Today’s housing figures have an almost upbeat tone. Asking prices are rising in all regions of England and Scotland (up 0.4 per cent) according to home.co.uk, the website, although they continue to fall in Wales (down 0.5 per cent). There are some concerns, however, that sellers could become over-optimistic about the prices that their homes could fetch, overlooking the impact on buyers of higher taxes, stagnant wages and the shortage of mortgage funds. As reported by The Times on Saturday, cash buyers now account for 40 per cent of home sales, according to a new analysis by Savills. In some periods of the early Noughties, mortgage-free purchases were as low as 5 per cent. These numbers highlight the difficulties faced by so many borrowers in obtaining finance. Another piece of research - from Knight Frank - suggests that those cash buyers could be sinking some of their money into a second home in the South West. There has been an increase in the number of people looking for a property by the sea or in a historic town as a holiday hideaway - and also as a rental investment. Miles Kevin, head of Knight Frank’s South West residential team, says that new-build Newquay flats with up-to-the-minute decor are attracting the highest rents - £1,000 a week is typical for July and August. City boy surfer dudes may be OK with shabby chic, but shabby doesn’t rock their boat.
Carlos Slim Helu, the Mexican telecoms magnate, is number one on Forbes’s latest league of the world’s rich - he’s worth $74 billion. It seems, however, that he still likes a bargain. Last year Bricks & Mortar wrote about the sale of the Duke Semans building, a 109-year old mansion in New York’s Fifth Avenue, opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the home was for sale for $50 million. Mr Slim acquired the property for a mere $44 million. Much work apparently needs doing to the interior which may have been his bargaining ploy.
http://www.thetimes.com/tto/life/property/comment/article2517768.ece