You are here: cherry > Press releases for July 2011 > Nick Hopkinson, PPR Estates, comments on today's mortgage lending and Nationwide house price data

30 July 2011

Below are some comments from Nick Hopkinson, Director of property company PPR Estates, on today�s BoE mortgage lending and Nationwide house price data: �Yet again, the national �average� numbers being reported in the headlines today fail to show the real story for the current UK housing market. Outside of the current London bubble, which is being driven by international money and the City, house prices and the number of completed sales occurring are in total collapse. �Regionally, the toxic combination of job worries, household incomes falling, rising inflation and public sector cuts are having a severe impact outside the South East on both buyers and sellers. Buyers need huge deposits and a perfect credit score to get any kind of viable mortgage even if they can find a seller prepared to sell at a realistic price. Sellers are increasingly finding themselves facing up to negative equity as achievable prices fall and are often �trapped� in their own homes for the foreseeable future as they can no longer afford to accept the prices being offered. Recent reports of over 1 million homeowners being in forbearance on their mortgages is just the tip of the iceberg as ultra-low interest rates are the only thing keeping many others on their financial feet. �Also in the news, the Eurozone and US have major sovereign debt problems that are fundamentally not being addressed. This uncertainty surrounding Britain�s major trading partners is only serving to reduce business and consumer confidence further. Against this backdrop the banks will struggle to find more money to lend and it is difficult to predict anything but further house price falls for most of the UK in the remainder of 2011.� If you would like to speak to Nick, you can contact him on 07768 144497.

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