House prices have recorded their largest monthly fall since 1992, says Nationwide building society. Prices fell 2.5 per cent during May according to its latest monthly survey, bringing the year on year figure down 4.4 per cent. Nationwide said that it was the seventh consecutive month of falling prices, and price falls were now accelerating.
Abbey, the UK’s third largest lender, raised its fixed rate mortgage rate by 0.56 percentage points blaming a sudden increase in the cost of inter-bank borrowing following last week’s inflation report by the Bank of England. Abbey recently raised the minimum deposit from five to 10 per cent and restricted interest-only mortgages to borrowers with at least 25 per cent equity. It said that market changes required them to pass on these increases.
Labour peer Lord Rogers, speaking at a building conference yesterday, described eco-towns as one of the government’s biggest mistakes. He argued that eco-towns encroach on greenbelt land, damaging both rural and urban environments, increase road congestion and carbon emissions, and are environmentally unsustainable. He added that government should concentrate on the regeneration of towns and cities rather than build new ones.
Lord Rogers’ comments were timely, coming as the Empty Homes Agency yesterday released its latest figures on the number of vacant houses in England. Between 2006 and 2007 the number of homes remaining empty has risen by nearly 10,000 to 672,924 – the first increase in nearly a decade. As the statistics date from before the credit crunch, the Agency said that the problem was likely to get worse. The most significant rises have been in large towns and cities in the north such as Leeds, Liverpool and Oldham where the increase has been up to 70 per cent in some areas.
And finally, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced Britain’s best new buildings, and the result is unlikely to please everyone. Of the 92 buildings winning an award, most represented contemporary modern architecture, and RIBA has been heavily criticised for ignoring traditional styles. RIBA conceded there was little traditional architecture on its list with one of the judges saying that while there is no prejudice against traditional architecture it was simply that their quality was not good enough. Some of the winners include St Pancras Station, Heathrow’s terminal five and Wembley Stadium.