The latest lending figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders showed that conveyancers benefited from housing activity spluttering slowly back into life in July. After the cessation of the Stamp Duty holiday impeded the market in the spring, there are signs that a gradual recovery is underway. First-time buyer activity remains broadly static, but has improved from last summer, while the number of loans taken out by home movers rose by 8% from June and 4% from July 2011.
Market conditions remain tight, but it is possible that lenders may be loosening the belt a bit, possibly in light of the government’s Funding for Lending and NewBuy initiatives. Product availability also seems to be heading upwards, so hopefully this will entice more first-time buyers back to the market.
August can often be a lull for all involved in the house-buying process as people are more pre-occupied with taking summer holidays than moving home, but with autumn now here there is every chance that transactions will kick up a gear. The Olympic and Paralympic Games may have provided the nation with a much-needed shot in the arm, but they have also provided something of a distraction to the property market – particularly in the Capital – so as the wonderful memories now fade, normal service can resume. Figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the HMRC also show that transaction figures are heading in the right direction, so here’s hoping for a busy few months.
Another thing that has caught my eye recently is The Money Advice Service’s eye-catching new television advertising campaign offering advice to people who are moving home. I’m all for anything that increases awareness of what is involved in the process and points people in the right direction of where to get assistance. Despite how advanced our financial services industry is and how many people use a number of different products, there are still often knowledge gaps that can be filled by such campaigns.
The intricacies involved in services like conveyancing are often not understood until the time comes for people to utilise them, so anything that can help brief them beforehand and give them a realistic idea of what to expect helps make our job a little easier. Part of the reason that the UK sleepwalked into recession was because too many people and organisations didn’t fully understand the implications of what they were getting into, so addressing the country’s financial literacy is essential if we are serious about avoiding repeating these mistakes in future.
Harpal Singh is managing director of BrokerConveyancing.co.uk