People who abhor the pun are probably hoping for an irritation-free Easter. The mixed messages coming from the latest housing data would seem to lessen the opportunity for headlines such as “the market is springing into action” or “green shoots of recovery in every garden”.Mortgage approvals, a key indicator of future activity, are down, although Nationwide’s index shows that prices rose in March, reversing the decline in February. The average property price is now 9 per cent higher than a year ago. Yet, despite the March uplift, Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s chief economist, suspects that prices will stay “fairly stable”, especially given the uncertainty surrounding the general election.
But the experiences of Your Move, one of the UK’s largest estate agencies, indicate that, though the punphobic may be spared suffering this Bank Holiday weekend, they cannot assume that there is no future risk of such wordplay (we will not set their teeth on edge with any more examples, though).
David Newnes, the managing director of Your Move, says that the mood is still “fragile” but reports that his valuers’ diaries are filling up as more homes come up for sale. Mr Newnes believes that this indicates a measure of confidence among householders. Significantly, these sellers are not the residents of easy street: the average price of a house on Your Move’s books is £175,000.
The Your Move business is also registering more buyers, cheered by the larger supply of homes to view. As the result of this greater choice (which most shoppers, for anything from tea bags to terraced cottages, tend to find reassuring) sales are up by more than 30 per cent over the same period last year. The average asking price is up by 9 per cent over 12 months. Although this may accord with Nationwide’s findings, the Your Move numbers contain one surprising fact: cash buyers are still accounting for 30 per cent of deals, giving the lie to the claim that individuals with spare savings were losing their taste for real estate, or had not much more to spend. There appears to be a belief that, though the market’s monthly results may fluctuate for some time to come, property remains a relatively safe home for money.
This week’s revelations about the rock-bottom rates on cash Isas — the returns on which were generous at the outset but are now as little as 0.05 per cent (is this Lloyds Banking Group’s idea of a joke?) — could make this an even more widespread conviction.
Crossed lines
There is a close connection between house prices and railway lines. But, as the response to the proposed High Speed 2 (HS2) line is showing, there may not always be a beneficial link between an improved service and the value of homes.
St Albans in Hertfordshire — the commute to St Pancras can take as little as 19 minutes — tops Nationwide’s quarterly regional analysis. Prices in the town are up by 17 per cent year on year. This beats even London, where the annual increase is 15.7 per cent. In Hammersmith&Fulham, the southwest London location where bankers like to splash their bonuses, prices may be up by 22 per cent since March 2009, but there was a fall of 5 per cent in Barking&Dagenham (in the East, but not yet a smart address for a City executive).
HS2, which will speed passengers from the capital to northern cities, has caused a mix of emotions along the proposed route. In parts of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Warwickshire there is dismay among those who live close to the line. The hard-headed will have their homes valued now in case they need to seek compensation farther down the line.
Celebrity style
More US supermansion news, please. This request has come from readers who pine for tales of celebrities’ sprawling — preferably garishly decorated — residences, particularly those that have suffered huge price reductions.
So we bring you Nicolas Cage’s LA home, pictured above. Previous occupants include Dean Martin and Tom Jones. The house should be big enough for you — a monstrous 11,871 sq ft —and the asking price has also been cut drastically from $30 million in 2007 to $17.5 million (£11.5 million). The much-married Cage, star of Con Air, Face/Off and Ghost Rider, is said to owe $14 million in back taxes.
For readers who are much more interested in the decor of another celebrity — Sophie Dahl — we give you page 8, the facts and the figures behind the tiles in the all-white kitchen that stars in her current TV series. These metro tiles are the style of the Underground, tipped, thanks to Dahl, to become a mass movement.
From: The Times
