the heatons property blog

• There are 14.4 million households across England who own their own home, either outright or with a mortgage. This is 63% of all households.
• Of these, the latest results from the Survey of English Housing estimate that 576,000 (4%) are planning to move within the next six months.
• Moving up the ladder to a larger home is the primary motivation for existing owners, although not for those who own their home outright. Almost a third of those who own outright are looking to downsize.
• As the new school year gets underway shortly, moving home to be in particular school catchment areas is a motivation for almost 10% of owners with a mortgage.

• £873 billion – the total value of mortgage debt across England, according to the latest data released by UK Finance. That equates to just over £130,000 for every owner occupier mortgaged household across England.
• The level of mortgage debt is rising, up 2% on a year ago, and 8% higher than four years ago. That’s not surprising given stretched affordability and the increasing number of longer term mortgages. Over half of all first-time buyer mortgages are issued for a period of 30 years or more according to the 2017/18 English Housing Survey, up from just 40% in 2015/16.
• The level of debt per household is highest across the capital, where property prices are close to twice the England average. Less than half of all households across London are owner occupiers, just 22% of households are owner occupiers with a mortgage. This compares to 65% and 30% respectively across the rest of England.
• To date in 2018, 95% of all new mortgages issued for new homes and remortgages have been on fixed rate deals. While the average interest rate has increased slightly, from 2.09% in January to 2.2% in May, this remains low compared to historic standards and any interest rate rise is unlikely to cause significant waves across the market.

The property market fluctuates on a seasonal basis, and this is particularly the case for sales rates. This chart shows how the market has changed over the course of the last few months. The most recent periods are estimates based on the previous year’s pattern.

As you’re no doubt aware, there’s a lot of doom and gloom surrounding the national property market at the moment. For example the Nationwide index showed that in June, annual house price growth had slowed to a five-year low. Our area hasn’t been immune; in the first quarter of 2018, there were 18.7 per cent fewer sales than the same period in the previous year.