Now Savills has got into online estate agency with its latest investment June 3, 2016 Savills has jumped into the online estate agent market with both feet, after it ploughed "a substantial amount" into "hybrid" estate agency Yopa. Yopa said today that it had raised £16m, including investment from Grosvenor Hill Ventures, Savills' proprietary investment arm. Yopa, which was only launched at the beginning of this year, allows people to [...]
New homes on sale in London: from a Hackney reservoir opened by Sir David Attenborough to Shared Ownership homes in Greenwich and Penge June 2, 2016 Woodberry Down, Stoke Newington From £475,000 Live in an apartment overlooking a protected nature reserve in north east London that hasn’t been accessible to the public for 200 years. Sir David Attenborough re-opened the Stoke Newington Reservoir in April and now the first homes next to it, The Nature Collection, are on sale. Set across [...]
Property of the Week: We may have found the only bungalow in central London tucked inside a courtyard in Marylebone June 2, 2016 If you’re torn between living centrally in squished conditions or braving a suburban commute for a quainter way of life, then The Bailey in Marylebone may be the solution. Its sales agent Kay & Co claims it’s the only bungalow in central London. Bungalows – self-contained, single level houses – became popular in the inter-war [...]
Focus On Southfields: This south west London suburb is bucking the London property trend ahead of Wimbledon June 2, 2016 If you went down to Southfields today, you’d be in for a big surprise. Buying London property is hardly a teddy bear’s picnic at the best of times, but as buyers rush to the leafier outskirts in search of more affordable property, outer boroughs that were once overlooked are finding they’re in high demand. London [...]
Holiday Homes: Sussing out the property market in Barcelona, the Spanish city proving popular with cash-strapped millennials June 2, 2016 Barcelona is the millennials’ Paris. There are scores of city-wide events aimed at a younger demographic, the art galleries are overwhelmingly modern, and a cursory glance through social media will net you far more pictures of young couples standing atop one of Barcelona’s several hills than the Eiffel Tower. The city’s growing popularity means property [...]
Forget the dinner party chatter – Brexit won’t make much difference to the London property market June 2, 2016 Every week, City A.M. invites an industry professional to write about an emerging trend in the property market. While the Chancellor’s taxes have affected the number of property transactions in Prime Central London, this is not the chief spanner in the works being cited by prospective purchasers. That would be a fear of Brexit, which [...]
Homemover loan applications had the highest success rate for mortgage approvals in the first quarter June 2, 2016 Homemover loan applications registered the highest success rate for converting mortgage applications into completed deals in the first quarter, according to the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA). The IMLA data shows that 80 per cent of homemover applications resulted in an offer and the same percentage of offers led to a deal. Read more: Nearly two out [...]
Could new City skyscraper 1 Undershaft host London’s highest museum? June 2, 2016 The City's next tallest skyscraper could become home to the capital's highest museum, after the Museum of London unveiled plans to create public viewing galleries on the 71st and 72nd storeys of 1 Undershaft. Property Week reported this morning the museum has been in talks with the tower's developer, Aroland Holdings, about managing the building's free public viewing [...]
This is why we’re struggling to build on brownfield sites June 2, 2016 The soil in Britain is so contaminated that it is damaging construction efforts across the country, according to a report from the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) out today. Around 300,000 hectares of UK soil are thought to be contaminated with toxic elements as a result of the country's industrial history, and London is one of the worst affected areas. The [...]
UK mortgage lending dropped to its lowest level since the height of the eurozone crisis in April June 1, 2016 Mortgage approvals have hit their lowest level since the height of the Eurozone crisis, according to the Bank of England. Mortgage loans totaled just £281m in April, their lowest level since August 2012, after the hike in stamp duty came into effect at the beginning of the month and buy to let landlords fled the [...]