Bloomberg Anywhere Bloomberg Professional About Bloomberg


 
Lloyds Sees No Improvement in U.K.’s Property Markets in 2010

By Simon Packard

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Lloyds Banking Group Plc, the U.K.’s largest real estate lender, said that the current increase in U.K. property prices is unsustainable, as it announced plans for a 21 billion-pound ($34.3 billion) rights offering.

Values of U.K. homes, shops, offices and warehouses will stagnate next year, the bank forecast, as it predicted its own provisions would be “significantly lower” in 2010.

“We currently expect residential house prices to be flat in 2009 and 2010,” the London-based bank said in the statement. It added that commercial real estate values would also be little changed next year after falling 15 percent in 2009.

Britain’s largest residential mortgage-lender’s forecasts will have an impact on its willingness to lend following a rally in home prices since the first quarter. Lloyds is also the second-largest commercial property lender. In August, the bank predicted that house prices would rise 2 percent in 2010.

A shortage of properties for sale has lifted home prices as mortgage-lending gradually recovers from its weakest levels since the liberalization of the loans market in the 1980s. Lloyds own index shows home prices appreciated since April after falling 23 percent since August 2007.

In the commercial property market, prices climbed in September by 1.1 percent, the most in more than three years and after a two-year decline erased 44 percent from building values, according to Investment Property Databank Ltd.

With the U.K. economy mired in recession and unemployment set to keep rising, Lloyds expects provisions for loans to individuals to rise in the second half.

To contact the reporter on this story: Simon Packard in London at packard@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 3, 2009 04:26 EST

Sponsored links