House prices fell by 0.9% in August, their second consecutive monthly decline, according to Nationwide’s monthly report.

This fall took the annual rate at which house prices have been increasing down from 6.6% to 3.9%, and the average price of a house down from £169,347 to £166,507.

Based on Halifax's own house price data, owners of detached properties have seen the value of their home increase by £91 a day over the past year, with the average price rising by 13% from £266,060 in 2009 Q2 to £299,295 in 2010 Q2. Prices for all other property types rose by 8-9% over the period.

The number of first-time buyers has fallen steeply in the past 12 months, according to property website Rightmove.

This time last year about 31% of prospective buyers were looking for their first home in the next year, but this figure has now fallen to 22%.

More people are choosing to rent rather than buy, according to the July RICS Residential Lettings Survey.

Continued difficulty in securing mortgage finance, worries over a double dip in housing and large deposits required by lenders were the main factors behind this trend.

More than 1.1m homeowners have tried unsuccessfully to sell their property over the past 12 months – compared with 725,000 successful transactions, according to research from Santander Mortgages.

A further 755,000 Britons say they have attempted to purchase a property without success over the past 12 months.

The number of housing units started in the second quarter of 2010 in England rose to 28,590, the highest since the second quarter of 2008, according to figures released today by the Communities and Local Government department.

There was a 13% increase over the first quarter of this year, with both private and public sectors contributing to the improvement.

An over-supply of properties for sale, combined with a decline in buyer interest during the summer holiday season, has seen asking prices fall for the second successive month, according to property website Rightmove.

Sellers reduced their asking price by an average of 1.7% in August, while the number of properties on estate agents' books increased for the sixth month in a row.

Head for Bridlington, Withernsea and Hornsea in Yorkshire or Peterhead and Fraserburgh in Scotland if it is a good quality of life by the seaside for a reasonable price (between £91,000 and £126,000 for an average property) that you are looking for. That is the advice given by the second Halifax Seaside Town Quality of Life review.

At the other and of the scale, Sandbanks in Poole harbour remains the most expensive seaside town, with an average house price of £544,951, followed by Milford-on-Sea in Hampshire (£334,717) and Lyme Regis in Dorset (£308,063).

House prices have been falling for the first time since July 2009, according to the latest poll of surveyors by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), released today, 10 August. Demand from purchasers has been slipping and the number of properties coming to the market has continued to increase, the RICS UK Housing Market survey said.

Eight per cent more surveyors reported a fall rather than rise in house prices - the lowest reading in more than a year, when 16% more reported price falls. In contrast, last month saw 8% more surveyors reporting rising, not falling, prices. Regionally, the only areas which continued to see material price rises in the past month were London and the North West.

The price of a first home is now 4.6 times higher than the average gross salary in the UK.

The total value of privately-owned housing stock in the UK more than doubled over the past decade, new Halifax research shows.

There was a 118% increase, from £1,719bn in 1999 to an estimated £3,755bn in 2009. During the same period, the retail price index rose by 29%.

House prices increased by 0.6% in July, reversing the 0.6% fall in June, according to the latest Halifax index.

The annual increase in prices now stands at 4.9%, as measured by the average for the latest three months against the same period a year earlier. This was below the 6.3% increase in June and compares with a recent high of 6.9% in May.

House prices fell by 0.5% in July, reducing the annual rate of house price inflation from 8.7% to 6.6%, according to the latest Nationwide house price index.

The price of the average home is now £169,347, almost the same as in July 2008.

House prices are set to fall in real terms by about 8% over the next five years, as inflation runs ahead of modest increases in property values, says the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). 

This means that, taking inflation into account, real house prices will have fallen to the levels they were at in 2003 by 2015.

Almost £1bn has been wiped off the share value of Britain's seven leading housebuilders since the general election in May.

Concerns about cuts to the public investment budget and proposed changes to the planning system that will make it easier for councils to block developments are the main reasons, according to the Guardian.

House prices will fall over the next few months, thanks to a combination of more properties coming on to the market and continuing economic uncertainty, according to the latest poll by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics).

Sellers have been returning to the market at levels not seen for three years, the poll showed. This was driven, in part, by the decision to abolish Home Information Packs (Hips).

In a sign of better times in the property market, Bovis Homes has announced that it will start paying dividends at the end of this year.

Bovis completed 803 homes in the first six months, 6% more than in the same period last year.

House prices fell by 0.6% in June, compared with a drop of 0.5% in May, according to the Halifax index. The average price of a house is now £166,203, 17% lower than its peak in August 2007.

Prices in the second quarter of 2010 were 0.1% lower than in the first quarter, continuing the slowdown in the pace of house price growth since the beginning of the year. There was a 0.6% rise in Q1 of 2010.

The price of a typical UK property increased by just 0.1% in June, and the annual rate of house price inflation fell from 9.8% to 8.7%, according to the latest Nationwide index.

The average house price is now £170,111, compared to £169,162 in May.

House prices fell by 0.2% between April and May, even though the annual rise was 8.2%, according to the Land Registry’s House Price Index.

This was the first monthly decrease since March 2009, but the seventh successive month when the year-on-year figure has risen.

The pace of property price rises has slowed down over the past month, according to property website Rightmove. This suggests that the recent recovery in the housing market may come to a halt.

Asking prices have increased by just 0.3% in June, compared with 0.7% in May. The suspension of home information packs (HIPs) had led to a 22% surge in people putting their property up for sale, while property investors' fears over a likely rise in capital gains tax and the continuing mortgage famine saw demand drop.

House prices edged up in May, according to a survey of members by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

It said at the same time that the Government's decision to abolish HIPS had given supply a boost.

