ROOF Blog

Mortgage lending fell by 10 per cent during November as the market suffered its traditional seasonal slowdown, figures showed today. A total of £12bn was advanced during the month, down from £13.3bn in October and 14 per cent less than in November last year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The group said a modest decline was typically seen between October and November, although the 10 per cent fall was ‘a little larger’ than normal. But it added that market conditions were holding steady and it did not expect much change during the coming months. The CML’s economist, Paul Samter, said: ‘There could be a modest decline in underlying house buying activity in early 2010 due to the stamp duty holiday ending, with activity ‘bunching’ over the last few months of 2009.’

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has shortlisted 265 bids totalling nearly £550m in round two of its Kickstart housing delivery programme.

Shortlisted bidders include a mix of RSLs along with national and local developers aiming to unlock up to 22,000 homes across the country.

Bidding opened in September with the criteria that eligible schemes should be housing-led with a minimum of 50 homes (fewer in rural areas or if the scheme delivers to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 or 6) and that sites should have detailed planning consent in place or the ability to achieve this by the end of March 2010.

Sir Bob Kerslake, HCA chief executive, said: ‘Kickstart continues to be a crucial component in maintaining momentum in the house building industry.’

A due diligence process will now follow, which will look in detail at value for money, design, financial viability and risk, as well as an assessment of quick delivery.

The seemingly inexhaustible demand for property meant that house prices continued to rise last month, despite a fresh supply of stock coming on to the housing market.

The proportion of estate agents reporting an increase rather than a decrease in house prices was at its highest for three years, according to figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The figures show that 35 per cent of surveyors reported rising rather than falling prices in the past three months, up from 34 per cent in October and the highest quarterly reading since November 2006.

The era in which all Britons aspire to own their own home may be coming to an end, according to the Housing minister, John Healey.

In a controversial speech, he suggested that Britain may be moving towards a European model, with renting on a roughly equal footing with buying.

He said home ownership had fallen from 71 per cent of households in 2003 to 68 per cent today, noting that this trend began in 2005, well before the recession.

A new model with greater flexibility is needed, he argued, allowing people to change from buying to renting without moving home.

‘Not all or nothing, but a flexible system which suits the different stages in people’s lives,’ he said.

A total of 55,300 mortgages for house purchases were granted by lenders in October, the highest number since December 2007, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said today.

Activity in the housing market has increased markedly since reaching a trough in January when just 23,000 home loans were advanced during the month.

The bulk of the market is made up of home movers, with 35,600 of October’s loans going to borrowers who already own a property, a 49 per cent increase on the same period last year.

However, first-time buyer numbers have also recovered since the start of the year, more than doubling from 8,900 in January to 19,700.

Greg and Diane Horoski bought their home before the boom and, when house prices soared, increased their mortgage to finance a small business.

Interest rates rose, health bills poured in, and then the housing market crashed so that they ended up owing thousands of dollars more than their bungalow was worth.

Yesterday they went to court in New York expecting to be thrown out – but instead they emerged with their debt of $500,000 (£300,000) written off and a mortgage-free home.

Judge Jeffrey Spinner ruled that their lender’s behaviour had been ‘harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive to the extent that it must be appropriately sanctioned so as to deter it from imposing further mortifying abuse’.

The decision, which is to be the subject of an appeal, offers possible relief for some of the 7.5 million Americans who are behind with their mortgages and face losing their homes.

One in seven homes in America is now in the process of being repossessed as many families find it impossible to pay off the high-interest mortgages that were handed out in abundance when the property market was at its height.