The firm also expects to report an 8% increase in overall home completions for 2011, to 2,045 units.

It also said forward [...]]]> UK housebuilder Bovis says it expects a significant increase in profit for 2011 following strong earnings growth.The Kent based group expects to record profits of about £31 million for last year, up 68% on 2010.

The firm also expects to report an 8% increase in overall home completions for 2011, to 2,045 units.

It also said forward sales at the start of 2012 were up 35% year-on-year, at 568 homes- thanks to a rise in private and social housing reservations.

“The group can deliver significantly increased profit and, coupled with improving efficiency of capital employed, a stronger return on capital employed in 2012 and beyond,” said chief executive David Ritchie in a statement.

Bovis said the average sales price rose 4.5% to £180,100 pounds in 2011.

As a result, surveyors expect the level of sales to [...]]]> There is no sign of the UK property market picking up in the coming months, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has said.Its latest monthly survey says some sellers are still asking too much for their properties, while some potential buyers cannot raise a mortgage.

As a result, surveyors expect the level of sales to stay unchanged in the next three months.

In December prices fell across the country, except in London, Rics said.

“Continuing problems with the economy and the ongoing instability in the eurozone seem to be weighing heavily on the UK housing market and expectations for the coming months are fairly subdued,” said Ian Perry, Rics spokesman.

“With sales expectations remaining flat, it is important that vendors are realistic in their pricing if they wish the sale to go through in good time.

“Looking ahead, along with surveyors’ flat predictions for transaction levels, price expectations remain low,” Mr Perry added.

The number of homes sold in the UK during 2011 may turn out to be the lowest since modern records began in 1978.

There is no sign of a let up in the mortgage rationing which has prevented hundreds of thousands of potential buyers, including many first time buyers, from buying a home in the past few years.

Meanwhile opinion among most property market experts and commentators is that prices across most of the UK will fall further in 2012, possibly by as much as 10%.

Halifax said the property market had been surprisingly resilient in the face of falling incomes and a deteriorating economy.

The lender predicted that prices would be stable [...]]]> House prices across the UK fell by an average of 1.3% in 2011 mortgage lender Halifax says.A drop of 0.9% in December took the average house price down to £160,063.

Halifax said the property market had been surprisingly resilient in the face of falling incomes and a deteriorating economy.

The lender predicted that prices would be stable over the course of 2012 but warned the outlook was “uncertain”.

“If the UK can avoid recession, we expect broad stability in house prices in 2012,” said Halifax housing economist Martin Ellis.

“There is, however, considerable uncertainty regarding the prospects for the UK economy, which will, to a large extent, depend on how events in the eurozone unfold.

“In addition, the extent to which households choose to reduce their debts will also affect growth,” Mr Ellis added.

The UK property market was stagnant in 2011, as lenders continued to ration their lending to prospective home buyers and rising unemployment deterred some potential borrowers.

As a result, sales in the 11 months to November were running at a level 3% lower than in the same period in 2010, according to official figures.

With the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) lenders forecasting a further drop in lending this year, the chances are that sales will drop further and that prices may be pushed lower too.

“Lenders expected a tightening of credit scoring criteria for granting new secured loans to households,” the Bank said.

It said [...]]]> Home buyers will find it even harder to obtain a mortgage in the coming months the Bank of England warns.Its quarterly survey of lending activity shows that lenders are going to be even fussier about prospective customers.

“Lenders expected a tightening of credit scoring criteria for granting new secured loans to households,” the Bank said.

It said lenders were worried about the poor economy and falling house prices.

“Factors such as the cost and availability of funds, the economic outlook and expectations for house prices were all expected to pull down on credit availability,” the Bank reported, in its survey of credit conditions.

“Lenders expected the proportion of total loan applications being approved to fall over the coming quarter with some lenders commenting that they had revised down expectations for households’ disposable incomes and hence the affordability of taking out new secured loans,” the Bank added.

Banks and building societies told the Bank that this stringency had put off many potential house buyers from applying for mortgages.

