Land Registry figures show London property sales fell almost 10 per cent in 2015, as UK house prices jumped February 9, 2016 The number of homes sold in the capital fell almost 10 per cent to just 103,772 in 2015, the first drop in four years, figures published today showed. Analysis of Land Registry figures by London Central Portfolio (LCP) showed prices in the capital increased 4.5 per cent during the year – less than half the 10.2 [...]
UK house prices: Why Help to Buy, Starter Homes and other government initiatives won’t boost housebuilding in the UK February 9, 2016 There's nothing like a target to focus the mind. Last year, the newly elected Conservative government set themselves several in an attempt to tackle the housing crisis and get more new homes built over the course of this parliament. The numbers are ambitious. The government says it wants a million new homes built in England [...]
Thousands of Londoners flock to access government’s Help to Buy scheme February 8, 2016 A government scheme aimed at helping Londoners onto the housing ladder has already already been flooded with thousands of requests since its launch last week. Housing minister Brandon Lewis said London Help to Buy – an extension of the equity loan scheme that has been available to buyers around the country since April 2013 – [...]
Focus On Camberwell: benefiting from its gentrified neighbours? February 5, 2016 With its artistic roots and good transport connections, Camberwell is seen as the good value neighbour of south London’s most gentrified neighbourhoods. “A lot of buyers often start their search with us in central Brixton, but soon find out they could get more moving slightly further out,” says Luke Tubb, sales manager at Foxtons Brixton. [...]
Quindell buyer Slater and Gordon’s UK chief executive steps down February 5, 2016 The UK chief executive of the law firm which bought the professional services of arm of embattled Quindell last year has stepped down. Neil Kinsella was the first chief executive of Slater and Gordon from 2012 to 2013, after it took over Russell Jones and Walker (RJW), before becoming its interim head of general law. He was [...]
UK rental prices: Why landlords aren’t to blame for the housing crisis February 5, 2016 Landlords aren't exactly flavour of the month right now. For many critics of the UK private rental market, it's landlords who seem to be presiding over a broken and unjust system, fleecing tenants out of their hard-earned cash while keeping property prices at the insanely high levels that price them out of home ownership. It’s [...]
Metro Bank float may take the (dog) biscuit February 4, 2016 How much is a dog biscuit worth? A lot, if you believe the contents of documents sent to shareholders in Metro Bank ahead of its listing on the London Stock Exchange in March. Since its launch six years ago, the first new lender to hit UK high streets in more than a century has done a [...]
Piercing the bitcoin veil: Businesses should beware the risks of trading with a sanctioned entity February 3, 2016 In January the EU and the US lifted economic and financial sanctions against Iran in a ground-breaking deal that unfroze billions of pounds of assets and opened up new markets for the first time since 2010. Despite the fanfare surrounding the deal, in the small print a warning remains: some EU and US financial sanctions [...]
How much are Neymar and Gareth Bale worth? Investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald believes it has the definitive answer on player values February 3, 2016 Football clubs have been urged to shut out the noise and defer to statistical analysis sourced from the City, during another high-spending January transfer window. Premier League clubs surpassed £1bn in total transfer spend for the first time in 2015 and invested another £175m last month. With such increasingly huge sums at stake, club owners are [...]
Landlords threaten to sell up 500,000 rental homes after stamp duty hike February 2, 2016 Landlords are so tired of being persecuted by the government, they're threatening to flog half a million rental properties in the next 12 months – meaning the UK's rental sector could be about to shrink dramatically. And as we have learned today – the UK needs more rental properties… Research by the National Landlords Associations [...]