Brickonomics

House building looks set for growth in 2010

The latest Government house building numbers strongly suggest that a shade more than 100,000 homes will be built in England in 2009. This would represent a 40% drop on the peak year of 2007 and make 2009 a record peacetime...

Posted by Brian on November 19, 2009 10:22 AM

Christmas sales come to the housing market

It's the run up to Christmas and we're in a recession - well if not technically, we're definitely suffering from the recession - so don't be surprised to see redundancies on the rise and asking prices for homes on the...

Posted by Brian on November 16, 2009 7:56 AM

The stagnant housing market: More a problem of first-time movers than first-time buyers

First-time buyers are increasingly becoming trapped in their first-time homes and unable to move on to homes that better suit their needs. That at least is the implication of some figures that caught my eye recently when I was looking...

Posted by Brian on November 10, 2009 8:41 PM

Has the housing mini-boom run out of puff?

All the gauges appear to be reading "set fair" in the housing market, so why the long faces among those in the know? The latest RICS housing market survey on the face of it provides every reason to suspect that...

Posted by Brian on November 10, 2009 12:34 PM

Orders figures continue to point to a rougher road ahead

For those poring over the latest new orders figures released today to find guidance on the future of construction activity I suspect there is something for the optimists, but rather more for the pessimists. It must be said that trying...

Posted by Brian on November 5, 2009 12:44 PM

Food for thought for would-be housing minister

The Building and Social Housing Foundation has emailed its latest report "The Future of Housing", which has just been published. It would be rather tricky to summarise the document other than to say it provides a critical look at the...

Posted by Brian on October 19, 2009 10:49 AM

House prices on the increase, but so too are the questions marks over the housing market

The big news is that for the first time in two years more surveyors in Britain said prices rose than said they fell, according to the latest RICS housing market survey. The big question is whether this is the start...

Posted by Brian on September 14, 2009 11:54 PM

House building figures show huge jump in starts and completions

There were two big boosts in the numbers released today for house builders. First, the latest Government data on homes built in England are by far the best for more than a year with a massive leap in the quarter...

Posted by Brian on August 20, 2009 11:45 AM

Summer sale has started in the housing market, says Rightmove

Today's Rightmove figures showing a drop of 2.2% in the price sellers are asking for their homes provides a reminder of the need to remain cautious about the direction of the housing market. The numbers are obviously being spun to...

Posted by Brian on August 17, 2009 8:33 AM

CML provides further evidence of the housing market becoming more buoyant

The Council of Mortgage Lenders today adds yet more weight to the view that the housing market is in a period of stability if not growth. Its June figures show a 23% increase in the number of home loans over...

Posted by Brian on August 11, 2009 10:03 AM

RICS: Housing market remains fragile, despite recent improvement

The message from the latest update on the housing market from the surveyors' body RICS is that while the market may have found a clearing it is not out of the woods yet. There has been a torrent of better...

Posted by Brian on August 6, 2009 9:06 AM

House prices are flat lining, says Hometrack

For the third month in a row Hometrack has registered steady house prices, with a perkier southern market compensating for weaker activity in the north. But this has not led Richard Donnell, Director of Research at the housing market data...

Posted by Brian on July 27, 2009 8:21 AM

House prices likely to rise say surveyors

The shortage of homes on the market has provided surveyors with increased confidence that house prices may rise, according to the latest RICS survey. For the first time since May 2007 more surveyors polled by the RICS expect house prices...

Posted by Brian on July 14, 2009 10:24 AM

Housing market medicine working, says CML

The latest forecast from the Council of Mortgage Lenders paints a more positive outlook for the housing market than it did when it last forecast in December. It now thinks repossessions this year will hit 65,000, 10,000 fewer than previously...

Posted by Brian on June 22, 2009 1:49 PM

Rightmove figures provide food for thought on house prices

The latest figures divined from the property website Rightmove show that asking prices fell 0.4% in the month. And at first sight this seem a little at odds with most of the data coming from the housing market of late....

Posted by Brian on June 22, 2009 9:40 AM

North-South divide develops in housing market - is it a cause for concern?

The latest housing market report from the surveyors' body RICS will provide further cheer for most of those selling homes. The June 2009 report suggests that the pace of collapse in prices continues to ease, the volume of sales has...

Posted by Brian on June 9, 2009 7:39 AM

Homes sales continued to perk up in April, but it's too early to call it a recovery

The official figures for property transactions will make comforting reading in April for those selling homes. They seem consistent with the prevailing view that the housing market, in terms of sales and not prices, is showing some signs of bouncing...

Posted by Brian on May 22, 2009 9:47 AM

Latest official figures reveal extent of the house building challenge

The release of the first quarter 2009 house building figures for England will most likely provide a bit of everything for commentators, pundits and truth spinners. Chances are there are reasons to be more cheerful and reasons to be more...

Posted by Brian on May 21, 2009 10:58 AM

Inflation fell more than expected in April

The rate of inflation measured on the consumer prices index (CPI) fell sharply in April from 2.9% to 2.4%. This should be seen as good news for those operating in the housing market as a persistence of over target inflation...

Posted by Brian on May 19, 2009 9:45 AM

Report shows 10-fold increase in 2008 in unsold new homes in London

The more you scratch the available data on residential development the more astounding seems the transformation in market conditions over 2008. I was invited to be the editor of The Red Book for this year's edition. For those not familiar...

Posted by Brian on May 17, 2009 8:47 PM