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The Brief.
EDITION SEVEN
Property Investment News that matters.

2. Stephen Binge
Managing Partner
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It’s set to be an exciting year for IPIN, making
a return to London in more ways than one: we
are finalising SES applications on various asset
classes in the capital, and we will be present
at April’s Property Investor Show, with a stand
better equipped to deal with the interest we
received last time! On top of this, we’d like to
announce our Membership of the Association
of International Property Professionals (AIPP) –
the industry body for the international property
market – strengthening our commitment
to professionalism and accountability as an
organisation. We look forward to doing business
with you in 2013!
Contents
02 welcomE
From Stephen Binge – Managing Partner
03 keep calm and carry on
UK property transactions expected to increase
in 2013
04 SOME day your prints will come
Significant rise in UK planning approvals
05 Stand up and be counted
2011 UK Census: More people renting property
06 The Loan ARRanger
UK mortgages hit an 11-month high
08 There’s no business like show business!
See us at the Property Investor Show, London
09 The shape of things to come
US undergoing housing market recovery
10 first among equals
Global property prices to remain stable in 2013
12 the last word
Latest Secure Exit Strategy™ Application
The Brief.

3. 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
UK property transactions expected to increase in 2013
Residential property transactions will rise marginally this
year on the back of an increase in mortgage lending,
according to the latest projection from the Royal Institution
of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Despite the sluggish nature of the UK housing market and
weak wider economy, RICS estimate that the number of
property transactions will rise by close to 3% this year
to 960,000, up from 930,000 in 2012. However, the
volume of homes changing hands is expected to remain
significantly below the 1.67 million sales recorded pre-
credit crunch in 2006.
RICS believe that the estimated increase in transactions
will be helped by a rise in mortgage lending, supported
by the government-backed Funding for Lending Scheme
which was introduced in August in order to increase the
availability of cheaper loans and mortgages for businesses
and households.
Simon Rubinsohn, RICS Chief Economist, said: “The amount
of sales going through should see an increase across
the country, climbing to its best level since 2007, as the
Funding for Lending scheme helps boost the availability of
mortgage finance.”
Property transactions should also benefit from a general
improvement in the wider economy, with employment
and inflation figures both moving in the right direction.
David Newnes, director of LSL Property Services (owners
of Your Move and Reeds Rains) commented: “As the
economy springs back into shape following months of
recession, it is encouraging that lending has bounced
back too.”
RICS also estimate that the average price of a home in the
UK will appreciate by 2% this year on the back of greater
transactions.
The Brief.

4. There was a sharp increase in the volume of new homes granted planning consent during the third quarter
of 2012, fresh data released by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) reveals. However, many more new
homes are still urgently needed to meet growing housing demand.
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The HBF’s latest Housing Pipeline report shows that
approvals for 33,881 new homes across England
were granted in the third quarter, representing a
staggering 36% rise on the preceding quarter when
24,872 new homes were approved and 17% on the
same period in 2011 when 29,059 consents were
issued.
Although these figures are a welcome rise on
historically low data, the number of new homes
approved is still significantly below the 60,000 per
quarter needed to meet housing demand, or the
64,500 that were being granted in 2006/07.
Planning permissions granted now will, in the main,
be built over the next three or four years. Around
110,000 homes a year in England are currently
being built, against a requirement for 240,000, so
the need to see a continued and steady increase on
the number of permissions granted is quite clear.
Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman of the
HBF, commented: “The increase is good news
and hopefully a reflection of the positive
planning principles of the new system. It is just
one quarterly increase and we are still well short
of the number needed, but we hope it starts
a trend that will continue in 2013.”
In November, Deputy Prime Minister Nick
Clegg vowed to provide greater support to help
increase the supply of new affordable homes
with a £225 million funding boost, with an
emphasis on establishing a new generation of
locally-driven “garden cities”.
Clegg remarked: “The babyboomers of the fifties
and sixties, people who were largely catered
for by the massive housing expansion after
the Second World War, are now watching their
children struggle.
“The plight of the next generation is making what
was an abstract housing shortage increasingly
tangible and real. And as we, as a society, become
more open to development that creates
the space for politicians to be bold.”
Some day your
prints will come...
Significant rise in UK planning approvals
The Brief.The Brief.

