What's making headlines in the rest of the press
The UK's homes could almost triple in value to £7 trillion by 2020 unless more is done to increase the supply of affordable housing. A report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research said the value of the UK housing market had shot up by 78% since 1998 (Observer, 6 July). The report said the housing market was unlikely to crash and housebuilders agreed (Daily Telegraph, 3 July, Eastern Daily Press, 2 July).

How have homeowners been spending their increased equity? Perhaps a clue is that while mortgage equity withdrawals rose to 7.4% of disposable income in the first quarter of the year, car sales were up 15.8% in June (Guardian, 5 July).

HSBC has become the first UK high-street bank to offer Islamic mortgages. Customers neither pay nor receive interest, which is forbidden under Islamic law (Eastern Daily Press, 2 July). Such mortgages had attracted double stamp duty until this year's Budget.

As politicians failed to convince the European Central Bank to cut interest rates, business leaders and unions tried the same tactic on new Bank of England governor Mervyn King (Guardian, 7 July).

Source

Housing Today