This is London: House crash fears ease Fears of a housing crash in London eased today with a survey showing the property market on course for a soft landing.
Guardian: Warning of big fall in house prices The International Monetary Fund last night issued a double warning on the UK economy, urging house buyers to beware a sharp fall in property prices and predicting that higher taxes may be needed to plug the hole in the government's budget deficit.
Sky News - MORTGAGE LENDING SLIDES Mortgage lending in August rose at its slowest level for a year. And the number of new loans for house purchase fell to its lowest in nearly four years, said the Bank of England.
Moneyextra - Mortgage day - will it impact on you? With just over a month to go until Mortgage Day - the date on which the Financial Services Authority (FSA) takes over the statutory regulation of mortgages - the Council of Mortgage Lenders is advising consumers to check that any adviser they plan to use to arrange their mortgage will be appropriately registered to introduce mortgage business in the future.
The Move Channel: Excess house supply points to further falls The Hometrack September survey of the national housing market reports a –0.3% fall in average national house prices. Over the last seven months house price inflation has steadily reduced from a peak of +0.9% in February.
ThisisLondon: House prices fail to bounce back
House prices fell across the whole of London this month - a time which traditionally sees the market coming back to life after the summer lull.
More gloom for housing market Fresh evidence that Britain's housing market has ground to a halt will emerge this week as Nationwide reveals that estate agents saw little pick up in business in September.
Scotsman.com News - Opinion - House prices enter the danger zone JUST when we thought we were over the worst and that a gradual cooling of house prices was under way, along comes the International Monetary Fund to warn us that a sharp fall may still lie ahead.
ThisisLondon: House price 'meltdown' Fears of a looming meltdown in the property market deepened today after shock warnings of a dramatic shortage of buyers.
Mirror.co.uk - HAS BRITAIN'S BUBBLE BURST? WORK for all in a booming economy, huge sums being pumped into health and education, a better deal for mums, longer holidays.
It's tempting to think Britons have never had it so good - if you listen to the government.
Times Business: House prices slide as mortgages bite THE property market has finally turned, with prices falling across much of the country. Four separate surveys of estate agents and mortgage lenders revealed that interest rate rises have sapped buyers’ confidence, preventing them from taking out new loans and causing prices to fall.
What's happening today? The Federal Reserve Bank is expected to announce an increase of 0.25% in the overnight lending rate from 1.5% to 1.75% with the prospect of more to come.
Belfast Telegraph: Fears over property prices in Republic The Republic's property market is beginning to look like the stock market bubble of the late 1990s, says Davy Stockbrokers, in one of the strongest warnings yet of the dangers of a price collapse.
Find a Property: Buy-To-Let Begins To Cool The buy-to-let feeding frenzy is starting to abate as rising interest rates erode landlords' profits, says a new report. But there's still money to be made...
Reuters: Inflation shows surprise fall The inflation rate unexpectedly fell further below its 2.0 percent government-set target in August as clothing and footwear retailers put prices up by less than a year earlier, official data shows.
ODPM housing market report: August 2004 (PDF) This will take you to the actual report by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. It's only 10 pages long and contains various graphs and tables so it's quite easy reading...unlike the MPC minutes!
Investment Property Databank IPD Residential Investment property achieved a creditable return of 11.5% in 2003, modestly ahead of UK commercial property. A slow start to the year was more than offset as investor sentiment improved with the ending of the war, strong consumer spending and a more bullish stock market injecting confidence into the housing market.
Reuters: Bank of England set to hold rates The Bank of England appears almost certain to keep interest rates on hold at 4.75 percent tomorrow and economists say there probably won't be many more hikes to come in this cycle, if any at all.
Guardian: Hot property She was the poor little rich girl with the stunted social antennae, but then she grew up. Harriet Lane meets her ex-Bedales schoolmate Kirstie Allsopp - TV presenter, private location scout and 21st-century dykon
Telegraph: When will it be safe to buy a house? To someone like myself, returning from a holiday abroad, the most striking economic development in the UK is the apparent turn in the housing market....
Yorkshire Post: Life is cheap... but will we pay for it tomorrow? Debt is the scourge of 21st century life. And if you believe what you read in the papers, we're all up to our necks in £1 trillion of it, with each of us carrying, on average a personal debt of almost £5,000, excluding our mortgages. Shock horror stories about how we're all doomed to a life of penury are ten a penny (excuse the pun), but how often do you read that life has never been as cheap?
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Sky News - SURVEY REVEALS FEARS One in four homeowners would struggle to meet their monthly mortgage repayments if interest rates rose by a further 2%, new research shows.
