UK Property Boom Continues As House Prices Soar By 10.9% And Sales Forecast To Rise To The Highest Level Since The 2007 Market Peak

Wow! During the worst recession on record, British house prices jumped by an annual 10.9%, the most in almost seven years, and they look set to rise further as people search new homes after the pandemic, one of the country’s largest mortgage lender the Nationwide said.

Almost 70% homeowners considering a move said they would still go ahead even without the unlikely extension of a tax incentive by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, Nationwide said, according to a survey it conducted in late April.

The latest figures demonstrate the scale of the surge in house prices which hit a new record high at an average of £242,832, according to Nationwide, which whilst not the official Land Registry data is widely respected by the industry.

Nationwide added that house prices were 1.8% higher than in April.

Nationwide said there was scope for annual house price growth to accelerate further in the coming months, given how weak the housing market was in early stages of the pandemic.

However, if unemployment rises sharply later in 2021 - when Sunak's jobs protection programme is due to expire - there was scope for activity to slow, perhaps sharply, it said.

Official data from the Office for National Statistics has shown that house prices in March jumped by just over 10%, the largest annual rise by that measure in nearly 14 years – prior to the 2007 peak and later property and stock market crash.

Not all areas are booming and parts of London are seeing sharp price reductions on flats.

Coastal hotspots - in Devon, Cornwall and Dorset - have seen house prices rise by as much as 48% in a year as people ‘escape to the country’!

One million Britons fear losing homes when eviction ban ends - as up to 400,000 tenants have already been served notice or told to expect it due to unpaid rent over pandemic, The Daily Mail reports.

The tenant eviction ban expired on 1 June, which could see thousands of people with rent arrears evicted by bailiffs.

·        Ban lifted meaning bailiff-enforced evictions can take place from now

·        Government introduced ban to support renters through the pandemic 

·        Charity says that 400,000 renters have already been served with eviction notice

·        A further 450,000 households are in rent arrears according to research

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said 400,000 have already been served with an eviction notice or told they may be evicted and a further 450,000 households are in arrears with rent, JRF said. 

In practice, possession claims leading to eventual eviction could take 6-12 months to go get through the county court system, which is already overloaded with all manner of legal cases.

Over 60% of buy-to-let landlords own just one property and many of whom are paying mortgages with little or no chance of recovering thousands of pounds of rent arrears built up during the lockdown.

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