Crest Nicholson hikes profit expectations as UK housing market remains ‘resilient’ March 23, 2021 Crest Nicholson has hiked its profit expectations for the year, saying the UK housing market has remained “resilient” to the impact of Covid-19. The UK housebuilder said profit before tax for the year ended 31 October 2021 is expected to be around £85m, up from previous expectations of £74.3m. Crest Nicholson’s share price jumped 4.1 [...]
City workers prepare to head back to offices in just eight days time March 21, 2021 Workers are getting ready to head back to the City of London in just over a weeks’ time as the government’s “stay at home” order is relaxed. Investment banks are leading the return to work, with staff set to return to the Square Mile for the first time in months. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and [...]
Demand for suburban offices soars as businesses move towards ‘hybrid’ working March 19, 2021 Demand for offices in suburban areas has soared since the coronavirus crisis hit the UK, as businesses seek to move out of city centres to cater to new ways of working that have emerged during the pandemic. Research published today showed that there has been a 32 per cent rise in demand for suburban office [...]
Exclusive: Daily Mirror publisher Reach to close a London office and make most staff permanent home workers March 19, 2021 Newspaper publisher Reach, which owns the Mirror and Express as well as a number of regional titles, is planning to close offices and make most of its employees permanent home workers. The company will close its Lower Thames Street office in central London and reduce its office space in Canary Wharf from two floors to [...]
CMA orders Taylor Wimpey and Countryside to remove ground rents in rental contracts March 19, 2021 The Competition and Markets Authority said this morning it has instructed homebuilders Taylor Wimpey and Countryside Properties to remove certain contract terms that require leaseholders to pay ground rents which double every decade. The CMA said these terms could affect the property rights of the firms’ customers. Moreover, “as this increase is built into contracts, it means [...]
I moved to an island paradise during the pandemic: You can too March 17, 2021 Like many others, the pandemic changed my outlook on life. I found myself looking at the same four walls every day with no boundaries separating work and home life. My wife and I were juggling our careers and home-schooling, it was a precarious circus act and we had to work hard at making sure all [...]
UK borrowers impacted by pandemic face rising mortgage payments, L&G warns March 17, 2021 UK borrowers who have suffered a drop in income during the pandemic could soon be paying thousands of pounds more in monthly mortgage repayments, according to the latest research. The survey by Legal & General Mortgage Club found that one in three borrowers are considering staying on their current lender’s Standard Variable Rate (SVR) once [...]
Exclusive: Central London office investment activity jumps on success of UK vaccine rollout March 16, 2021 Investment activity in the Central London office sector jumped last month as the progress of the UK’s Covid vaccination programme bolstered buyer confidence, City A.M. can reveal. In the City of London, £346.55m was transacted across four deals in February, compared to just £30.96m in the previous month. Investment in the Square Mile was down [...]
Remote purchase: Can you buy a house you haven’t visited? March 16, 2021 Since the start of the Covid crisis, there has been a lot of talk about remote purchase as a solution to limitations on movement. Some hoped that virtual viewings and remote purchases would be a lifeline to the industry under lockdown and beyond. At Aykroyd & Co, we have had some significant successes with remote [...]
Canary Wharf: The ‘all work, no play’ banking district tries to reinvent itself as a Millennial neighbourhood March 15, 2021 Canary Wharf: The 'all work, no play' banking district tries to reinvent itself as a Milleninial neighbourhood