Sterling’s long decline comes to an end May 27, 2009 IT may seem strange given the dire state of Britain’s public finances but sterling is starting to regain some of its strength, especially against the dollar. Yesterday the pound rose above $1.60 for the first time in seven months, boosted by better services sector sentiment and mortgage approvals. Sterling is now trading well above its [...]
Ashley wallet suffers due to relegation May 25, 2009 SPORTS Direct owner Mike Ashley’s fortune looks set for another battering after the football club he owns, Newcastle United, was relegated from the Premier League. Ashley’s club stands to lose at least £30m a season from a drop in TV revenue which will wipe millions off the value of the struggling north east outfit, in [...]
THE GLOOMY NEWS ISN’T ALL OVER YET May 25, 2009 THERE was a little corrective activity in the middle of last week, but the story this quarter for the S&P 500 has been positive: the index has notched up gains of over 11 per cent. But we shouldn’t start getting too excited just yet. The S&P’s gains sit uncomfortably with the gloomy rhetoric that is [...]
Q&A: SALES May 21, 2009 Q. Dear Russell, I’ve put an offer in on a property that I really like but so has another party. The vendor has said that he wants to do a contract race in order to decide. What does that mean?A. A contract race is very much first-past-the-post – basically the first party to have read [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 20, 2009 FINANCIAL TIMESCANNES HIT BY CUTBACKS AND CAUTIONThere are still outward signs of glamour on the Croisette in Cannes, but economic reality has gripped the film market at this year’s 62nd film festival. Some of the biggest parties have been cancelled and, for the first time in years, it is easy to get a hotel room. [...]
Profits posted at Royal Mail despite slump May 14, 2009 ROYAL MAIL’S profits have almost doubled, the postal service said yesterday, as all four sections of the company entered the black for the first time in two decades. The whole group’s operating profit hit £321m for the year to the end of March, up from £162m last year, and showed its letter delivery arm and [...]
Q&A: BUYING May 14, 2009 Q. Dear Camilla, I’m looking to buy a property but have we reached the bottom of the market or do prices have further to fall? A. Prices have fallen between 15 and 20 percent since the peak of the market, which was March 2008 for London. At the beginning of this year most analysts were [...]
Redrow cuts payout hit by housing slump September 10, 2008 Evidence of the housing market downturn became even more explicit yesterday as housebuilder Redrow announced a halving of profits and a new £450m debt facility to 2011. Shareholders are also losing out on a third dividend, due to an “unprecedented decline in the fortunes of the UK housing market in a very short period of [...]
Brown’s £1bn home market rescue gets a cool response September 3, 2008 Critics have rounded on prime minister Gordon Brown’s housing market rescue package saying it will do little to reverse the worst housing slump in 18 years. From today the government has scrapped stamp duty for a year on homes worth less than £175,000 as part of a package of measures designed to revitalise the flagging [...]
Latest house price fall piles on the misery September 1, 2008 House prices slumped by 0.9 per cent in August, falling for the 11th successive month and adding to the gloom currently surrounding the market. According to the latest national housing market survey from Hometrack, average prices are down by 5.3 per cent on a year-on-year basis, the lowest level since the survey began in 2001. [...]