Forterra share price rises as brickmaker reports strong activity from housebuilding sector in 2016 March 15, 2017 Forterra's share price nosed up this morning after the company said it had experienced "strong activity levels" from housebuilders. Britain's second largest brickmaker posted modest annual growth, which its boss said was "good progress in the delivery of our strategy". The figures Revenue rose by 1.5 per cent to £295m while earnings jumped 4.6 per cent [...]
Apple’s move to Battersea Power Station sparks hopes of paying off infrastructure debt early March 15, 2017 The council leader heading up the development around the Battersea Power Station is hoping a possible boost to business rates income from Apple’s move to the site could help pay for the Northern Line extension early. The funding for the Northern line extension, which will create two new tube stations at Nine Elms and Battersea Power Station, [...]
Brexit could cost the construction sector thousands of workers and increase the skills shortage March 15, 2017 While the UK grapples with a skills shortage in the construction industry, new figures suggest Brexit will threaten eight per cent of the sector's workforce. Losing access to the EU's Single Market will put nearly 200,000 construction jobs at risk, a survey of construction professionals by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) will today reveal. According [...]
Tony Pidgley on Berkeley Group’s demotion from FTSE 100, giving up his six-figure salary and solving London’s housing crisis March 15, 2017 Berkeley Homes bowed out of the FTSE 100 following the Brexit vote last year but founder and chairman Tony Pidgley CBE isn’t perturbed. “I don’t run Berkeley for whether it's in or out of the FTSE 100. I run Berkeley because Berkeley does what it does well,” Pidgley tells City A.M. “I couldn’t control Brexit [...]
Developer behind 33 Central turns away from regional cities after Brexit March 14, 2017 HB Reavis, the developer behind Wells Fargo's European headquarters, has turned away from investing in the UK's regional cities due to the Brexit vote. Last July, HB Reavis' sale of 33 Central was widely-feted as a coup for London following the EU referendum, and while the developer is confident about the capital's prospects in the future, it [...]
Holiday Homes: Finding a property investment at Courchevel 1850 on the slopes in the Rhone-Alpes that will pay off March 14, 2017 In the rarefied air of Courchevel 1850, known as France’s ski playground for the wealthy, the word “only” quickly takes on a new meaning. A burger, for example, is “only” €30 on the slopes, and a duplex apartment is “only” €9.65m. But in the Rhone-Alpes prime real estate hotspot, where high-end chalets up to 3000sqm [...]
New stamp duty rules annihilated buy-to-let mortgage borrowing in January March 14, 2017 The amount borrowed by prospective landlords fell 16 per cent in the year to January, as strict new rules on buy-to-let homes took their toll. Figures by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed would-be landlords borrowed £800m to buy new homes in January, down from £1.4bn the year before, and £900m in December. The [...]
Quintessentially Group’s estates arm is expanding to New York City March 13, 2017 London-based global property group Quintessentially Estates is expanding its international referral network to New York City in a collaboration with an estate brokerage in the Big Apple. The firm is owned by Quintessentially Group, a concierge service for billionaires that's also behind the world's biggest yacht. Its estates arm specialises in sales and acquisitions of prime residential properties in [...]
Opinion: The Budget left out property and the housing crisis – but here’s what Philip Hammond should have done instead March 13, 2017 Apart from a nod towards business rates (the devil will be in the Finance Act detail), the Budget was almost a property-free zone. But Mr Hammond missed out on some much-needed blue-sky thinking, especially if the government is going to fix what it calls the ‘broken’ housing system. Here are some things that Spreadsheet Phil [...]
UK house prices: Rent increases have fallen to their lowest since 2013 – while London prices fell for the ninth month March 13, 2017 Rent increases for tenants across the UK have fallen to their lowest since 2013, new figures have shown, with prices in London dropping for the ninth month in a row. Rents rose just one per cent to £1,190 in the year to February, the lowest rise since April 2013, figures from Landbay showed. In the [...]