The definitive guide to where you can afford to buy a home: Unless you earn £42,645 forget about living in London December 14, 2015 Where in the UK can you afford a house? If you're a first-time buyer, the answer is "very few places". If you earn under £42,645 per year, you’re going to struggle to find anywhere in the capital. Use the tool below on desktop to find out where you can afford to buy, based on the interest rate on [...]
London grandchildren more dependent on grandparents than anywhere else in the UK – with most of capital’s over-55s still providing support to adult children December 14, 2015 Bank of mum and dad has become bank of mum's mum and dad for many Londoners, as research from peer-to-peer lending service Zopa has discovered that those in the capital rely more on grandparents for financial and childcare support than elsewhere in the UK. More than three-quarters (77 per cent) of grandparents in London are [...]
The government’s buy-to-let stamp duty increase will cost landlords the equivalent of 11 months’ rental income December 14, 2015 George Osborne's hike of stamp duty on buy-to-let properties could cost landlords the equivalent of 11 months' income, new research has suggested. The Countrywide Lettings Index suggested that the three per cent rate will mean a 0.2 per cent drop in yields – the equivalent of 11 months' income, when you take into account borrowing costs. Those [...]
Over 7m workers will resolve to find a new job in the new year, and 54 per cent will make a career-related promise December 14, 2015 Employers be warned: a large chunk of your staff might be using New Year's Day not to nurse a hangover, but to polish their CV. Research published today by CV-Library has estimated 7.7m workers will resolve to leave their job in 2016. That's just shy of a quarter of the 31.2m people in work, according to Office [...]
Getting onto the housing ladder is £2,300 a year cheaper than renting, says Santander December 14, 2015 First-time buyers could save £2,300 a year by getting on the property ladder compared to renting, according to research by Santander Mortgages. The average monthly rent in the UK is currently £995 compared to monthly repayments of £805 for the average first-time buyer household, meaning buyers could save £190 a month, the lender said. In [...]
Treasury to pave way for tighter control of the buy-to-let market December 14, 2015 Regulators are expected to consult on the buy-to-let mortgage market this week, as they pave the way for the next salvo on the booming sector. George Osborne has committed to launching a consultation before the end of the year on handing the Bank of England new powers to apply rigorous rules to the buy-to-let market. [...]
London and the East lift UK economic growth as Scotland and the North East contract December 14, 2015 London was the second fastest growing region of the economy last month, according to a new business survey. Lloyds Bank’s regional purchasing managers’ index (PMI) scored 57 for London, above the 50 level that signals no change in business activity on the previous month. While it mark a slowdown in London’s economic growth – Octobers [...]
Rightmove: London house prices beat the seasonal slump December 14, 2015 London asking prices have gone up 10 per cent in the last year, yet some experts are warning the market could run out of steam in 2016. Prices are down 0.5 per cent compared with last month, according to figures published by property website Rightmove this morning. The smallest December dip since 2008 took asking [...]
High street suffers Black Friday blues as footfall slumps in November December 14, 2015 UK high streets suffered a massive slump in footfall in November as shoppers abandoned the high street in favour of bagging a Black Friday bargain online. The number of visitors making shopping trips to their local high streets, retail parks and shopping centres fell by 2.1 per cent year-on-year. This was significantly below the 0.2 per cent fall [...]
Fed revs up for historic lift in US interest rates – New York Report December 13, 2015 Stock market investors are ready for the first US Federal Reserve interest rate hike in nearly a decade this week, but they may not be fully prepared for all of the nuanced remarks likely to accompany that announcement. If the Fed lays out an aggressive schedule of future rate increases, stock markets could become very [...]