UK house price growth at its highest since March – as average house price edges towards £290,000 November 17, 2015 The average UK house price hit £286,000 in September this year, setting yet another record, after August's average of £285,000. Prices rose 6.1 per cent in the year to September, up from 5.5 per cent in the year to August. Between August and September, prices rose 0.8 per cent on a seasonally-adjusted basis, with first-time buyers found [...]
London rent price rise 2015 defies traditional Autumn slow down November 17, 2015 London rents continued to climb in October, up 0.8 per cent, hitting an average of £2,063 despite the seasonal slowdown usually associated with Autumn months. The data suggests that London’s housing shortage, falling unemployment rate, and growing pay is the cause, according to the analytics company MIAC in its monthly Landbay Rental Index. So far [...]
A Hong Kong billionaire has bought the most expensive diamond ever auctioned – but who came before him? November 13, 2015 A new jewel has just topped the list of the most expensive diamonds ever sold at auction. The “Blue Moon” was bought this week in Geneva for $48.4m, smashing all previous record diamond sales. Vivid blue in colour and weighing 12.03 carats, it went for the “highest price per carat” ever obtained for any kind [...]
Suburbs lag behind inner London boroughs in housebuilding drive November 13, 2015 Inner London boroughs are granting planning permission for more new homes than the all of the surrounding outer boroughs put together, according to a new report that warns of a growing prosperity divide within the capital. Stirling Ackroyd’s latest New Homes Monitor showed London’s thirteen Inner boroughs approved a total of 11,970 new homes throughout [...]
UK house prices: Buyers and sellers care about completely different things when assessing the value of a property November 12, 2015 What would you care most about when buying a house? That it smells of fresh-baked bread or what the local crime figures are like? You might think that buyers and sellers would place value on similar things, especially considering that most people in the process of buying one house are also simultaneously selling another, and [...]
House purchase lending jumps to seven-year for October November 12, 2015 Mortgage lending reached its highest level for the month of October in seven years, new data released today shows, as low inflation rates and rising wages helped keep consumer confidence levels high. Overall house purchase lending approvals reached 72,409 in October, up by 5.1 per cent on the previous month and 21.9 per cent ahead [...]
First-time buyers fuel rise in mortgage lending in September November 11, 2015 Mortgage lending rose year-on-year in September, new data shows, driven by a jump in first time buyers taking out new loans. The month saw 28,600 first-time buyers take out mortgages, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), which was up four per cent on the previous month and by 8.7 per cent year-on-year. By value, [...]
The government’s Help to Buy scheme almost doubles number of high loan-to-value mortgages with five per cent deposits for first-time buyers November 10, 2015 The government's Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme has almost doubled the number of high loan-to-value mortgages, for buyers who only have a five per cent deposit. The number of 95 per cent loan-to-value mortgages (LTV) issued, for buyers who need to borrow 95 per cent of property's value for a mortgage, increased by nearly [...]
Shared ownership’s time has come so here’s six ideas to help home buyers in the high cost capital November 9, 2015 There is an iconic image of the Patterson family stood outside their house with Margaret Thatcher. The first people to purchase their home under Right to Buy in 1980, Thatcher delivered the deeds herself. Right to Buy is back in the news, with the government striking an agreement to extend the scheme to housing [...]
Equities may not survive aggressive dollar – eToro Tips & Picks November 9, 2015 There is only one place to start this week, and that’s the jobs report. Given all the attention on last week’s stellar non-farm payroll report, however, many have overlooked the average earnings reading, despite it being far more important at this point in time. It now looks likely that Janet Yellen will increase interest [...]