According to the Government’s own figures, released yesterday, house price inflation increased by 2 per cent during July, taking the annual figure to 12.4 per cent – the highest level since March 2005. The increase compares with other house price indexes reported in Roof recently, such as Halifax and Nationwide Building Society, which recorded increases
Today’s papers are full of yesterday’s increase in inflation and some are now predicting two more increases in interest rates. According to The Guardian, Shaks Ghosh, the former head of Crisis, is to become chief executive of the Private Equity Foundation, a charity set up by the controversial private equity industry with £20m to invest
The credit crisis has had a significant impact on pay in the housing sector – as housing association employees pay rises for 2009 are being cut by an average of almost 30 per cent. A survey questioned 90 housing associations, representing a cross section of different sized associations, and found that the average predicted pay
Junior housing minister, Iain Wright, is attempting to speed up the house buying process by introducing new ‘good practice guidelines’ that state local authorities should aim to allow search companies to access information on property searches within one working day. Local authority searches are an integral component of home information packs (Hips), which were introduced
The head of Southern Housing Group – one of the UK’s largest housing associations – has warned that the shortage of lenders has made it hard for housing associations to plan developments, and is threatening the government’s housing target. Tom Dacey said that at the peak of the housing boom only 180,000 homes were being
The lead story in the latest ROOF magazine (out next week) has hit the headlines today with mentions on GMTV, Sky News and the Channel 4 website as well as the front page of the London Metro. More than one million people are using high-interest credit cards to cover their mortgage or rent payments, the
Cheltenham & Gloucester is repricing its entire fixed rate mortgage range offered through intermediaries from Tuesday. Halifax, which is also part of the Lloyds banking group, is raising the cost of selected fixed rate mortgages available through intermediaries from Tuesday. The two lenders declined to say by how much they were hiking their rates, but
The real cost of the council tax has doubled since 1997, reports the Daily Telegraph, with the average bill going up £480 a year. Halifax Bank of Scotland lent £74bn in mortgages last year – one in five home loans made – reveals The Guardian. Brighton’s move to a lottery for school admissions could have
The Liberal Democrats today dramatically raised the political stakes on housing with a call for a million new affordable homes over the next decade. The 100,000-a-year programme would be more than double the current programme. But housing minister Yvette Cooper told the BBC the Lib Dem figures were ‘flaky and don’t add up’. The Commission
Housing associations and lenders are calling for the government to change the way it funds social housing, arguing the current system that combines a grant with income from property sales and borrowing is unworkable in the current economic climate. Opponents of the system say that grants for social housing are not high enough and require