Any increase in lending in the next few months, the lenders said, was likely to be concentrated on those borrowers who could afford to put down a large deposit.

Rigorous mortgage rationing has been in force in the UK since 2007 and the onset of the international banking crisis.

Not only did the crisis dry up the supply of funds for lenders to make available to home buyers, it also provoked a fall in house prices, undermining the security of home loans already made.

As a result, lenders have moved to demanding much larger deposits from would-be borrowers, typically amounting to between 20% and 25% of a home’s value.

The knock-on effect has been a huge fall in house sales compared to pre-crisis levels, and a continued stagnation of the property market.

This now appears likely to become worse before it gets better.

The Bank reported that lenders expected this trend to improve in the coming months.

Although this was 12% higher than in November 2010, the figures have barely changed for the past four months.

Mortgage approvals are [...]]]> Mortgage lending to home buyers is likely to keep on stagnating in the coming months figures from the Bank of England show.In November 2011, just 52,854 mortgage loans were agreed in principle for home buyers.

Although this was 12% higher than in November 2010, the figures have barely changed for the past four months.

Mortgage approvals are still less than half the level recorded in the run up to the banking crisis in 2007.

Although about 40% of all residential sales go through without the buyer having to take out a mortgage, the number of mortgages approved, but not yet lent, has traditionally been a very good indicator of short-term trends in the property market.

So far there has been little sign of a relaxation in the strict mortgage rationing by banks and building societies, which has been going on since 2008.

This has led to many first-time buyers being frozen out of the property market as they have been unable to raise the typical 20-25% deposit often required of them by lenders.

As a result of this, and the rise in unemployment, many commentators are expecting sales to stay low this coming year, with prices expected to fall, possibly by as much as 10%.

The economic climate was likely to lead to a [...]]]> UK house prices remained relatively unchanged in 2011 and more of the same is to be expected said the Nationwide Building Society.The building society said that the average home rose in value by 1% in 2011, but fell by 0.2% in December compared with the previous month.

The economic climate was likely to lead to a similar situation for the housing market in 2012, it said.

There were geographical differences. Prices in Northern Ireland fell sharply in 2011 but rose in London.

“The 1% rise in house prices recorded over the past 12 months could hardly be described as a strong performance, but against a backdrop of anaemic economic growth and a deteriorating labour market, UK house prices were surprisingly resilient in 2011,” said Nationwide’s chief economist Robert Gardner.

“2012 is not shaping up to be much better than 2011 for the UK economy or the housing market.”

The average home is worth £163,822, according to the Nationwide, which calculates the figures using its own mortgage data.

Arguably, the best measure of current trends in house prices is to compare the average price of the past three months with the average price of the previous three months.

On this measure, Nationwide’s data shows a rise of 0.4% in the three months to the end of December.

The housing market is not the same across the UK and can even look different on a neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood basis.

In the final three months of the year, the annual price change in 10 of 13 areas of the UK ranged between a 2% rise and a 2% fall.

However, Northern Ireland has seen an 8.7% fall in prices in 2011 and London has seen a 5.5% rise over the year, the Nationwide’s figures show.

Regional fluctuations are more stark in the house price figures released by the Land Registry on Friday.

Overall, it said that prices in England and Wales had dropped by 1.9% in the year to the end of November.

On a regional level, this ranged from a 5.4% drop in average prices in the North East of England, to a 1.4% rise in London.

On a more local level, prices fell over the year by 19.8% in Hartlepool and 13.9% in Oldham, and rose by 7.1% in Westminster, London.

The Halifax reckons prices dropped 1% in the year to November, while its counterpart the [...]]]> The Land Registry for England and Wales says house prices were down 3.2% in the year to November.The government’s own index, compiled by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), says they fell by just 0.4% over the same period.

The Halifax reckons prices dropped 1% in the year to November, while its counterpart the Nationwide says in fact they rose 1.6%.

One great curiosity of the UK property market is that prices in central London, and other very prosperous parts of the South East, have seen prices rise in the past couple of years and are now back to their peak levels.

