Interiors: Working from home? Here’s four tips to make it a bit more bearable March 20, 2020 Unless you’re a nurse, a checkout assistant or a delivery driver, chances are you’re going to be working from home for a while. For those who don’t have a home office set up already, this brave new world of endless conference calls in your living room is going to take some getting used to – [...]
Crest Nicholson cancels dividend and guidance on coronavirus concerns March 19, 2020 Housebuilder Crest Nicholson has cancelled payment of its final dividend and withdrawn its full-year financial guidance due to the coronavirus pandemic. The company also said it would draw down all of a £250m credit facility to help cope with the hit to its business from Covid-19 related shutdowns. Crest Nicholson said it would have £185m [...]
IFS says ‘unfair’ council tax system needs urgent reform March 19, 2020 The current council tax regime is “arbitrary and unfair” and should be overhauled as a part of the government’s levelling up agenda, according to a leading economic think tank. A new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has called on the government to update the way council tax is calculated to make it [...]
Seven firms suspend UK property funds as virus casts uncertainty over assets March 18, 2020 Aberdeen Standard Investments and BMO have joined five other firms who have suspended their property funds after independent valuers introduced material valuation uncertainty clauses due to the coronavirus outbreak. The UK commercial property market is facing unprecedented challenges brought on by the pandemic. Valuation firms are now saying that they can no longer make reliable [...]
Aviva Investors suspends property funds as CBRE warns of market uncertainty March 18, 2020 Aviva Investors has suspended its property fund, following similar decisions by Kames Capital and Janus Henderson yesterday. In a statement, Aviva Investors said the coronavirus outbreak had impacted the UK property market and “made it difficult to value the property owned by the funds with the same degree of certainty as would otherwise be the [...]
JP Morgan backs property lender Glenhawk with £200m facility March 16, 2020 JP Morgan has agreed a £200 facility with challenger lender Glenhawk to grow its property loan size and enter the UK homeowner mortgage market. The new senior funding line will support Glenhawk’s ability to grow its maximum property bridging loan size from £3m to £5m to fund a mixture of residential and commercial borrowers. The [...]
LSL abandons Countrywide merger amid coronavirus concerns March 16, 2020 LSL Property Services has pulled out of a potential £500m merger with Countrywide, terminating a deal that would have created the UK’s biggest estate agent, amid market uncertainty due to the outbreak of coronavirus. LSL, which owns Your Move and upmarket chain Marsh & Parsons, did not give a reason for its decision this morning, [...]
Coronavirus: Pandemic heaps uncertainty on house price growth March 16, 2020 The UK’s coronavirus outbreak has heaped uncertainty on London’s housing market, which had started to rally following the Conservative general election victory. The price of property coming to market in the capital surged 5.1 per cent year on year last month to an average of £638,826, the highest annual rate of growth since May 2016. [...]
Housing secretary Robert Jenrick slams Sadiq Khan’s London homes plan March 13, 2020 The housing secretary has slammed Sadiq Khan’s proposals for new London’s homes, saying a focus on small flats will push families out of the capital. Robert Jenrick MP has blocked the publication of the London mayor’s housing plan until “significant improvements” have been made. In a damning letter to Khan, Jenrick said housing delivery in [...]
Modular housing: Four common buyers’ questions answered March 13, 2020 Modular housing; off-site construction; MMC. You might have seen these terms bandied about by the housing minister, or heard the news earlier this month that a 49-storey modular housing tower has been approved in Croydon, which will be one of the tallest in the world. But what does it all mean? Broadly, MMC – or [...]