Twenty two per cent more chartered surveyors reported a rise than a fall in house prices, up from 19% in April. Surveyors are still reporting house price rises in most parts of the country. The exceptions, according to the latest survey, are Northern Ireland, Wales, Yorkshire and Humberside and the West Midlands.

Would be homebuyers would be better off taking the plunge and purchasing a property than continuing to rent, research has found.

As the Government announces it will help first time buyers get on the property ladder by boosting the number of new homes, new research from Santander Mortgages has found that in every part of the country other than London, average monthly rental prices now exceed those for the average mortgage repayment.

According to the bank's research, would-be buyers currently renting outside of London could save themselves an average of £1,040 a year if they were able to own their own property.  The average monthly rent in the UK (excluding London) is currently just over £420 compared to monthly repayments of £334 for the average first-time buyer - equating to an average saving for homeowners of £86 a month.

Any government cuts to housing investment will lead to widespread job losses and plunge the country into an even deeper housing crisis, housing charity Shelter said today.

As the Treasury prepares to announce deep spending cuts across the board, Shelter is warning that £610m of funding for new homes this year is at risk.

House prices fell by 0.4% in May, according to the latest monthly report from the Halifax bank.

Coming after a 0.1% drop in April, the latest drop took the average UK house price down to £167,570.

House prices increased by 0.5% in May, according to the latest monthly survey from Nationwide building society. The average price of a UK home now stands at £169,162, £15,000 up on a year ago.

The annual rate of house price was, however, down last month, from 10.5% to 9.8%.

House prices increased by just 0.2% during May, a similar figure to April, according to property data provider Hometrack. The election probably acted as a dampener on the market.

This means that the average price of a home currently stands at £158,700, 2% higher than a year ago.

Plans to build an extra 3m homes by 2020, on green belt land around 30 English towns, to meet the growing demand for houses, are to be scrapped by the Coalition Government.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said that in future councils would be allowed to make their own planning decisions, rather than having to follow targets set by central government.

The news that the coalition Government proposes to abolish Home Information Packs (HIPS) has been welcomed by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA).

Only energy performance certificates are to be retained under the agreement negotiated by the Conservatives and Lib Dems.

Shelter and the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) are urging the new Government to take urgent action to help thousands of people at risk of losing their homes.

On the day that new CML figures show repossessions were down to 9,800 in the first quarter of 2010 from 10,600 in the previous quarter and 13,200 in the first quarter of 2009, the two organisations say that this reduction is deeply dependent on current low interest rates and the time limited policy measures currently in place.

Property prices are still going up, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), which described the trend as normal for this time of year.

Rics’ latest monthly survey of estate agents showed that 17% more surveyors thought that prices were rising rather than falling, up from 9% in March.

House prices have increased by 6.6% over the past 12 months, according to the latest Halifax survey.

But the lender cautioned that the recent trend has been for price rises to slow down. Prices actually fell by 0.1% in April.

Legal actions against estate agents and surveyors were running at record levels last year, as property owners sought compensation for sharp falls in the value of their assets.

There were 25 High Court cases alleging professional negligence in connection with valuations of residential or commercial property last year, according to law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, quoted in The Times today. This compared with only one case in the previous five years.

The average property price fell by 0.6% in March compared with February, to £164,288, according to Land Registry figures.

But all parts of England and Wales saw a year-on-year increase, with London leading the way, with 13%. The average increase for the whole country was 7.5%

House prices increased by 1% in April, pushing the annual rate of price inflation into double figures for first time since June 2007, according to the latest Nationwide house price index.

House prices are now 10.5% higher than a year ago. Even so, they are still 10% below the October 2007 peak.

The average price of a house increased by just 0.2% in April, according to figures from property research company Hometrack. Most of the rise was accounted for by London, where prices were up by 0.6%.

The rate at which properties in England and Wales came on to the market exceeded demand from new buyers for the third month in succession.

House sales increased by 13,000 to 72,000 in March, a 22% rise over the February figure, according to HM Revenue & Customs.

Sales were also 24% higher than in March last year, when the market was at its most depressed.

March has been an encouraging month for the property market, according to the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA). The number of sales agreed per branch increased from an average of seven (6.8) in February to eight (8.0) in March.

This month's figures reveal an increase in the levels of housing stock, with more properties available for sale per branch – 60 in March (the highest figure recorded over the last six months) compared with 56 in February. More house-hunters also registered their interest – the average number registering with a branch increased from 258 in February to 274 in March.

With the price of first-time buyer homes now rising steadily, banks and building societies are being less rather than more generous to customers trying to get on the housing ladder. As a consequence, first-time buyers now need to find almost £57,000 from their own resources once they have obtained the maximum amount lenders will offer, according to the latest House Prices and Affordability Index from property website FindaProperty.com.

This effective deposit - far more than the theoretical minimum of 10% or 15% demanded by lenders - represents almost 1.8 times first-time buyers’ gross annual earnings, or the equivalent of 21 months’ salary before paying tax, National Insurance or living expenses.

House prices increased by 1.1% in March, after falling 1.6% in February, according to the Halifax.

The annual rate of increase in house prices is now 5.2%, compared with 4.5% in February.

If you are relying on your home to fund your retirement, think again. That is the message from a study by Standard Life, which concludes that downsizing may yield a lot less income than you may think.

On average, downsizing a home in the UK will provide only £43.50 a week retirement income, compared to £53.40 in 2008.

A revival in demand for larger houses is helping to haul the property market out of the doldrums, according to figures from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA).

In a survey of NAEA members across the UK, 78% of estate agents said the main reason for new house purchases was upscaling.

 
House prices rose by 0.7% in March, reversing the dip in February when the month-on-month change was -0.8%, according to figures published by Nationwide. 

