Extent of housing market downturn highlighted

Extent of housing market downturn highlighted

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Figures released by the Inland Revenue this week show the number of property transactions has fallen to a seasonally adjusted 112,000 in January 2005, down 18% from December 2004 (by 24,000) and 29% lower than the same month in 2004.

Inland Revenue figures record officially registered property transactions, and can take place up to 14-16 weeks after an agreed sale.

The decline in transactions highlights the extent of the property market downturn in activity following four interest rate hikes in 2004. Most of the decline in activity occurred in the second half of the year as households faced a 33% rise in mortgage costs over just one year.

Further statistics for January released by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), showed the first increase in newly agreed sales for nine months, indicating that the low point may have been passed.

RICS' economist, Milan Khatri comments, "A break in interest rates since the last rise in August 2004 has provided a platform of stability which has given greater confidence to prospective buyers. However, further interest rate increases cannot be ruled out. This would keep market conditions restrained throughout 2005."

CLICK HERE TO PRINT THIS PAGE

CLICK HERE FOR OUR FULL NEWS ARCHIVE

Get this news on your website !

If you have a website, whether it is a personal homepage or a fully fledged estate agent service, you can get our news headlines included on your site. Both these newsfeed services give you the option of having the full news content from TheMoveChannel.com - not just the articles that appear on country subdomains such as this one:

Premium service

For just £50 / month, you can now have your own customised news service on your website. With the XML-based service, articles actually appear on a page on your site, making this a sticky feature that won't result in your traffic leaving. You have control over the display format to show your choice of headlines, dates and short article introductions and can apply your own style sheet or control the display format with XSL sheets. Finally, you can also set your subject preferences so that your feed only displays articles which are relevant to your site audience.

Top News Stories:

Brits abroad have 'no regrets’
6/19/2008 - Expats who’ve escaped to sunnier climes seemingly have no regrets about leaving the UK…

Canny FTBs remain ‘undeterred’
6/19/2008 - A new survey has revealed that FTBs are increasingly entering the new homes market with confidence...

Londoners love ‘laid-back’ Italy
6/18/2008 - A survey has revealed that Londoners see Italy as the most desirable place to buy property...

Sponsored listings:


Worldwide	England	Northern Ireland	Scotland	Wales	London	Spain	France	Italy	USA	Investment


Privacy policy Terms of use Support Bookmark now! uk index						TheMoveChannel.com is a protected Trademark. Copyright © 2000 - 2008 On The Move Ltd. All rights reserved.