North-South housing divide stark as ever April 12, 2010 THE chasm between house prices in the north and south of the UK is as wide as ever, according to a new report published yesterday. Not one of the ten streets with the lowest average property values in England and Wales was in the south of the country, the property research website Mouseprice Most Affordable [...]
2010 is the year of the big move to the country March 25, 2010 MANY who earn their crust in London dream of living in the country, and there are good reasons to make 2010 the year to make the move. While the property markets in the desirable parts of London have now fully recovered, with prices similar to those achieved in the 2007 peak, the same isn’t true [...]
John Lewis starts the year on a high February 12, 2010 JOHN Lewis has reported one of its healthiest starts to a financial year. Total sales in the first week of February were up 32 per cent. Fashion, including lingerie snapped up for Valentine’s Day – led sales gains by rising 47 per cent as new season ranges came into stores. John Lewis’s flagship store in [...]
John Lewis opens Olympic store February 1, 2010 Department store John Lewis is to open a shop next to the 2010 Olympics site as part of its sponsorship deal. The shop, in Stratford, will sell Olympic merchandise and become the 26th home-grown sponsor. An estimated 10,000 licensed products which will be on sale. The John Lewis flagship store in Oxford Street will also [...]
John Lewis to open “Olympic” store February 1, 2010 DEPARTMENT store John Lewis is to open a shop next to the 2010 Games site as part of its sponsorship deal. The shop, in Stratford, will sell Olympic merchandise and become the 26th home-grown sponsor. An estimated 10,000 licensed products which will be on sale. The john Lewis Flagship store in Oxford Street will also [...]
Weak pound fuels London sales boost January 18, 2010 SHOP sales in the capital soared over Christmas as tourists and Londoners embarked on spending sprees. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported that in London sales jumped 12 per cent in December – the best performance since it started publishing the figures in 2002. Visitors from Europe, China and the Middle East hit the shops, [...]
How the Queen of support services wants to turn UK companies green January 6, 2010 GOING GREEN may not be the most original of strategies but that doesn’t make it any less lucrative. So Mitie Ruby McGregor-Smith’s decision to bet the future of her support services giant on cashing in on the trend for all things environmental has gone down well with investors. The FTSE 250 company is still busy [...]
Buy-to-let is back as rents stabilise and low prices attract landlords December 3, 2009 BUY-TO-LET is starting to look like an attractive proposition once again, as lower house prices and a stabilising rental market result in more enticing yields. Data from LSL Property Services – the company that owns Your Move and Reeds Rains estate agencies – shows that annual returns on landlords’ investments have turned positive for the [...]
Tourists will fill West End November 8, 2009 CENTRAL London shops expect to receive a glut of foreign customers this winter, enticed to the capital by the current weakness of the pound. The New West End Company, which represents retailers in Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street, is expecting a 5-10 per cent year-on-year increase in foreign shoppers over the festive period. [...]
Du pain, du vin, du Cornish Yarg October 14, 2009 IT’S a historic moment. British cheeses are outselling French fromages at a rate of two to one as shoppers choose the homegrown beauties now available by the hundred. The figures are not, to be fair, applicable across the populace, but rather relate to the tastes and inclinations of M&S shoppers. Still, as a barometer of [...]