Rising mortgage costs are believed to be responsible for home asking prices in Britain falling sharply this month, as sellers lower their expectations, an industry survey showed on Monday.
Average asking prices for homes dropped by 1.9 per cent, the biggest monthly fall for August since 2018 and twice as steep as the usual summer fall, website Rightmove said.
Although Britain's housing market boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic, it has weakened due to a run of interest rate rises by the Bank of England.
Despite two-year mortgage rates recently dropping from July's 15-year highs, mortgage lenders Nationwide and Halifax reported falls in selling prices last month.
Rightmove's survey also showed the number of home sales was down 15 per cent compared with 2019, before the pandemic.
Sales of homes typically sought by first-time buyers fell by a less severe 10 per cent, reflecting a 12 per cent increase in rents for properties in that category over the past year, Rightmove said.
Homes on the market as a whole were down by 10 per cent compared with August 2019.
Average asking prices for homes were 2 per cent below their peak in May but, reflecting the surge in demand during the pandemic, remained 19 per cent higher than in August 2019, Rightmove said.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
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What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
