Brickonomics

New Year stamp duty switchback will have little impact, says RICS

For those interested in what will happen when the stamp duty holiday comes to an end on December 31, the surveyors' body RICS has done a little bit of research among its members. Basically, the results seem to suggest that...

Posted by Brian on November 16, 2009 11:34 AM

Building Britain's Future promises 45,000 new jobs building homes - That can't be right

Has anyone else prodded the sums on the 45,000 new jobs promised in the Building Britain's Future document as a result of the £1.5 billion pledged to stimulate building of 20,000 social and 10,000 private homes? I would have had...

Posted by Brian on July 6, 2009 5:51 PM

More buyers sniffing around for bargain buys in the housing market, says RICS

More green shoots appear to be sprouting in the housing market with the surveyors' body RICS finding an increase in interest among potential homebuyers over the past three months. Sensibly RICS economists are not getting over excited by this, after...

Posted by Brian on February 17, 2009 1:58 AM

If 2008 was bad for the housing market, 2009 looks much worse

There are plenty of scary figures in the latest forecast from the Council of Mortgage Lenders not least the expectation that half a million homeowners will fall into arrears. The expectation that 75,000 homes will be repossessed by mortgage lenders...

Posted by Brian on December 18, 2008 5:52 PM

No Christmas present for estate agents or the economy in RICS figures

Two bits of good news for house sellers and builders in the latest housing market survey by the surveyors' body RICS. The graph showing the proportion of surveyors reporting prices falls appears to have bottomed out. And the graph showing...

Posted by Brian on December 9, 2008 9:44 AM

Prepare for a bleak winter on house prices

On the face of it the steady easing over the past three months in the monthly rate of decline in house prices measured by Nationwide is encouraging to those who want to see the market stabilise. For the policy makers...

Posted by Brian on November 27, 2008 11:51 AM

How to save 150,000 construction jobs, earn the Treasury £16 billion and create 200,000 new homes

Imagine that Chancellor Alistair Darling had decided to boost public spending by investing £20 billion of taxpayers' money over the next two years in buying land and building homes earmarked for eventual open market sale. What would be the net...

Posted by Brian on November 25, 2008 3:50 PM

Stamp duty down £500 million a month

The latest figures for tax receipts suggest that the Government is down about £500 million a month in stamp duty revenue. Taking the three months to October the revenue trawled in £2,162 million in stamp duty. This compares with £3,926...

Posted by Brian on November 21, 2008 2:54 PM

South West housing deals hit hardest as market slowed

If the health of the housing market is a function of turnover and price growth then the amount of stamp duty taken from residential sales should provide a fairly good means of diagnosis. In rough and ready terms. So it...

Posted by Brian on September 30, 2008 10:39 AM

Treasury faces £4.5 billion hole as house sales and stamp duty receipts slump

The steady decline in the UK housing market has been underlined by the latest numbers to come out of HM Revenue & Customs. They show sales of homes dropping to 72,000 in August, compared with 164,000 last August The figures...

Posted by Brian on September 24, 2008 1:30 PM

Probably the worst Halifax house price figures ever - unless you're a homebuyer

So house prices dropped a further 1.7% in July according to Halifax (HBOS). For those concerned about the depth of any correction in the housing market that will be worrying. Added to the other eight monthly falls there have been...

Posted by Brian on August 7, 2008 12:36 PM

Plunging house sales create major tax headache for Darling

If I were the Chancellor looking at the latest property transaction figures I wouldn't be worried, I'd be very worried. At 270,000 transactions for residential property in the second quarter, we are looking at a housing market about 38% less...

Posted by Brian on July 22, 2008 2:24 PM

House sales drop a third as credit crunch bites

The latest transaction figures from HM Revenue & Customs underline the industry fears of a collapse in home sales. They show that sales of property worth more than £40,000 have fallen by more than a third since the credit crunch...

Posted by Brian on June 23, 2008 11:56 AM