Number of Londoners unable to afford to buy a home increasing

Prime Central London house price growth strongest since 1979

First 24-hour re-mortgage delivered by edeus

City boom ripples outwards

Ignorance of EPC's and HIPS is rife

Number of Londoners unable to afford to buy a home increasing

Londoners are increasingly unable to afford to buy a home, while those in the north of the country are prospering, according to new research from Mform.co.uk.

Soaring London house prices mean residents of the capital are increasingly becoming unable to afford to buy a home. The Mform research shows just 61% of Londoners own their own home, compared with the national average of 65%, and there is increasing evidence of a north-south divide - with more than 70% of people in Lancashire and 71% of those in Yorkshire owning their house or paying a mortgage and 67% of those in Scotland doing the same.

"The north-south divide is traditionally about the well-off south and the poor north. But in home ownership it is the south – and particularly London – which is suffering", said Mform chief executive Eamonn Rice.

Figures from Rightmove.co.uk show in the last year the average asking price in the capital has risen 23.6% to £355,097. By contrast, over the same period asking prices in the north of England have risen just 5.7% to stand at £150,661.

"With average asking prices for homes in London at more than £350,000 something has to give and it is people trying to get on the housing ladder who have to give up and look outside the capital", said Mr Rice.

Prime Central London house price growth strongest since 1979

Knight Frank has reported that residential property prices surged more in 2006 than in the 26 years preceding. Prime central London property prices grew by a staggering 28.6% last year.

Knight Frank’s head of residential research, Liam Bailey, comments: “The price growth in Prime Central London during 2006 was the highest since June 1979 when prices increased by an extraordinary 43.8%. Annual property price growth has now exceeded the levels experienced in the boom of the late 1980s, although the current economic environment is likely to prevent growth levels surpassing those experienced in the late 1970s.”

According to Knight Frank data, the proportion of prospective purchasers making an offer on property has now increased by 8% since November 2006, to over 20%. Much of this demand is due to people wanting to find a property before city bonuses are distributed.

Kensington, Chelsea and Belgravia have been the most popular areas with property prices experiencing an average growth of approximately 4% in the month of December. The majority of growth has been in the £4m+ market, as shortages of stock continue to drive prices upwards.

First 24-hour re-mortgage delivered by edeus

The first 24-hour re-mortgage completion is being offered by edeus for its London & European instant funds service with John Charcol Associates.

Alan Cleary, managing director of edeus, says: “The instant funds service has been consistently delivering us a five-day application to completion cycle on re-mortgages over the past four months, but this is the first opportunity L&E instant funds option has had to demonstrate what its express service can really achieve.

“It offers a guaranteed three-day turnaround and both the intermediary and the client were blown away with the 24-hour service received.”

Simon Holdsworth, senior partner at John Charcol Associates, says: "The edeus instant offer service combined with the L&E instant funds option was incredibly useful. I found myself needing to assist a high profile client at a time when their outlook was looking fairly bleak - Christmas was just two weeks away it would have been impossible to find them a solution.

“Within two hours of walking in, my clients were able to leave my office with a firm offer in their hands. The turnaround was so fast that the clients were visibly shocked at how quickly their outlook had changed and how quickly they received their funds.”

City boom ripples outwards

Prime country house values in the Home Counties increased by nearly 14% in 2006. The latest research from Savills is now anticipating increases of another 15% in 2007.

Yolande Barnes, director of Savills residential research unit, comments that: “The Home Counties are most affected by activity in London and remain the popular preserve of the stockbroker as commented upon in previously published Savills research”.

The top end of the prime country house market, over £5million, is the real out of town success story. It has out-performed all other price brackets since mid-2005 as an abundance of cash-rich buyers have competed for scarce, large family houses and exclusive ‘trophy’ properties at premium prices.

Ignorance of EPC's and HIPS is rife

A survey undertaken by movewithus, has revealed that more than 40% of home-movers have never heard of Home Information Packs (HIPs), which become compulsory from June 2007, and that they must contain an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC).The survey displays a worrying lack of awareness on the part of those looking to move house in the near future, with 83% of those polled admitting to knowing nothing about what HIPs and EPC meant for them, and only 15% feeling that they were well informed as to the issues involved. Since all vendors will have to produce an Energy Performance Certificate in six months time, it suggests that thousands of homeowners will find the marketing of their property affected by something they currently know nothing about.

Robin King, Director of movewithus said: “It is abundantly clear from these findings that home-movers are still ‘in the dark’ over what could be the most important change for decades in the way we move house.”