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The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%. The Committee also voted to maintain the stock of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves at £200 billion.
The Committee’s latest inflation and output projections will appear in the Inflation Report to be published at 10:30am on Wednesday 11th August.
The minutes of the meeting will be published at 9.30am on Wednesday 18th August.
The previous change in Bank Rate was a reduction of 0.5 percentage points to 0.5% on 5th March 2009. A programme of asset purchases financed by the issuance of central bank reserves was also initiated on 5th March 2009. The most recent change in the size of that programme was an increase of £25 billion to a total of £200 billion on 5th November 2009.
Source: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk
Category : Blog
More Chartered Surveyors reported a fall than a rise in house prices for the first time since July 2009 as demand from purchasers slipped back and the number of properties coming to the market continued to increase, says the latest UK Housing Market survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Eight per cent more surveyors reported a fall rather than rise in house prices – the lowest reading in more than a year, when sixteen per cent more reported price falls.
In contrast, last month saw eight per cent more surveyors reporting rising, not falling prices. Regionally, the only areas which continued to see material price rises in the past month were London and the North West.
Demand for property, measured by the net balance of new buyer enquiries, fell for the second month in a row, from -6 to -10. Difficulty in securing mortgages and increased uncertainty about the prospects for the economy may have contributed to caution from potential homebuyers.
The number of new vendor instructions, which in effect measures the amount of properties coming to the market, increased. 33% more surveyors reported a rise rather than fall in properties to their books, up from 28% in June.
This is the highest reading since May 2007, the month before the initial planned introduction of Home Information Packs (HIPs). Since the abolition of HIPs in May this year, it appears some homeowners are now a little more willing to test the property market.
In keeping with the trend of increased supply to the market, the average number of properties on surveyors’ books also rose by 4.1% from June, taking the average to 69.1. Meanwhile, the average number of sales per surveyor stayed flat, at 16.6 (down 0.1%).
As a result, the sales to stock ratio – a useful indicator of market slack – fell to 24%, the lowest level since June 2009. Newly agreed sales remain largely unchanged, with one per cent more surveyors reporting a rise than fall in the number of transactions, down from three per cent in June.
Looking forward, expectations for house price increases have also turned negative, with 28% more surveyors expecting prices to fall over the coming months, up from six per cent in June. Despite this, sales expectations remain positive, with eight per cent more surveyors expecting sales to rise rather than fall, although this is down from the previous month.
RICS spokesperson, Ian Perry: “The fall in the RICS house price measure is broadly consistent with most other recent data that has been released. This is a reflection of both the increase in supply following the scrapping of HIPS and the more cautious stance from buyers.
“Significantly, the forward looking price expectations numbers suggest that this softer trend will continue through the second half of the year. However, agents are still generally optimistic about sales activity which should benefit from more realistic pricing of properties.”
Source: http://www.rics.org
Category : Blog
Latest figures released by the Bank of England on Lending to Individuals show that total net lending rose by £0.6 billion in June. The twelve-month growth rate was unchanged from a revised 0.8% for May.
Within the total, residential mortgage lending (net lending secured on dwellings) increased by £0.7 billion, slightly below the May increase of £0.8 billion and below the previous six-month average of £1.0 billion. The twelve-month growth rate was unchanged from a revised 0.9% for May. The three-month annualised growth rate increased to 0.7%, from 0.5% in May.
However, the number of loan approvals for house purchase (47,643) was lower than the May figure (49,461) and below the previous six-month average (50,036). The number of approvals for remortgaging (24,949) was also lower than in May, as well as being lower than the previous six-month average (26,366).
Source: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk
Category : Blog
