A study examined a range of issues related to the resale of shared ownership properties following improvements that were funded by the resident owner. The report said that there was, at the point of sale, a balance to be achieved between the interests of the seller, the buyer, and the housing association that held the remaining share. It outlined the existing position regarding valuations and relative shares, available options, difficulties with mortgages, and alternative options.
Source: Anna Clarke and Andrew Heywood, Reselling Shared Ownership Properties After Improvements, Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research (University of Cambridge)
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Dec
The Scottish government began consultation on on the objectives of the Home Report, how it was working in the existing market, and on the content of the three documents which made up the Home Report – the single survey, energy report, and property questionnaire. The consultation would feed into a five year review on the report, and would close on 27 February 2014.
Source: Home Report consultation, Scottish Government
Links: Consultation document | Summary
Date: 2013-Dec
A think tank report examined house prices in England and Wales since 2007. It said that two distinct and divergent housing markets had emerged: in London, where prices and demand had risen sharply; and the rest of England and Wales.
Source: The Great House Price Divide, Smith Institute
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2013-Dec
A report called for an increase in the supply of social rented and affordable housing. It outlined a role for local authorities and arms length management organizations in building up to 60,000 additional homes over five years, and called for the borrowing cap on local authority borrowing to be lifted.
Source: John Perry, Let s Get Building: The case for local authority investment in rented homes to help drive economic growth, National Federation of ALMOs
Links: Report | Summary | LGA press release
Date: 2013-Dec
The High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill was published. The Bill was designed to provide the government with the powers required to construct Phase One of a proposed high speed rail network, known as 'High Speed 2', or 'HS2'. Phase One would involve the construction of new railway lines between London and the West Midlands.
Source: High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill, Department for Transport, TSO
Links: Bill Volume I | Bill Volume II | Explanatory notes | DT press release | CBI press release | CPRE press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Telegraph report
Date: 2013-Nov
A think-tank report examined the barriers to home ownership. The report said that the existing United Kingdom system of land and property taxation could be improved, although some of the claims made for property and land taxation were unsupported by the evidence. It called for changes to the planning system and a commitment to building 300,000 new homes each year from 2015 to 2020, including one garden city.
Source: , Taxing Issues? Reducing housing demand or increasing housing supply, Policy Exchange
Links: Report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Nov
An article examined the causal linkage between housing assets and small business investment and the economy. It discussed the reductions in both small business investment and mortgage lending to business owners since 2008.
Source: Darja Reuschke and Duncan Maclennan, 'Housing assets and small business investment: exploring links for theory and policy', Regional Studies, Online first
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Nov
An article examined the dynamics of house price to earnings ratios in the United Kingdom, using aggregate and regional data. It said the results implied that house prices might permanently diverge from earnings.
Source: Andros Gregoriou, Alexandros Kontonikas, and Alberto Montagnoli, 'Aggregate and regional house price to earnings ratio dynamics in the UK', Urban Studies, Online first
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Nov
A think-tank report called for increased numbers of new build shared ownership properties, to enable greater affordability of home ownership for low and modest income households. It called on government to remove existing regulations and restrictions on shared ownership properties and to encourage additional private sector investment into the sector.
Source: Vidhya Alakeson, Hannah Fearn, and Giselle Cory, One Foot on the Ladder: How shared ownership can bring owning a home into reach, Resolution Foundation
Links: Report | Resolution press release | Guardian report
Date: 2013-Nov
A government report explained how the government intended to maintain confidence in the values of those properties situated above the tunnels along the proposed High Speed 2 Phase One route.
Source: HS2 Property and Compensation for London-West Midlands: Decision document properties above tunnels, Cm 8756, Department for Transport, TSO
Links: Report | DT press release
Date: 2013-Nov
A report highlighted the issues around inflating house prices in England and called for a period of active stabilization, through strategically increasing supply, withdrawing the 'help to buy' scheme, and using macro-prudential tools to stabilize prices.
Source: Pete Jefferys, At Any Cost? The case for stable house prices in England, Shelter
Date: 2013-Oct
The government published further details on how the 'help to buy' mortgage guarantee scheme would operate.
Source: Help to Buy: Mortgage Guarantee Scheme – Scheme Rules, HM Treasury
Links: Scheme rules | Deed of guarantee | HM/PMO press release | CML press release | CIH press release | NIE press release
Date: 2013-Oct
A report examined and assessed the impact and effectiveness of recent legislation regarding the property factor industry in Scotland. The report noted that the legislation fell short of protecting home owners and called for the government to achieve better control of the industry.
Source: Hew Edgar, Property Factors (Scotland) Act: Impact review, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Links: Report | RICS press release
Date: 2013-Oct
A study examined the home ownership market in England. Taking a snapshot of available property and matching cost against income levels of households, it illustrated the lack of affordable housing for first time buyers, families with children and, particularly, single-person households. Although the affordability problems were greatest in London and the south, they were found to exist across England.