5. 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
2011 UK Census:
More people renting property
Stand up
and be
counted
The latest Census released last
week shows that there has been
a major rise in private rental
sector (PRS) tenants since 2001,
with almost a quarter of all
people now renting property in
the English capital.
The census found that there has
been a sharp rise in the number
of people renting property across
the UK with figures rising from
9% in 2001 to 15% in 2011.
In London, the current figure is
even higher at 24%; something
which will please buy-to-let
investors.
With the rise in tenants has
come a 6% fall in home
ownership, with the number of
households with a mortgage
having fallen from 8.4 million in
2001 to 7.6 million in 2011.
More tenants, particularly in
London, reflects a real shift in
the attitudes towards renting in
the UK with it no longer seen as
just a step on the road to buying,
but a long-term life choice for
many. Additionally, there are also
lots more obstacles preventing
would-be homebuyers from
being able to gain a foot on the
housing ladder.
Ian Potter, managing director
at ARLA, said: “The census data
confirms what our members
have already told us, that would-
be home owners are increasingly
turning to the private rented
sector after being priced out of
buying their own property.”
Paul Masters of Kinleigh Folkard
Hayward concurred: “In
October of last year, our tenant
registrations across all branches
[in London] were 70% higher
than our average taken from
the past three years and this is
unlikely to fall in 2013. A lack of
financing and the high deposits
required by lenders in the sales
arena is bolstering the lettings
market as many Londoners find
themselves unable to buy.”
The Brief.

6. 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
The
Loan
Arranger
Residential property purchase lending
in November rose to its highest level
for eleven months in November 2012,
according to e.surv chartered surveyors, but
only a small proportion of these loans are
reaching first-time buyers.
Their Mortgage Monitor revealed there
were 53,259 house purchase loans in
November, the highest since January, a rise
of 1% between October and November.
However, banks are lowering their risks by
opting to focus on lending home loans to
wealthier property buyers rather than first-
time buyers.
The data shows that first-time buyers
continued to struggle, with purchase
approvals on cheaper properties priced
below £125,000 accounting for just 22% of
overall house purchase lending – the lowest
proportion for 14 months.
The fact that the banks focused on lending
more to wealthier buyers is reflected by a
rise in home loans on all property valued at
over £500,000, particularly in the £500,000
to £750,000 bracket.
Lending to borrowers with small deposits -
a good barometer for the health of the first-
time buyer market – slipped to its lowest
since July 2011. Loans to borrowers with a
deposit of less than 15% accounted for just
one in eleven of total house purchase loans
in November. Lending to borrowers with a
small deposit fell by 33% compared to last
November, with just 4,847 loans compared
to 7,180 last year.
UK mortgages hit an 11-month high
The Brief.

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Overall, despite the improvement in lending, it was the third
weakest November for house purchase lending since records
began in 1993. To underline the lack of improvement in the
long-term, lending was 10% lower than November 2009.
Richard Sexton, business development director of e.surv,
explains: “The slight improvement in overall lending glosses
over the on-going struggles of first-time buyers. High LTV [loan-
to-value] lending is a third lower than it was this time last year,
which suggests things remain challenging for new buyers.
Mindful of their risk profile and capital adequacy requirements,
lenders appear to be focusing increased lending on relatively
wealthy borrowers.
“Although banks’ can access cheaper funds to use for lending,
they’ve kept criteria tight on mortgages for first-time buyers.
Although rates have fallen on some of these mortgages, lenders
still require big deposits to access them, which means first-time
buyers who couldn’t qualify for a mortgage three months ago
are still no better off.”
The mortgage barrier preventing many people from being able
to buy property means that many would-be purchasers are
being forced to rent property for longer, especially in London
where property prices are among the most expensive in the
world; an attractive proposition for rental investors.
First-time buyers who
couldn’t qualify for a
mortgage three months
ago are still no better off...
The Brief.

8. Last weekend IPIN took to the road
again and exhibited at the OPP
Live Property Investor Show at
London ExCel. We found the show
to be time extremely well spent in
many ways. Not only did it provide
another great opportunity to meet
many of our existing Members face
to face, but it was also encouraging
to see the influx of interest in our
Secure Exit Strategy™, particularly
when compared to many of the
opportunities on display elsewhere at
the show. Thank you to everyone that
took the time to come and see us, we
look forward to taking part in more
shows in the future.
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See us at the Property Investor Show, London
Last year’s exhibition proved a great success – both for meeting existing
Members and welcoming on board new ones.
This year our stand will be bigger, there will be more of the team,
and we’ll be showcasing all forthcoming SES applications.
We’re on Stand 250 – and we look forward to seeing you there!
The Brief.