Almost one in two of the over-50s think that downsizing will be the key to a prosperous retirement - but in reality this option may only be open to the few who live in detached houses, live in the property hotspots of London and the South, or are prepared to move to a smaller property far from friends and family, warns Saga Personal Finance. 

In the current economic climate, many people in or approaching retirement are looking to their properties to provide them with an increased income or a lump sum.  The average person opting for equity release to help fund their retirement takes £46,000 from their property, and whilst many people say they would prefer to downsize to free up their income, the truth is that they will probably need to release £56,000 once moving fees are taken into account.

Confidence in the housing market remains fragile according to the Building Societies Association's Property Tracker survey, with buyers forecasting that property prices will grow, but uncertain if now is a good time to buy.

Although the survey found that people expect property prices to rise by 2.2%⁴ over the next twelve months, just 49% agreed that now is a good time to buy property. This compares to 58% in December 2009, and is the first time that the proportion agreeing that now was a good time to buy property has fallen below half since December 2008.

An increase in the number of properties for sale has kept price rises at their lowest ever level this month, according to Rightmove.

An improvement in the weather may have contributed to a 34% increase in the number of sellers coming to the market compared with March last year. This is the biggest rise in new property supply since before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008.

The UK housing market is improving at a greater pace than many European counterparts, according to new figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

House prices rose by 1% in the UK overall last year, and by 10% since the market’s low point in April.

By contrast, countries with poorly performing markets, such as Spain, Greece and most of Central and Eastern Europe, especially the Baltic states, saw falls of between 27% and 53% in 2009.

The number of repossessions in 2009 was the highest for 14 years, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

A total of 46,000 homes were repossessed last year, an increase of 6,000 on the 2008 figure. It was, however, lower than the 48,000 that the CML had been forecasting, and well below the 75,000 that the Council had predicted in December 2008.

Property prices rose again in January, but bad weather caused a reduction in the number of transactions, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

RICS members remain optimistic, however, about a continuing recovery in the housing market this year, with predictions of a "spring bounce" in the offing.

House prices rose by 0.6% in January, according to the latest Halifax house price index. This was the seventh consecutive monthly increase, but January's rise was the lowest during this period and was significantly below the 1.1% average over the previous six months. 

Prices have risen by 9.9%, or an average of £15,287, since bottoming out in April 2009. This follows a decline of 23% between August 2007 and April 2009.

House prices rose by 1.2% in January, taking the year-on-year increase to 8.6%, according to the Nationwide Building Society.

The average home now costs £163,481. Prices have increased for nine consecutive months.

The three-month rate of increase was, however, lower at 2.1%, compared with 2.3% for the three months to December.

Houses have proved to be a good long-term investment for some people over the past 50 years, according to a study by the Halifax: the average property has increased in value by 273% since 1959 in real terms. But there have been some sharp ups and downs.

Over the 1959-2009 period, house prices have risen by 2.7% a year, allowing for inflation, while real earnings have gone up by 2% a year. Prices increased the most in the last decade, at an annual average of 5%.

Halifax Home Insurance offers advice to homeowners on how to protect their homes from extreme weather conditions.

"The average cost to repair damage caused by a burst pipe is around £2,000, so it is worth ensuring the home is properly insured, taking steps to prevent frozen pipes, making sure you have adequate insurance in place and also knowing what to do to limit damage if a pipe does burst," said Senior Claims Manager Martyn Foulds.

Prices of big country houses are back at the levels they were at in the early part of the year, according to a Knight Frank survey.

For the first time since autumn 2007 every region covered by the survey has seen a rise in the price of high-end manor houses, farmhouses and cottages, the Financial Times reports.

First-time buyers accounted for only 19% of all house purchasers in November, the lowest level for a year, according to the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA).

The main reason is the large deposit demanded by many lenders, which is out of the reach of first-time buyers.

House prices increased in November for the fourth month in succession, driven mainly by a shortage of properties on the market, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics).

Rics said its November index showed the strongest results since November 2006, and this trend would probably continue.

House prices have risen for the fifth successive month, according to the latest survey by the Halifax.
 
Prices increased by 1.4% in November, taking the cost of the average home to £167,664.

Almost 100,000 people moved home in the past two years in order to get away from their insufferable neighbours, according to research by Abbey Mortgages, which analysed the reasons why people with mortgages move home.

Council of Mortgage Lenders figures show that some 680,000 homeowners who have a mortgage, moved in the past two years.   The most common reasons were the desire to get higher up the ‘housing ladder' (1 in 3 movers, or more than 217,000) and the need for more room, which was cited by 1 in 5 movers, or 136,000.

A group of Labour MPs have put down an Early Day Motion urging the Government to extend the current stamp duty exemption for properties under the £175,000 threshold.

This move has been welcomed by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA). Peter Bolton-King, Chief Executive, said:

House prices have gone up for the seventh month in a row, according to the Nationwide building society.

The average home went up in price by 0.5% in November, and is now worth £162,764 – 2.7% up on a year ago, but still 13% lower than the peak in October 2007.

House prices increased by 0.6% in October, according to the Land Registry's House Price Index.

It was the fifth month in a row to show a positive movement in prices. 

The annual change now stands at minus 3.4%. This is the sixth consecutive month in which the fall in annual change has decreased.

Nationwide has put some figures to the well-established phenemenon that good schools boost property prices in their area. It found that a 10% higher SATs attainment in primary schools equates to a property price premium of 3.3%.

"Following recent revelations around the lengths that some parents are prepared to go to get their child a place at a good school, we have revisited our research examining how property prices are influenced by the performance of local schools,” said Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide's Chief Economist.

