Government to launch £5bn fund to help small developers solve the housing crisis before the Autumn Statement August 23, 2016 The government will unveil a fund worth up to £5bn aimed at helping to solve the housing crisis in the weeks leading up to the Autumn Statement, City A.M. understands. The Home Building Fund, aimed at small and medium-sized developers, was announced as part of the Queen’s Speech in May, but has since languished at [...]
Rents on high-end homes have gone down in the aftermath of the Brexit vote and the stamp duty tax hike August 22, 2016 Lettings in the high-end of London's property market have been "subdued" in the second quarter of the year due to both a fall in demand and an increase in supply. JLL said "immaculate properties presented in first class condition" are not losing value, but on average rental values fell by 1.9 per cent during the second quarter. In the 12 months to [...]
Sadiq Khan returns the decision over AFC Wimbledon stadium on Plough Lane back to Merton council August 22, 2016 London Mayor Sadiq Khan has reversed Boris Johnson's decision to call in the application to build a football stadium in Wimbledon. Under the plans, the former Wimbledon greyhound track would be taken down and replaced with a 20,000 seat stadium to be used by AFC Wimbledon. Galliard Homes, who submitted the planning application, would also [...]
Prices on high-end central London properties are expected to fall by six per cent this year August 22, 2016 The price of high-end homes in the centre of London is expected to fall by six per cent this year. According to estate agency Countrywide, prime central London property will be "the hardest hit" in the months after the EU referendum. In the market as a whole, house prices will fall by one per cent next [...]
First time buyers bounce back on to the property market as stamp duty changes take effect August 22, 2016 First-time buyers have finally started taking a bigger slice of London’s most exclusive postcodes, as stamp duty changes scare off landlords. The proportion of prime London home purchases made by first-time buyers went from 22 per cent in the first quarter of the year, up to 34 per cent in the second, according to data from [...]
See inside the property Dominic Chappell paid for with a £1.5m loan from BHS August 21, 2016 Dominic Chappell, the bankrupt who bought BHS for £1, used a loan from BHS to pay off a mortgage on his family's home. Chappell told the parliamentary committee investigating the collapse of BHS that a £1.5m loan had been paid out to Retail Acquisitions – the company majority-owned by Dominic Chappell that bought BHS. Documents [...]
Here’s why now is not a great time to try and sell your home August 19, 2016 If you're trying to sell your home, now is probably a bad time to do it – demand has dropped by a third over the past year. In July, the number of house hunters registered fell to an average 298 per estate agent branch, a drop of 35 per cent year-on-year, according to the National Association of [...]
Rich Europeans exit prime central London homes August 19, 2016 International tenants are falling out of love with prime central London homes. According to data from Hamptons International, the number of tenants in the centre of London has been falling steadily since May 2013, dropping by eight per cent between then and May this year. Fionnuala Earley, research director at Hamptons International, said the rental [...]
Shoreditch hipsters fail to drag financial services from the City August 19, 2016 Financial services firms are still flocking to the City despite the attractions of hipster hubs such as Shoreditch and Old Street. Data from estate agent Stirling Ackroyd showed that between the the second quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 the number of financial businesses in City postcodes increased by 8.6 per cent. In [...]
UK Commercial Property Trust reports fall in asset value August 18, 2016 UK Commercial Property Trust (UKCPT) reported a fall in the value of its assets per share yesterday, down by 0.2 per cent in the six months to the 30 June. The news comes after Norway’s sovereign wealth fund cut the value of its UK real estate holdings due to the Brexit vote and the uncertainty [...]