless, the Government... 23rd March 2011 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus Will institutional investment in housing increase? Institutional investment in the private rented sector will not increase without a significant fall in house prices and continued strong demand from tenants. Even then, policy changes are required, but... 17th March 2011 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus Will central London property be immune from further falls? In the next two to three years, central London house prices will be more resilient than the wider market. But we still expect them to give up ground. It is plausible that central London house prices... 9th February 2011 · 1 min read
UK Economics Focus Is the housing market heading for a double-dip? Low interest rates alone will not prevent the recent falls in house prices from being extended, perhaps significantly this year. Rather, we expect that the benefits of low interest rates will be... 28th January 2011 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus Will arrears and possessions increase to US levels? If we are right that unemployment will rise markedly over the next two years, the rates of arrears and possessions will increase. However, three features of the UK’s mortgage market should keep the... 19th January 2011 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus The FSA's responsible lending proposals; "a step too far"? Claims that the FSA’s responsible lending proposals will do lasting damage to the size and structure of the mortgage market assume that the historically high gap between house prices and incomes is... 22nd December 2010 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus How much bigger will the private rented sector get? Over the next three to five years, we think that the most likely scenario is that the private rented sector (PRS) continues to expand. By 2015, it is plausible that 16% or even 17% of households will... 24th November 2010 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus Will detached prices outperform because of tight credit? Detached house prices will prove to be more resilient than other types of residential property in the next two to three years. Higher earners, who disproportionately demand this most expensive type of... 17th November 2010 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus Is UK mortgage affordability worse than other countries? Intuitively, one might expect the high population density and apparent structural undersupply of housing in the UK to mean that we have historically spent a higher proportion of our earnings on... 21st October 2010 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus Have there been previous double-dips in house prices? A second round of falls in house prices would not be without precedent. There are at least eight examples of double-dips in real house prices in the international data from the past 40 years. But... 5th August 2010 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus The outlook for house prices in the North West Over the next 20 years, house price growth in the North West is likely to match the UK average closely. If anything, the North West may slightly outpace the UK. However, there will be considerable sub... 19th July 2010 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus Property in the new Parliament At the time of the 2015 election, we expect commercial property prices to be more or less unchanged from their current levels. Yet despite the low interest rate environment, the outlook for... 12th July 2010 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus Emergency Budget 2010: Tough but tender This was a Budget with two faces. The total discretionary tightening will build up to 8% of GDP per annum by 2015-16, larger than Canada’s in the 1990s, but smaller than Sweden’s and Finland’s. 22nd June 2010 · 1 min read
UK Housing Market Focus Have households accelerated their mortgage repayments? Claims that households have begun to step up the rate at which they are paying back their mortgages do not look well founded. Rather, over the past year or so, repayments of mortgage principal have... 18th June 2010 · 1 min read