One reason is that many of the new jobs created in the past year or two have been in this part of the UK.

But wealthy foreigners, looking for a safe home for their cash by buying a flat or house in central London, have also played a part.

Mortgage lenders are officially forecasting that they will lend slightly less money to home buyers in 2012 than they did in 2011.

That does not bode well for anyone who wants to buy, and who thinks they can quite adequately afford to repay the loan they want.

But Bernard Clarke, spokesman for the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) says there are some encouraging signs for market activity.

One of these should be interest rates staying low, as the Bank of England continues its efforts to prop up the banking system and the wider economy.

But whatever the temporary market factors, one fundamental stands out – not enough homes are being built.  This is revealed clearly by the fact that in 2011 just 107,000 new homes were built.

Meanwhile the government has forecast that every year from 2013 to 2023 an extra 240,000 new households will be formed, mainly due to the growing population.

And that must mean, eventually, upward pressure on prices.

And prices are expected by most observers to fall a little – though some predict larger drops of up to 10% [...]]]> Will the UK property market be even more depressed in 2012 than it was in 2011?Commentators and analysts expect sales to stay low – perhaps even lower than they have been in the past year.

And prices are expected by most observers to fall a little – though some predict larger drops of up to 10% in the coming 12 months.

But a new threat has emerged that could really upset the apple cart – the possibility that a partial or even complete collapse of the euro leads to a new all-singing, all-dancing banking crisis.

“If we were to get a fully-blown euro crisis and that unfolds rather nastily, then clearly that’s going to have implications in terms of credit availability and the position of the banks,” warns Martin Ellis, housing economist at the Halifax, one of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders.

Even ignoring the possibility of a new banking crisis that leads to a mortgage drought, there is no doubt that the market for buying and selling homes has already become thoroughly gummed up.

It has been stuck due to a combination of prolonged mortgage rationing, home owners reluctant to drop their prices, and gloomy economic news putting off potential buyers.

As a result, sales in the first 11 months of 2011 stood at 787,000, compared with 810,000 in the same period of 2010.

That means 2011′s eventual total might even be lower than 2009′s figure of 859,000 sales for the whole year – the lowest since modern transaction records began in 1978.

Even the reluctance of lenders to repossess many of the borrowers who are now in arrears has played its part.

With tens of thousands fewer homes being repossessed than lenders had predicted just a couple of years ago, the market has been deprived of the cheap homes that would otherwise have been put up for sale.

But one aspect will clearly be different, which may depress sales and prices.

Unemployment has started rising steeply again and, along with a combination of inflation and low or non-existent wage rises, this has meant that household incomes have been falling.

Another thing that appears to have changed in the past few months is the unwillingness of sellers to drop their asking prices.

For the past few years there has been a phenomenal gap between asking prices and actual selling prices.

The gap, depending on which measure of selling prices you use, has suggested that homes put up for sale by their deluded owners or estate agents have been as much as 40% over-priced.

The figure from Halifax, the lowest recorded since it started tracking the [...]]]> The number of first time buyers has fallen to its lowest since records began in 1974.Around 187,000 people became first time buyers in 2011, which was 7pc fewer than the preceding year and less than half the recent peak of 402,800 seen in 2006.

The figure from Halifax, the lowest recorded since it started tracking the data for the UK, will stoke concerns that a generation of Britons is locked out of the property market.

Hefty deposits mean first-time buyers are struggling to get on the housing ladder despite prices being at their most affordable in eight years, according to Halifax’s annual First-Time Buyer Review.

“Housing affordability for those looking to get on to the property ladder for the first time has improved significantly over recent years, largely as a consequence of the decline in house prices since 2007,” said Martin Ellis, the lender’s housing economist.

“Nevertheless, conditions for potential first-time buyers remain tough. Difficulties raising the necessary deposit and concerns over the economic climate are preventing many from entering the market.”

