UK Housing Market Blog

This is a new site that is focused on the UK housing market, providing a commentary on events and conditions in the UK housing market.

Mortgage Lending Up
20 July 2010

Mortgage lending was up 15% in June over the previous month. However, tansaction levels are still at a relatively low level with buyers constrained by a lack of available credit.

Meanwhile, lenders are cashing in on 20 year record margins on fixed-rate mortgages, with the average margin reaching 3.11%

Mortgage Lending Subdued
23 March 2010

New figures show that mortgage lending is still subdued with just 35,275 new mortgages approved in February, which was a fraction more than in January.

We're expecting more sellers to enter the housing market in the spring of this year, encouraged by the rise in house price in 2009. A lack of sellers and a rise in demand helped to prop up house prices in 2009 - any increase in the number of houses for sale is likely to keep prices flat at best.

Property Resources
21 March 2010

A few years ago, the Land Registry starting publishing the sale prices of houses in England and Wales making it easier for people A favourite site of ours that displays this data is mouseprice.com a great site, with sold prices, property for sale/rent and area guides.

Google Streetview
19 March 2010

Google has announced that 98% of the UK is now available to via Google Streetview, a service that provides panoramic views from various positions. This is a great resource to use when searching for a house to buy, particularly when you're moving to a new area or different part of the country which you are not familar with. Check is out at http://maps.google.co.uk.