News Archive
September 1st 2008: The government is to announce plans to give cash grants to UK first time buyers to help relieve the current housing crisis. The money will be brought forward from future housing budgets.
August 29th 2008: House prices fell by 1.9% in August according to Nationwide. House Prices are now 10.5% less than they were a year ago - that's nearly £20,000 less for the average house, which now stands at £164,654.
July 31st 2008: The price of a typical house is now £15,000 lower than this time last year. However, house prices are still almost £11,000 higher than three years ago.
June 5thth 2008: A new incentive for first time buyers: a bike! House builders are giving away fold-up bikes designed by Wayne Hemingway when you buy one of their properties. Each bike costs just £58, although you cannot buy the bike direct from Hemingway Design. What will they think of next?
May 29th 2008: House prices fell by 2.5% in May, according to the Nationwide index. Prices are 4.4% lower than this time last year, but remain 5% higher than 2 years ago. The average house price is now £173,583.
May 26th 2008: Houses sales are likely to hit their lowest level for 30 years. This is due to buyers waiting for prices to fall further. This is supported by a recent poll by the BBC, which indicates that more people want house prices to fall than rise. Even so, nearly half of people surveyed would like house prices to stay the same.
May 14th 2008: Inflation is rocketing, house prices are still falling and Gordon Brown is extending the shared ownership scheme to all but a few first time buyers. Rising inflation suggests that the money you have this year will be worth 3% less next year - that's because all sorts of prices are rising, in particular fuel and food.
May 5th 2008: In the past week, Halifax has confirmed that house prices are falling annually and Nationwide have introduced a special offer for first time buyers, which includes a £300 discount on the reservation fee, £100 discount on legal fees and no higher lending charges. This offer is available up to 95% loan to value.
April 30th 2008: Good news for first time buyers - House prices fell by 1% annually for the first time in ten years. However, when you consider that house prices are still 200% more expensive than 10 years ago, house prices still have much further to fall to correct the over-inflated housing market and enable healthier numbers of first time buyers to return.
April 23rd 2008: An interest rate hike looks likely amid raising inflation due to increasing food and petrol prices. This is a double blow for first time buyers. Firstly, increasing living costs stifle a first time buyer's chances of raising a sufficient deposit. Secondly, an increase in the base rate will trigger further rises in lenders' mortgage rates.
April 15th 2008: House Prices are falling at their fastest rate since records began in 1978, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. This comes as Gordon Brown is meeting the Bosses of Britain's largest lenders this morning to discuss the global economy.
April 10th 2008: As well as today's cut in interest rates, the government has announced extra help for first time buyers under the Open Market Homebuy scheme - This is the scheme that applies to key workers. However, the assistance is only £1,500 to help with costs such as legal fees and the Liberal Democrats dismissed it as "tokenism of the worst kind."
April 6th 2008: (Reuters) Following a recent survey on lenders by The Bank of England, interest rates may be cut as soon as next week. Lenders are growing increasingly nervous over the economic outlook.
April 2nd 2008: (REUTERS) House prices fell for the 5th consecutive month in March, according to Nationwide (Britain's second largest lender). This is likely to deliver another hit to the economy and it shows that the UK is following the US as it slips into recession. Meanwhile, lenders are competing not to lend their money by raising their rates - another blow against first time buyers.
March 28th 2008: (PRWEB) Nearly half of Britons (44%) would be willing to move abroad in order to get their foot on the property ladder, new research from fairinvestment.co.uk has revealed - that's nearly twice as many people when compared to last year.
HSBC has revealed that Britain is the third most expensive country to live in.
March 25th 2008: First time buyers now have to find larger deposits as lenders withdraw the best mortgage deals. Lenders are worried about taking on risk during what could be the start of a recession. Some deals offered by big banks require a 40% deposit - that is a deposit of over £80,000 on the average house.
Video reporting how credit concerns could lead to a deeper downturn in the UK property market:
Looking for older news?
Sorry, we only started reporting news for first time buyers on March 25th 2008. There are older housing websites on The Internet that are aimed at general home buyers, which might have the story you have been looking for.
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Website founded by Tim Ballard. First House Page.com trades under the name of Tim Ballard.
None of the information contained in this website constitutes, nor should be construed as financial advice. We recommend that you seek independent financial advice from a financial advisor on all financial matters. Despite careful content verification, we are not responsible for the content of third-party sites. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of information on this website. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. Property values can go up as well as down.
