Weekly property round-up 14/09/09

Every week we give you a selection of the best property articles from the national newspapers, so you won’t miss a thing.

TBPL article of the week:-

Green property: the eco peep show
Heritage Open Days give us a chance to check out some truly inspirational green property, says Caroline McGhie of The Telegraph.

Caroline McGhie interviews architect Tom Ground and his wife Anna who have built and eco-house in Norfolk buried in the dunes with a living roof and geo-thermal heating. Along with 11 other eco-houses, Sedum House is opening their doors to the public next weekend as part of the Heritage Open Days celebrating the best of British architecture.

Heritage Open Days, September 10-13, is organised nationwide by English Heritage (www.heritageopendays.org.uk).

FT index shows house prices edging up
By Norma Cohen, FT
The financial Times House Price Index rose by 0.4% month to month in August, mirroring trends shown by other house prices indices. Peter Williams of Acadametrics the group responsible for the FT index warns not to read to much into the data as it is still to early to be talking of a prolonged reversal of the sharp falls seen over the past two years.

Confidence in the housing market grows
By Jack Harris, FT

According to Moneysupermarket more people are buying properties than remortgaging existing properties demonstrating a growing confidence in the property market.

Hannah-Mercedes Skenfield, spokesperson at Moneysupermarket is quoted as saying ”Our figures provide fresh evidence that appetite to buy a house is coming back into the market. Perhaps the public is becoming convinced that prices have stabilised.”

Lenders ignore Bank rate freeze
Elizabeth Colman and Alexandra Goss, Sunday Times

The Sunday Times reports that two of Britain’s biggest lenders, Royal Bank of Scotland (partially owned by the taxpayer) and nationwide have raised mortgage rates despite the continuance of the histoic low 0.5% base rate maintained by the Bank of England this month.

Mortgages: Fix, track or stick – the big debate
Elizabeth Colman, Sunday Times
Elizabeth colman discusses the merits of moving of the SVR to a fixed rate or tracker deal.

House prices increase are a ”false dawn’
The Telegraph reports on an Ernst & Young research report that claims the recent increases in house prices are a ”false dawn” and property values will not return to their 2007 peak for at least another five years.

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