Homeowners will struggle to make mortgage repayments and repossessions will rise next year as soaring interest rates and falling prices mark the end of the UK’s 13-year housing market boom, according to a sobering report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The number of inquiries from potential homebuyers fell for a fifth month in a row in September, while sales fell to the lowest level since May 2020 when the housing market all but ground to a halt during the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, it said. – Guardian
If the government raises benefits in line with earnings rather than inflation next year, it would drastically cut the incomes of poorer working-age families, while saving less than a tenth of the cost of recent tax cuts, a leading economic thinktank has calculated. Such a change, which would mean a significant real-terms cut given that wages are rising at 5.5% with inflation close to 10%, could see the effective income of some families reduced by up to £1,000 a year, the Resolution Foundation said. – Guardian
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has told governments to embrace a new era of austerity to tackle stubbornly high inflation, in a move that could boost Liz Truss’s plan to cut benefits to balance the budget. The IMF said it was important that central banks and governments worked closely to ensure borrowing costs and debt levels remained under control. – Telegraph
Administrators of the UK arms of Greensill Capital have recorded nearly £34 million in fees and expenses, new filings reveal, making it one of the priciest insolvency jobs of recent years. Insolvency practitioners from Grant Thornton said that they had incurred £4.4 million of time costs between March and September on Greensill Capital UK, bringing cumulative time costs for the 18 months of the administration to about £23 million. – The Times
Close to £1 billion was knocked off the value of the biggest housebuilders yesterday amid the first signs that demand for homes is falling rapidly. Barratt Developments, which builds more houses in Britain than any other developer, warned that its sales have fallen sharply in recent weeks as mortgage rates have surged. – The Times