The average deposit required in 2011 was £27,032, Halifax said. While this is almost £5,000 less than that demanded in 2010, it is still far above what people had to put down just four years ago. Then, deposits averaged just 10pc of the purchase price, now they are 20pc.

Trouble scraping together a deposit appears to outweigh any benefit enjoyed from house prices being their most affordable in almost a decade, according to a key measure – where the average house price is no higher than four times average earnings in the local area.

On this basis, the average price paid by a first-time buyer in November was affordable for someone on average earnings in almost half (44pc) of all local authority districts in the UK; the highest proportion for eight years. This compares with 42pc in 2010 and just 5pc at the peak of the housing market in 2007.

However, there was a strong North-South split in affordability, with 95pc of all the local authority districts classed as affordable located in the North, which includes the Midlands on its side of the divide. London had no affordable areas for first-time buyers at all, on this measure.

However, despite the apparent pick-up in transactions, the number of sales in the first 11 months of the year [...]]]> Property sales hit their highest monthly level of the year so far in November figures from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have shown.There were 85,000 property sales during the month, up from 79,000 in October, it said.

However, despite the apparent pick-up in transactions, the number of sales in the first 11 months of the year was lower than the same period in 2010.

The property market has been subdued for some time.

Since 2007 sales have been weighed down by the continued rationing of mortgages and the initial reluctance of sellers to drop their asking prices.

There have also been concerns among potential buyers about the state of the economy and the outlook for their jobs.

The HMRC figures show that there were 9,000 more property sales in November, compared with the same month the previous year.

The new monthly total was the highest since July 2010.

However, in the first 11 months of 2011, there were 787,000 sales compared with 810,000 in the same period of 2010.

Lenders are being told they must assess the affordability of loans [...]]]> New rules to stop a resurgence in risky mortgage lending are likely to be imposed in 2013 by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).The regulator’s revised proposals still intend to bring in “common sense” standards that will stop home buyers borrowing more than they can afford.

Lenders are being told they must assess the affordability of loans better.  But some flexibility is being allowed for existing customers who might have been prevented from remortgaging.

Lord Turner, chairman of the FSA, said: “While the excesses of the pre-crisis period have largely disappeared from the current market, it is important to ensure that better practice endures in future when memories of the crisis recede and the dangers of poor practice return.”

The regulator wants to stop any possibility of a return to the early years of the past decade, in which some lenders handed out mortgages with only cursory checks on borrowers’ real ability to repay.

The most notorious examples were the “Together” mortgages offered by the Northern Rock bank, which granted loans worth 125% of the value of homes.

In some other extreme cases, lenders offered mortgages worth seven times a borrower’s income, or allowed them to exaggerate their real income, especially in the case of “self-certified” mortgages.

The thrust of the FSA’s proposals, which are now going out to a further round of public consultation, is still that lenders must judge properly the ability of individual borrowers to repay.

“The proposals will see prospective borrowers – whether they are first-time buyers, right-to-buy tenants or home movers – get the right information and advice, at the right time, and ensure mortgage lenders will be properly checking each applicant’s realistic ability to repay their mortgage,” the FSA said.

Specifically, when lenders assess a mortgage application, they will have to:

• assume interest rates may rise from their current low levels.
• not let borrowers rely on the possibility of rising house prices to claim they can eventually repay.
• assess interest-only mortgages as repayment ones, unless there is a “believable” source of money to pay off the loan.

Although lenders will still have to check income details in each mortgage application, the FSA is no longer proposing that a borrower undergoes a detailed check of how they spend their money, but only be given a broad assessment of their “committed and essential household expenditure” instead.

Under the proposed new rules, interest-only mortgages can still be offered if there is a “credible” plan to repay the loan, which does not involve a borrower assuming he or she can eventually cash in on the rising value of their home.

However, a tenant still typically paid 3.5% – or £25 – more in rent [...]]]> The cost of renting a home in England and Wales fell for the first time in 10 months in November, a survey has found.Rent at a typical property dropped by 0.4% compared with October, to £717 a month, LSL Property Services said.

