Posts Tagged ‘interest rates’
Friday, August 1st, 2008
After many months of pretty depressing news in respect of house values, mortgage costs and falling sales, householders suddenly received three bits of good news in as little as 48 hours.
The first piece of news did not make many headlines - but possibly was actually the most encouraging of all. Not many homeowners will ever have had much to do with the LIBOR interest rate. This is the rate on which loans between banks are costed - and for the first time for many months this rate reduced significantly last week. This will make inter bank lending that bit cheaper and it has been the banks unwillingness to lend to each other which has been a main cause of the tightening of credit for the consumer.
Secondly and following hard on the heels of the news the LIBOR reduction - mortgage rates started to drop of the consumer. First the Halifax, then a group of lenders including the Bank of Scotland and the Newcastle Building society all announced rate cuts on a range of products. Other lenders are expected to follow suit - prompting some observers to suggest that the “credit crunch” has at least peaked and a gradual return to more normal conditions has already started.
Thirdly the National Housing Federation has just predicted a massive increase of 25% in house prices in England and Wales by 2013. The Federation bases its predictions on an increasing demand for households caused by social trends such as longevity, coupled with limited supply.
All and all this information can only encourage householders, who have been a beleaguered species recently. David Borrowman Caesar and Howie managing partner comments “We have little doubt that housing assets will go up in value over the medium term. All the data we have, increased longevity, immigration, different family groupings point to increasing demand over time for houses. Perversely the current slow down in building units will simply fuel higher price rises in the future, once the current difficult market conditions start to improve”
Tags: housing market, interest rates
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Friday, May 9th, 2008
People hoping to buy a house in Scotland may be interested to know that one industry body has called for more interest rate cuts from the Bank of England.
Convex.net, a company of online property conveyancers, has claimed that the Bank of England should take further measures to bolster the housing market.
Duncan Samuel, managing director of the organisation, commented that the lack of activity of lenders is having an adverse effect on the market.
“It is clear that very soon the Bank of England will need to do something to bring the Libor rate down to free up mortgage funds,” he said.
This follows the Bank’s decision yesterday (May 8th) to maintain the base interest rate at five per cent.
The decision met with disappointment among several industry bodies, including the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, which stated that the fact that housing transactions have recently collapsed and that consumer confidence has reached new lows needs to be remedied.
Tags: interest rates, Scotland
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Thursday, May 8th, 2008
Housing market experts have today (May 8th) expressed their disappointment over the Bank of England’s (BoE) interest rate decision.
In news that may be of interest to those looking to buy a house in Scotland, the BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee has decided to maintain the official bank rate paid on commercial bank reserves at five per cent.
According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), this may not be good enough to rectify the current economic chaos.
“The Rics is disappointed that the MPC chose to leave the base rate on hold today,” says Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at Rics.
“Housing transactions have collapsed, consumer confidence has sunk to its lowest level since 1992, the service sector appears close to stagnation … and the retail sector is under immense pressure,” he added.
Furthermore, SmartNewHomes.com has commented that the UK is in need of another base rate cut, going on to claim that lenders should take up the BoE liquidity scheme in order to boost UK lending.
Tags: interest rates
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Monday, April 7th, 2008
A majority of financial experts are predicting that the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee (MPC) will cut the base rate of interest when they meet this week.
Following March’s decision to hold the interest rate at 5.25 per cent, experts from the likes of Capital Economics, Barclays Capital, Nationwide and Global Insight are among those expecting the rate to be cut, potentially good news for those looking to buy a house in Scotland.
Furthermore, Nationwide believes that by the end of 2008, the interest rate could be below five per cent for the first time since October 2006.
“In the future we are anticipating that there will be two further rate cuts for the rest of 2008 and we’re expecting interest rates to come in at around 4.75 per cent by the end of the year,” the building society said.
Lloyds TSB and HSBC are among those expecting a repeat of the March announcement of no change, with those looking to buy a house in Scotland no doubt hoping the minority are incorrect.
The Bank’s MPC will announce their decision on Thursday.
Tags: interest rates
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