London house prices: Top-end property sales crushed by stamp duty increase April 13, 2015 Higher taxes have stomped on the prime London property market, forcing the number of sales to dive by one-third, commercial real estate firm DTZ said yesterday. Changes to stamp duty in December’s Autumn Statement mean that homes worth below £1m received a tax cut, but those at the very top end of the price scale have [...]
House prices in London to fall this year for the first time since 2009 as stamp duty hits property prices April 13, 2015 House price growth in the whole of the UK is about to outstrip London for the first time since 2009, a think tank reckons, after stamp duty and the mansion tax combined to scare buyers. Research published by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) today suggests house prices in the capital will actually [...]
London house prices: This nine-bedroom Chelsea mansion just sold for £51m – 300 times the average house price April 10, 2015 A house just outside Chelsea's super-upmarket square The Boltons has sold for just over £51m – that's 300 times the average house price for England and Wales. The Daily Mail reported the nine-bedroom property in Boltons Place had been sold to an offshore company – although the buyer got a deal: it was originally on [...]
The housing crisis could extinguish London’s growth: No party has a solution April 9, 2015 For the best part of 30 years, London’s renaissance has seemed unstoppable. The 1980s “big bang” created a tidal wave of regeneration which swept over the city, reinvigorating areas of decline and nurturing a globally competitive super region. While an exodus of businesses and investment once appeared inevitable, London is now a hive of startup [...]
These stunning pictures show what the New Covent Garden Market at Nine Elms on the South Bank will look like April 9, 2015 Plans to rejuvenate the Covent Garden Market cleared another hurdle today, as Vinci St. Modwen and the Covent Garden Market Authority reached a final agreement over the project. Construction will begin this summer to build the 500,000 sq ft project on the South Bank, but what will the site actually look like? These amazing photos [...]
UK property prices: House price growth still falling – but mortgage approvals are up April 9, 2015 Growth in house prices fell again in the three months to March, to 8.1 per cent, down from 8.5 per cent in January, research by Halifax suggested today. That puts growth at a "similar" rate to September 2014 – although it's now "significantly" below July's peak of 10.2 per cent, it added. Month on month, [...]
Stamp duty and mansion taxes: Which taxes apply to you? April 7, 2015 Money is tight in Whitehall. Both Labour and the Conservatives are promising to cut the deficit to varying degrees if they win the General Election. And Westminster is surrounded by some of the most valuable real estate in the world. House prices in London have boomed since 2013, so an obvious solution presents [...]
UK House prices: Generation rent downbeat on buying outlook April 6, 2015 A generation of Britons still fear that they will never be able to buy a home despite the number of first-time buyers reaching a seven-year high in 2014, a survey reveals today. Some 79 per cent of 20- to 45-year-olds believe banks do not want to lend to first-time buyers, while 21 per cent think [...]
David Cameron courts first-time buyers as 50,000 sign on to home discount scheme April 3, 2015 Over 50,000 people have signed up to the government's programme to give first-time buyers a 20 per cent discount on their new home. An extension of the controversial Help to Buy initiative, the programme means new properties up to £250,000 and £450,000 in London will be subject to deep discounts. However, only those under the [...]
Living close to Waitrose could boost your house price by 12pc April 3, 2015 Premium properties within easy reach of a Waitrose can command a 12 per cent (£38,831) higher price than similar properties in other areas. According to research from Lloyds Bank, houses close to supermarkets enjoy, on average, a seven per cent higher price than other properties in the same town. Lloyds compared the average house prices [...]