* seasonally adjusted

Commenting on the figures Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said:

“The price of a typical UK property rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.5% month-on-month (m/m) in May, following a 1.1% increase in April. The smoother 3 month on 3 month rate of increase rose from 1.1% in April to 1.7%, as February’s fall in house prices dropped out of the most recent three month average. The annual rate of house price inflation dropped from 10.5% to 9.8%, which reflects the weaker pace of increase in May 2010 relative to May 2009. Since reaching a trough in February 2009 – following a drop of 19.3% from their October 2007 peak – house prices have risen by 12.2% and are now just 9.5% below the October 2007 peak.

“Housing market conditions remain characterised by thin transaction volumes and a relative scarcity of properties for sale, despite a slow return of more sellers in recent months. The current supply-demand balance on the market is still consistent with relatively stable to modestly upward trending prices.”

Impact of capital gains tax changes on house prices depends on timing of implementation

“The coalition agreement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats contains plans to increase the rate of capital gains tax (CGT) charged on the disposal of non-business assets, potentially including second homes and buy-to-let investment properties. Currently the CGT rate on such assets is 18%, and the coalition plans are to raise the rate to a level “similar or close to those applied to income.” Precise details, however, will not be known until the Emergency Budget announcement on 22 June.

“With regard to what the short-term impact will be on the housing market and house prices, the key question is around the timing and implementation of any CGT increase. If there is a significant time lag between the announcement of the increase and its actual implementation, then some second home owners and buy-to-let landlords may decide to sell in advance of the higher rate being introduced. Such a development could lead the supply-demand balance to shift more in favour of buyers and relieve the current upward pressure on house prices. However, it is difficult to know with any precision how many people would bring forward a decision to sell.

“The incentive to try to beat the higher tax rate is most pressing for those who have owned their properties for a relatively long period of time and therefore have relatively large unrealised gains. Conversely, those who bought their second homes or investment property within the last five years have little incentive to sell early in order to beat the tax change. House prices have only risen back to their mid-2006 level and the first £10,100 of capital gains is currently tax free.

“If the new rate comes into effect immediately on 22 June, then supply conditions are unlikely to be affected materially as any potential sellers would not have time to react.

“There are some examples of where tax changes have had a significant short-term impact on the housing market. Most prominent was the March 1988 announcement to end double Mortgage Interest Relief At Source (MIRAS) for cohabiting couples. The implementation of the tax change was postponed until August of that year, which prompted a rush of buyers to try to beat the deadline. The result was a temporary surge in property values, with house prices increasing by 18% between Q1 1988 and Q3 1988 alone.

“However, the most recent change in CGT rates announced in the 2007 Pre-Budget Report did not have any discernable impact on the supply of property on the market. At the time, the existing CGT rates of 24-40% – depending on taper relief and income status – were cut to a flat rate of 18%. New instructions to sell property remained very low even after the tax changes were introduced, although this may also have been due to the very weak market conditions prevailing at the time.”

Monthly UK House Price Statistics

* seasonally adjusted

Commenting on the figures Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said:

The price of a typical UK property rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.0% month-on-month (m/m) in April, leaving house prices 10.5% higher than a year earlier. Over the lifetime of the last Parliament (May 2005 to April 2010), house prices have risen by 6.7%. This compares to a 13.5% increase in the consumer price index, the official target measure of inflation.

April’s figures show the first double-digit annual growth in UK house prices since June 2007. The year-on-year rate in this month’s figures, however, received an additional boost from the fact that April 2009 was one of the weaker months last year. Given the very strong performance of house prices from May 2009 onwards, it will take monthly increases in excess of 1% for the annual rate of inflation to be maintained in double digits going forward. The smoother three month on three month rate of inflation edged down further from 1.5% in March to 1.1% in April, which primarily reflects the impact of February’s 1.0% decline in house prices. April’s figures leave UK house prices exactly 10% below the October 2007 peak.

For further information please see  April 2010 report (PDF 64KB).

The NAEA has long campaigned for a major rethink on stamp duty – which it believes to be a tax on aspiration. Today in the final Budget before the election, Mr Darling listened and raised the threshold to £250,000 from midnight tonight.

Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the NAEA, said: “For thousands of first time buyers the dream of getting onto the property ladder was slipping out of reach.

“This announcement has added a new rung to the property ladder, one within reach of thousands of young families.

“We have long argued that stamp duty is a tax on aspiration that smothered the natural demand of the market. We still believe that more reform is needed and there is more work to be done, but this is a good first step – a major victory for first time buyers.”

