Calls grow for City of London to drop plans to tear down historic Barbican buildings which include Museum of London June 27, 2022 The City of London Corporation is urged to reconsider an earlier decision to demolish historic buildings, including the Museum of London, in the capital’s Barbican area. A campaign has been launched. The City of London Corporation has submitted plans to demolish Bastion House and the Museum of London, replacing both with a 780,000 square feet [...]
UK leads Europe in mortgage market might but sits at bottom for share of population that owns home June 24, 2022 While the UK may trail other European nations when it comes to the total proportion of the population that own their own home, it does lead the way when it comes to the might of the mortgage sector and the number of properties purchased by borrowing. At 65.1 per cent, the UK sits well within [...]
Credit Suisse and Citco face £430m lawsuit over Chelsea property deal that lost Vatican £100m June 22, 2022 The filing of a €500m (£430m) lawsuit against Credit Suisse and Citco over the loss of millions in charitable funds through a Chelsea property deal has led to calls for greater transparency around the “origins of money used to purchase high-value property” in Britain. The calls come after Anglo-Italian financier Raffaele Mincione’s WRM Group filed [...]
Government admits most Brits will not benefit from Boris Johnson’s ‘benefits to bricks’ housing plans June 22, 2022 Most Brits will not be able to make use of Boris Johnson’s “benefits to bricks” scheme to allow welfare payments to secure mortgages, the government has admitted. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister announced a plan to enable people who are in work but also on housing benefit to use welfare payments towards a mortgage, [...]
Berkeley Group profits rise to over £550m after ‘exceptionally volatile period’ June 22, 2022 The boss of property developer Berkeley Group hailed “extraordinary” progress made in the past year today as the firm posted a 6 per cent rise in pre-tax profits for the full year to April.
Indignant brokers fiercely dismiss Martin Lewis’ notion many mortgages are ‘a ticking time bomb’ June 19, 2022 The well-known personal finance guru Martin Lewis recently warned that mortgages are a “ticking time bomb” for homeowners, as he said Brits should lock in cheap mortgage rates soon before monthly payments become unaffordable. Lewis’ comments come as the cost of living for most Brits is climbing fast, with energy bills going up by an [...]
Run on equity release: Cash tied up in properties fund £1 in every £90 spent by retired Brits June 18, 2022 A new analysis published this week showed that equity release finances around £1 in every £90 spent by retired Brits. Total retirement spending funded by equity release could top £4bn this year and £5bn in 2025, according to modelling by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), as homeowners increasingly look to property wealth [...]
36,000 new millionaires created off back of property boom despite cost of living pinch June 14, 2022 While many Brits continue to struggle with the cost of living crisis, there were 36,000 new millionaires in the UK over the last 12 months. A boom in property helped the High Net Worth Individual (HNWI) population of the UK grow by 6.3 per cent in 2021, as wealth increased by almost 7.5 per cent [...]
Bec to the future: We blow the horn for fabulous Tooting Bec June 11, 2022 The London housing market tends to flow outwards from the prime central postcodes in a series of expanding circles, like the splash of a pebble thrown into a lake. Areas that would once have been undesirable ride the wave into fashion, while those in the centre see new ripples begin to form. So it is [...]
Off-market property sales account for one in five in London: Is it for you? June 10, 2022 Despite ferocious headwinds, the London property market is fizzing, with estate agents from Wimbledon to Walthamstow seeing homes listed and sold within days. This fierce competition has led to a boom in off-market sales, which hit a new record high this year, according to Hamptons. In the first quarter of 2022 they shot up 23 [...]