The vaccine rollout has been a success but it has still fallen prey to Whitehall inefficiency June 17, 2021 Dominic Cummings has yet again attempted a forced exorcism of Matt Hancock from the government. To the ex-special adviser, the Health Secretary represents everything wrong with Whitehall and its bureaucracy: a failure to innovate, to find creative solutions or to ensure pinch points of stasis in existing symptoms do not become endemic. In this, at [...]
City Moves: Who’s switching jobs in the Square Mile this week? June 16, 2021 City A.M.‘s Millie Turner provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every Wednesday afternoon. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. CBRE board bags ex-BlackRock real estate lead A former head of global real estate at investment heavyweight BlackRock is set to join real estate services firm CBRE in June. Marcus Sperber [...]
Pandemic pressures leave would-be first-time buyers further from homeownership June 16, 2021 The impact of the pandemic, both on the property market and on personal finances, has left a gulf between struggling would-be first-time buyers and those already on the ladder. More than four-in-10 first-time buyers delayed plans to buy a home in 2020, with the majority saying raising a deposit is the biggest barrier to homeownership, [...]
Inflation might be the only cure for our bubbly housing market June 8, 2021 House prices in the UK (and many other parts of the world) are soaring, squeezing affordability yet further. Rising inflation looks like the most obvious candidate to prick this bubble. House prices in the UK rose by 10.9% in the year to May. That’s the most rapid growth seen in almost seven years, according to [...]
MiCA: A ‘beta version’ of crypto-assets regulation in the EU June 8, 2021 Alexander Prognimak, CFA from the CFA UK Future of Money Working Group, looks at European Union plans for crypto-assets. Gone are the days when London’s famous red buses would be carrying adverts promoting the dream of a shiny post-Brexit future for the NHS. As one ad (that has attracted the advertising regulator’s attention) read: ‘If [...]
First-time buyers: London’s most affordable and up and coming areas June 7, 2021 The property market has boomed over the past year, thanks to the stamp duty holiday which has given a lot of first-time buyers the opportunity to get their foot on the property ladder. Coupled with the introduction of the new government backed 5 per cent deposit scheme, designed to help home buyers, the market is [...]
Housebuilder stocks soar as property prices climb another £3,000 to new record high June 7, 2021 House prices in the UK rose again last month by around £3,000, bringing the average property price up to a record high of £261,743. May’s 1.3 per cent price increase means the average home in the UK has increased by more than £22,000 – or 9.5 per cent – in the last 12 months, according [...]
First-time buyers offered new homes at up to half price under government scheme June 5, 2021 First-time buyers in England will be able to apply for a discount of up to 50 per cent on a new build home under a government project launched today. The First Homes scheme will help people onto the property ladder, which experts believe could spark a scramble for properties and further bolster the house price [...]
Lenders hand out most mortgages to first-time buyers in nearly 20 years June 3, 2021 Banks and building societies handed out more mortgages to first-time buyers in March than any time since 2002. Across the UK, 42,330 mortgages were issued to first-time buyers in March, marking the highest monthly total since December 2002 when 44,000 were advanced, according to trade association UK Finance. Many people who would have taken their [...]
0.99 per cent mortgages hit the market as battle for home buyers heats up June 1, 2021 Competition in the mortgage market is heating up with the launch of new 0.99 per cent rate deals. Nationwide Building Society will launch a 0.99 per cent mortgage on Wednesday for home owners looking to remortgage. The two-year fixed-rate deal will be available for borrowers with a hefty 40 per cent deposit and also has [...]