Houselungo 15 August 21
A lungo length look at this week's housing market news
RICS Survey Three down, one up
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) released their UK residential survey for July today
What they said
New buyer enquiries and newly agreed sales dip over the month
The volume of fresh listings coming onto the sales market remains in decline
Lack of supply still underpinning house price growth
Twindig Take
Following the first step down in the Stamp Duty Holiday benefit, it is of no huge surprise that housing market activity in July was lower than that seen in June as homebuyers rushed to complete their house purchases before the 30 June to take advantage of the £500,000 Stamp Duty Holiday limit before it reduced to £250,000 on 1 July. However, which of the three key housing market indicators were down and which one was up?
Help to Buy continues to help
The UK Government released the Q1 2021 Help to Buy statistics this morning.
What they said
15,341 properties were bought with help to buy in Q1 2021
This is an increase of 61% from Q1 2020
The total value of capital deployed in Help to Buy so far is £20.1bn
Twindig take
Help to Buy is helping. The 15,341 households helped in Q1 2021 takes the total helped to 328,506. During Q1 2021 the total value of equity loans was £1,158 million supporting the purchase of more than £5bn worth of residential property.
Bellway firm foundations for the future
National housebuilder Bellway issued its financial year end trading update on Tuesday this week
What they said
Strong recovery in housing revenue up 41% to over £3.1 billion
Record investment in land
Good underlying housing demand across the country
Twindig take
Further evidence from Bellway today that the housing market recovery is built on firm foundations. Sales rates in FY2021 were ahead of FY2020 and, more importantly, ahead of FY2019. Forward sales are at record levels, and Bellway has added a record number of plots to the landbank. Bellway had a strong financial year last year; it is having a strong financial year this year and it is looking very likely that next year will be even stronger.
Twindig Housing Market Index
The Twindig Housing Market Index nudged up by just 0.1% this week, its smallest increase since 22 May 2020. It was a quiet week for housing market news, but the news was positive. Bellway issued a strong trading update and is investing heavily in its future, which we take as a sign of confidence regarding the medium-long term outlook for the UK housing market. RICS data was mixed, but good for house prices, but the story of the week was has Purplebricks been disrupted by the market it is trying to disrupt?