The NAEA has for years called for a major reform of stamp duty land tax, beginning with the threshold being raised. Most recently in the run up to this Budget the association led a coalition of property organisations in calling for reform, under the banner of the 1808 campaign. More information on the 1808 campaign can be found at http://www.nfopp.co.uk/1808/

ENDS

The latest Bank of England mortgage data published today confirms the likelihood that there may have been a “bunching” of house purchase transactions in December to beat the stamp duty concession deadline.The gross lending total of £13.4 bn in December 2009 was in line with the CML’s estimate (£13.5 bn) and seems to confirm the CML’s view that much activity was “rushed through” to beat the stamp duty deadline. Gross lending totalled £143.5 bn in 2009.

Net lending remains up from the near stagnation in the middle of the year. For 2009 as a whole net lending totalled £11.5 bn. This was the lowest level on record (back to 1987), but higher than the CML forecast of £8 bn. It was largely driven by the relative strength of house purchase activity, which picked up over the latter part of the year, and weak levels of repayments. The CML sees little if any evidence that households, in aggregate, are using low interest rates to pay down mortgage debt more quickly.

CML economist Paul Samter said:

“These figures confirm that the mortgage market ended 2009 in much better shape than it started, but it still looks like a slow haul back to meaningful levels of activity. It should be no surprise if January and February this year appear particularly slow, if we are correct in our view that many buyers rushed to beat the stamp duty concession deadline in December.”

Notes to editors

1. The December lending data is available from the Bank of England website.

Contact details

Name: Sue Anderson

Tel: 020 7438 8924

Email: sue.anderson@cml.org.uk

Name: Bernard Clarke

Tel: 020 7438 8923

Email: bernard.clarke@cml.org.uk

Name: Jayne Chichester

Tel: 020 7438 8922

Email: jayne.chichester@cml.org.uk

Surveyors in the West Midlands, East Midlands, Wales and Scotland predict that the end of the holiday will have a “detrimental effect” in areas that are yet to see a recovery from the recession, and widely expect to see a drop in market activity when the threshold reverts back to its previous ways. The temporary stamp duty holiday was implemented in September 2008 and will finish at the end of the year.

The 1% tax will be reintroduced for properties sold over £125,000 compared with the £175,000 currently in operation, with The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors calling for the tax to be restructured. The Council of Mortgage Lenders calculates that 132,500 houses that were bought funded with a mortgage had escaped paying stamp duty in the past year.

“This is one of those situations where we will have to wait and see what the long term affects are to the housing market, but there can be no doubt that the stamp duty holiday has been a huge help to various regions in the UK,” says Laurence Smith of Decision Homebuyers. “People looking to sell a house quick or who are looking to buy a property are now working under different market conditions, and will have to cater their budgets accordingly as a result.”

To find out more about Decision Homebuyers and their services:
Please call 08456 341 456
or visit: http://www.decisionhomebuyers.co.uk/

About Decision Homebuyers:
Established in 2006 and specialising in fast property purchase, Decision Homebuyers are experts in their field. Decision Homebuyers can buy your house fast and guarantee to make cash offers on all types of residential and commercial property, no matter what the condition.

“We have seen thousands of people in need of the best relocation services. People out there used to relocate because of many reasons which are good or bad. Either way, relocation is a common part of life that cannot be avoided in this modern planet” says Yossarian Smythe of Beemoved removals.
They said it right, relocation is an indispensable part of everyone’s life and there are many relocation service providers out there who take advantage of this demand. Some of the service providers demand huge cash for providing the service and some others just swindle the people’s money and provide very poor quality relocation services.
Thankfully there are at least a few professionals like Beemovedremovals to do the job right.

Speaking about the special offer provided at Beemovedremovals, Yossarian Smythe said,
“People around the planet are really having a hard time now because of the Global recession. People are looking for savings in anything and everything. The relocation services are no exemption. In fact people are in desperate need of the relocation services now because of the job cuts and the need to shift to new places to find a job. These people will be in need of temporary storage of there belongings till they settle down again. We understand that the financial condition of our clients won’t be good at this time and that is the reason why we offer extra discounts for the storage needs contracted for more than 6 months.”

Speaking on the move, Yossarian Smythe said,
“Though we have announced this offer, there will be no degradation in the quality of our service. The 24 hour package monitoring system and temperature control will still be provided for the storage solutions. We hope that there are many people out there who can get greatly benefited with this discount. ”

About Beemovedremovals

Beemoved Removals is a local removal firm catering for the south of England. They have been offering the state of the art storage solutions for the people on the move. For more information, visit http://www.beemovedremovals.com

Press Release Contact Details:

Contact:
BeeMoved
2-16 Coombe Road,
Brighton,
BN2 4EA
01273 20 40 98

###

auctionmove.co.uk will provide estate agents with the opportunity to add an auction arm to their existing business, without impacting on commission.

