Houselungo 4 Apr 21
A lungo length look at this week's housing market news
Houses earning £12,000 per year
The Nationwide Building Society published its house price index for March 2021 this week
What they said
Average UK House price in March 2021 was £232,124
House price growth since the start of lockdown 1: £12,551
Current Government policy likely to boost housing market over the next six months
Twindig Take
The latest Nationwide House Price Index suggests UK house prices have increased on average by more than £1,000 per month over the last year to £232,134. UK house prices refuse to be locked down. As the UK stays at home it also appears to be moving home. The stimulus of the Stamp Duty Holiday and furlough schemes have certainly helped and being forced to stay at home has encouraged many to move home as the staycation became the movecation. The Nationwide suggests the longer-term outlook remains uncertain and that as the Stamp Duty Holiday romance fades house prices may falter. However, for the last year, the robustness of house prices has surprised us all on the upside and the music is unlikely to stop for the next six months.
New and Improved Stamp Duty Calculator
This week we updated our Stamp Duty Calculator to reflect the latest time limits of the different stamp duty
Mortgage rates moving on up
The Bank of England released average mortgage rate data for new mortgages in February 2021 this week
What they said
Average mortgage rate for fixed rate mortgages 1.92%
Average mortgage rate for floating rate mortgages 1.92%
Twindig take
The latest data from the Bank of England reports that average mortgage rates for new business increased in February 2021 to 1.92% for both fixed and floating rate mortgages, it is unusual to have fixed and floating mortgage rate parity. The increasing trend in mortgage rates is likely to encourage more homebuyers to take advantage of the Stamp Duty holiday. Property portals and estate agents are likely to be very busy this Easter weekend.
Bank of England Mortgage Approvals
The Bank of England released its mortgage approval data for February 2021 this week
What they said
Mortgage approvals for February 2021 were 87,669
This is 20% higher than February 2020
10% below January 2021
Twindig take
Bank of England Mortgage Approvals for Feb 21 87,669, which is 20% higher than February 2020 but 10% lower than January 21. We expect approvals to increase in March 2021 following the Stamp Duty Holiday extension announcement in Rishi Sunak’s Budget 2021. Despite the fall in the number of Mortgage approvals in February 2021 they were still 38% higher than the 10 year average of 63,500.
Jeremy - you are a £100 winner!
Jeremy from Surbiton was the winner of last weeks £100 Prize Draw, but this week, it could be you - new users or existing Twindiggers referring a friend are eligible to enter this weeks prize draw sign up here
Are you next week's winner?
Refer a friend to Twindig or register yourself to claim your FREE Home Valuation Report and a chance to WIN £100 - Entry closes 4pm UK time Wednesday 7th April 2021