Sadiq Khan slams Boris Johnson’s “toothless” Concordat housing scheme at Mayor’s Question Time June 22, 2016 Sadiq Khan has slammed former mayor Boris Johnson's flagship housing scheme for failing to stop new London homes being sold as "golden bricks" to overseas investors. Johnson's Concordat scheme, which was launched in 2014, was pitched as the solution to stopping major developers advertising London homes abroad first for overseas buyers, who had months more [...]
These are the best seaside areas for landlords to invest in June 22, 2016 Beach holiday hot-spots such as Brighton and Eastborne have lost out to northern beaches as the best places for landlords to invest in rental properties. Forget the donkey rides at Brighton pier – Hull has been named as the top seaside area for landlords in England and Wales; property investors in the postcode enjoy rental yields up to 10.7 per cent [...]
Eurozone buyers are getting a £26,000 discount on the price of London property June 22, 2016 Buyers from the eurozone are bagging £26,000 discounts on London property due to sterling's depreciation over the past weeks as markets react to the UK's vote on its membership of the European Union. London estate agents Stirling Ackroyd have estimated that the depreciation of sterling in June has meant that the average house price in London stands [...]
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 [...]