Estate agents will also be able to have a branded presence on auctionmove.co.uk, generating valuable exposure for both the brand and for properties that are proving difficult to sell through the traditional estate agent route.

In the same way that a traditional auction works, auctionmove.co.uk will invite motivated purchasers to bid on a carefully chosen selection of residential and commercial properties, as well as land and development opportunities.

Buyers can bid anywhere, at anytime and at the end of the auction, if the reserve price is met, the highest bid wins the property.

auctionmove.co.uk’s experienced staff will always be on hand to help with any enquiries relating to the properties or the auctions.

Promising a competitive bidding process and sales that will be completed within 28 days, auctionmove.co.uk is a useful tool for buying and selling property online, whilst also being extremely helpful for estate agents.

Every property on auctionmove.co.uk is also advertised on rightmove.co.uk, the UK’s largest property website, which provides a steady throughput of traffic to the website.

Lisa Obertelli, Sales Director of auctionmove.co.uk, said: “We hope that by providing this service, estate agents will feel they can place their properties on our website. It allows an additional form of advertising for estate agents who are looking for new promotional avenues in a difficult market, with our property finder.

“We offer an auction service for estate agents, as well as offing any estate agent from anywhere in England the opportunity to advertise and promote through our website.

“We envisage this becoming an extremely useful tool for estate agents that will aid many stifled sales in the estate agency industry.”
For more information visit www.auctionmove.co.uk

Press Release Contact Details:

Andrew Barton Corby House, 38 Chorley New Road, Bolton BL1 4AP 01204 399440 auctionmove@inspia.co.uk www.auctionmove.co.uk

1808 Coalition partners are:

• Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI)

• Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA)

• Building Societies Association (BSA)

• Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML)

• Home Builders Federation (HBF)

• National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA)

• National Landlords Association (NLA)

Peter Bolton-King, Chief Executive of the NAEA, said: “The Coalition believes that Stamp Duty is an anachronistic tax which, in its current form, is preventing a recovery in the housing sector – it limits market flexibility, creates regional inequality and its slab structure unfairly distorts the housing market. With the Pre Budget Report due soon, now is the time for the Government to take action.”

The current Stamp Duty “holiday” for properties lower than £175.000 is due to expire at the start of 2010 but in a recent survey by the NAEA, 91 per cent of estate agents surveyed felt that it should be extended. 86 per cent of those surveyed felt that the tax is unfair.

Ian Potter, Operations Manager of ARLA said: “Not only does Stamp Duty prevent those aspiring to own a home from doing so, it also impacts the whole property chain. For ARLA members, this means having to pay Stamp Duty on the bulk price of a portfolio, when individual buy-to-let investors pay a lower rate on the single unit price.”

Robert Sinclair, Director of the AMI, said: “It is rare that the breadth of our industry comes together with such consensus on an issue. But the current Stamp Duty regime is distorting the market to such an extent that we feel compelled to speak out. The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries is fully committed to supporting this industry campaign to reform the regime. We implore the Government to not only listen but, to act in support of our request for change to this damaging tax.”

John Stewart, HBF’s Director of Economic Affairs, said: “It is imperative that the first signs of market stabilisation that have emerged in recent months, and which have allowed home builders to begin tentatively opening new sites and expanding output and employment, are nurtured. The Government’s stimulus measures for housing, including the raised stamp duty threshold, have played a significant part in this stabilisation and it is vital that they are not removed at this still fragile stage, either in total or in part.”

Adrian Coles, Director General, BSA, said: “The current Stamp Duty system in the UK is archaic and in desperate need of reform and modernisation. A fairer and transparent system is needed that doesn’t discriminate against young and first time home buyers, and promotes an effective housing market.”

Michael Coogan, Director General, CML, said: “We urge the government to announce a comprehensive and long-overdue review of Stamp Duty. Reform is needed of a tax that distorts the housing market.”

David Salusbury, Chairman, NLA, said: “Stamp Duty Land Tax is a pernicious tax which has failed to keep pace with house price appreciation. It creates an unbalanced housing market and discourages investment in housing. Reform is needed now.”

Anyone wishing to register comments on the campaign, or on Stamp Duty, should visit: http://www.nfopp.co.uk/1808

If a new build developer or selling agent offers you a discount from so called "normal price" simply ask yourself why the skilled new build developer or agent needs to do this to sell the property.

