Focus on Bermondsey: Take a walk on the south side April 9, 2015 Affordable housing in Zone One is becoming something of a rarity in London, but look just south of the river and you’ll find one area in particular that’s still a decent prospect for first-time buyers looking for a good investment. Paul Bent, sales manager at Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward’s London Bridge branch says young professionals [...]
Maximum excitement on the grand national April 9, 2015 THE WORLD’S most famous steeplechase charges into most of our living rooms tomorrow afternoon and Sporting Index have a range of markets to keep you gripped by the action. A total of 40 horses are set to line up, but how many will finish? Traders are predicting 17-18 will complete the marathon 4m3½ furlong course. [...]
UK property prices: House price growth still falling – but mortgage approvals are up April 9, 2015 Growth in house prices fell again in the three months to March, to 8.1 per cent, down from 8.5 per cent in January, research by Halifax suggested today. That puts growth at a "similar" rate to September 2014 – although it's now "significantly" below July's peak of 10.2 per cent, it added. Month on month, [...]
Three reasons new car sales had their best month since 1999 April 8, 2015 Car dealerships across the country have been partying like it's 1999. They sold 492,774 new cars last month, which represents a six per cent increase from the same time last year, data released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers has shown. It was the best March on record, as well as the best monthly performance since [...]
UK property prices: Have renters given up on owning their own home? Just 40 per cent of renters are saving for a house April 7, 2015 The UK's renters have given up on graduating to property ownership, it seems – after new research suggested just 43 per cent of renters aged between 20 and 45 are saving to buy a home. The figure has fallen by six percentage points since last year, Halifax's Generation Rent report showed. More than half [...]
UK House prices: Generation rent downbeat on buying outlook April 6, 2015 A generation of Britons still fear that they will never be able to buy a home despite the number of first-time buyers reaching a seven-year high in 2014, a survey reveals today. Some 79 per cent of 20- to 45-year-olds believe banks do not want to lend to first-time buyers, while 21 per cent think [...]
General Election 2015: Osborne promises to get 2.4m first-time buyers onto housing ladder with property “revolution” April 5, 2015 Chancellor George Osborne has pledged to bring about a “property revolution” in the UK, helping 2.4m more first-time buyers to get on the property ladder. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, he said he intended to double the number of first time buyers to 500,000 a year over the next five years, should the [...]
General Election 2015: Ed Miliband promises £5bn for 125,000 new homes funded by Help to Buy ISA April 4, 2015 Ed Miliband has promised billions of pounds of funding to build 125,000 new homes over the next five years. The policy, due to be announced by the Labour party today, is based on the Help to Buy ISA revealed by Chancellor George Osborne in the latest Budget and aimed at getting first-time buyers on the [...]
David Cameron courts first-time buyers as 50,000 sign on to home discount scheme April 3, 2015 Over 50,000 people have signed up to the government's programme to give first-time buyers a 20 per cent discount on their new home. An extension of the controversial Help to Buy initiative, the programme means new properties up to £250,000 and £450,000 in London will be subject to deep discounts. However, only those under the [...]
UK house prices: We can ramp up housebuilding by turning offices into flats – if the planners let us April 1, 2015 The UK suffers from an acute housing shortage, and this has led to prices outpacing incomes in nearly every year since the early 1990s. Most government initiatives to address this problem, however, have merely resulted in greater demand for properties. In fact, the only way to tackle the issue properly is to increase supply. But [...]