Home sales were sluggish in January February 9, 2017 Home sales stayed sluggish in January, according to industry experts, with central London suffering a decline in sales. According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), house sales lacked "momentum" in January, but an overall shortage of housing stock is still pushing up house prices and rents. The gloomy outlook comes after the government [...]
Candy brothers accused of subjecting businessman to campaign of abuse over loan deal gone wrong February 8, 2017 Property tycoons Nick and Christian Candy were brought to court today over claims they threatened a businessman over a loan deal gone awry. Entrepreneur Mark Holyoake, who is known for the now collapsed British Seafood importing business, is suing the brothers for £132m in damages in London's High Court. Holyoake, a former long-time friend of Nick [...]
Malaysian developer spends £10m saving Georgian terraces at One Crown Place February 8, 2017 Malaysian developer AlloyMtd is spending £10m on the refurbishment of a Georgian terrace in the Sun Street conservation area as part of its residential development One Crown Place. Hackney Council insisted on the developer restoring the historic buildings as part of the planning permission for the £500m scheme, which will provide 246 apartments and 140,000 square [...]
Property of the Week: This former hosepipe factory in Peckham is made for people who love hidden bookcases February 8, 2017 The Hosepipe Factory, Peckham, £2.295m It’s surprisingly easy to walk past this enormous former hosepipe factory. I did, three times, to be exact, pacing between a timber merchants and a row of Victorian terraced houses. Eventually, I spot the estate agent from Urban Spaces and he ushers me past a slim electric gate, like he’s [...]
Redrow boss calls for government to release green belt land February 8, 2017 Redrow chief executive John Tutte has said the government should have unlocked more greenbelt land for development in the housing white paper. Speaking to City A.M., Tutte said: "Controversially, we would have liked to have seen something more forceful on releasing the green belt. "It isn't all rolling countryside." His comments come after communities secretary Sajid [...]
If we cannot build on the green belt, then we must build up and build faster in inner city parts of the capital February 8, 2017 Has there ever been a more opportune time to reform the UK’s exceptionally strict rules against building on the so-called “green belt”? Huge swathes of protected land surround cities and towns such as London, Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham and Manchester. Soaring house prices and rental costs in these areas have prompted a sea change in people’s [...]
Government has the skeleton of a plan to fix UK housing: Now it needs the drive to actually do it February 7, 2017 The government’s Housing White Paper, released yesterday, was an attempt to get England to the 250,000 new homes a year required to reach housing need. It went in many good directions and created a skeleton of a system that could meet need – but in places it did not go far enough, and perhaps pulled [...]
St Modwen has found a buyer for its Nine Elms site February 7, 2017 St Modwen's share price climbed today after it said it had found a purchaser for its Nine Elms site. The developer's share price was up two per cent at time of writing – even though the company also reported a slide in profits. The figures In its results for the year ending 30 November, St [...]
The big winners of the housing white paper: Housebuilders’ and estate agents’ shares are climbing February 7, 2017 If you work in residential property, today is a good day – share prices went up across the board after the government published its long-awaited housing whitepaper. On the FTSE 100, Persimmon was the big winner, with shares rising 2.3 per cent to 1,983p in mid-afternoon trading. That was followed by Barratt, which rose 1.7 per [...]
“Really, is that it?” – reactions to the government’s housing white paper February 7, 2017 In the year that the US President signed an executive order to build a wall, UK politicians got together to write a housing paper that was lacking in concrete ideas. There were some general indicators of where the government is going on housing, however. Here's how the property industry reacted: On the lack of content [...]