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Houses with good EPCs sell for more, claims government
19 Jun 2013
Homes with good EPCs are worth on average 14% more.
This claim – which is interesting, since our readers constantly tell us that no one looks at EPCs when buying – comes from the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which says that making energy improvements to a property could boost its value by even more than the average, by as much as 38%.
For an average home, improving its EPC from band G to E, or from band D to B, could mean adding more than £16,000 to the sale price of the property.
In the North-East, improved energy efficiency from band G to E could increase this value by over £25,000 and the average home in the North-West could see £23,000 added to its value.
The DECC's report, which took into account over 300,000 property sales in England between 1995 and 2011, says that its research ‘indicates’ that energy efficiency is now a key factor influencing the sale price of most residential dwellings in England.
Energy and Climate Change minister Greg Barker said: “We have long known the benefits of making energy saving improvements to the home, but this study is real evidence of the huge potential rewards.
Bank of England maintains bank rate at 0.5%
09 Dec 2011
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee yesterday voted to maintain the official Bank Rate paid on commercial bank reserves at 0.5%. Interest rates have been kept at 0.5% since march 2009.
The Bank did not announce any increase in its policy of quantitative easing. This Bank said that in a statement the scale of "the programme will be kept under review" and economists said more QE was likely in February once the current £75bn of asset purchases had been completed. At that point the Bank will have undertaken a total of £275bn of QE.
In context, the number of homes sold surged up to 4.5pc last month, helped in part by the frozen interest rates. Purchase approvals rose from 52,743 in October to 54,658 in November on a seasonally-adjusted basis, an increase of 4% and 15% higher than November 2010.
The average deposit fell back to 38% in November down from 40% in October. By way of contrast it was 42% in November 2010. Furthermore there were more loans to borrowers with small deposits. Loans to borrowers with a deposit of 15% or under accounted for 13% of all lending in November, up from 10% in October, and the highest since October 2008. The average deposit on typical first time buyer property fell to 31%, the lowest since August 2008, and down from 33% in October
First time buyers and buy-to-let landlords have found it easier to obtain mortgages as loans for home purchases reached their highest number since December 2009 in November according to the latest mortgage monitor from e.surv chartered surveyors.
Richard Sexton, director of e.surv, claimed the firm had completed more than 1m mortgage valuations over the last five years to compile its data. He said: “The market is thus far showing resilience in the face of the eurozone crisis. For the last few months, the banks have been focusing their lending on buy-to-let investors, but this is the first time they appear to have increased lending to first time buyers.
“This has resulted in the loosest mortgage lending conditions seen since the Lehman Brothers collapse. More first time buyers are rolling up their sleeves and piecing together the bigger deposits required to access high loan-to-value mortgages.”
Andrew Greenwood
Group MD - Head Office
01865 760055 / andrew@scottfraser.co.uk
Source; The Telegraph, Property Talk Live, BBC News
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