US dealmaking pushes global M&A to first-quarter high April 13, 2021 Global M&A is on course for a record-breaking year as pent up demand pushed deal-making to an all time high in the first quarter. The momentum seen in the latter half of 2020 has continued unabated with the M&A market surging in the first three months of the year. The number of deals is up [...]
Edinburgh Festival to go ahead this year with outdoor venues April 13, 2021 The Edinburgh International Festival will go ahead this year as an in-person event, with performances moving outside to conform with coronavirus safety measures. Organisers have drawn up a plan for the iconic arts festival to run between 7 and 29 August in the Scottish capital. A number of covered stages will be set up across [...]
South West London homes grow in demand as end of lockdown nears April 12, 2021 High-end homes in South West London have grown in demand in the first quarter of this year, according to estate agent Benham and Reeves. As the end of lockdown nears, the leafy suburbs of the capital have seen a one per cent increase in interest by high-end homebuyers in the £2m and over range. “We’re [...]
Timewarp one-owner 1979 Ford Escort up for auction April 1, 2021 The low-mileage Ford Escort comes with a wad of service history, including a copy of the cheque for £4200 used to buy it.
Bernoulli’s Prisoner’s Dilemma: applying the scenario to modern markets March 30, 2021 In 1738, the Swiss mathematician and physicist Daniel Bernoulli proposed a simple thought experiment: “A rich prisoner who possesses two thousand ducats but needs two thousand ducats more to repurchase his freedom, will place a higher value on a gain of two thousand ducats than does another man with less money than he.” Let’s place [...]
Post-Brexit: City investors look beyond Europe as bounce back optimism grows March 30, 2021 Investors searching for stronger returns post-Brexit are increasingly zooming in on the Far East, with Japan and China currently being the most attractive markets for UK investors. According to new data that City-based bank and brokerage firm Charles Schwab shared with City A.M. this morning, around 68 per cent of investors in a recent survey [...]
What 175 years of data tell us about house price affordability in the UK March 29, 2021 What we’ve learned from nearly 200 years of housing data – and is property really a better investment than a pension? We dug into the treasure trove that is the Bank of England’s Millennium of data resource to analyse the history of house prices. We found that the average house in the UK currently costs more than [...]
Stamp duty holiday extension boosts mortgage lending to five-year high but approvals slip March 29, 2021 The stamp duty holiday extension boosted net mortgage borrowing to its highest level since March 2016, according to new Bank of England data. Net mortgage lending hit £6.2bn in February, with mortgage approvals for house purchase reaching 87,700. Andrew Montlake, managing director at mortgage broker Coreco, said the stamp duty extension was pivotal in fuelling [...]
A home for £28m: What are the most expensive streets in London? March 29, 2021 Upper Phillimore Gardens in Kensington is London’s most expensive road to buy a house on, with the average sold price on the road in the last 12 months sitting at a cool £28m. Head down past Earl’s Court and you’ll come across the Boltons, London’s second most expensive street over the last 12 months, with an average sold price of £22.5m. [...]
Is a major dip on the cards for Bitcoin as a record $6bn of options expirations loom large today? March 26, 2021 Is a major dip on the cards for Bitcoin as a record $6bn of options expirations loom large today?