The 'holiday' on Stamp Duty has helped less than a quarter of the homebuyers the Government said would benefit, according to a survey by leading property website Zoopla. 

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has made a landmark ruling that the Spanish government illegally overcharged non-Spanish residents capital gains tax (CGT) on property sales between 1997 and 2006. The ruling paves the way for a possible £283m refund by the Spanish government to UK citizens. 

The ruling means that non-Spanish citizens who were ordered to pay 35% CGT on their properties – as opposed to the 15% paid by Spanish residents - will be able to claim back the tax.  Those home owners who only paid the compulsory 5% withholding tax on their property selling price will also be able to make a reclaim.

British and Irish home buyers who fear they may be affected by the insolvency of Trampolin Hills Golf Resort in southern Spain have been given until 2 December to register their claim with the Spanish authorities.

Trampolin Hills sold hundreds of properties to British and Irish purchasers without having planning permission in place, and has been forced into administration, leaving 2,500 homes unfinished.

The housing market recovery is continuing, according to Persimmon, which builds more homes than any other company in Britain.

The company said that trading in the second half of this year has been better than a year ago, sales are up and prices are “firm”, with modest growth in some regions. In view of these factors, Persimmon is increasing investment in new developments.

House repossessions in the third quarter increased to 11,700 - up 5% compared with the same period last year - but the total number of repossessions this year is likely to be considerably lower than expected, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The CML has reduced its forecast for the second time this year, to 48,000, which is only 8,000 more than in 2008.

A continuing shortage of properties on the market will drive up prices for the next few months at least, according to the latest monthly survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

A growing number of sellers are still outnumbered by prospective buyers registered with estate agents, the survey found. Prices have consequently been rising: in October 34% of surveyors reported price rises rather than falls, compared with 20% in September.

A clean house will fetch an average of £5,000 more than a grubby one, research has found. Addtionally, it will sell more quickly.  Almost half the home buyers who visited houses in a dirty or messy condition said they were  completely put off buying the property, and one in four (40%) would knock £5,000 off the asking price, according to research from the makers of Domestos 24HR.

The survey, conducted among 200 leading estate agents, as well as over 2,000 UK adults, discovered the biggest turn-offs among would-be buyers during a house viewing, and showed that sellers quite literally need to clean up their act if they’re to get their asking price.

House prices rose by 1.2% in October, the fourth consecutive month of increases, according to the Halifax.

The average house price was £165,528 last month - still 4.7% lower than in October 2008, but 7.1% higher than in April this year, when prices bottomed out.

The rate of house price increases slowed slightly in October, to 0.4%, according to the Nationwide monthly index, published today 30 October. The price rise was 0.9% in September.

The average price of a house stood at £162,038 in October, compared with £161,816 in September.
Annual house price inflation turned positive this month for first time since March 2008.

The Conservative Party’s announcement that, if it forms the next Government, it will reinstate direct rent payments to landlords if housing benefit tenants so choose, has been welcomed by both the National Landlords Association (NLA),which represents private residential landlords, and the Child PovertyAction Group (CPAG).

The NLA is now calling on the Government to bring forward the Local Housing Allowance (LHA)  review planned for 2010, and reinstate the tenants' right to choose as soon as possible.

The average asking price of a property has increased by 2.8% or £6,188) in October - the biggest rise for the month since 2003, according to the Rightmove property website’s October House Price Index, published today Monday 19 October.

The price increases have been driven by a lack of new properties coming on to the market, Rightmove says, with new stock down 36% on 2007 levels.

Stamp Duty, branded as "anachronistic", should be abolished because it distorts the UK property market, according to a coalition of housing organisations.

A lack of supply is still the reason for house prices continuing to edge up, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveryors' monthly housing market survey, published today, confirms.

RICS says that the headline house price balance recorded the highest figure since the onset of the credit crunch.

The net balance of chartered surveyors reporting rises rather than falls in house prices reached a positive reading of 22% in September, up from 10% in August - this is the highest result since May 2007 when the net balance was 25%.

House prices continued to rise in September, with the average price of a house being sold  0.6% higher than in August, according to research consultancy Acadametrics. This is the fifth month in succession that its index, the  FT House Price Index,  has seen positive, though modest, growth.

Prices are still, however, 5.6% lower than a year ago. The trough in the house price decline, on an annual basis, was reached in April 2009 at minus 13.4%.

There are strong differences of opinion emerging over the state of the housing market. On the one hand, the National Association of Estate Agents (NAES) is optimistic, arguing that the recovery has been sustained, with sales and the number of potential buyers registering with an estate agent increasing to 294 in September, from 238 in August.

On the other, the Fitch credit rating agency Fitch believes that recent price increases have been merely a "temporary respite". It estimates that rising unemployment and unavailability of mortgages will drive property values down by a further 17%.

House prices rose by 1.6% in September, the third consecutive monthly increase and the fifth so far in 2009, according to the latest Halifax House Price Index.

The total increase in house prices in the three months to September was 2.8%. This was the first quarterly rise for two years, and the biggest since the 2.9% recorded in the first quarter of 2007.

House prices increased by 0.9% in September, the fifth consecutive monthly rise, according to the Nationwide monthly index.

House prices now stand at the same level as year ago, at an average of £161,816, compared with £160,224 in August.

UK renters are falling prey to identity fraud as post is stolen and personal details used for illegal purposes, according to  figures released today (1 October) by life assistance company CPP.  They say that one in seven tenants have had their post intercepted, and for some 300,000 people this has led to identity fraud.
 

Complaints about neighbours making a nuisance of themselves have increased by a third in two years, reversing a decade of improving relations.

