House prices have risen at their fastest rate this year, with Welsh properties showing strongest growth

Wales recorded the strongest annual house price growth of all the UK nations.

According to figures released today, England saw a 3.3% rise while property prices here jumped by 4.3%.

House prices have risen at their fastest rate this year so far according to official figures which add to mounting evidence that the property market is bursting back into life.

Prices rose by 3.1% year-on-year in June to £242,000 on average, marking the strongest annual upturn recorded by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the last six months.

On a monthly basis, values rose by 0.4%, equalling the increase recorded in May.

House prices in London have soared by 8.1% year-on-year, but growth remained patchy and in Scotland and Northern Ireland prices edged down by 0.9% and 0.4% respectively.

The report was released as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said it saw house prices rise at their fastest pace since their 2006 peak last month.

And yesterday, mortgage lenders said that the number of buyers climbing onto the property ladder for the first time is at its highest level since the financial crash in 2007.

A string of reports have pointed to a buzz in housing market activity following the launch of various government schemes such as Funding for Lending and Help to Buy which have helped to unblock the housing market by making it easier to access a mortgage.

However, some experts warned that the Government’s schemes could come back to “bite” and fears been raised that the measures could lead to a property bubble, with borrowers over-stretching themselves.

The ONS figures showed that the average price paid by a first-time buyer has risen by 3.9% over the last year to reach £182,000.

Matthew Pointon, a property economist at Capital Economics, said: “Government boasts that their schemes to pump more credit into the housing market are now bearing fruit may soon come back to bite them, as housing costs become even more of a burden on stretched household finances.

If you're thinking about investing in a rental property, experts say low home prices combined with low interest rates make this the best time in years to become a real-estate investor.

What's more, the real-estate market is starting to recover: U.S. houses lost $489 billion in value during the first 11 months of 2009, but that was significantly lower than the $3.6 trillion lost during 2008, according to real-estate website Zillow.com.

"We haven't seen home prices this low in so many years, coupled with the rates being so low," says Jill Sjolin, an agent with Windermere Real Estate in Woodinville, Wash., who specializes in investment properties. "When the money is cheap to borrow and the houses are cheap to buy, it's absolutely the best time to invest."

While the timing may be right, these five tips can help first-time investors take advantage of what might be the opportunity of a lifetime.

After a fair amount of research, a real estate investment meeting or two, and a few discussions with your peers, you’ve decided that real estate investing seems like a great option to help grow your savings and turn up the returns in your portfolio. The only concern you have is that as a young professional, you don’t have a lot of extra time or the desire to acquire another full-time job actively managing your investments. Below are five examples of hands-off opportunities that allow you the benefits of putting your hard-earned money to work in real estate-backed assets without giving up the minimal free time you have. 

Joint Venture Partnership
A great way to get into real estate investing is by partnering with someone that has experience and a strong knowledge base.  The most common joint venture structure has the investor responsible for the costs to purchase the property as well as qualify and hold the mortgage in their name. The other partner will locate a suitable property, find quality tenants, manage it day to day and deal with any issues that arise. While it is common to split the profits/losses equally, one of the advantages to a joint venture is that it can be structured any way the partners agree. Do your homework on who you partner with and what you’re purchasing.  Both partners should have similar goals going into the transaction. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, talk with current and past partners, and ask to see a proven track that shows their success. 

Rent to Own
Although not a completely hands-off investment, rent-to-own involves purchasing a home and renting it out to a tenant who plans on purchasing the property for a pre-determined price usually after 2-5 years. Many families make a great income but don’t qualify for a mortgage due to lack of credit or previous circumstances. Because the tenant will be buying at the end of the contract, they are required to put down a deposit at the beginning of the term and set aside money every month which will eventually become their down payment. They are also responsible for any maintenance and repairs to the home while they are living there. As an investor, your security is that at any point the tenant leaves or doesn’t qualify for the mortgage, you keep their initial deposit as well as the monthly credits they have set aside. Should this happen, you can either sell the property or put a new tenant in the home. 

Private Mortgage Lending
Many homeowners that don’t qualify for traditional financing look to the private side of the lending industry. Some borrowers are new to the country and don’t have established credit; some may have more properties than the banks are comfortable financing, and some may want to take out equity from their existing home to pay off debt or complete a renovation. Private lending on residential property is on the more risky side of the investment spectrum since there is usually a reason why the borrower can’t qualify through a bank, but the returns can be higher as well. Mortgage brokers can be a great source of these deals, but make sure you do your homework on who you are lending to and what the terms are. This is your hard earned money, and as a young professional you want to make sure it’s invested efficiently with the risks as managed as possible. 

Vince Cable said that the help-to-buy scheme unveiled in the Budget earlier this year could simply “inflate” the housing market as occurred in the last decade.


From next year, first and second time buyers will be offered government guarantees which should allow them to obtain competitive mortgages even if they have relatively small deposits.


The £130 billion scheme has been heralded as a flagship measure which should help boost the economic recovery while allowing hundreds of thousands of people to meet their aspirations of buying a home.


However, some economists and business leaders have voiced warnings about the scheme and Mr Cable – who previously warned about the dangerous levels of debt before the financial crisis - has now indicated he shares their concerns.


“I am worried about the dangers of getting into another house price bubble,” the senior Liberal Democrat said.

