House price gains set to be wiped out July 18, 2010 ALL the gains seen in property prices over the past six months will be wiped out by the end of the year, thanks to more aggressive pricing and an increase in the number of houses coming on to the market, property website Rightmove will say today. The forecast forms part of its monthly survey of [...]
The ascent of prime London’s new hotspot July 15, 2010 FITZROVIA, the area around the BT Tower, bordered by Oxford Street, Tottenham Court Road, Great Portland Street and Euston Road, should be Londoners’ idea of property heaven. The West End is on your doorstep, as is Regent’s Park. The ever-more exciting restaurant and bar scene of Goodge and Charlotte Streets, and the more established prettiness [...]
Little black book: the Wharf’s new hotspots July 14, 2010 CANARY Wharf may have gleaming skyscrapers but it hasn’t exactly led the way with high quality bars or top-end members clubs (and no, Brodies doesn’t count). Most serious financiers have stayed put in their own private dining rooms rather than venture to street level, unless a driver is eagerly waiting with a TomTom pre-programmed to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING July 12, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES RIO CLASHEs OVER THE RIGHTS TO MONGOLIAN COPPER MINE Tensions are rising between Rio Tinto and Canada’s Ivanhoe Mines over rights to a world-class copper deposit in Mongolia as the multinational mining group releases hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the mine over which it has limited control. Ivanhoe, which owns the [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS July 12, 2010 LARDER OF LONDON REOPENS For a foodie city, one thing London is shamefully short of is quality food markets. Anyone who’s had enough of fighting their way through the Borough Market hoards can now instead fight their way through the West End hoards each Saturday at the newly-launched Foodlovers Market in Soho, once reputed as [...]
BUSINESS IS BOOMING FOR TABLE DANCE KING July 6, 2010 TABLE-dancing mogul Stephen Less may have made his fortune building up Secrets, London’s largest chain of lap dancing clubs, but he’s certainly no one-trick pony. I hear Less has been a rather busy man of late, broadening his horizons to include no less than four satellite business interests. The first – and most austere – [...]
It’s bargain time for Square Mile renters July 1, 2010 WITH prices still slightly down from their 2008 heights, now is the time to get into the London rental market if you or your company are looking for non-permanent living space in the capital. Traditionally, demand grows as the summer wears on and with the property market picking up, prices are only going to go [...]
QUICKIE DIVORCES GET QUICKER WITH HELP OF NEW IPHONE APP June 21, 2010 FIRST we had divorce “gift vouchers”, with a company charging £125 for half an hour with a lawyer; now, it’s divorce apps for your iPhone. Dallas-based company Brainwash already offers one divorce application in its range – a “Cost & Prep” product for just under ten dollars, explaining to would-be divorcees how much it costs [...]
…as bank holiday gives shops in the West End a huge boost June 13, 2010 TWO strong bank holidays helped push up West End retail sales 5.8 per cent year-on-year in May, according to the New West End Company, which represents vendors in the area. Despite a rainy Saturday, shoppers spent £38m on Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street on Monday 31 May alone. The number of people visiting [...]
Centrica looks hard at its nuclear option June 13, 2010 CENTRICA’S finance director Nick Luff is busy trying to work out if the new coalition energy secretary Chris Huhne is a man the country’s largest gas and electricity supplier can do business with. Huhne – a Liberal Democrat – had previously described nuclear power as a “failed technology.” But that was before he scented the [...]