UK Property

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.UK mortgage approvals rose more than expected in October, according to official figures published on Wednesday that point to a stabilisation in the property market after a prolonged period of low house sales. Net mortgage approvals for house purchases rose to 47,400 in October from 43,700 in September, Bank of England data showed. The number was well above economists’ expectations of 45,000 and the highest since July, but about 28 per cent...

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Property sellers are accepting average discounts to asking prices of £18,000, as higher mortgage rates and increased supply create favourable conditions for equity-rich UK buyers.According to data from housing site Zoopla, in the first half of November sellers accepted the largest gap — on average 5.5 per cent — between asking and sales price in five years.Some potential buyers have been priced out of the UK housing market by the increased cost...

Anna and her husband always knew it was going to be difficult to sell the home in which they had lived happily for 17 years and where they brought up their three children. Little did they know how hard the process of leaving it would turn out to be.“When our youngest child left for university, our thoughts turned to: where next?” says Anna, who is in her mid-fifties and did not want to give her real name. She and her husband put their six-bedroom house in Surrey on the market...

Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the UK house prices myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox.UK house prices suffered their first annual decline in more than a decade in September as rental costs rose at a record pace, according to official data. The average price for a property decreased by 0.1 per cent in September compared with the same month last year, down from a 0.8 per cent expansion in August, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed on Wednesday. This marked the first year-on-year...