Osborne in denial over housing bubble September 22, 2013 London house prices are up 10pc in a year. So why does the chancellor say there’s no bubble? CHANCELLOR George Osborne has rejected suggestions that his policies are creating a housing bubble, even as new evidence emerges that prices are soaring in London. In an interview yesterday, Osborne said: “I don’t see the evidence of [...]
Foxtons returns to market at £649m as stocks gear towards housing recovery September 20, 2013 London estate agents Foxtons has floated on the London Stock Exchange at 230p a share. (Release) Market capitalisation for the company is about £649m with gross proceeds raised of £390m. Our deputy editor David Hellier writes: STRONG demand for shares in Foxtons, the London-focused estate agency chain, was last night expected to push the group’s [...]
Osborne in denial over housing bubble September 17, 2013 London house prices are up 10pc in a year. So why does the chancellor say there’s no bubble? CHANCELLOR George Osborne has rejected suggestions that his policies are creating a housing bubble, even as new evidence emerges that prices are soaring in London. In an interview yesterday, Osborne said: “I don’t see the evidence of [...]
US housing market confidence drop sees end to four months of improvement September 17, 2013 The US housing market has seen builder confidence drop for the first time in four months, according to new figures from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). Revisions saw last months' headline figure drop from 59 to 58, and September's disappointed too. Coming in at 58, that's below economist [...]
The business built to help customers outsource their chores September 15, 2013 Annabel Palmer meets Raj Singh, co-founder of the online marketplace Sooqini, who shunned job security for a career as an entrepreneur ACCORDING to Raj Singh, founder of online marketplace Sooqini, we are now living in a “gig economy”. His theory, albeit paraphrased from Michael Lewis’s The New New Thing, goes that people no longer want [...]
Risky loans are back as house market booms September 12, 2013 MORTGAGE lending is up by almost one-third on the year, according to industry data out yesterday, as borrowers gain confidence and the market gathers pace. And the belief that a boom could be underway was backed up again by figures from surveyors group e.surv showing a rise in high loan to value mortgages. In July [...]
Buyers queuing for homes, says Barratt’s chief September 11, 2013 HOUSEBUILDER Barratt Developments yesterday said queues were forming for its housing schemes for the first time since the financial crisis, as the market recovery spreads beyond southeast England. Britain’s largest housebuilder by volume, said yesterday that buyer appetite for its homes was so strong that for some sites it was making five to 10 sales [...]
First time buyer loans swell by nearly a third September 10, 2013 MORTGAGE lending to first time buyers has jumped upward, rising by 31 per cent to £8bn in the year to June, according to Bank of England figures released yesterday. New government schemes to boost activity in the housing market appear to have had the desired effect in the second quarter, as the Funding for Lending [...]
Gross new lending hits record high as Help to Buy kicks in September 10, 2013 Figures published today by the Bank of England (BoE) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) show new high for gross new lending and interest rates on gross new lending for the second quarter, since the start of the series in 2007. Mortgage lenders and administrator statistics show record levels; at 1.6 percentage points higher than [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 09 September 2013 September 8, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Capital warning from bank reformer The chief architect of Britain’s post-crisis regulatory reforms believes banks’ capital levels should be double the level recommended two years ago by the government-appointed commission that he led. Sir John Vickers told the Financial Times that in a “blue-skies” world banks’ core tier one capital ratios would now [...]