Diane Abbott: Labour’s mansion tax on £3m properties will not save the NHS October 21, 2014 Labour MP Diane Abbott has urged shadow chancellor Ed Balls to rethink his so-called mansion tax policy, warning that the “tax on London” will fail to raise enough to support the NHS as promised. “I am worried about how much this policy will actually raise and I am worried about it as a sustainable funding [...]
How to ski your way to an investment in the French Alps October 20, 2014 As the ski season approaches, it’s perhaps time to consider where you’ll end up this December. Most good skiers are regular ones, so rather than give your money up to the same resorts every year, why not turn your winter holiday getaway into a foreign investment opportunity? That’s what Alpine property developers Sotarbat is hoping [...]
UK property: South east overtakes London as region with fastest-growing house prices October 20, 2014 The south east has overtaken London as the region with the fastest-growing house prices, figures published today show – despite the average asking price in the capital hitting £596,000 in the year to October. According to research by Rightmove and Oxford Economics, prices in the capital grew 9.6 per cent during the period, while [...]
Entu fully booked for IPO: “We’re very profitable and we’ve got a lot of cash” – CEO Ian Blackhurst October 16, 2014 Good companies find backers even in soured markets Energy efficiency and home improvement group Entu is set to float on London’s Alternative Investment Market later this month in a rare fully subscribed debut, valuing the business at £65.6m. Entu, which emerged out of the common ownership of three holding companies HI Sales, JWD [...]
Put your house on it …price boom ends October 8, 2014 HOUSE price growth slowed in September, an influential report from Halifax showed yesterday, adding to evidence that activity in the UK’s rampant property market was moderating. Prices rose 0.6 per cent last month and 9.6 per cent in the past year. But this still-substantial growth marks a continued slowdown from the annual growth of 10.2 [...]
Secrets of London part II: Our homebuyer’s guide reveals more hidden gems October 3, 2014 In the second part of our series on hidden London, we reveal the secrets and ancient artefacts living side-by-side with some London’s newest and most innovative residential architecture. Here are just some of the treasures future homeowners will be living alongside, including Ernest Hemingway’s favourite riverside pub in London, a tribute to the [...]
Manhattan Loft Gardens: Developer behind the Chiltern Firehouse has lofty ideas for Stratford’s Olympic Park October 3, 2014 Everyone’s heard of the Chiltern Firehouse by now; for the past year, the restaurant in Marylebone’s Chiltern Hotel has been the hottest ticket in London. But give it a few years and the great and the good may have moved on to pastures new – London’s newest park, in fact. The team behind the [...]
Most of London’s mansion tax properties are flats October 2, 2014 Three quarters of London properties which would fall into the so-called “mansion tax” bracket are flats or terraced houses, according to Knight Frank figures. The property consultants analysed sales data to see what type of “mansions” would fall into the £2m plus category Labour leader Ed Miliband would target if his party came to power. [...]
Sol Campbell may join Tories in battle against Labour’s mansion tax October 2, 2014 Sol Campbell may join the Tories to fight against Labour's mansion tax. The former England football player recently made his opposition to the tax known via Twitter but has gone into even further detail about the problems with the policy advocated by both the Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Speaking to the Telegraph, he slammed [...]
Optimism in London …steady as we go or has it stalled? – Brand Index October 1, 2014 IN his speech to the Conservative conference in Birmingham this week, George Osborne stated: “Britain is the fastest-growing, most job-creating, most deficit-reducing advanced economy on earth.” Whether voters feel these statistics in their wallets will be a key issue for politicians in the weeks and months leading up to the general election on 7 May [...]