Welcome to the Money Hospital blog.
Mark,
Joy,
Jeni,
Bill,
Sergey
and others are here to bring you the latest money and personal finance
news, stories and commentary, as well as money savings tips and suggestions.
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How many of us could do with a ‘helping hand’ to get on the housing ladder?
The old way—save a deposit and find an affordable house—is tougher than ever. The housing market is still flat as a flounder. Mortgages are still scarce. Savings interest is miserable. Incomes are falling and inflation rising.
So if you’re a first time buyer, or want to be, can you afford much more waiting around?
Hands up those who have sat through economics lessons at school or university? Those of you now with your hands up will certainly remember that the law of supply and demand is just about the first thing that you learn.
Let’s face it. For nearly every reader of this blog, the housing market has served up just about the least rewarding outcome we could have hoped for. First time buyers are in as sticky a situation as ever. Home owners are still nervous about shifting house prices. Buy to let investors haven’t seen the growth they were hoping for. But if we’re all losers, who exactly are the winners?
That’s when it occurred to me. Who exactly is this market pleasing?
If you think it's difficult getting on the mortgage ladder when you're a would– be First Time Buyer, you're right – we've noticed that too.
But there's a whole bunch of people who have it a lot worse.
What can you be sure of, when it comes to house prices at the moment?
Are they up? Are they down? Does anybody know for sure?
They don’t, and they even admit it. Chris Giles, the FT’s economics editor, talks about the
“persistent uncertainty” in the housing market. Nationwide’s chief economist Robert Gardner
says “the outlook is still highly uncertain”.
This year has become the most competitive year for university admissions in a decade. But as university towns brace themselves for the latest influx of students, we ask just what effect is the influx of students having on local property markets?
New analysis shows that 60% of the UK’s university towns saw house price growth outperform the region that they’re based in. We take a look at what that means for the cost of housing near universities. Is it good news or bad?
