Hotel interiors need not be dull and predictable – just ask Kit Kemp October 25, 2012 I want to pique the imagination of even the most jaded businessman,” says Kit Kemp, design director and co-founder of Firmdale Hotels, the group that includes the buzzy Soho, Covent Garden and Charlotte Street Hotels. “If I can do that for a second, then we’ve achieved something.” Pique, she definitely does, with her love of [...]
Making interiors more fashionable February 24, 2011 BLACK leather rock and roll was certainly a feature of this year’s London Fashion Week. Kate Moss was slapped across yesterday’s papers for finishing the week in a floor length leather dress. But she wasn’t the only one to be upping the ante and embracing cow skin. The German twins, Daniela and Annette Felder, behind [...]
Redrow cuts payout hit by housing slump September 10, 2008 Evidence of the housing market downturn became even more explicit yesterday as housebuilder Redrow announced a halving of profits and a new £450m debt facility to 2011. Shareholders are also losing out on a third dividend, due to an “unprecedented decline in the fortunes of the UK housing market in a very short period of [...]
House prices fall furthest in 25 years September 5, 2008 Yet more doom and gloom was heaped on the housing market yesterday as retail bank Halifax announced the first double-digit drop in prices since 1983. Prices dipped a further 1.8 per cent in August following a drop of 1.7 per cent in July, marking the fifth month running that house prices have dropped by at [...]
Brown’s £1bn home market rescue gets a cool response September 3, 2008 Critics have rounded on prime minister Gordon Brown’s housing market rescue package saying it will do little to reverse the worst housing slump in 18 years. From today the government has scrapped stamp duty for a year on homes worth less than £175,000 as part of a package of measures designed to revitalise the flagging [...]
Latest house price fall piles on the misery September 1, 2008 House prices slumped by 0.9 per cent in August, falling for the 11th successive month and adding to the gloom currently surrounding the market. According to the latest national housing market survey from Hometrack, average prices are down by 5.3 per cent on a year-on-year basis, the lowest level since the survey began in 2001. [...]
Savills sales plunge fails to dampen mood August 29, 2008 Property group Savills was buoyant yesterday, despite a 41 per cent slump in first-half underlying pre-tax profit to £19.2m, owing to ailing commercial and residential property markets. The company saw its shares soar 17 per cent to 283.75p yesterday, as an 88 per cent fall in profits to £2.5m at its residential and commercial sales [...]
Taylor Wimpey profits hit by £1.5bn writedown August 28, 2008 Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey’s first half profits fell sharply after writing down a massive £1.5bn loss on the value of its property assets. The new homes specialist, which earlier in the year warned it would breach its banking covenant over the full year, said yesterday that it was still in talks with its bankers about revising [...]
Mortgage squeeze causes profits to plunge at Bovis August 27, 2008 Housebuilder Bovis yesterday blamed the mortgage squeeze for an 83 per cent slump in first half profit and said it was “the toughest period of trading it has experienced in its life as a public company”. Pre-tax profits fell to £9.5m, from £58.4m in the first six months of 2007, prompting the housebuilder to take [...]
Liberty surges on speculation over fierce bidding war August 27, 2008 Liberty International saw its shares receive a welcome fillip yesterday as US mall owner Simon Property Group upped its stake in the UK shopping centre specialist to 4.22 per cent, prompting speculation of a bidding war. Australian property group Westfield, the world’s largest shopping mall owner by market cap, also confirmed yesterday that it had [...]