Experts are not impressed by HSBC’s new 0.99 per cent fixed rate mortgage June 21, 2016 Money experts have slammed HSBC's latest mortgage offering as a marketing move that shuts out most borrowers. The bank has launched a mortgage with a rate fixed at a record low of just 0.99 per cent for two years. The next lowest available is a two-year deal at 1.14 per cent from the Yorkshire Building Society. [...]
Property transactions edged up in May, but the market stayed sleepy ahead of the EU referendum June 21, 2016 The property market was subdued in May as the EU referendum kept buyers at bay and buy to let landlords took a break from snapping-up second homes. Property transactions increased by 1.5 per cent between April and May, as sales rebounded somewhat from the dramatic slump after the stamp duty hike hit at the beginning of April, but [...]
Sky-high rents and business rates are driving London businesses from their traditional homes June 21, 2016 Rising rents in London are driving businesses out of their traditional hot-spots in the capital, as firms refuse to down-scale to stay in their old locations. Media companies, once happy in the West End, are now setting up shop in Clerkenwell, Farrington and Shoreditch, and accountancy firms are moving from Chancery Lane to Canary Wharf, according to [...]
Here’s the newest skyscraper unveiled for the City June 20, 2016 Another skyscraper is joining the Gherkin, the Cheesegrater and the Walkie Talkie in the heart of the City; 1 Leadenhall is the latest skyscraper to be unvieled in the heart of the capital's financial district. A glass tower will be built opposite 6-8 Bishopsgate, at the junction of Gracechurch street and Leadenhall street. Currently, the site is occupied by an [...]
Over half of remortgagors lowered mortgage rates in May as EU referendum looms June 20, 2016 More than half of people remortaging in May chose to lower their mortgage rate, as remortgagors braced themselves for a possible Brexit. A third of borrowers reduced their monthly spend by up to £500, and over a quarter (26 per cent) increased the size of their loan, according to research from Legal Marketing Services (LMS). Read [...]
Sellers are shifting their housing stock in record time despite Brexit worries June 20, 2016 The time it takes to sell a house has hit a record low, as Britain's housing market continues to prove its resilience despite the backdrop of the EU referendum. The uncertainty of the outcome of the vote doesn't seem to have deterred buyers; property website Rightmove said today sellers only have to wait an average of [...]
The new housing crisis is upon us – and it’s those who already own property that should be worried June 18, 2016 We hear an awful lot about the "housing crisis" in the UK and – particularly – in the capital. At one end of the ladder, rents are rising faster than wages and house prices are going up quicker than people can save for a deposit. At the other, new taxes and regulations on second homes [...]
Here are the top places to live for young professionals June 17, 2016 Young professionals are yearning for the seaside as a report out today shows the south coast continues to draw City workers. It is the second year in a row the BN3 postcode of the coastal town of Hove has topped the list of the 20 most popular places for young professionals to live, compiled by Lloyds Bank. [...]
Buy to let bows out: Rents edged down in May as a wave of buy to let properties hit the market June 17, 2016 Rents took a slight dip in May as property transactions completed before the government's stamp duty hike for second homes came onto the market. Compared to April, there was a 0.2 per cent drop in rents, according to lettings agents Your Move and Reeds Rains. Read more: How landlords are softening the blow of buy to [...]
Focus On Bloomsbury: House prices are blooming marvellous in this intellectual corner of central London June 16, 2016 Bloomsbury conjures up images of fusty intellectuals like former residents Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, EM Forster and John Maynard Keynes. Home to austere, prestigious institutions like the British Museum, the Royal Portrait Gallery and University College London, it isn’t necessarily somewhere you’d think of moving to. But the recent clamour for central London property has [...]