However, a tenant still typically paid 3.5% – or £25 – more in rent than a year earlier, the survey found.

The changes seen last month showed regional variations, with prices rising the sharpest in Yorkshire and the Humber, as well as in Wales.

LSL, which owns lettings agents including Your Move and Reeds Rains, said that prices did tend to fall at this time of year.

x The biggest drop was in the East Midlands, which recorded a 2.2% monthly fall.

“Following their relentless march upward throughout the year, rent rises have taken a pause for breath,” said LSL director David Newnes.

“Landlords are looking to avoid having properties vacant over the Christmas period, and can be less aggressive with pricing as tenant activity slows in the run-up to the new year.”

However, rents in London, Yorkshire and the Humber, Wales and the West Midlands still rose in November compared with the previous month. Mr Newnes said he expected average rents to rise again at the start of 2012.

The fall in the cost of renting coincided with a decrease in the number of tenants getting behind on rent payments.

“We are still also seeing the impact of a changed tenant mix, which is helping keep arrears below historic levels,” Mr Newnes said.

“A large proportion of current renters are would-be credit-worthy buyers, were they able to provide a big enough deposit to satisfy tight mortgage lending criteria. These tenants are typically financially sound, and less likely to experience payment issues.”

However, the economic climate and the risk to jobs meant tenant arrears were likely to rise again next year, he added.

However, the latest Rics survey shows a slight rise in buyer demand [...]]]> A growing proportion of surveyors and estate agents believe that economic uncertainty is holding back housing market activity.This was considered to be a bigger reason than the availability of mortgages and worries about house price falls, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said.

However, the latest Rics survey shows a slight rise in buyer demand and sales in November with price changes continue to show regional variations.

New buyer enquiries “increased modestly” for a third consecutive month, the Rics survey showed.

The average number of sales per surveyor branch climbed to 15.4 in the three months to the end of November, compared with 15 a month earlier. This was the highest level since last September.

Slightly more surveyors expected sales to increase in the coming months than the number who expected sales to fall.

However, these slight rises were coming after a sustained period of subdued activity. More surveyors expect prices to fall in the coming months, than the number who expected prices to rise.

Annual house price changes

• England: down 0.2%
• Wales: down 0.5%
• Scotland: down 1.5%
• Northern Ireland: down 12.1%

“A meaningful recovery still seems some way off,” said Alan Collett, Rics’ housing spokesman.

On a regional basis, London registered a rise in annual house prices of 3.9%, whereas prices dropped by 4.6% over the same period in the north east of England.

It says the programme, which costs £400 million a year, is unsustainable.

The Support for Mortgage Interest [...]]]> Mortgage lenders have raised concerns about potential changes to the way support is given to those struggling to pay their mortgage.The government is reviewing the Support for Mortgage Interest Scheme, where homeowners who lose their jobs may receive financial help.

It says the programme, which costs £400 million a year, is unsustainable.

The Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) scheme, which helps people receiving some benefits, operates across the UK.

Under the SMI, those who lose their jobs receive financial help with mortgage interest payments. This comes 13 weeks after losing their job, a timescale previously cut from 39 weeks. However, the assistance only lasts for up to two years.

Chancellor George Osborne said in this year’s Budget that the scheme would operate until at least January 2013.

Support for Mortgage Interest is a UK scheme aimed at helping those with a sudden change of circumstances make mortgage payments rather than be thrown out of their home.

Some people on benefits are eligible and can receive help to make mortgage interest payments 13 weeks after losing their job.

Now Lord Freud, the minister for welfare reform, has launched a review of the scheme.

These changes could see a charge put on the property of anyone who receives the assistance, which is recovered when the house is sold.

The suggestion was welcomed by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and the Building Societies Association (BSA).

Two other proposals have raised worries from the CML, which represents those who give home loans.

The first is a plan to make the payment to the homeowners themselves, rather than straight from the government to the lender. Lord Freud said the current system did not encourage people to get on top of their own finances.

The CML is also concerned that the qualifying period may return to 39 weeks after somebody has lost their job.

