ROOF Blog

Figures from Communities and Local Government show that house prices fell 12.5 per cent in May. London saw the biggest decline in England with prices falling 16.3 per cent, while Northern Ireland suffered the largest drop with prices down 23.2 per cent between April and May. Howard Archer, an economist at HIS Global Insight, said he believed a further decline of 10 per cent was possible.

England is receiving a disproportionately high number of immigrants to the UK a cross party group of MPs has found. Between 1991 and 2007, 2.15 million immigrants arrived in England, compared to 105,000 in Scotland, 56,000 for Wales and 27,000 to Northern Ireland. England’s population could increase by nearly 10 million people in the next 20 years, of which seven million will be immigrants.

Figures from Communities and Local Government show the annual rate of decline in house prices hit 12.3 per cent in the three months to February. The December to February quarter saw a fall of 4.8 per cent, compared with the previous quarter’s decline of 4.3 per cent. The drop was most pronounced in Northern Ireland where values tumbled 19.4 per cent over the year; Wales also saw a big drop of 12.5 per cent; England faced an average price decline of 12.4 per cent; and Scotland down by 8.6 per cent. It was the sixteenth month in a row that the annual house price rate had worsened.

Social housing tenants can now apply to buy a share in their home, Margaret Ritchie, social development minister announced yesterday. Tenants with more than five years tenancy can purchase a 25 per cent stake in their home and go on to purchase up to 100 per cent, in 5 per cent increments. In the past social housing tenants could only buy with a one-off 100 per cent payment, but this new scheme has already allowed 100,000 sitting tenants to partly own their properties.