Budget 2017 UK predictions: What you can expect from the chancellor’s Spring Budget March 7, 2017 It's that time of year again: the chancellor is getting set to dust off his little red box and deliver the Spring Budget. It's the last one we'll see at this time of year, as Philip Hammond decided to move the major announcements to an Autumn Statement schedule. It's likely to be a more staid [...]
Focus On Queen’s Park: Good schools, shops and value lure families to north west London March 3, 2017 Garden towns and villages have made a surprising comeback of late, largely as a by-product of our desperate search for a solution to the housing crisis. The government announced at the start of the year that it intended to build three new towns of 10,000 houses each, in a bid to reach a target of [...]
Is the Football League due a TV rights revolution? Why Derby County are leading the cross-divisional rebellion March 2, 2017 The Premier League’s £8bn television deal has not only ushered in a new era of profitability for top clubs – it has also convinced a growing number of teams from lower divisions that it is time to negotiate their own game-changing broadcast contract. Led by Derby County chairman and owner Mel Morris, some of the biggest [...]
UK housebuilders’ shares rise as mortgage approvals hit highest level since February last year March 1, 2017 Housebuilders' share prices rose today after figures from the Bank of England showed that in January mortgage approvals hit the highest level since February 2016. The Bank reported a 2.4 per cent month-on-month rise in January, bringing the number of mortgages to 69,928. Read more: UK house prices rose by just £600 last month This [...]
There are now 11 house-hunters for every property on the market February 27, 2017 The UK's housing crisis is getting worse, new figures have suggested – with 11 house-hunters vying for every property on the market. Research by the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) suggested an average of 425 prospective buyers were registered to each estate agent branch in the UK in January, 10 per cent higher than [...]
Terra Firma boss Guy Hands on buying Agent Provocateur, dyslexia and moving on from multi-million EMI loss February 27, 2017 In June last year, Terra Firma dropped a £1.5bn lawsuit against Citi over the acquisition of EMI. It is reported that Guy took a €200m (£168m) hit to his personal fortune as a result of the deal. The Terra Firma boss alleged that Citi misled him into overpaying for the music publisher in 2007. How’s [...]
This London developer will build homes on rooftops in just 45 weeks February 23, 2017 Apex Airspace, a company that uses so-called modular construction techniques to create homes on rooftops, is embarking on a £11.5m scheme together with Lambeth & Southwark Housing Association. The group will build 28 new flats on a site in Southwark, 11 of which will be affordable rental homes. Apex has also agreed to renovate the existing building [...]
Prices on the rise: What next for inflation? February 23, 2017 Inflation is waking up Most of the major central banks are predicting rises in inflation. Price pressure was already beginning to build in 2016 as the world economy showed signs of improvement. Now the policies of a new Trump administration – lower taxes and increased government spending – could increase that pressure. The expectation among [...]
Mortgage lenders have just had their best January since 2008 February 23, 2017 Mortgage lending hit £18.9bn in January, new figures have shown – two per cent up on the same month last year, and the best January since 2008. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said the figure was down six per cent on December's £20bn – but added that the number of first-time buyers had continued [...]
London home buyers down three per cent in fourth quarter of 2016, CML says February 22, 2017 The number of home buyers in London dropped to a four-year low last year, according to new data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Home buyers in London borrowed £24.5bn for house purchase, down 0.4 per cent on 2015, and took out 75,800 loans, down seven per cent compared to the year before. The CML [...]