ROOF Blog

House sales are set to fall to a record low next year, with less than 700,000 homes expected to change hands – equal to households in the UK moving just once every 31 years, double the 15-year average during the past decade. Figures from Hometrack show that prices are set to continue to fall next year by about 10 per cent on average with further falls of 3 per cent in 2010. The volume of transactions is also expected to fall 12 per cent, on top of a 45 per cent drop in sales volume throughout 2008. As spokesperson from Hometrack said: ‘The housing market saw a total reversal of fortunes in 2008 as homeowners faced a crisis of confidence after a decade of buoyant market conditions’.

The proportion of first-time buyers entering the housing market increased for the third month in a row in November, according to the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA). Figures indicate that 10.4 per cent of all properties sold during the month were bought by first-time buyers, up from 8.3 per cent in August. The NAEA said that traditionally this time of year shows a seasonal downturn in numbers entering the market, which means the full impact of recent interest rate cuts and government announcements helping homeowners would not be felt until next year.

Twice as many people are losing their homes due to evictions by social landlords than mortgage repossessions, Shelter Scotland has warned. It found that 13.1 out of every thousand social housing tenants had an evictions decree granted against them, mostly for rent arrears. The rate for homeowners was 6.8 per thousand. The body representing councils, Cosla, disputed the figures, arguing that the number of tenants taken to court and the numbers of tenants councils had evicted was only half the level Shelter Scotland found. Shelter Scotland called on the Scottish government to offer protection to tenants comparable to that developed for homeowners.

The government has announced it is to commission a major study into housing need to determine whether people want to rent, buy or are interested in shared ownership. The findings will play a major part on the government’s affordable housing goals, according to the housing minister who was giving evidence at a Communities and Local Government select committee into housing and the credit crunch. She said her impression was that there was strong demand for home ownership, including shared equity schemes, and added that she expects housing associations to build the majority of affordable homes, despite moves to encourage council building.

The much vaunted Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme announced in the Queen’s speech may only help 9,000 people. The scheme allows households which suffer a significant loss of income through redundancy the chance to defer a proportion of the interest payment on their mortgages for up to two years. But housing minister Margaret Beckett said the government can’t guarantee everybody, and initially said she expected only 9,000 to use the scheme. She added that it would be decided on a ‘case-by-case’ basis with details worked out with individual lenders.