One in five (17%) homeowners have experienced serious problems with neighbours this year, a peak last seen in 1997, according to a new study from Halifax Home Insurance, published today on HalifaxHomeMatters.co.uk. The report was commissioned as part of the insurer's Peace of Mind campaign, which looks at the factors of domestic life that effect how safe people feel in their own homes.

The average house price in August was £155,968, a fall of 0.1% since July, according to figures from the Land Registry. The year-on-year decline of 9.4% was, however, considerably less than the 16.3% recorded in February.

London prices increased by 0.8% in August, taking the average property price in the capital to £310,640. That is still 6.2% les than the average price a year earlier.

House sales fell in August, the first monthly decrease this year, according to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

83,000 homes were sold last month, down from 87,000 in July.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable announces plans today for a 0.5% annual tax on owners of £1m+ homes, to raise £1bn that would be used to help fund a proposal to lift 4m people earning less than £10,000 above the tax threshold.
 
The new 0.5% tax would apply to the value of a property above £1m. So, if a house was worth £1.5m, the 0.5% tax would apply to £500,000 of it - meaning that the owner will have to pay £2,500 a year. The extra tax on a £4m property would be £15,000 a year.

Almost one in three homebuyers – 31% - have benefited from the raising of the residential stamp duty a year ago.

The stamp duty threshold was temporarily raised from £125,000 to £175,000, initially for a year and then extended to the end of this year in the April budget.

Confidence in investing in property has been shaken by the unprecedented economic environment of  the past couple of years – but not by much, according to the third annual Scottish Widows Savings and Investment Report.  Investors' actions do not necessarily mirror their sentiments.

The report reveals a shift in the way people view their property as a long-term investment: more than a third (36%) said owning a property this year was not as good an investment as before, because of changing market conditions.

The average property sold at auction in August achieved a price of just 70% of the amount the same home could have sold for in the conventional market where transactions are through an estate agent, according to economists Fathom Consulting.

More people are looking to move house, suggesting that confidence in the property market is returning, according to moneysupermarket.com comparison site.

The proportion of consumers seeking mortgages to purchase a property now outweighs those looking for remortgage deals for their existing property.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is investigating retirement home exit fees, issuing formal written notices to 26 unnamed retirement home firms, setting out concerns over fees charged when residents sell or rent their properties.

The OFT is concerned in particular about the fairness and clarity of contract terms providing for these so-called ‘exit fees’, charged to occupants of purpose-built retirement homes, which may breach the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, which protect consumers against terms in contracts they make with traders. The OFT, together with certain other bodies, can take enforcement action to prevent the use of these terms.

The number of people looking for a new home has fallen during August. However, estate agents claim that the expected summer dip in activity was not as bad for the market as they had feared.

The National Association of Estate Agents claims that despite the seasonal dip, sales have remained relatively strong, with the average agent selling eight properties - compared to five in the same month last year.

House prices rose by 1.6% in August, the fourth successive month of increases, according to the Nationwide’s latest Monthly House Price Index.

The average price of a home is now £160,224, compared with £158,871 in July.

A third of prospective sellers (35%) are not prepared to reduce their asking price at all in order to make a sale at the moment, while only one in ten (12%) would offer the full asking price on the property they are looking to buy, according to research by Cooperative Bank Mortgages.

These findings suggest that sellers, at least, are increasingly confident about prospects for the property market. This is confirmed by the research, which found that more than half of people (54%) were becoming more optimistic, and for a third of them (29%) this optimism had started within the last month. 

Bovis Homes gave a gloomy assessment of prospects for the housing market today, as it announced last year’s profit has turned into a loss for the first six months of the year.

The housebuilder says it is concerned about the potential impact of rising unemployment on house prices in Britain, and that it expects "relatively low levels of activity" in the market as consumers find it difficult to get mortgages.

Property sellers have lowered their asking prices by 2.2% in August, according to figures from Rightmove, the property website.

The average asking price is now £222,762, compared with £227,864 in July – the biggest drop so far this year. It was even sharper in London, from £402,761 to £387,265, a fall of 3.8%.

Homes in London and Nottingham were the most likely make a claim for theft or burglary on their home insurance last year, according to research from moneysupermarket.com.

The price comparison site analysed 2.6m home insurance enquiries on the site last year and found that five of the 20 postcode districts most at risk of theft or burglary were in London. Next came Nottingham with four.

Time was when Brits and other foreigners couldn’t buy properties in Dubai fast enough, and at sky-high prices. Every celeb you could think of, from David Beckham to Brad Pitt and Tiger Woods, had bought a villa or was building an apartment block there.

Not any more. Property prices there have fallen by 40% or more so far this year. Many of the expats – up to 90% of Dubai residents are foreigners - have lost their jobs and departed, and the celebs are having second thoughts. It’s the global recession to blame, of course.

The number of UK homeowners renting out a spare room has tripled over the past twelve months, to more than 981,000, or 3% of the total, according to research by Abbey Mortgages, conducted in July. That is a 152% increase on the 388,000 recorded in July 2008.

An additional 3% of homeowners say they are considering taking in a lodger.

Sentiment in the housing market continues to improve, with 8% more chartered surveyors expecting prices to rise rather than fall over the next three months, according to the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) housing market survey, published today. This is the highest figure since April 2007.

The optimism about prices can be attributed at least in part to a combination of increased interest from new buyers and shortage of supply.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has done a sharp about-turn in its latest forecast for the housing market: noting a “considerable shift in sentiment,” it no longer believes there will be a fall in prices of 10% this year, and thinks there may even be a slight increase.

But it fears that a toxic combination of unemployment and a shortage of mortgage finance could drive prices down again next year.

The average price of a house increased by 1.1% in July, to £159,623, according to the latest Halifax survey.

