Kylie’s favourite luxe eco-mobile May 17, 2011 The Lexus CT200h will probably be familiar to you whether you’re a Kylie fan or not. It’s the hybrid car she’s been driving since February – on TV at least – and it’s the smallest car that Lexus has made. Lexus is the Japanese answer to BMW or Audi and it has stolen a march [...]
House prices slide despite more activity May 9, 2011 HOUSE prices continued their decline last month despite increasing signs of the market stabilising, two separate surveys have shown. Prices were down 1.4 per cent in April, the Halifax announced yesterday, while this morning the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) revealed that 29 per cent of surveyors are still reporting falling prices, compared to [...]
Aspiring first time buyers believe house prices are back on the up May 8, 2011 THE number of aspiring first time buyers is at its highest for a year as people increasingly expect house prices to recover. One in three respondents expect house prices to increase, according to a Rightmove survey. At the beginning of the year, just over one in five prospective buyers expected house prices to lift. Yet [...]
PROPERTY NEWS May 5, 2011 YOO ARE GOING TO MUMBAI Yoo, the design brand, has launched a new development in Mumbai. The project is Jade Jagger’s first in India. It is set to comprise 452 apartments of two, three and four bedrooms as well as duplex sky villas spread across four towers. It is scheduled for completion in 2013. RENTS [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS May 4, 2011 MINTS ARE THE NEW BRICS After the success of the Brics, Fidelity is asking whether Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey (Mints) are the investment opportunities of the next decade. Fidelity says “Mints may just have the potential to be as rewarding for investors over the next ten years as BRICs have been in the past [...]
Housing market faces years of gloom April 26, 2011 IT may not feel that way in some parts of Greater London but the housing market remains stuck in the doldrums. This is not surprising: the great housing bubble of the noughties hasn’t finished deflating yet. The readjustment process is continuing, with prices falling in real terms – and there is still a decent way [...]
FTSE buoyed by upbeat corporate results April 26, 2011 Strong corporate results and positive broker research buoyed the FTSE today, leading the market to its highest close in more than two months. The FTSE 100 closed 0.9 per cent higher at 6.069.36 in low volumes following the long Easter weekend and ahead of a second four-day weekend to celebrate the Royal wedding and Mayday. [...]
Gross mortgage lending springs back in March April 20, 2011 MORTGAGE lending bounced back in March from the previous month but is still two per cent lower than a year ago, data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed yesterday. Evidence of a seasonal recovery for the UK’s housing sector is emerging, as gross mortgage lending rose 21 per cent from £9.3bn in February [...]
New man is from the Leahy mould April 19, 2011 THE son of a Tesco store manager in the Wirral, Philip Clarke has moved into the hot seat 36 years after he did his first shelf-stacking shift for the supermarket as a schoolboy. Like his predecessor Sir Terry Leahy, who also grew up in Liverpool, he has been one of the backbones of the company [...]
Boost for US housing as permits for new units rise April 19, 2011 US HOME building and permits for future construction rebounded strongly last month from February’s weather-depressed levels, but analysts warned a glut of housing on the market will make further gains difficult. The Commerce Department announced a 11.2 per cent monthly jump in the annualised number of permits for new housing units. New housing starts in [...]