Home owners in the United States are feeling increasingly confident that now is a good time to sell a home, but renters are feeling uncertain they’ll be able to afford to buy, according to the latest research. Existing home owners have a more positive attitude toward selling than buying, an
Britain’s biggest construction contractor, Balfour Beatty, has published perhaps the gloomiest post-Brexit prognosis yet, saying that major infrastructure projects are now under threat. Above: The Manneken Pis is one of the most famous landmark in the EU’s capital, Brussels – and possibly a metaphor Among the concerns are continued access
Savills was awarded Residential Property Consultancy of the Year at the inaugural Midlands Residential Property Awards last week. The gala dinner was held at the Metropole Hotel in Birmingham on Wednesday 29 June. The awards, which celebrate the achievements of the region’s residential sector were presented to a packed room
Home owners in the United States are feeling increasingly confident that now is a good time to sell a home, but renters are feeling uncertain they’ll be able to afford to buy, according to the latest research. Existing home owners have a more positive attitude toward selling than buying, an imbalance that is causing a slowdown in many markets, especially in the more expensive, urban cores, says the latest housing confidence index report from real estate firm Zillow. However, less than 65% of home owners surveyed said now is a good time to buy, a number that’s been declining for the past two years and just 38% of renters surveyed said now is a good time to buy a home. The research also shows that about 50% of renters in San Francisco and New York expressed a lack of confidence in their ability to afford a home in the future. Almost half of the renters surveyed in Seattle, San Jose and Boston had similar feelings. Meanwhile, confidence among home owners is on the rise, with the most confident home owners concentrated in Western and Southwestern cities. Out of every 10 home owners surveyed, seven said now is a good time to sell a home. Home values are at or past peak levels in roughly a quarter of US markets, signalling a recovery since the housing bubble bust, but a growing divide between renter and home owner sentiments persists, highlighting two very different trends in the housing market right now. ‘The overall health of the housing market looks great at first glance, but dig a bit deeper you’ll find inequality between renters and home owners. Even though the majority of homeowners are confident and believe now is a good time to sell, they’re holding off because they expect home values to continue to appreciate and want to ride the wave,’ said Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell. ‘They also don’t want to turn around and become buyers in a competitive market. On the flip side, renters aren’t nearly as confident as home owners and they’re discouraged by the shrinking number of homes for sale and rapidly rising prices. As housing gets more and more expensive, these trends are not sustainable in the long run, especially once mortgage rates start to rise,’ she added. Housing confidence among home owners continues to exceed that of renters in each of the metro areas surveyed. This gap is smallest in Miami and the largest in Seattle, which has the highest year on year rent appreciation of the 35 largest US metros and rapidly rising home values, up 11% over the past year. Terry Loebs, the founder of Pulsenomics LLC, pointed out that during the past two years, housing confidence has increased in all but two of the metro areas that the firm studies. ‘Rising home equity levels, healthy housing market expectations among millennials, and resilient homeownership aspirations among minority groups have all been factors in the robust readings of overall US housing confidence,’ he said. ‘However, within certain metro areas and market segments, key sentiment indicators have begun to fade. Our measure of housing market expectations among residents of the largest and most expensive US cities has actually fallen this year, and within most metro areas, the anxieties of prospective home buyers continue to rise. These and other signals in the data suggest that home price appreciation and housing confidence could weaken in the coming months,’ he added. Source link
Britain’s biggest construction contractor, Balfour Beatty, has published perhaps the gloomiest post-Brexit prognosis yet, saying that major infrastructure projects are now under threat. Above: The Manneken Pis is one of the most famous landmark in the EU’s capital, Brussels – and possibly a metaphor Among the concerns are continued access to labour and finance. It is particular keen for an early clear statement that all the construction workers from mainland Europe that are in the UK should be allowed to stay. According to Balfour Beatty, “uncertainty around the free movement of labour… may increase costs where demand for labour outstrips supply, with the subsequent risk of project delays”. It adds: “This will be particularly relevant for mega projects such as HS2 and the nuclear new build programme. “In our view, this requires an early and integrated policy response to both retain the skills of those who have migrated here and to ensure that the UK remains an attractive place for talented people to move to. The country must maintain its skills base.” The document, Infrastructure 2050, warns that private investment is likely to be slow while the UK’s exit from the EU is negotiated. It adds: “Longer term, the impact on private investment in infrastructure projects is unclear, but some investors are likely to postpone decisions to make investments until the UK-EU relationship is renegotiated. Given the long lead times for major infrastructure projects, this risks delaying some of the key planned projects.” It continues: “The impact on private investment in infrastructure is significant since, according to the National Infrastructure Pipeline, private finance dominates the UK’s planned infrastructure investment: 69% of financing is from the private sector (worth £260bn), whilst 19% is from the public sector (£73bn) and 12% is from mixed financing (£46bn). In order to attract private investment, the political and policy landscape have to be attractive and stable enough to maintain and even improve the UK’s position as a place for infrastructure investment.” There is also uncertainty about the implications of the UK’s exit from the European Investment Bank. Balfour Beatty notes: “The European Investment Bank (EIB) has invested £16bn in UK projects over the last three years, including the extension of the M8 motorway between Edinburgh and Glasgow and a £700m loan to the Thames Tideway Tunnel. At the moment, the UK is the joint largest shareholder in the EIB but will have to give up its equity upon leaving the EU, meaning that the UK will lose billions of pounds in infrastructure funding. This is likely to have an impact on some of the larger infrastructure projects such as Crossrail 2 and London Underground upgrades. It is unlikely that HM Treasury will be directly able to make up the amount in the short to medium term.” In short, new funding mechanisms need to be found, it says. There is, however, one optimistic note in the report. It says: “This could be an opportunity for the much talked about diversification of the economy away from financial services and back towards industries such as engineering, construction and manufacturing, as the UK may no longer be bound by single market rules which restrict a more active industrial policy. This, in turn, would support the rebalancing of the economy more evenly across the regions.” The document was written by Balfour Beatty head of public affairs Veena Hudson, who joined the company in July 2015 having previously been a senior special adviser to deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. Infrastructure 2050 also discusses how infrastructure needs will change in key areas such as rail, roads and energy and makes some recommendations on how the UK can make the transition to autonomous vehicles, flood resistant infrastructure, a decarbonised energy market and skills training. The full report can be found at http://www.balfourbeatty.com/media/164183/infrastructure-2050.pdf This article was published on 21 Jul 2016 (last updated on 21 Jul 2016). Source link
Savills was awarded Residential Property Consultancy of the Year at the inaugural Midlands Residential Property Awards last week. The gala dinner was held at the Metropole Hotel in Birmingham on Wednesday 29 June. The awards, which celebrate the achievements of the region’s residential sector were presented to a packed room of professionals by former politician, Gyles Brandreth. The Savills Midlands development team scooped the award for Residential Property Consultancy of the Year, taking the top spot ahead of tough competition from Knight Frank and Bilfinger GVA. Judges were impressed by the company’s superb joint ventures as well as its expertise in both rural and urban projects. Ben Glover, development director at Savills Nottingham who collected the award on behalf of the Midlands team, comments: “We are delighted to have won Residential Property Consultancy of the Year, demonstrating our strength and unity as a team. For Savills, it’s not just about development, but about creating aspirational places where people want to live and gaining recognition for our efforts makes it all even more worthwhile.” Barry Allen, head of the Midlands development team, adds: “This award is a real testament to the hard work and dedication of our Midlands team who cover the breadth of the East and West Midlands from our Nottingham and Birmingham offices and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them all on this success.” Source link
