First homes revealed at Quebec Quarter as part of 10-year revamp at Canada Water February 23, 2016 Champagne sits in a bucket, ready to be poured into designer flutes and raised to the unusually high ceiling in the show room of a two bedroom apartment. Earlier in the week, this very room had convinced a cash buyer from Paris to part ways with around £800,000 cash for a second home. These are [...]
Over-40s are on a mortgage shopping spree – but age restrictions mean they’re struggling to borrow February 23, 2016 The over-40s are going berserk for mortgages – but banks and building societies are having trouble lending to them because of age restrictions, new research has found. The findings, by Nottingham Building Society, suggested two in five mortgage brokers have reported a rise in mortgage customers over the age of 40 – but 17 per cent [...]
Housebuilding is the new black: Persimmon share price rises as profits leap 34 per cent February 23, 2016 Another day, another bit of good news coming out of the housebuilding sector, after Persimmon reported a 34 per cent jump in pre-tax profits. The figures Underlying pre-tax profits rose to £637.8m in the year to the end of December, up 34 per cent on last year's £475m, while full-year revenues rose 13 per cent to £2.9bn. The company said legal completions jumped eight [...]
UK house prices: Let down the ladder – how property crowdfunding could help fix the housing crisis February 22, 2016 There were positive headlines last week which suggested that the government may finally be making modest progress in its battle against the housing crisis. For the first time in a decade, home ownership rates remained stagnant, rather than falling. Yet younger generations still have huge issues with the housing market. Ownership rates continue to fall [...]
“House blocking” and the property standstill: We need a housing market that addresses the whole population’s needs, not just first-time buyers February 22, 2016 There is a ‘house-blocking’ issue in the UK that must be addressed if we are to free up vital space, ease resources and stop the property market grinding to a complete standstill. The latest English housing survey revealed that, during the past 10 years, the number of owner-occupiers aged over 65 who own their home [...]
UK house prices: Buy to let investors are swarming the property market ahead of April’s surcharge, but supply is actually rising February 22, 2016 Buy to let investors are clearly getting their houses bought before the new surcharge rules come into place: new figures show a 35 per cent surge in buyer activity as supply fell eight per cent. According to estate agent Haart, there were 15 buyers for every new property that came on the market in January. But [...]
Bumper year for Bovis Homes as house price growth boosts profits by 20 per cent February 22, 2016 Housebuilder Bovis Homes said house price growth helped it deliver bumper profits in 2015. The figures Revenues in the year to the end of December rose 17 per cent to £946.5m, from £809.4m last year – while pre-tax profits rose 20 per cent to £160.1m, from £133.5m. It said it had been bossed by a strong increase in average sales price, which grew seven per [...]
London house prices: Capital is the hardest place in the UK for local workers to get on the property ladder February 22, 2016 The difficulty of getting onto the property ladder has increased dramatically for London workers over last two decades, new research reveals this morning. Estate agent Hamptons International said that calculations based on income after taxes, essentials and mortgage payments showed it was significantly harder to buy in the capital than in any other region of the [...]
London house prices: Thousands of London homes are left vacant long-term February 21, 2016 Despite a chronic housing shortage in the capital, tens of thousands of homes in London are left vacant on a long-term basis, according to new data. More than 22,000 homes have been left empty by their owners for more than six months, despite soaring rents and property prices, data obtained under Freedom of Information by the [...]
Proptech: Technology is poised to transform the UK housing market February 19, 2016 The phrase “fintech” has long since entered mainstream use, while buzzwords like adtech, edtech and medtech are becoming increasingly familiar too. Now a newish category is entering the technology startup lexicon: “proptech”. The UK’s property industry has remained stubbornly resistant to change, even as innovation reshapes entire verticals across the wider economy. Compared with, say, [...]