What to look out for in the Budget March 20, 2012 ● PERSONAL TAXES The tax-free personal allowance was originally due to go up £630 to £8,105 as part of a long-term plan to take everyone earning below £10,000 out of income tax. That increase will be accelerated – almost doubled, in fact – as part of a plan to help low-earners more. But the scheme is [...]
Mortgage lending sticks to upward path March 20, 2012 MORTGAGE lending has increased for the seventh consecutive month, on a year-on-year basis, new figures showed yesterday. Gross lending stood at £10.7bn, up slightly from £10.65bn in January and 14 per cent higher than the £9.4bn last February, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) revealed yesterday. That is lower than the £12.22bn in December and [...]
The appeal of a mature market March 15, 2012 THERE’S nothing emerging about Barbados. Barbados has arrived. It arrived a long time ago. But in a property environment where the hot new thing has lost some of its appeal over the past five years, tried and true is sometimes best. Like a Starbucks when you want to be sure of what you’re getting. But [...]
Housing market gets brief boost March 14, 2012 ACTIVITY jumped in the housing market in January as first-time buyers rushed to beat the end of the stamp duty holiday this month, but house prices fell in January according to government data. Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed a 23 per cent rise in lending to first-time buyers compared with January [...]
Banks boost rally across Wall Street March 14, 2012 THE US stock market posted its best day this year, with yesterday’s late spark coming from JPMorgan Chase & Co after the bank announced it will raise its dividend. Stocks gained throughout the session, helped by stronger-than-expected retail sales and benign comments from the US Federal Reserve, which said recent strains on financial markets were [...]
Tullett plots a new FX platform ahead of fresh regulation March 12, 2012 TULLETT Prebon is set to launch an electronic platform for interbank currency trading in the run up to expected changes in the system of global regulation. The interdealer broker, led by City veteran Terry Smith (pictured), wants to use technology it already owns to build a foreign exchange trading platform, focused on currency derivatives at [...]
Government backs 95% mortgages for first-time buyers March 12, 2012 The government has launched a new mortgage indemnity scheme that is designed to allow first-time buyers to step onto the property ladder and boost the construction industry. Under the NewBuy scheme major lenders including Barclays, Nationwide and Natwest will allow people to borrow up to 95 per cent of the value of a home, with [...]
Government to back up mortgages for new builds March 11, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT will today launch a scheme designed to make new-build homes available to more first time buyers. The NewBuy programme will use an indemnity fund and government guarantee to back up 95 per cent loan-to-value mortgages. The mortgages will reduce the size of required deposits, its proponents say. Property website Rightmove argues that the [...]
Think-tank: Scrap green belt to boost GDP growth March 7, 2012 RESTRICTIVE planning laws are holding back economic growth, hurting the poor and pushing down the quality of houses, a new report claims. The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) has called for a radical shake up of planning rules that would see the green belt scrapped, devolution of planning powers to local authorities, and the privatisation of [...]
RAPID RESPONSES March 7, 2012 Caught in the net [Re: A so-called mansion tax will not achieve fairness, yesterday] Aside from the obvious problems in administering a “mansion tax”, it’s clear that it’s not solely super-rich buyers who’d bear the brunt of an annual property levy, but long-term homeowners who may not be cash-rich but simply live in areas where house [...]