Number of mortgage approvals down by over a fifth in August September 26, 2016 House purchase approvals dropped by more than a fifth in August, according to figures from the BBA. The number of approvals was down by 21 per cent as compared to August 2012. In the first eight months of this year, approvals were two per cent lower than in the same period of 2015. Read more: [...]
First-time buyers still have to save for over a decade to get a home in London September 26, 2016 First-time buyers may have hoped the EU referendum would reverse house price growth in the UK, but a Brexit housing crash has not materialised, and saving for a deposit has not become any easier. Would-be homeowners have to save for just over 10 years to get a deposit, according to research by Hamptons International, a figure [...]
Commuting for an hour could save you £450,000 on the cost of your house September 26, 2016 Spending an hour on a morning commute could save London workers £450,000 on the price of their home. According to research by Lloyds Bank, average house prices are 60 per cent lower in commuter towns than in central London, falling from an average of £741,919 in the capital to £294,903 outside it. Read more: House [...]
These are the top 10 places across England and Wales for buy to let investment September 26, 2016 Investors searching for the best yield on buy to let properties should be looking to the north of England, according to new research. According to property investment site LendInvest, Blackburn and Carlisle are the top spots in England and Wales for buy to let investing, where rental yields have increased by 38 per cent and 37 [...]
Business groups write to communities secretary Sajid Javid to campaign against changes to business rates September 25, 2016 Groups representing retailers and small businesses have come together to write to communities secretary Sajid Javid to urge him to pull back on changes to business rates. Business rates are being re-evaluated, and changes proposed for the way business rates are valued could "sink individual businesses into hardship", the lobby groups warned. Read more: West End gets [...]
Focus On Regent’s Park: Celebrity-packed Nash terraces and luscious parklands make NW1 “super-prime” London September 23, 2016 If you want to go celebrity spotting in London, you could do a lot worse than Regent’s Park. High profile residents of this historic area surrounding the royal park of the same name include Damien Hirst, Christian Candy, Gwen Stefani, Jamie Oliver and Kate Moss, not to mention all the Middle Eastern royalty and Russian [...]
Interiors: We pick our top five exhibitors at Decorex 2016, London’s 39-year-old interior design festival September 23, 2016 London Basin Company When interior designer Anna Callis couldn’t find painterly handfinished porcelain basins for her commissions, she and her daughter Nathalie decided to have them made. The results she now sells online are eyecatching, exotic, high-quality porcelain washbasins, for around £600. Made in the home of porcelain, China, in 8-10 weeks, each of the 10 [...]
Holiday Homes: We fly out to Tenerife and find a volcanic paradise that’s a far cry from high rise tower blocks September 23, 2016 Tenerife was once synonymous with cheap package holidays and unsightly high rise tower blocks. Lately, however, the volcanic paradise isn’t just a place where baby boomers go to burn – it’s also where they go to buy. According to Spanish Property Insight, the Spanish property market has grown 23 per cent since 2015 – the [...]
Happy Brexiversary – these are the funds that have performed the worst since the EU referendum September 23, 2016 It's been three months since the Brexit vote. A lot has happened – but some of the worst hit (apart from David Cameron and George Osborne) were property funds. Several funds were forced to block withdrawals after the Brexit vote – closing the gate on £15bn-£20bn worth of funds – because investors were taking out so much money; several more imposed fair [...]
House price growth in London to drop to six per cent this year September 23, 2016 House price inflation in UK cities is set to slow to 8.2 per cent – and annual growth in London is predicted to fall to six per cent by the end of this year. According to Hometrack, house price growth has slowed in cities across the south of England especially, due to the weaker demand for homes after the Brexit [...]