Editor

*****************

All 49 flats in this block in Manchester are owned by amateur investors – 37 of them thanks to one property club. Now it is feared that their value has slumped by HALF – or worse – in four years.

Richard Dyson, Financial Mail -16 March 2008

Liability: Bridgewater view in Monton, Manchester

The get-rich-quick advertising of property investment club Inside Track has persuaded more than 100,000 people to attend seminars in the past few years.

But profits at the privately owned club, which are generated mainly by recommending newly built properties to fee-paying members, are sliding.

And the number of people prepared to sign up for its £2,500-a-time seminars has plunged. 

The firm, Britain’s biggest property club, last week axed 44 staff and announced it would cease offering free taster seminars held at hotels and conference centres. But it is not just Inside Track that is suffering – so are some of its clients.

Falling property values, a shortage of tenants and an oversupply of certain types of homes mean some landlords are losing money fast. Lenders are even turning away some landlords (see below), or forcing them to pay punishing rates of interest.

Inside Track boss Tony McKay admits the market is difficult. ‘There is less demand for seminars,’ he says. ‘We are focusing on existing members who are still buying properties but at a slower rate.’ There are 10,000 members, most of whom have bought membership for a fee of several thousand pounds paid on top of the £2,500 seminar bill and McKay says most are happy. Not all, however. 

Photographer Gary Hynes, 51, and dozens of others are sitting on mounting losses through investing in a block of flats called Bridgewater View in Monton, Manchester.

Before the block was built in 2004, Inside Track urged investors to buy two-bedroom flats it said were worth £140,000 and likely to attract up to £650 a month in rent. It is not known what the properties are worth today, but a two-bedroom flat in the development failed to sell at auction in December for a guide price of £70,000. The flat is now let for £425 a month.

Gary, from Oxton, The Wirral, and other Inside Track members are failing to cover their mortgages with rental income. They are having to dip into their savings to meet their mortgage bills and at least one is thought to have had his property repossessed. 

The development of 49 flats, all bought by amateur landlords, and in 37 cases on the recommendation of Inside Track, has been beset by problems. The location, build quality and security have been cited as just a few of many troubles. Inside Track denies responsibility.

Property analysis

This is Money’s expert analysis
 

On top of membership fees to join Inside Track, and the seminars they paid for, investors in this block also paid a ‘finder’s fee’ to the property club in return for the recommendation. Gary estimates he has paid Inside Track more than £9,000 in fees, including a finder’s fee of £4,540.

Big losses: Gary Hynes could be £50,000 worse off because of his property investment.

His total losses, including the estimated fall in the value of the flat, exceed £50,000, he says, and losses are mounting at £200 a month. ‘What we were offered was an armchair service where we were to trust the advice given to us by Inside Track,’ he says. 

‘It promised to do due diligence, check out these properties and recommend the best.’

More than 20 investors in the block have complained to the company. It has since paid for a security firm to make random visits to the site but denied any failure on its part.

McKay says that Inside Track relied on other experts for the recommendation and adds that just one out of ten developments meets its requirements as being suitable for investors. ‘We’re communicating with investors and we’ve helped where we can,’ he says. ‘When things go wrong, we do our utmost to put matters right.’

Inside Track will soon publish its accounts for 2007 and these are expected to show a sharp fall in profits and numbers of people at free seminars. In 2006, the number of attendees fell to 25,000 from 32,000 the year before. The number paying the £2,500 fee dropped to 3,400 from 4,400.

Squeezed lenders cut risky loans  

Inside Track’s promises are tempting: ‘How to retire completely debt-free in three to five years’ and ‘how to buy lucrative UK property with little or no deposit’. 

Whether such goals are realistic is questionable, but life has got harder for all property investors, especially those in newly built, inner-city flats. That is because of the change in mortgage lenders’ attitudes to risk.

Lee Grandin of specialist broker Landlord Mortgages says: ‘New-build is an area where experienced landlords do not invest. In a rising market, novices can make money buying anything, but that doesn’t work in a stagnant market.

‘Lenders have been stung and are taking action to protect themselves by refusing to lend or demanding bigger deposits. People who have bought in the past couple of years have been hit hard and, yes, they could struggle to remortgage.’
 

Nationwide Building Society will not lend money to landlords of new properties, while Coventry wants a 50% deposit on such properties. Other lenders to tighten terms on new flats include Kensington, GMAC, Woolwich and Abbey.

Lenders also worry about mortgage fraud. This has mostly involved newly built properties that have been overvalued.

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