Housing sales surge but house prices remain ‘25pc too expensive’ – Telegraph Blogs

Housing sales surge but house prices remain ‘25pc too expensive’ – Telegraph Blogs

The number of homes sold surged up by 4.5pc last month, helped by frozen interest rates and the "loosest mortgage lending conditions seen since the Lehman Brothers collapse" but Britain’s biggest building society warns that house prices remain 25pc more expensive than the historic norm.

First time buyers and buy-to-let landlords 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. No doubt they are sick of paying astronomically high rents.”

Estate agents LSL Property Services, owners of Your Move and Reeds Rains, claimed that sales surged by 4.5pc last month as frozen mortgage costs and house prices made property more affordable. Director David Newnes, said: “Static house prices don’t mean property values are standing still. Zero price growth means that in real terms property is becoming more affordable. With inflation running at 5pc, the real cost of property is getting smaller, which is good news for buyers.

“According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, mortgage lending increased 9.8pc in the year to October and has risen for the last three consecutive months for the first time since the summer of 2007, which has contributed to the 4.5pc rise in transactions seen last month, as purchasing becomes a more affordable.”