Foxtons results: Another dive in profits thanks to London house prices March 8, 2017 Shares in struggling London estate agent Foxtons took a dive today after it admitted London's cooling market pushed down profits last year. The figures Revenues fell 11 per cent to £132.7m in the year to the end of December, Foxtons said today – while pre-tax profits fell more than half, from £41m in 2015 to £18.8m in 2016. Lettings revenue fell one per [...]
Barratt has sold 172 luxury London new-build flats as rental homes, including an entire block at Nine Elms March 6, 2017 Here's an unusual move by a housebuilder: Barratt Homes has bundled together 172 flats at various developments across London and sold them off as rental homes. The housebuilder said it had sold the units to Henderson Park for £140.5m. The portfolio includes 29 units at Aldgate Place, a joint venture with British Land, 25 in Fulham Riverside and all 118 at [...]
Growth in the UK’s construction industry was stronger than expected in February – but housebuilding floundered March 2, 2017 Growth in the UK's construction sector was stronger than expected in February, figures published today showed – but housebuilding struggled. Markit's purchasing managers' index for the sector rose to 52.5 in February, up from 52.2 in January – and beating forecasts it would stay flat. Any figure below 50 denotes a contraction. However, activity in the residential [...]
UK housebuilders’ shares rise as mortgage approvals hit highest level since February last year March 1, 2017 Housebuilders' share prices rose today after figures from the Bank of England showed that in January mortgage approvals hit the highest level since February 2016. The Bank reported a 2.4 per cent month-on-month rise in January, bringing the number of mortgages to 69,928. Read more: UK house prices rose by just £600 last month This [...]
Taylor Wimpey’s profit jumps over 20 per cent February 28, 2017 Taylor Wimpey left 2016 on a high, reporting this morning that its profits jumped more than 20 per cent last year. The figures Profit before tax jumped 21.5 per cent, from £603.8m in 2015 to £733.4m last year, and revenue rose 17.1 per cent year-on-year from £3.14bn to £3.68bn. Read more: Safe as houses? London [...]
Barratt hikes dividend as profits edge higher February 22, 2017 It's been a decent six months for housebuilder Barratt, which today announced it was hiking its divi after profits edged up in the final half of last year – despite a fall in revenues. The figures Although revenues fell 3.2 per cent to £1.82bn in the six months to the end of December, pre-tax profits rose 8.8 per cent to £321m, partly thanks to [...]
Redrow boss calls for government to release green belt land February 8, 2017 Redrow chief executive John Tutte has said the government should have unlocked more greenbelt land for development in the housing white paper. Speaking to City A.M., Tutte said: "Controversially, we would have liked to have seen something more forceful on releasing the green belt. "It isn't all rolling countryside." His comments come after communities secretary Sajid [...]
Asda is turning friend against friend with this saucy ketchup poll February 8, 2017 Remember that time #thedress caused rifts in families, turned friends against each other and generally broke the internet? Now Asda has done it again, causing a condiment conundrum by asking one simple question: do you keep your ketchup in the fridge? Yesterday the supermarket said one of its stores had begun experimenting with storing ketchup in both [...]
The big winners of the housing white paper: Housebuilders’ and estate agents’ shares are climbing February 7, 2017 If you work in residential property, today is a good day – share prices went up across the board after the government published its long-awaited housing whitepaper. On the FTSE 100, Persimmon was the big winner, with shares rising 2.3 per cent to 1,983p in mid-afternoon trading. That was followed by Barratt, which rose 1.7 per [...]
Investec is putting £30m towards this Fulham development February 3, 2017 Invetec is providing a £30m financing facility to developer Meyer Homes for the construction of 58 new homes in Fulham. The 24 month facility will also go toward the building of 9,000 square feet of retail space. In total, the plot is across one acre on Fulham High Street. The development will comprise 48 apartments – [...]