The BSA is calling for the amount received in SMI payments to reflect the actual rate the borrower is paying, rather than a set standard rate.

Since 2008, London has been the most traded real estate market in the world [...]]]> The London property market has seen a huge increase in global capital flight- as it is seen by many as a safe haven during the eurozone credit crunch.On the high end of this scale of capital investment is the commercial property market.

Since 2008, London has been the most traded real estate market in the world with 60% of the total investment from foreign investors.

The system in London is very investor friendly with transparent legal structures and it has fiscal benefits in terms of tax and capital gains which give it a certain advantage.

International corporations use London as a base for Europe, Africa and the Middle East- and London also responds quickly to global market pressures.

In late 2008, there was a 40% drop in values post the Lehman Brothers crash and as Sterling weakened. Bizarrely, perhaps, this huge markdown did little to dampen investor sentiment. In contrast to the fortunes of the US and other real estate markets, it led to a substantial increase in overseas interest.

As such, London stole the crown from New York in 2008 as the most traded real estate market in the world.

During the 2008-2011 period, some 42% of sales were from UK owners to foreign investors, with just 6% being traded the other way.

These foreign investors are discerning and are focusing on prime assets.

UK buyers are still the biggest group, holding 48% of all property here, followed by German investors which own 16%, US investors which own 10% and Middle Eastern investors which own 6%.

Japanese investment has fallen two percentage points from a high of 11% in 1995, while and European investment excluding Germany has fallen to 5% from a high of 8% in 1995.

There has also been a growing trend towards the super-rich, often labelled high net worth individuals, buying property.

The super-rich are also buying in the City. Officially they own some 6% of the office space there, but many think that could be an underestimate as it is difficult to trace ownership and there is a culture of secrecy.

The firm confirmed strong demand [...]]]> Homebuilder Berkeley has seen a strong rise in profits to £101 million for the six months to the end of October.This was 64% up on the same period last year, but included a £30 million windfall due to the sale of Berkeley’s share in a project for Imperial College in London.

The firm confirmed strong demand for high quality homes in London and the South East, but said its overall market was affected by short-term volatility.

Berkeley said it was on target to meet its full-year forecasts.

“Looking forward, the further increase in forward sales and the strong balance sheet, which remains ungeared without debt, means Berkeley is increasingly well positioned to capitalise on the current market conditions,” said chairman Tony Pidgley.

Berkeley sold 1,506 homes in the half year at an average selling price of £254,000 compared with 1,249 homes sold at £262,000 a year earlier.

The construction company welcomed the government’s recent announcement of measures to boost home building, including a £400 million scheme to kick start stalled construction projects in England and a mortgage indemnity scheme to help up to 100,000 people buy homes with a 5% deposit.

November saw a rise in new contracts and [...]]]> Growth in the UK building sector fell back in November after a surprise gain in October new research suggests.The Markit/Cips Construction Purchasing Managers Index, which is based on a monthly survey of building firms, fell to 52.3, down from 53.9 in October. A value above 50 indicates growth.

November saw a rise in new contracts and the first increase in residential construction for six months.

Markit described growth as modest due to economic head-winds in the industry.

“Raw materials, energy and fuel prices continue to hinder the sector, construction companies cite these as the main contributing factors for high input prices which have increased for the 22nd month running,” said David Noble, chief executive at the Chartered Institute of

On Thursday, Markit/Cips data showed that the UK’s manufacturing sector shrank at its fastest pace in 18 months.

The OBR also predicted that house prices would rise at levels above inflation from the same year, [...]]]> Housing market activity will improve in 2013 after a stagnant few years according to forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).It said there would be a 20% rise in transactions in 2013/ 14, compared with the previous year.

The OBR also predicted that house prices would rise at levels above inflation from the same year, reaching annual growth of 4.5% in 2015-16.

Sales have been at comparatively low levels during the period of economic turmoil, owing in part to lenders’ caution when handing out mortgages, buyers’ worries about their jobs, and sellers’ unwillingness to reduce asking prices.

