UK-based Blend Network, an online P2P lender, reveals that the average UK house prices “grew by 5.7% year-on-year in March.”
Blend Network added in its latest property market report that activity has slowed down from December 2020’s 6-year high growth of 7.3% year-on-year. But price “momentum” is still impressive “especially considering that the UK has been plunged in a national lockdown since 4 January.”
The Blend Network team also noted that in March 2021, they saw “a barrage of positive news and policy support for the housing market” which had been announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in his Spring Budget on March 3, 2021.
As noted by the P2P lender, the extension of the stamp duty for another 3 months and 95% mortgages for first-time buyers are “likely to continue to provide support for the housing market in the near-term.” Blend Network added that the longer-term outlook remains “highly uncertain” and “highly dependent on the speed of economic recovery and ongoing support for housing demand in the form of policy incentives.”
While sharing key updates on the UK property market, Blend Network noted:
- In March 2021, average UK house prices “grew by more than 5% year-on-year for the seventh consecutive month.” The past few months have “seen the strongest and most sustained period of growth in the UK housing market since 2013-15 when between September 2013 and May 2015, prices rose by an average 8.3% year on year in this period.”
- The Blend Network team added that they “generally agree with Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, in that given that the wider economy and the labor market has performed better than expected in recent months, the slowdown in March likely reflects a softening of demand ahead of the original end of the stamp duty holiday before an extension was announced.”
- Looking at the quarterly trends, we “see that the UK northwest remains the fastest-growing area.” This region “saw an impressive 8.2% year-on-year growth in Q1 2021 and was also the fast-growing region in 2020 with 5% growth last year amid the pandemic.” West Midlands was “the second-strongest region: Q1 prices rose by 7.6% year-on-year.”
- Following the Prime Minister’s promise and commitment “to revitalize the north and news suggesting ‘Boris Johnson plans to pour billions into Midlands and North’, we are very bullish on the regional, especially northwest and Midlands, housing market over the next few years.”
- The Blend Network team noted that they “believe Greater Manchester, the wider northwest region and East and West Midlands will perform strongly over the next few years.”
Blend Network further revealed that they’re continuing to grow their pipeline of projects to bring clients “great risk/reward loans.”
Blend Network also mentioned that they listed “a record £1,745,000 worth of loans in February,” and funded their “largest-ever loan in March.” They’re now “on track to a very strong April.”
You may visit the company’s website for additional information. The platform’s management also noted that you may want to check out their upcoming 8-12% return p.a. loans.