Allsopp, known for property programmes including Location, Location, Location, said young people want to travel, go to university and eat out as well as attempting to buy their first flat.

Suggesting it was difficult to have it all and still get on the housing ladder, she added: “It has never been, and never will, be easy.”


Allsopp told the Observer: “Young people are slightly losing the concept that you make sacrifices to get on the ladder. They want to go to university, they want to travel, they want to eat out frequently and they want to buy their first flat.”


Earlier this year, a survey by Halifax found the UK was becoming a nation of renters, with nearly a third of 20-45 year having no plans to get on the property ladder.


The average deposit for the first-time buyer is now estimated at £26,956, with 35 per cent of those surveyed admitting they will be reliant on a windfall, bonus or an early inheritance to get one together.

Mortgage approvals to home buyers soared to a 16-month high in May in a further sign of a housing market pick-up, high street banks reported.

Some 36,102 mortgages for house purchase worth £5.5 billion were approved during the month, marking an uplift of almost a quarter (24%) compared with May 2012, the British Bankers' Association (BBA) said.

The report predicts that Government efforts to boost mortgage lending will mean more first-time buyers entering the housing market in the coming months, which will help to free some stuck housing chains.

It follows recent figures released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), which said that May was the best month it has seen for mortgage lending since 2008. The CML suggested that the strong recent uplift, which had even taken it by surprise, was partly down to the bad weather seen earlier this year creating a "pent-up" demand.

Surveyors, estate agents and property websites have been reporting confidence returning to the housing market in recent months, with demand from would-be buyers strengthening and house sellers appearing more bullish about sticking close to asking prices.

Residential property prices in the UK were 2.1% higher in the second quarter of 2013 than in the first three months of the year, according to the latest figures published by the Halifax.As a result, house price growth between the latest three months and the preceding three months edged above the 1 to 2% range that it had been in throughout the preceding five months and the biggest increase on this measure since January 2010 when it was 2.9%.

Prices in the three months to June were 3.7% higher than in the same three months a year earlier. This was the biggest increase in this annual measure since August 2010 when it was 4.6%.

On a monthly basis house prices increased by 0.6% in June, the fifth consecutive monthly rise, confirming that house prices continue to rise steadily.

It is becoming increasingly attractive to become a hands off property investor after recent figures suggest the number of portfolio landlords making a loss has risen from 1% to 8%, it is claimed.

Figures from the BDRC Landlord Panel Research report show a big rise in the number of portfolio landlords making a loss and researchers at property investment company Colordarcy believe that many of the pitfalls experienced by landlords can be avoided by investing in fully managed properties with guaranteed rental.

‘Many buy to let investors prefer to do it hands on, however, it is worth remembering that property investing is a business and trying to do everything yourself is actually counter productive in the end, as this recent survey shows,’ said Loxley McKenzie, Colordarcy managing director.

He pointed out that the more time you spend on maintaining properties and dealing with tenant issues, which can happen at any time of the week, day or night, the less time you will have spare to source properties and grow your portfolio.

He believes that hands off property investment has been gaining in popularity because it offers a low risk, low maintenance alternative to traditional buy to let.

‘Hands off should mean just that for investors. That way investors can concentrate on building their portfolio,’ explained McKenzie.

Look back at predictions for the housing market in 2013 and several words appear again and again: "flat", "static" and "treading water" were among the terms favoured by estate agents, lenders and other property market commentators. Most agreed that if there was growth, it would be 2% at most.

But six months on, their forecasts look shaky: Nationwide's June house price index showed that in the first half of the year the average price of a UK home rose by 4%, or more than £1,000 a month, from £162,262 at the end of December to £168,941 at the end of June. Halifax's latest data revealed a near-3% rise in six months from £163,256 to £167,984.

Figures from banks and building societies, meanwhile, show aconsiderable uptick in lending boosted by two government initiatives: Funding for Lending, launched in August 2012 to improve mortgage availability; and the first part of the Help to Buy scheme, offering equity loans on newly built homes, which went live in April. By most measures it seems confidence is returning to the market.

You could argue that a lot of the growth is in London, and you would be right. But it is not just the capital that has seen double-digit rises: Land Registry figures show that in Blaenau Gwent in Wales prices increased by 11.8% between January and May to an average of £80,712. Other areas seeing strong increases included Darlington, where average prices were up by 5.7% in the first five months of the year, and Bridgend, where they rose 3.9%.

Property website, Rightmove’s latest report showed that across England and Wales asking prices were up by 10.4% in the first six months of the year. Photograph: Russell Boyce/REUTERS
Property market experts who as recently as December were predicting flat or even falling house prices this year are rapidly backtracking as evidence mounts that confidence has roared back into the housing market.

Price rises averaging up to 5% across the country are now forecast for the year – and causing consternation among would-be first-time buyers, who already face a struggle to save for a deposit. An increase of that size would add £8,100 by the end of the year to last December's average price of £162,000 recorded by the Land Registry.

Property website Rightmove will next week double its prediction for growth in asking prices this year to 4%, and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is poised to push up its forecast from 2% to "the 4% area".

High-end estate agent Knight Frank has reversed its forecast, saying that instead of a 1% fall in 2013 it expects prices could gain 3% by the end of the year.