Prices in the three months to July were 0.8% higher than in the previous quarter - the first increase in the underlying trend since October 2007.

Things will get worse before they get better in the property market, according to the National Housing Federation (NHF), which represents housing associations. Prices in England will fall by 12.2% this year and 4.6% next, before a recovery begins in 2011, the NHF predicts.

In that year there could be a rise of 1.1%, followed by a steady climb thereafter: 7.5% in 2012, 8.4% in 2013 and 6.8% in 2014.

The statistics are the first to record the prices of repossessed and other corporate properties by region. The statistics show that, contrary to popular belief, repossessions are not on average sold at vastly discounted prices, but do offer value for money for buyers.

House prices rose by 1.3% in July compared with the previous month, according to the latest Nationwide monthly survey. It was the third month in a row that the price of a typical house had increased.

The quarterly rate of change in property prices saw a 2.6% increase in July, compared with 1% in June. This is regarded as a more reliable measure of price trends than the monthly figure.

Skipton Building Society has gone out on a limb by saying that it believes the housing market may now have reached rock bottom.

"Our view is that house prices have bottomed out, but we remain cautious," said David Cutter, Skipton chief executive, after reporting first-half profits of £17m.

Hundreds of paralysed housing developments in England are to share  £925m in government money in an attempt to revive the construction industry.

About 270 projects could benefit, and a third of the cash will go to housing associations, to enable them to build affordable homes.

The collective value of private rented property has fallen by a massive £118.4bn between the first three months of 2008 and the same period of this year, equal to an  estimated £324m a day, according to the latest estimates.  The worst affected area is London, where private landlords have seen the value of their properties fall by an estimated £37.36bn.

Analysis of market data from the Office for National Statistics, GfK NOP and the Halifax House Price Index by Sainsbury's Finance reveals that there are some 3.19m privately rented properties in Britain.  Just over 19% of properties in London are privately rented, which is the highest percentage for any part of the country.

The flagship scheme aimed at helping first-time buyers to afford their own home has assisted a mere 215 people, it was revealed in a report by Channel 4 News.

The HomeBuy Direct scheme, a new shared equity programme designed to help new buyers into affordable new-build homes, was launched by the Government in September last year with the aim of helping at least 18,000 people with incomes of less than £60,000 a year to step on to the property ladder. The scheme grants a buyer an interest-free loan of up to 30% of the purchase price of the chosen property. This loan is co-funded on equal terms by the Government and by the developer supplying the property. The purchaser finances the rest of the purchase with a normal mortgage of up to 70%.

The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) found that the average agent continued to make strong sales in June, but urged politicians and banks to do more to sustain improvements in the housing market.

There were fewer properties available for sale last month, resulting in slightly fewer people searching for a new home than in May.

House prices fell by 0.5% in June, according to Halifax's house price index published this week, taking the average cost of a home down to £157, 713. House price inflation was still down by 1.9% in the second quarter of this year, though this is the smallest fall recorded since the first quarter of 2008. And as well as an upward hike in January, Halifax reported a 2.6% increase in house prices for May.

Despite the  tough times for residential buy-to-let investors, fewer that one in four are tracking their mortgage options, according to the Young Group's  second quarter survey of investor market sentiment. Just 24% of respondents now evaluate their mortgages at least every six months, compared with more than 80% of investors who were actively tracking new deals this time last year.

CashQuestions.com is offering readers the chance to talk to television property expert Sarah Beeny live online this Thursday lunchtime. If you can't join the debate live at 1pm on July 9th, you can leave a question for Sarah to answer and come back later to see the reply.

House prices continued to climb in June for the second month running, according to Nationwide's house price index published today. The price of a typical house rose by 0.9% during the month and now stands at £156,442. While the average house price across the UK is still 9.3% lower than a year ago, this marks the first time since July 2008 that the year-on-year fall has been in single digits.

After the two wettest summers since records began, the Met Office predicts that we are in for a scorcher this year, with soaring temperatures and less rainfall - the perfect conditions for subsidence, Halifax Home Insurance warns.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has re-forecast its predictions for the number of homes that will be repossessed by lenders this year from 75,000 down to 65,000. The group also now expects around 360,000 mortgages to be in arrears equivalent to 2.5% or more of the mortgage balance by the end of the year.

Flatsharing is helping potential homeowners save £5,200 a year towards their first property. According to spareroom.co.uk 38% of the nation's 2.8m flatsharers are doing so in order to save for a house deposit or while waiting for the ideal moment to buy. The UK's flatsharing population has soared 143,000 in the last 18 months, according to the site.

Property prices will rise by an average of 1.4% over the next year according to respondents to the BSA's Property Tracker survey, as cautious optimism returns to the housing market. The survey also found that 59% of people agree or 'tend to agree' that now is a good time to buy, compared to 54% in March and just 27% in June 2008.

Property sellers are becoming more aligned to the real value of their homes, a report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has revealed. The majority of surveyors (almost 60%) are now reporting that the gap between asking and selling price is narrowing. In contrast, last August results of the same survey revealed that the gap was widening.

New research published by HomeServe, a home repair and maintenance firm, has revealed a rise in the number of 'reluctant landlord' property owners, who have been forced into renting out their property as a result of the economic environment and flat housing market.

A boost in new buyer enquiries, combined with a reduction in the level of stocks on surveyors' books, has begun to provide some support for property prices, according to the May housing market survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Property consultants Cluttons is calling for the Government to abandon its so-called 'first day marketing rule' at a time when the shortage of stock for sale is hindering housing market recovery.

The construction industry contracted by 9% in the first three months of the year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It was the sharpest quarterly fall in output for 45 years.

