US investor Cain Hoy buys historic Mayfair block for £80m April 5, 2016 Cain Hoy, US investment firm backed by Guggenheim Partners, has snapped up a historic building in one of Mayfair's luxury shopping streets for £80m. The five storey terracotta building at 19 South Audley Street dates back to 1845 and is best known for housing china and silverware retailer Thomas Goode's emporium since that time. It also has offices and flats on the [...]
How EggHomes cracked high speed broadband and eco-efficiency in the Lake District April 5, 2016 This year marks the 150th anniversary of Beatrix Potter's birth. Born and bred in the Lake District, her illustrated tales of the adventures of Peter Rabbit and his friends have become quintessential children’s bedtime stories of the English countryside. The founding of the protected 885sq mile Lake District National Park in 1951 has ensured the [...]
Londoners are sick of all the skyscrapers – we’ve mapped how many are planned near you April 5, 2016 From the Gherkin to the Shard, some of London's most well-loved landmarks are skyscrapers, but new research shows the capital's residents are getting sick of all the glass towers going up. A total of 430 new towers are planned for the capital, but a poll from YouGov has shown nearly half of Londoners – 48 per cent – think the [...]
Property tech start-up Settled wins backing from lastminute.com investor and launches £1m fundraise April 4, 2016 An online property platform aiming to shake-up the traditional estate agency model by encouraging landlords take control of their own sales has launched a £1m funding round, after winning the backing of one of the UK's leading tech investors. Settled was launched last year by brother and sister team Gemma and Paul Young, who wanted to create an online business that put aspiring homeowners directly [...]
Last minute ski bargains can be had if you shop around in Westendorf, Austria April 4, 2016 Eevery dedicated skier fantasises about buying a property in the mountains. With interest rates on euro mortgages at record lows and sterling strong against the euro, now may be the time to take the plunge. For many Brits, France is the obvious choice, given the cheap flights and easy access via the Eurostar. Some ski [...]
Watch out, London: Brexit could mean fewer new homes as investors eye up Paris and Berlin April 4, 2016 Houses, hotels and office blocks may start sprouting up across London at a slightly slower pace this summer, as a survey of top property investors revealed investment in real estate will take a temporary knock in the event of Brexit. KPMG asked 25 global property investors, with combined portfolios of more than $400bn (£281bn), about [...]
Area guide: Woolwich – why it’s tomorrow’s town April 1, 2016 It’s an unfortunate consequence of over-enthusiastic estate agents that an area described as “up-and-coming” is often, well, getting there but taking its sweet time about it. Woolwich was one such place for a long time, but 2016 is the year SE18 arrives on the property scene. “Woolwich has been touted as up-and-coming for the last [...]
How to blush your way to a brighter home using spring pastels April 1, 2016 The evenings are lighter, and it suddenly feels wrong to be putting on sombre-coloured winter coats and boots. The magnolia trees are in bloom, their distinctive petals a delicate blush of soft pink. And it’s this pretty pastel that stores have heralded as the interiors story of the season. The idea is to keep tones [...]
UK house price growth has accelerated – and it’s not all because of stamp duty changes, according to the Nationwide House Price index April 1, 2016 Would-be second home owners appear to have bolstered the UK's house price growth in March, with the annual rate accelerating to 5.7 per cent – up from 4.8 per cent the previous month. The price of a typical UK home rose by 0.8 per cent, at least in part as a result of buy-to-let investors [...]
Landlords make last minute dash to beat buy-to-let stamp duty hike deadline March 31, 2016 Landlords and agents were scrambling to complete last-minute purchases of second home and buy-to-let properties today ahead of stamp duty hike which comes into effect at midnight. George Osborne's clampdown on buy-to-let properties was announced in November's Autumn Statement as part of a raft measures designed to tackle the housing crisis and help more first-time buyers on the property [...]