Figures from the debt charity, Money Advice Trust (MAT), have revealed that the number of people falling behind on rent payments has more than doubled in the last six years. The MAT has labelled this a â??rent debt crisisâ?? and has said that it has received just shy of 20,000 calls in the first nine months of the year from people who have fallen behind with rent
The Nationwide has revealed that house prices in the UK have risen again, and are now at the highest rate since April 2008. The Nationwide, the second largest mortgage lender in the country, based the results on its own figures from lending, and suggests prices have risen by 0.6pc month-on-month, meaning the total 12-month growth figure now stands at 6.5pc.
For those looking for a cheap mortgage deal, October marked a significant step in the right direction, when the second stage of the Governmentsâ?? Help to Buy scheme was launched three months early. However, four UK building societies have now launched 5pc mortgage deals, offering potentially cheaper alternatives to the Government-led initiative.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recorded record house prices in the month of August, as their house price index eased past the previous record set in January 2008, before the UK entered recession.
Opinion on whether the new Government-led scheme to get more people on the property ladder, Help to Buy, will cause a housing bubble has been split, as industry experts consider the likelihood of a rise in property prices.
The second stage of the Help to Buy scheme has been launched three months early in the hope that the housing market will further benefit from growth in a similar way it did under the initial stage of the scheme.
The scheme was originally launched with the intention of helping home buyers find a mortgage, even if they did not have a vast amount of savings.
The Bank of England has announced that the number of mortgage approvals hit a five-and-a-half-year-high in August.
Mortgage approvals rose to 62,226 in August from 60,914 in the previous month. However, these levels are still below both pre-recession and long-term averages.
The Help to Buy scheme, which was announced in the Budget in April, has been launched three months earlier than planned. Help to Buy, a government initiative aimed at making buying a home more accessible for those with a smaller deposit, will allow people to take out a mortgage worth up to 95pc of the value of the property.
The price gap between houses in the North and South of the UK has widened, according to the Nationwide, and now stands at over £100,000. House prices in London and across the rest of the south of the UK have been rising aggressively, and this has meant that the national average has been raised accordingly.
The amount of people buying a first home in the UK has risen by 45pc year-on-year from July 2012, according to a report by LSL Property Services. There were a total of 26,100 transactions for buyers of first homes in July, up 8,100 from July 2012, and the highest monthly total since November 2007.