Source: How Much of the Housing Market is Affordable? Analysis of homes for sale, Shelter
Links: Report | Shelter press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Oct
A paper examined how age affected mortgage borrowing among people aged 50 and over, including the likelihood of an older mortgaged household having difficulties in meeting their monthly payments. As people over the age of 50 got older, they were less likely to have a mortgage and the amount they owed decreased. But 13 per cent of all older mortgaged households were struggling to repay their mortgage. The oldest mortgagors were more vulnerable to financial instability, since they owed more relative to the value of their homes – resulting from both lower value properties and a high use of interest-only mortgages.
Source: The Mortgage Debt of Older Households and the Effect of Age: An analysis using the Wealth and Assets Survey 2008-10, International Longevity Centre – UK
Links: Paper | Bristol University press release
Date: 2013-Sep
A report examined the development of private sector equity finance products for households who were looking to manage their housing assets or debts more safely and effectively.
Source: Susan Smith, Christine Whitehead, and Peter Williams, A Role for Equity Finance in UK Housing Markets?, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Date: 2013-Sep
A report said that most families in England on low-to-middle incomes were no longer able to afford a decent, family-sized home of their own. More and more of them were living in insecure private rented accommodation. Others were stuck on the lower rungs of the property ladder, unable to afford enough space for their needs. The report said that the shared ownership model could be the best solution for these families, particularly where smaller shares (12 per cent) were available. But the share ownership market needed reform to make it more consumer-friendly and accessible – accompanied by the building of more affordable housing.
Source: Robbie de Santos, Homes for Forgotten Families: Towards a mainstream shared ownership market, Shelter
Links: Report | Summary | Shelter press release | NHF press release | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Aug
A report evaluated the options for market and policy reform to provide an effective safety net for individual home-owners. The existing safety net was 'patchy', and was set to be weakened further under universal credit and by declining take-up of mortgage payment protection insurance. The most effective reform option would be a compulsory new partnership, similar to the Sustainable Home Ownership Partnership (SHOP) scheme: the scope and costs of the scheme could be modified by making longer-term benefit payments a charge on the borrowers' homes. A second option would be a new partnership structure based around continued forbearance, an auto-enrolled private insurance system, and a state-backed payment system, with longer-term costs being charged to homes.
Source: Steve Wilcox and Peter Williams, Building an Effective Safety Net for Home Owners and the Housing Market: Unfinished business, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Date: 2013-Jul
A report examined the financial contribution made by parents of first-time buyers to help fund deposits and enable their children to get on the housing ladder. It estimated that approximately £2 billion per year had been given or loaned by parents in this way since 2005.
Source: Alun Humphrey and Andy Scott, Support for First-time Buyers, Shelter
Links: Report | Summary | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Jul
A paper examined the link between job satisfaction and home-ownership, drawing on the British Household Panel Survey. It was found that the transition to ownership reduced job satisfaction within a year following the purchase. The reduction was sharper when the purchase was financed through a mortgage. The initial reduction was more than doubled within 3 years after the transition. Home-ownership might be a constraint for the career prospects of employees, since it reduced mobility and forced them to become more dependent on the local labour market conditions.
Source: Semih Tumen and Tugba Zeydanli, Home Ownership and Job Satisfaction, Working Paper 13/22, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey
Links: Paper
See also: Semih Tumen and Tugba Zeydanli, 'Home ownership and job satisfaction', Social Indicators Research, Online first
Date: 2013-Jun
An article said that the recent rise of the private landlord and the decade-long decline of home-ownership was the beginning of the return of minority ownership of the housing stock. This was a long-term change resulting from changed interests and perceptions among the 'social carriers' affecting housing markets, with huge implications for almost all aspects of social, welfare, and (probably) economic policy.
Source: Nigel Sprigings, 'The end of majority home-ownership: the logic of continuing decline in a post-crash economy', People, Place & Policy, Volume 7 Issue 1
Links: Article
Date: 2013-Jun
A report said that families in England wanting to buy their first home could face a wait of more than a decade before they could get themselves on the property ladder. Single people might need to wait 14 years on average. The shortage of new affordable homes and rising house prices meant that the prospect of home-ownership was slipping away from many young people. Instead, they were often left either living with their parents or spending years in the unstable private rented sector.
Source: Daniel Lindsay and Fionnuala Earley, A Home of Their Own, Shelter
Links: Report | Technical note | Shelter press release | BBC report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Jun
An article said that no Conservative-led government had left office with a home-ownership rate lower than when it had come to power: but the fall in home-ownership that had started in 2005 had continued since 2010 under the coalition government. If its attempts at reinvigorating the right to buy were ineffective at reversing the trend, the Conservative Party might turn to more radical policies, such as the sale on vacant possession of 'high value' local authority and housing association houses.
