No change in interest rates

Barclays believes the worst is over

£1bn regeneration scheme gets the go-ahead

Asking prices increase again, according to Rightmove

Mytenancydeposit.co.uk is not a Government-authorised scheme

The Bank of England decided to keep interest rates on hold at 0.5% again, meaning the cost of borrowing has been left unchanged for the third consecutive month.

Considering that interest rates cannot really go any lower, the bank continues to focus on quantitative easing. Base rates are now expected to remain at historically low levels until 2010 at the earliest, according to Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), with a rise to coincide with strengthening demand growth.

Ian McCafferty, CBI Chief Economic Adviser, said: “With the quantitative easing programme now in its fourth month, the level of interest rates is not currently the main concern of the MPC. There are some encouraging, if tentative, signs that the quantitative easing programme is reducing the downside risk to the economy, but monetary and lending conditions remain fragile. The Bank is likely to need to continue to use the quantitative easing tool in coming months.”

According to James Thomas of JLL, there are tentative signs that the pace of decline in house prices is beginning to moderate. He said of UK residential property: “The three-month Libor rate, on which most mortgages are based, has fallen from 1.45% at the beginning of May to 1.28% now. The fall suggests that liquidity is starting to come back to the money markets which will hopefully feed through to mortgages.

“However, it is still too early to suggest that the housing market has bottomed out.  Mortgage approvals are still down - the latest statistics from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) show that total mortgage lending fell to £10.4bn in April from £11.4bn in March. Furthermore, rapidly rising unemployment and limited access to credit continue to weigh on the housing market.”

Paul Guest, head of EMEA research at Jones Lang LaSalle, said of UK commercial property: “With weaker business sales and lower growth forecasts across the globe, occupiers are under increasing pressure to reduce their real estate footprint. Cost cutting and space efficiency targets are high on the agenda, resulting in the first signs of occupier led space coming to the UK markets. Further rental declines and increasing incentives are expected.”

Barclays believes the worst is over

Barclays Plc raised its forecast for UK gross domestic product (GDP), believing the economy is emerging from its worst recession in a generation and will resume growth in the second half of the year.

Britain’s economy will contract -0.2% in the second quarter from the first three months of the year and stagnate in the third quarter, according to Simon Hayes, Barclays Capital’s chief UK economist. His previous forecast was for the economy to contract -1.1% this quarter and a further -0.1% in the next period.

Hayes said that the economy will grow +0.4 percent in the fourth quarter and keep expanding through 2010. He forecasts a contraction of -3.5% this year, compared with a previous prediction of -4.2%. He raised his estimate on expansion next year to +1.1% from +0.9%.

£1bn regeneration scheme gets the go-ahead

London Mayor Boris Johnson has given the go-ahead for Berkeley Homes and Southern Housing’s 4,000-home regeneration of Ferrier estate in Kidrooke, south-east London.

The existing housing on the estate will be demolished and replaced with new-build residential, 38% of which will be affordable, plus 37,000sqm of commercial and shopping space, community facilities, a new primary school, and recreational space.

The £1bn scheme was approved by Greenwich council in April, and demolition work has already started. The council began decanting people from Ferrier in 2006. Previously it was home to 5,000 people. The estate formed the backdrop for Gary Oldman’s film Nil by Mouth.

Asking prices increase again, according to Rightmove

According to Rightmove, asking prices for homes in England and Wales rose by +2.4% in May, which is the biggest increase in a month since 2003, after a +1.7% rise in April

However, Rightmove said the rise reflected ‘a mixture of ambition, optimism and necessity’ rather than a return to health for a beleaguered property market, because the pricing was probably not realistic and volumes low.

Rightmove’s asking prices are still -6.2% below its level of May last year, and there is little evidence that the rising asking prices recorded in recent months have translated into higher sale prices in the main mortgage lenders’ surveys.

Mytenancydeposit.co.uk is not a Government-authorised scheme

MTD Secure Limited trading as mytenancydeposit.co.uk is not part of Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited (TDSL) who trades under the name of mydeposits.co.uk.

This company does not operate a Government-authorised scheme for the protection of tenants’ deposits within England and Wales. The three official Schemes are Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited trading as mydeposits.co.uk, the Dispute Service (thedisputeservice.co.uk) and the Deposit Protection Service (depositprotection.com)

These are the only three schemes where landlords and letting agents can legally protect their tenants’ deposits.

The claim that “MTD Secure Limited is a company administering a tenancy deposit protection scheme by Tenancy Deposit Solutions Limited under contract from Communities & Local Government” is not true.

Any letting agent and/or landlord using this company should be aware that their deposits will not be protected. They should immediately use one of the three schemes above with which to comply with the law. Not protecting with one of the three Government-authorised schemes can lead to penalties for the landlord.

If landlords and letting agents have already deposited funds with this company, they should seek legal advice immediately. The relevant authorities have been informed.

PIN’s latest mortgage recap