Housing construction output fell by 10% in the first quarter, with new work down 8%. Non-housing construction output was down 21% on the quarter but infrastructure output was up 2%.

The price of the average home increased by a considerable 2.6% during May, according to the latest monthly house price index from Halifax. The rise followed three successive monthly falls of between 1.8% and 2.3%. The new figures mean that house prices are now 16.3% lower than this time last year.

House prices in England and Wales fell by 0.3% in April, according to new figures from the Land Registry, published today. April's 0.3% slide follows a 0.2% fall in March and brings the average price of a home in England and Wales down to a more affordable £152,898.

House prices took a major turn upwards of 1.2% in May, according to the Nationwide house price index published this morning, which means the annual rate of decline in the value of UK properties has improved sharply from -15.0% to -11.3%. Prices also rose in  March, to go down again in April, and then up again in May.

Activity in the housebuilding sector saw an easing in the pace of the decline during the first quarter, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ construction market survey, published on 27 May.

Construction workloads remained in negative territory for the fourth consecutive quarter, with 45% more surveyors reporting a fall rather than a rise in overall workloads, but that was an improvement on the 47% in the previous quarter.

Britain's obsession with property is still going strong despite the housing market crash, according to new research from Abbey. It found that British homeowners are in danger of over-estimating their property's value by £35,000 or more.  Average homeowners estimate their home to be worth £190,175, compared to official Land Registry house price figures, which actually put today’s average house price at £152,895. 

Estate agents sold more houses in April than in any month since October 2007, new figures from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) reveal today. The average estate agent sold 10 properties in April, up from eight in March and a low point of five in August 2008.

Lending on mortgages for the purposes of buy-to-let fell for the sixth consecutive quarter in the first three months of 2009, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The group says this reflects the continuation of extremely challenging funding conditions as well as general housing market weakness.

Despite signs of slight improvement in the mortgage market in recent weeks, there are still only 163 mortgage deals available for borrowers looking to buy property with a 10% deposit (90% LTV), according to Moneysupermarket figures published today.

Although house sales were still low in April, inquiries from prospective buyers increased for the sixth consecutive month, and were at their highest level for almost 10 years, according to the UK housing market survey of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), published today.

The balance of surveyors reporting increased buyer interest in London was the second-highest figure on record: 70% more chartered surveyors reported a rise than a fall in new buyer enquiries, up from 63% in March.

The average property price in the first quarter of 2009 was 3.14% lower than in the previous three months and 9% lower than the same period of 2008, according to the Land Registry, widely regarded as the most authoritative source of information on the state of the property market.

The average house price was £198,939, with prices falling in the first quarter across all property types.

The average UK house price declined by 1.7% in April, according to the latest Halifax house price Index, published today. This is slightly less than the 1.9% monthly fall in the previous month but still confirms that the general house price trend for 2009 is down. 

As more and more privately-owned properties come on to the rental market, the Government is to oblige landlords to apply for a licence before their property can be rented out, in the hope of driving out unscrupulous owners who exploit vulnerable tenants.

In proposals currently being drafted, all landlords in England and Wales will be forced to sign up to a national register.

The latest guesstimate about how far property prices will fall before they begin to recover is 28%, from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

The CEBR thinks prices will bottom-out early next year, but will recover very slowly indeed, taking until 2013 to return to anything like normal. By that time they should average around £170,000, the CEBR says, up from £144,000 at the end of this year.

House prices fell by 0.4% in April, undermining recent hopes that the market might be bottoming-out, according to figures released today by Nationwide.

The average property price in Britain was £151,861 in April – 15% lower than in April 2008.

Prices fell by 3.1% in the first quarter, which was less than the 4.1% decline in the three months to March. This suggests that the rate of price decline is slowing down, but it is too soon to tell if this is a trend rather than a blip.

Almost five million people have decided against selling their home in the face of recession. But, according to AA Personal Loans research, over six million will be opting to renovate their property within the next 12 months instead, using a personal loan.

A quarter of Britons are planning to make substantial improvements to their homes this year, and more than one in 10 are saving up for them, according to the Unbiased.co.uk advice website. Nearly a third (28%) said they'd like to improve their home but simply wouldn't be able to pay for it.

With house prices lower than they have been in several years, Unbiased’s research shows that homeowners are determined to beat the slump by improving the home they're in.

Bank mortgage lending declined in March, for the first time in four months, in a setback to hopes of recovery in the housing market.
 
The number of mortgages approved for house purchases fell to 26,097 in March, 6.8% fewer than in February and 25% lower than in March 2008, according to British Bankers' Association figures.

The gross mortgage lending figure of £8.9bn was the lowest since April 2001, and was down 47% on March 2008.

First-time buyers and other home purchasers will be able to take advantage of an extension to the hike in the lowest Stamp Duty threshold from £125,000 to £175,000, the Chancellor, Alistair Darling confirmed in his Wednesday Budget. Originally planned to expire in September, the property tax holiday will now continue until the end of the year.

There was a 40% increase in house sales in March, according to HM Revenue & Customs.
 
The March figure of 60,000 property sales compared with 43,000 in February.

The HMRC figures are the latest indication that the worst may be over in the housing market slump.

The suspension of stamp duty on properties up to £175,000 will be extended for a further three months in tomorrow’s Budget, as part of £1bn housing package that will include funding for paralysed construction projects and public housing projects.

That, at least, is the general expectation.  How much of it will be new, and how much is repackaged stuff that has already been announced, remains to be seen.

The proportion of disposable earnings devoted to mortgage payments - a key affordability measure - has fallen significantly over the past 18 months, according to a report published by Halifax today.  Nationally, typical mortgage payments for a new borrower have fallen from a peak of 48% of average disposable earnings in 2007 Quarter 3 to 31% in 2009 Quarter 1. 

