Learning lessons
Posted: May 1, 2013 Filed under: Buy to let, Private renting Leave a commentThe plight of families with children highlighted in a report out today from Shelter illustrates yet again why private renting in England so urgently needs reform.
If the experiences of tenants facing damp and disrepair and soaring rents are depressingly familiar, the report adds detail to what has become a way of life for the one in five families with children who now rent their home privately.
The insecurity inherent in short-term tenancies means that one in 10 of 4,000 families surveyed have had to change their children’s school as a result of moving. They were nine times as likely to have moved in the last year as families who own their own homes.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Letting go
Posted: April 26, 2013 Filed under: Private renting Leave a commentThings are slowly changing for the better for tenants in the private rented sector. It’s about time.
A series of small but significant things have happened over the last couple of weeks that suggest that even the government is waking up to the fact that it cannot continue to leave customers of a multi-billion pound industry to fend for themselves.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Waiting game
Posted: April 4, 2013 Filed under: Housing finance, Private renting Leave a commentThis week’s move by Prudential into the private rented sector one is highly significant for reasons that go far beyond the 500 or so homes involved in the deal.
First reported by the Financial Times on Monday, official confirmation of the Pru’s £105 million deal with Berkeley Homes is extensively covered in today’s papers. See Inside Housing’s story here.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
The rise of the property-owning plutocracy
Posted: March 8, 2013 Filed under: Buy to let, Housing market, Labour market, Private renting, Right to buy 12 CommentsIf you had to think of one article of faith for the Conservative Party, a property-owning democracy would come pretty close to the top of the list.
David Cameron reached back to the idea in his ‘magic money tree’ speech yesterday:
‘It is important that people who work hard and do the right thing are able to buy a home. As I said in my party conference speech – it is a rebuke to those of us who believe in property owning democracy that the average age for someone buying their first home today, without any help from their parents is 33 years old. And we are determined to tackle that.’
The prime minister was clearly hinting at something to come either in the Budget or the housing announcement he’s planning just before it. Whether that’s a new stamp duty holiday, or an extension to FirstBuy or even perhaps making existing homes eligible for NewBuy remains to be seen.
Dynamic duo
Posted: March 6, 2013 Filed under: Housebuilding, Housing market, Mortgages, Private renting Leave a commentSo will the next big housing announcement from David Cameron and Nick Clegg amount to any more than the last three?
The Financial Times reported yesterday that the coalition double act are ‘drawing up schemes to revive the flatlining housebuilding industry and help people get on the housing ladder’. On the eve of the Budget on March 20 they will make a series of announcements including measures on shared equity schemes, social housing and support for first-time buyers.
Despite the scoop, even the FT admits that this ‘may be treated with some scepticism given that such announcements on housebuilding have become a regular feature of the coalition – while the industry has continued to stagnate’.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Owning fall-out
Posted: March 4, 2013 Filed under: Buy to let, Housing market, Private renting Leave a commentShould we simply be accepting the continuing shift from home ownership to private renting as somehow inevitable?
That’s one of the many housing questions posed in the latest edition of the UK Housing Review. Now in its 21st edition and published by the Chartered Institute of Housing, the review has long been the bible for housing nerds but it is the best source of authoritative information on tenure and any other aspect of housing you care to think of.
The CIH has press released the story that home ownership has slumped among the young: from 39 to 14 per cent for the 16-24s and 67 to 43 per cent among the 25-34s. However, the rate is falling for older people too.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
One-way street
Posted: February 14, 2013 Filed under: Housing market, Mortgages, Private renting Leave a commentRepossessions are at their lowest and loans to first-time buyers are at their highest since 2007. Has the housing market finally turned the corner?
That’s certainly one interpretation of stats released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) this week showing big improvements since the year the credit crunch hit.
On Tuesday it revealed that 216,200 first-time buyers became homeowners in 2012. That was a 12 per cent rise on 2011 and it’s the first time since 2007 that the annual total has exceeded 200,000.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Growing pains
Posted: February 5, 2013 Filed under: Local government, Private renting Leave a commentIf you drive a car, you need a license, an MOT and insurance. Why should it be any different to rent out a house?
That point – made by Jacky Peacock of the National Private Tenants Organisation at a Communities and Local Government committee hearing yesterday – got me thinking about the whole issue of licensing and the private rented sector.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Changing the culture
Posted: January 31, 2013 Filed under: Private renting Leave a commentAs a new report from Shelter shows that private rents continue to rise, politicians are starting to accept the need for reform.
The charity published figures this morning showing that rents rose by an average of 2.8 per cent in the last 12 months. That’s faster than the 1.7 per cent increase in house prices in 2012 revealed by the Land Registry this week and comes at a time when wages are at a standstill.
Read the rest of this post on Inside Edge, my blog for Inside Housing
Jules Birch 