The latest figures from HM Revenue & Customs showed that 76,000 homes were sold in October, which was 1,000 more than in September, but still 3,000 fewer than in October last year.

It means that sales for the year so far have been 5% down on 2010.

However, the OBR – the independent, but government-funded, economic forecaster – said that this would change in a few years.

It predicted that transactions would fall by 3% in 2011-12, grow by 1.5% the following year, but then surge by 20.7% in 2013-14.

Meanwhile, house prices will fall by 0.9% in 2011-12, dip by 0.1% the following year, then rise by 2.7% in 2013-14, and increase by more than 4% in each of the next three years.

The temporary exemption meant first time buyers were free from the [...]]]> First time buyers will no longer receive an exemption from stamp duty from March 2012 as the government says the relief is “ineffective”.Documents with Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement reveal the view that the tax relief failed to get more people on the property ladder.

The temporary exemption meant first time buyers were free from the 1% stamp duty on homes costing under £250,000.

A lenders’ group described the decision as “disappointing”.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said first-time buyers’ purchases could be bunched up at the start of next year before the concession is scrapped on 24 March.

The documents show that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) believes that the UK housing market will remain relatively stagnant.

It predicts that, even without the relief for first-time buyers, stamp duty land tax receipts will only grow marginally from £6bn in 2010-11 to £6.4bn in 2012-13, before rising more sharply to £7.5bn in 2013-14, and accelerating to £11.4bn in 2016-17.

Stamp duty thresholds

• 1%: Properties of £125,000 to £250,000, but first-time buyers are currently exempt
• 3%: £250,000 to £500,000
• 4%: More than £500,000
• 5%: More than £1m, residential property only

In the Autumn Statement documents, the government said: “The government is publishing analysis showing that the stamp duty land tax relief for first-time buyers has been ineffective in increasing the number of first time buyers entering the market.

The government’s housing strategy, announced earlier in the month, included a mortgage guarantee scheme to encourage lenders to offer 95% mortgages to buyers of new homes.

Paul Smee, director general of the CML, said: “While the stamp duty concession may not have stimulated additional demand, it was a significant help to home-owners entering the market and its removal runs counter to the themes of the new housing strategy.

“It is likely that we will see a bunching of eligible first-time buyer transactions early next March to beat the expiry date on the concession.”

Meanwhile, the number of mortgages [...]]]> UK house prices have remained “surprisingly resilient” in recent months with values rising again in November- the Nationwide has found.It said the average home rose in value by 0.4% in November to £165,798.  This was a 1.6% year on year increase, according to the figures based on Nationwide’s own mortgage data.

Meanwhile, the number of mortgages approved for house purchase but not yet completed  has risen slightly to its highest level for nearly two years.

The Bank of England said there were 52,743 approvals in October, up from 51,193 the previous month and the highest monthly total since December 2009.

The fact that approvals last month were higher than the average for the previous six months suggests that sales may pick up slightly in the coming months.

The Nationwide’s house price figures differ with those from the Land Registry published on Monday which showed that prices in England and Wales had slipped slightly in the past year.

The Nationwide predicted that prices would stay the same or fall in the next 12 months.

“House prices have remained surprisingly resilient in recent months, despite the deterioration in the economic outlook,” said Robert Gardner, the Nationwide’s chief economist.

“But, with the UK economic recovery expected to remain sluggish well into 2012, house price growth is likely to remain soft, with prices moving sideways or drifting modestly lower over the next twelve months.”

The best measure of current trends in house prices is to compare the average price of the past three months with the average price of the previous three months.

On the Nationwide’s data this three-month on three-month comparison shows a rise of 0.2%.

Mr Gardner said the apparent resilience of house prices reflected a lack of supply in the market.

He welcomed the latest announcement from the government on encouraging first-time buyer activity, but said that any action should also include measures to increase housing supply.

The government’s housing strategy, announced earlier in the month, included a mortgage guarantee scheme to encourage lenders to offer 95% mortgages to buyers of new homes.