Some 900,000 homes are now in negative equity, as a consequence of falling property prices, and as many again do not have enough equity to finance a house move, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

Three-quarters of these borrowers have an average shortfall of between £6,000 and £8,000, but almost 250,000 are £20,000 short and 13,000 have negative equity of £37,000.

New inquiries by potential housebuyers increased for the fifth successive month in March, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) reported today.

Rics said the pick-up in interest in the housing market was gaining "real momentum", but noted that sales were still low: surveyors had been selling on average fewer than 10 homes each during the past three months, as mortgage finance remained hard to come by.

The Land Registry, the government department responsible for registering land in England and Wales, has confirmed it will increase its fees from 6 July this year. The hike is intended to reduce the current 'operating loss' caused by the reduction in the number of transactions in the property market.

From 6 April, home sellers, by law, need to have a Home Information Pack (HIP) in their hands before they can put their property on the market for sale.

Known as the 'first day marketing rule', the change in law applies to all residential property including leasehold homes. Previously, sellers just needed to prove that they had applied for a pack.

Two of the most recognised house price indices, from Halifax and Nationwide Building Society, have reported conflicting views on the movement property values for March. Nationwide defied expectations on Thursday by reporting that the average house price went up by 0.9% in March - the first monthly increase since October 2007.

House prices went up by 0.9% in March, the first monthly increase since October 2007, according to the Nationwide.

The annual rate at which house prices have been declining has now gone down from 17.6% in February to 15.7% in March. The average home in Britain costs £150,946.

As the traditional spring house buying and selling season gets under way, estate agents have been warned not to overprice any houses that come up for sale.

The London borough of Kensington & Chelsea has some of the country’s most expensive houses, and also the safest, according to new research by Virgin Money Home Insurance.

The Royal Borough is just ahead of Dudley in the West Midlands and Poole in Dorset, while at the other end of the scale, Doncaster, Sheffield and Nottingham are the riskiest.

Houses at both the top and bottom of the market increased in value between January and February, while three- and four-bedroom family homes saw their value plummet month on month, according to the National Association of Estate Agents.  But in all cases, the NAEA found that sellers were over-optimistic in their property asking prices.

Statistics show that Fridays are generally the most popular day to move home - but this week will be different, according to research from the Nottingham Building Society. It shows that more than one in 10 home-buyers avoid moving into their new house on Friday the 13th, which falls at the end of this week.

At first glance, it might appear that some potential green shoots are starting to show in the property market. According to the UK housing market survey published today by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), buyer enthusiasm continued to grow in February, with interest in London reaching a high not seen for more than two years.

The price of an average property is still in freefall, according to the latest house price report from Halifax. Prices in the three months to February were 3.6% lower compared to the previous quarter, said the report.T his more than offset the "red herring" increase of 2% in January.

In the most doom-laden assessment yet of the state of the property market, research group GfK NOP estimates that almost four million homeowners – or one in three mortgage-holders - are in, or on the brink of, negative equity.

The price of a typical property fell by a further 1.8% in February, said the Nationwide Building Society this morning, bringing it down to £147,746. This is now 17.2% lower than a year ago, when the average property was a more unaffordable £179,358.

Two UK housebuilders have reported heavy losses, reflecting the continuing crisis in the housing market. Barratt Developments lost almost £600 million in the second half of 2008, after having to write down the value of land it owns, while Redrow posted a £21.2 million loss, and wrote down both the value of land and work in progress.
 
Barratt’s pre-tax loss of £592.4 million contrasted sharply with a £192.4 million profit a year earlier. Most of the losses came from a £494.9 million impairment charge on the value of its land holdings.

There were "some signs" of increased activity in the housing market, the company said, but the dearth of mortgage loans was holding down demand for new homes.

A hundred thousand new affordable homes for rent are needed over the next two years, and the Government should be giving a lead, according to the new 2020 Group, made up of the National Housing Federation (NHF), housing charity Shelter, the Local Government Association (LGA) and the TUC.

Owner-occupiers are returning to the housing market on the lookout for bargains, according to research by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), published today. Many potential purchasers believe the market has bottomed-out, but first-time buyers are still finding it hard to get on to the property ladder.

The latest research set out to discover what is underpinning a sustained increase in the number of inquiries from new buyers, which Rics regards as a reliable lead indicator of transaction activity.

House prices increased by 1.2% in February, according to online property giant Rightmove, to an average of £216,163. But this is not a sign of market improvement, as the statistics relate to asking prices and not final selling prices.

Inquiries from new prospective house buyers increased for the third month in succession in January, and some optimism appears to be creeping back into estate agents’ outlook, but house prices continued to fall, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) reported today.

More than 145,000 households face losing their homes during the recession, and government efforts to help them avoid repossession will help very few, according to the Centre for Policy Studies.

House prices increased by 1.9% in January, according to figures from Halifax published this morning - the first sign of any upward movement for more than a year. This means that, having fallen by 1.6% to an national average of £160,861 in December, the new average house price in January has been boosted to £163,966.

Gross mortgage lending by building societies was £2,395 million in December, down on the £2,595 million recorded in November, and £3,669 million in December 2007.

Net receipts into building societies were £897 million in December, up from £636 million in November.

The number of bankruptcies is expected to increase sharply over the next few months, as debtors’ homes have fallen so steeply in value that they are of little or no interest to creditors.

The number of people losing their homes after failing to meet their mortgage repayments almost doubled in the third quarter of 2008, the Financial Services Authority reported. 

The number of repossessions was 13,161, 92% up on the previous year.