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US undergoing housing market recovery
The shape of things to come
There are growing signs that the US property
market is finally on the long road to recovery,
following almost four years of declining prices.
The recent surge in demand for properties in the
US means that it is now a seller’s market, with
fewer vendors currently willing to negotiate on
asking price, resulting in higher achieved prices
across many parts of the country, according to the
latest Zillow ranking of national buyers’ and sellers’
markets.
The Zillow research found that the market is
particularly strong across various parts of California,
Nevada and Arizona, all areas which were all
hard hit by the 2008 global banking crisis and
consequent housing crash.
Zillow suggests that homebuyers looking to
negotiate the best discounts should check out
property in the Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic metros
including Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia which
offer among some of the greatest house price
reductions in the country. This is due to the fact that
properties in these areas are still struggling to sell,
with property listings remaining active in some
cases for in excess of 100 days.
Zillow analysed data on actual
sales prices compared to asking
prices, the number of days listings
spent on Zillow and the percentage
of homes on the market with a price
cut, and ranked the 30 largest metro
areas in the country to determine
whether buyers or sellers have more
negotiating power in a
given market.
Although the vast majority of residential property
markets are improving across the USA, the relative
position of buyers and sellers continues to vary
considerably by geography, according to Zillow
chief economist Stan Humphries.
The Brief.

10. 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12
Global property prices to remain stable in 2013
First amongst equals
Residential property prices in mainstream
markets globally have increased on average
by just 1% across 2012 and this stagnation
is likely continue well into 2013, according
to the latest global house price index from
Knight Frank.
The index rose by 0.1% in the third quarter
of 2012, despite the fact that buyer
confidence is at an all-time low in Europe,
as property markets across the continent
continued to struggle as a consequence of
the Eurozone crisis.
Greece replaced Ireland as the worst
property market in the region (where it had
resided for five consecutive quarters) by
recording an
average price fall of 11.7% in the last year.
Ireland, by comparison, has seen its rate of
decline improve, up from -14.3% a year ago
to -9.6%.
In stark contrast to the turmoil in Europe,
property prices continue to rise sharply in
various hotspots, including Brazil, Hong
Kong, Turkey, Russia, Colombia and Austria
which all experienced double digit growth
in average property values in the past year.
The Brief.

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The Eurozone’s 17 member states had on
average seen prices fall by 1.8% in the 12
months to September. Other world regions such
as South America and Asia Pacific had seen
growth of 9.8% and 4.2% respectively.
Kate Everett-Allen, International Residential
Researcher at Knight Frank, said: “Confidence,
affordability and debt are constraining Europe.
Strict lending and the threat of the (then)
looming fiscal cliff may have dented the early
signs of growth in the US while regulatory
measures in Asia are keeping housing markets in
check. The current period of stagnation looks set
to continue well into 2013.”
Amid much global economic uncertainty in
2012, particularly in the Eurozone, many wealthy
overseas nationals have quite sensibly invested
in London’s property market in more recent times
for its perceived safe haven qualities, and this
trend is likely to continue in 2013, resulting in an
even greater shortage of housing in the capital.
With international demand for homes in the
city, particularly in prime central London,
showing little sign of slowing and house
building levels at an historic low, it is difficult to
see where the much needed additional houses
and apartments for sale in Central London are
going to come from.
The shortage of properties has resulted in a
central London property boom in recent years,
fuelled by overseas investment. The flow of
foreign money coming into the London property
market has long kept property values in the
capital above those homes elsewhere in the UK
and it is highly unlikely that this trend is going to
change anytime soon.
Strong international demand and a growing
housing shortage is widely expected to place
upward pressure on property prices in central
London which are already at a record high,
resulting in an even greater gap between
London property prices and those in the rest of
the country. Consequently, it is fair to say that
London’s economy and housing market now has
more in common with New York and Monaco
than it does with other UK cities such as Leeds
or Manchester.
London’s economy and housing
market now has more in common
with New York and Monaco than it
does with other UK cities such as
Leeds or Manchester.
The Brief.

12. LATEST
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