Source: Brian Lund, 'A "property-owning democracy" or "generation rent"?', Political Quarterly, Volume 84 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Mar
The coalition government presented its 2013 Budget statement. Forecast economic growth for 2013 was halved, to 0.6 per cent. After excluding special factors, public sector borrowing was expected to fall marginally in 2013-14: but forecasts of public debt were revised sharply upwards, with a peak of 85.6 per cent of national income reached in 2016-17, a year later than previously expected.
The main Budget measures included:
• Departmental spending would be cut by a further £1.1 billion in 2013-14 and £1.2 billion in 2014-15 – equivalent to a 1 per cent cut for most departments. Schools and health budgets would remain protected, and local government and police allocations that had been set for 2013-14 would not be altered.
• Public sector pay increases would be capped at 1 per cent for a further year in 2015-16.
• The annual personal income tax allowance would rise to £10,000 from 2014-15, a year earlier than previously proposed. This was a real-terms increase of £240 on the 2013-14 level of £9,440, costing £1.1 billion.
• The main rate of corporation tax would be cut by a further 1 percentage point in April 2015, to 20 per cent, at a cost of £865 million per year by 2017-18. Banks would be prevented from benefiting from the cut by an increase in levies.
• All businesses and charities would be entitled to a £2,000 reduction in employer's national insurance contributions from April 2014, costing £1.7 billion per year by 2017-18.
• A new 'Help to Buy' scheme would offer financial help to home-buyers. Equity loans worth up to 20 per cent of the value of a new-build home would be available to anyone for three years from April 2013. The government would also guarantee up to 15 per cent of mortgages on all properties (both old and new) for three years from January 2014, under an extension of the previous 'NewBuy' guarantee scheme..
The Budget also confirmed plans, announced in advance, for a new system of childcare vouchers, and to bring forward by a year both the introduction of a new flat-rate state pension and a cap on lifetime social care costs.
Source: Budget 2013, HC 1033, HM Treasury, TSO | Impact on Households: Distributional analysis to accompany Budget 2013, HM Treasury
Links: Report | Household impact statement | OBR report | Hansard | HOC research brief | Barnardos press release | BSA press release | CBI press release | Childrens Commissioner press release | Childrens Society press release | CIH press release | Citizens Advice press release | CML press release | CPAG press release | ECP press release | Family Action press release | Fawcett Society press release | Gingerbread press release | HBF press release | LGA press release | LITRG press release | JRF press release | NHF press release | Resolution Foundation press release | Shelter press release | TUC press release | WBG press release | BBC report (1) | BBC report (2) | Community Care report | Daily Mail report | Guardian report (1) | Guardian report (2) | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Mar
An article examined whether 'right to buy' (RTB) owners were more mobile than those in social housing. It was found that the probability of an RTB-owner making a long distance move fell between that of social renters and owner-occupiers. However, the difference between RTB-owners and home-owners or social renters was not significant. Social renters were significantly less likely to move over long distances than traditional owners. The results also suggested that RTB-owners were less likely than traditional owners – but more likely than social renters – to move for job-related reasons.
Source: Maarten van Ham, Lee Williamson, Peteke Feijten, and Paul Boyle, 'Right to buy time to move? Investigating the moving behaviour of right to buy owners in the UK ', Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Volume 28 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Mar
An article constructed a housing market model in order to analyze conditions for different generations of households. The model explained why an increasing share of mortgages had gone to existing owners, despite market liberalization and securitization. It also contributed to the explanation of volatility.
Source: Geoffrey Meen, 'Homeownership for future generations in the UK', Urban Studies, Volume 50 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Feb
An article examined the development of the 'right to buy', introduced by the Housing Act 1980, from the standpoint of governmentality, risk, and responsibilization. Central government had promoted the right to buy as an opportunity, and had succeeded in 'normalizing' owner-occupation – whereas local authorities had recognized from the outset the risks associated with the policy, both to individual purchasers and more widely.
Source: Sarah Blandy and Caroline Hunter, 'The right to buy: examination of an exercise in allocating, shifting and re-branding risks', Critical Social Policy, Volume 33 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jan
A study found that home equity had a strong impact on individual health. Home equity lowered the likelihood of home-owners exhibiting a broad range of medical conditions. This was due to increased use of private healthcare, reduced hours of work, and increased exercise. Home equity, unlike income, did not increase risky health behaviours such as smoking and drinking. The positive health effects of home equity gains on home-owner health over the business cycle offset the negative effects of labour market conditions and work intensity.
Source: Eleonora Fichera and John Gathergood, House Prices, Home Equity and Health, Working Paper 13/01, Health Economics Resource Centre, University of York
Links: Paper
Date: 2013-Jan
