Lucian Cook

In celebration of 30 years of ONS local level house price data...

@SomersetCCC Sing it loud boys, sing it loud

78/5 ➡️ 325/7....... WHAT. A. CHASE 🔥🔥🔥🔥 #WeAreSomerset #SOMvESS

@AndrewDixonARC Good point well made

@LucianCook Very interesting. Thank you for sharing @LucianCook. Quick question, is the £243 bn correct for Q1 2025. Feels on the high side - perhaps £243 million?

Yesterday's quarterly stamp duty statistics paint an interesting picture with revenues boosted by the increase in the additional homes surcharge at a time when the amount of tax relief claimed by first time buyers hits a record high

Yes, this could change quickly (as the past 24 hours bear witness) but here are our initial views what the tariff-related events of the past week could mean for the housing market... savills.co.uk/blog/article/3…

Our analysis of @TwentyCi data suggests the housing market has struggled to maintain the early year momentum. Net agreed sales broadly back to normal in March, higher than normal new instructions & asking price adjustments relatively high. Price sensitivity set to continue.

(And remember it's based on individual earnings rather than household income).

It certainly has a place in looking at relative affordability across different parts of the country & it does help understand deposit affordability. But you need to look at mortgage payments as a % of income in tandem if you want to get a real picture of how things have changed.

Earlier this week the ONS told us housing affordability had improved on the basis of movements in the house price to earnings ratios. For me, this measure is more a wax crayon than a precision tool in assessing affordability.

And the 1.3m appears to be a UK figure; the 1.5m target is for England alone. Planning reform alone is not enough

OBR suggesting the delivery of 1.3m new homes over the next five years on the basis of 305k per annum at the end of the forecast period. But that assumes annual housing transactions get back up to 1.48m pa: a long way above the post GFC norm of 1.2m.....

Watch this very closely. It would open up capacity for more housing market activity but also price growth. Getting the balance right is tricky, so I would expect some “interesting discussions” between the regulators & the politicians.

The moment New Zealand beat India 3-0 - the first time they have been whitewashed at home since 1999 😮 📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK

Losing 3-0 at home is a tough pill to swallow, and it calls for introspection. Was it lack of preparation, was it poor shot selection, or was it lack of match practice? @ShubmanGill showed resilience in the first innings, and @RishabhPant17 was brilliant in both innings— his footwork made a challenging surface look like a different one altogether. He was simply superb. Full credit to New Zealand for their consistent performance throughout the series. Winning 3-0 in India is as good a result as it can get. #INDvNZ

Initial thoughts on what the budget means for the housing market.... savills.co.uk/blog/article/3…

@lucydenyer Sadly not something you can fit into the fringes of the working day..

@LucianCook Side hustle Lucian?!

In a previous life I was a land agent who specialised in tax valuations, Given the changes in relief on Agricultural and Business Property Relief those services will be in high demand.....

Buy to let Landlords temporarily relieved by no increase in CGT are going to be less enamoured by a 5% SDLT surcharge. More difficult to see where new rental supply will come from - especially coming on the back of the abolition of the AST.

Non-doms to be abolished from April 2025 but the devil will be in the detail which will determine whether the targeted tax take is realistic

Quite surprised to see the additional IHT threshold for homes retained - thought that might be at risk. Bang goes the idea of more downsizing as a result....