“Activity in the housing market has picked up further,” the Bank of England reports...

We recently read the Bank of England's Agents' summary of business conditions for August 2013 and thought that some of you may be very interested in it so here it is for you:

Bank of England - Agents' summary of business conditions - August 2013

Housing market

Housing market activity had risen further in recent months, both in terms of enquiries and transactions.

In the new-build market, improving conditions were partly ascribed to the effects of the new Help to Buy scheme (applying to England only) and to a continued easing of mortgage availability, though some contacts reported stringent conditions on higher loan to value loans.

The Help to Buy scheme was also said to be boosting demand in the market for existing homes, by raising expectations of future house prices.

Buy-to-let investors had remained highly active. On the supply side, a shortage of properties for sale was said by estate agents to be restraining transaction volumes and to be putting upwards pressure on house prices.

Business conditions summary

• Annual growth in the value of consumer spending had remained moderate. There were signs of increasing consumer confidence, though disposable incomes had remained tight.
• Activity in the housing market had picked up further in recent months.
• Investment intentions had continued to point to only modest growth in capital spending.
• Growth in manufacturing output had been unchanged for the domestic market, though it had increased a little for exports.
• Sentiment in business services had improved further, alongside continued growth in turnover.
• Construction output had strengthened, as house building had increased over recent months.
• Corporate credit availability had continued to improve gradually.
• Employment intentions pointed to a slight increase in staffing over the coming six months.
• Capacity utilisation had remained slightly below normal both in manufacturing and services, though the margin of spare capacity in services had narrowed a little.
• The annual rate of growth in labour costs per employee had been little changed.
• Annual growth in materials costs had remained subdued and moderate inflation in imported finished goods prices had continued.
• Inflation in manufacturers' output prices had edged lower and had remained very subdued for business services prices.
• The rate of consumer price inflation had been unchanged.

The full report can be found here.

Source: www.arla.co.uk
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