US home sales rise but jobless claims also up December 2, 2010 PENDING house sales surprisingly shot up in the US for October, according to data released yesterday. The Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) showed that contracts exchanged on properties increased by 10.4 per cent compared to September, defying a predicted fall. The result comes as a boost for the housing market, after the index fell by [...]
Home-builders ramp up incentives to lure hard-up first-time buyers December 2, 2010 HOME-BUILDERS have always offered buyers deals, but some are more valuable than others. Take, for example, the West Bromwich Building Society’s offer in 2004 of a free Rover car worth over £7,000 – a year before the car-maker went into administration. The downturn has left house-builders with new-builds sitting empty all over the country, and [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 1, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES AUSTRALIA’S GROWTH RATE STALLS IN THIRD QUARTER Australia’s economic growth rate slowed markedly in the third quarter to its weakest level in two years as higher interest rates cut into housing investment and the rise in the Australian dollar hit exports. The 0.2 per cent rise in gross domestic product compared with the [...]
House prices down 3.9 per cent on June December 1, 2010 HOUSE prices fell by another 0.3 per cent in November, mortgage-lender Nationwide announced yesterday. The news follows an even sharper drop in the previous month, as prices fell 0.7 per cent on September. Prices have either fallen or stagnated since June, according to Nationwide’s statistics. The average house price in the UK is now £163,398, [...]
Demand for homes falling, finds survey November 28, 2010 DEMAND for homes fell at the fastest rate for nearly two years last month as buyer confidence dipped, industry figures showed. The number of new buyers registering with agents fell by 4.3 per cent in November, according to the monthly national housing survey from property website Hometrack. The monthly fall was the fifth in a row [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING November 25, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES AIRLINE FINANCING RIFT DEEPENS Ryanair and Emirates have taken the unusual step of joining forces with eight other airlines as a multibillion-dollar row over aircraft financing starts to split the world’s largest airlines into two rival camps. The Irish budget airline and Dubai’s Emirates normally shun industry alliances. But yesterday they revealed they [...]
Investing your love in bricks and mortar November 18, 2010 1 BUDGET Before you start the fun stuff – househunting – make sure you have covered the boring stuff: finances. Work out how much you can afford to put towards mortgage repayments each month, based on your joint net income, and joint outgoings. If, like Kate and William, you are thoroughly modern and are already [...]
China secures 100-aircraft order for its first commercial jetliner November 16, 2010 China yesterday announced a 100-plane order for its first commercial jetliner, a first step in its ambitions to challenge Airbus and Boeing for a slice of a global market worth $1.7 trillion. State-owned COMAC, or Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, unveiled the orders at the country’s largest air show yesterday, ending a dearth of orders [...]
HMV lifted by Russian buyer November 10, 2010 HMV Group saw its shares rise yesterday after Russian billionaire Alexander Mamut upped his stake to above three per cent. The company’s stock had slumped 49 per cent this year as the DVD and CD seller, which also owns Waterstones, hit tough times. HMV has been moving into live music events and venues as it [...]
New buyers gain in slump November 8, 2010 A SLOWDOWN in the housing market could tempt first-time buyers to take their first step onto the property ladder over the coming year, new research has shown. Around 26 per cent of people who intend to buy a home will be doing so for the first time, up from a low of 22 per cent [...]