Legal News

New figures reveal that house prices across the UK rose by an average of 6% in 2014, with properties outside London increasing in value by around £15,000.

In London, however, the average house price rose by £81,000, according to the figures from property website Zoopla.

Property is expected to rise by a similar amount in 2015, despite the property market cooling off in the last half of 2014. The property boom at the beginning of 2014 followed the launch of the government’s Help to Buy scheme, the second phase of which was launched in September 2013.

The Help to Buy scheme was most successful outside London, however – possibly because average house prices in the capital have risen faster and the Help to Buy scheme has an upper limit of £600,000.

The Bank of England has called for the limit to be reduced by as much as half to prevent buyers purchasing property under the scheme from over-extending themselves financially and falling behind with mortgage repayments once the Bank of England base rate rises, making monthly mortgage repayments more expensive.

Zoopla figures suggest that outside the UK, the average price of a home now stands at £268,895. In London, the average house price is now £603,724 – representing a 15.6% increase in the last year – and pushing the average house price in the capital above the upper limit of the Help to Buy scheme.

The southeast of England saw house prices increase by an average of 9.4% in 2014, making the average house price £346,409 in southeast England.

In Yorkshire and Humberside, house prices fell for the second consecutive year by an average of £2,443 – the only region in the UK where property prices have fallen.

The smallest increases in property prices were seen in Bradford, Huddersfield and Hull, where small price increases of 0.8%, 1.3% and 1.1% respectively were seen.

The last half of 2014 saw only small increases in property prices, Zoopla figures show – with an average increase in the price of a home estimated at just 1.4% after June 2014 to December 2014.

Over the same period, mortgage approvals also fell consistently until the reached an all-time low in November.

Indecision over when interest rates may rise and more stringent questioning of mortgage applicants are thought to have underpinned the slowdown in the housing market – as well as some buyers refusing to be panicked into paying high prices for a home and potentially risk being unable to repay a mortgage when interest rates rise, as expected at some stage during 2015.

Duncan Lewis Housing Lawyers

Duncan Lewis housing lawyers are able to advise on a wide range of housing matters, including advising homeowners on debt management and mortgage repossession.

Duncan Lewis is also a leading firm of Legal Aid lawyers and can advise rental tenants and social housing tenants on:

• Disrepair of rented property
• Housing Benefit
• Housing possession
• Landlord & Tenant disputes
• Local Authority housing
• Unlawful eviction.

For expert legal help with housing law, call Duncan Lewis housing lawyers on 020 7923 4020.