Proactive Real Estate Network, UK

Happy New year 2023.
Last year was very challenging. But we are all recharged.

Despite the disruption due to the COVID-19 the construction industry invested £92m in R&D between January and March 2021.

The Construction sector R&D In the UK outperformed other than industries.

However the increase in value of property in the UK is 1.3 per cent each month

According to the Halifax's house price index the average house price in the UK stands at £261,743.

According to Halifax the average price of the UK home continues to rise, reaching an annual increase of 9.5 per cent.

According to the Mortgage Lenders and Administrators the outstanding value of all residential mortgage loans in the Q1 2021 was £83.3 B. This 26.5% higher than 2020

The value of new mortgages in the UK surges by 15% in the Q1 2021

The price rise of building materials is due to 2 factors 1) the disruption of supply chain on materials and 2 ) high demand in major economies China, the US and the EU bloc. As such timber, steel, pitched roofing, plastics paints and coatings, electrical and electronic have seen a significant price increase in the UK

New build homes are set to be more expensive due to the current upsurge price of building materials. According J. Newcombe CEO of the Builders Merchants Federation and the Construction Products Association, this is a worrying news for builders and investors.

The landlord gender gap in the UK is closing. The women account for almost half of private landlords. According to a recent research by Yieldit in the field of buy to let women have caught up the men. They account for 49%

In the UK Property continues to be the most significant asset at the disposal of investors and homeowners.

The UK equity release went from £ 1.16 bn in the Q4 2020 to £1.14bn Q1 2021. However this reduction did not affect consumer confidence in the UK property market.

According to the Equity Release Council (ERC) the amount of equity release by customers dipped slightly between Q4 2020 & Q1 2021.

For investor London's Canary Wharf is the best place to buy, sell or rent properties right now. The return on investment (ROI) is great but the entry level is high for small investors.

According to a real estate specialist, L. Hatcliff " Canary Wharf properties are in high demand because they are of high quality... this part of London is living up to the promise by offering renters a lifestyle location, with fantastic homes and world class transport"

Letting inquiries in Canary Wharf London have jumped by almost 125% from this time last year.

A recent research from JLL has shown that Canary Wharf is set to become London's next residential hotspot pandemic. Data suggests that lettings increased there by 63% from 2020 to 2021.

According to the charity's Director Ken Morgan "the bursary programme represents an opportunity to really make a difference, not only in the lives of gifted students and their families, but also to support the future health of the property industry as a whole".

Bridging the diversity Gap in Real Estate
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A charity has launched a transformative programme of Real Estate bursaries to help talented students from less privileged and non traditional backgrounds to enter the property industry. The Charity is called The Master of Worshipful Company of Chartered Surveyors.

Research shows that across the market in England ,£ 2.9 billions was paid in stamp duty in 2020. This figure accounted for 468, 929 real Estate sales and transactions. However a total of £ 1.2 billion was saved as a result of holiday beginning in July 2020.

High end purchasers of home in London paid 15 % of the stamp duty in 2020. Yet the value of the transactions accounted for only 0.2% of residential sales.

As an investor you must understand the trends that drive growth in the Real Estate market.

Although there was a slight slow down in January from the 6.4% nationwide growth, Savills forecasts that the North West will growth by 27.3% in the five years from 2020 compared with 12.7% for London

Since 1952 house prices have doubled on average every nine years. In the 2020s this trend is sustained since supply constrained and demand is growing. Savills forecasts 20.4,% over the next four years.

The mortgages being agreed for the start of 2021 were the highest for the last 14 years. This trend is propelling homeowners to aspire to move to bigger properties and to investors to seeking investments with high yield values on the short term.

Mortgages lending reached £ 76.6 bn in the fourth quarter of 2020 in the UK; however for the beginning of 2021 this was pushed up to almost £ 87.7 bn of mortgages agreed.

More mortgages were accepted in the course of early 2021 than the entire period of this financial crisis (Source. Bank of England)

International Investors and the Recent Property Trends

Regardless of the Covid 19 and the economic slow down, the UK property market is still very attractive to both national and international investors. The sharp house prices in London is currently forcing national investors to seeking for opportunities in cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Birmingham and Leeds.
For international investors the North West of England is a very attractive. They are attracted to Buy to Let (BTL) market. Things are booming over there. Middle Eastern and Hong Kong investors are among those that are getting the best out of the property market in the counties such as Cheshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

According to reliable statistics Hong Kong investors for instance are the second busiest foreign buyers of properties in the UK. They acquired some £ 305.6 million of prime London homes and 6,438 homes amounting to
£ 8.1 billion across the UK as a whole.
This was due to the fact towards the end of January 2021, the British Government started the accepting application from British National Overseas. The political instability in Hong Kong prompted the above trend.

According to Seven capital the impact of the High Speed 2 Train (HS2) for Birmingham will be huge. Once completed The HS2 project linking London and Birmingham will boost the economy and push up house prices substantially.