Huge growth in new buyers leads Christie’s to record year January 22, 2014 HISTORIC auction house Christie’s sold more than £4.54bn worth of art and antiques during 2013 as booming numbers of first-time buyers led the firm to a record year of sales. Christie’s, founded in London in 1766, saw the number of new buyers increase 30 per cent last year. In total, these newcomers accounted for 22 [...]
Online dating tips from the world of economics January 20, 2014 HAVE you ever turned to the neoclassical synthesis or the efficient markets hypothesis to help you to find love? We’d wager not, but having spent some time on Match.com, Stanford professor Paul Oyer has written a book: Everything I Ever Needed To Know About Economics I Learned From Online Dating. Whether you believe Keynesianism can [...]
The rise of the London Village January 16, 2014 IT SEEMS these days everyone wants their slice of village life, even if they live and work in the heart of the city. The Big Smoke has always been made up of distinct neighbourhoods with their own character and lifestyle, but the idea of the London Village has really taken hold in the public imagination [...]
Soaring mortgage numbers renew fears of bubbly housing market January 15, 2014 (Laura Lean/City A.M.) The latest housing data is enough to fuel concerns that a "new housing bubble could develop in 2014", says IHS Global Insight's Howard Archer. Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) figures show mortgage numbers rising by 14.9 per cent in the year to November. There's a more troubling surge among first-time buyers. They [...]
Taylor Wimpey’s average UK house price hits £210,000 January 15, 2014 House builder Taylor Wimpey has reported significant improvement in the housing market underpinned by increasing consumer confidence and government interventions to bolster homeownership. Average selling prices on private completions rose by seven per cent to £210,000. Taylor Wimpey's overall average selling price has also increased by 6 per cent to £191,000. The company expects to [...]
London housing outstrips country as prices rocket January 14, 2014 LONDON house prices are rising nearly four times as fast as properties outside the south east of England, as the recent heat in the housing market concentrates on the capital. The price of London property rose by 11.6 per cent in the 12 months to November 2013, while prices outside London and the south east [...]
Countrywide predicts rosier full-year profit January 14, 2014 COUNTRYWIDE Holdings, Britain’s largest estate agent by revenue, has said it expects to deliver a full-year profit at the top end of expectations after revenues rose by a quarter in the fourth quarter of the year. The group yesterday reported an income of £171m in the quarter to 31 December and £584.8m for the full-year, [...]
A recovery built on bricks and mortar January 12, 2014 Bovis chief executive David Ritchie tells Elizabeth Fournier why he’s not concerned about a new UK housing bubble THE LAST 12 months have been good ones for Britain’s housebuilders. After a financial crisis that saw billions wiped off the sector as credit dried up and house prices crashed, 2013 saw a return to form as [...]
Carney could scrap Help to Buy next year January 8, 2014 GEORGE Osborne’s flagship Help to Buy mortgage scheme could be shot down by Mark Carney in the coming 18 months, top bank analysts said yesterday, as the booming housing market gathers pace. The chancellor wants the scheme, which supports house buyers with small deposits, to last for three years. But if the housing market overheats [...]
Housebuilders pledge to end advance sales of homes overseas December 18, 2013 A TOTAL of 11 housing developers have signed a pledge to market their properties to UK buyers first, or at the same time, as marketing abroad. Concerns about properties being sold to foreign investors who then choose not to live in them have led to claims that many London streets are unoccupied while demand in [...]