UK in the dark about real owners of £6.7bn worth of British properties February 7, 2023 The UK government is still in the dark about who owns tens of thousands of British properties, after thousands of offshore firms failed to comply with new transparency laws, which campaigners said exposes the UK property market to huge money-laundering risks. There are almost 52,000 properties in Britain, worth a combined sum of £6.7bn, that [...]
Private investors gear up for £2.4bn London office spending spree February 2, 2023 Private investors and ultra-high net worth individuals are expected to snap up London office assets worth £2.4bn this year, a figure which has jumped by 60 per cent in the past 12 months. According to research published by real estate agency Knight Frank, the cash rich investment group is expected to be in a strong [...]
PwC steps down from auditing heavily-indebted property developer Evergrande January 17, 2023 PwC has resigned as Evergrande’s auditor following a series of disagreements with the heavily-indebted property developer over its audit of the firm’s 2021 accounts. In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Evergrande said its board had decided to replace PwC as the company’s auditor after the two parties failed to reach an agreement [...]
LendInvest: Property fintech brings Lloyds funding deal to £300m for mortgage market push January 17, 2023 LendInvest has secured a new £120m funding boost from Lloyds Bank today as it prepares a push into the UK’s £1.2tn homeowner mortgage market for the first time. The London-listed property fintech firm said Lloyds had now offered up a credit facility worth £300m after striking a deal for an initial £180m in October to [...]
London rents ended year 11 per cent higher than start of 2022 amid ‘imbalance’ between supply and demand in crowded capital January 17, 2023 Rents at the top end of the London market ended 2022 10.9 per cent higher than when the year started, according to an estate and lettings agent. Demand from tenants is continuing to significantly outweigh supply, Savills said. Jessica Tomlinson, research analyst at Savills, said: “The ongoing imbalance between demand and supply is expected to [...]
Londoners face unprecedented rent increases in 2023 as mortgage rates for landlords skyrocket January 13, 2023 Tenants are struggling this January. Along with the rest of the nation, they’re dealing with a cost of living crisis, driven by rising energy prices, and adding to this pressure is the rising price of rent. Moreover, landlords face unprecedented increases in mortgage rates, forcing them to up the rent. Tenants in London have endured [...]
Inheritance tax: London property nets HMRC £820,000 in death duties on average, double other regions’ intake January 9, 2023 Property makes up half the wealth of estates in London paying inheritance tax (IHT) – around twice as much as most other regions, according to a retirement specialist. An HMRC Freedom of Information (FOI) request from retirement specialist Just Group revealed that in 2019-20, the latest financial year of available data, property accounted for 50 per cent [...]
Property boss urges Sunak to ditch tax breaks for eco-friendly home owners in 2023 January 4, 2023 Plans to offer stamp duty refunds to home owners who make their properties more eco-friendly are simply “a bad idea,” one of Britain’s largest property associations has told City A.M.. Banks last year urged the Government to incentivise changes by refunding stamp duty to buyers who pay for green upgrades within two years of making [...]
House prices: First-time buyers fell last year – and crash may not be as drastic as predicted January 3, 2023 A predicted fall in house prices may do little to change the prospects for first-time buyers in London The number of first-time buyers is estimated to have fallen by around nine per cent in 2022, according to analysis by a building society. Across the UK, the number of people taking their first step onto the [...]
‘Bank of mum and dad’ to return in fight against mortgage and rent double whammy December 27, 2022 The “bank of mum and dad” may be called upon for more help in the new year, as aspiring first-time buyers deal with a double whammy of higher mortgage rates and surging rental costs while they try to save. But for those buyers who are able to make the jump onto the property ladder next [...]