Surge in profits for Berkeley as housing booms June 18, 2014 HOUSE builder Berkeley’s pre-tax profits rocketed upwards in the year to the end of April, soaring by 40 per cent as the housing market rapidly picked up strength. Profit after tax rose by £83.2m, a boost of 39.7 per cent on the prior year, bringing the total for the year to £292.9m, and earnings per [...]
Britain’s mortgage prisoners must act now or face financial meltdown May 22, 2014 IT’s BEEN a busy week in the world of monetary policy. On Sunday, Mark Carney said that rising house prices pose the biggest threat to economic recovery. On Tuesday, the official statistics told us what we already knew – that house prices in London are soaring, by 17 per cent year-on-year. Some homeowners are finding [...]
UK banks face tough tests to prove their resilience April 29, 2014 BRITAIN’S biggest banks must be able to cope with a housing crash of the type seen in the 1980s, under a trial set up by the Bank of England to make sure the system is strong and safe. The fictional crisis scenario would see the economy shrink by 3.5 per cent, unemployment soar to nearly [...]
UK’s debt burden is falling – but the crisis is merely postponed April 3, 2014 BRITAIN’S debt burden is falling. Yes, you’ve read that right: the UK is finally deleveraging. But there is a catch: debt hasn’t fallen enough even though we are already nearing the end of the deleveraging cycle. Over the next few years, we are likely to go on another borrowing binge. The end result could be [...]
Buyers struggle to raise deposit as market soars March 31, 2014 HOUSE buyers across England and Wales are paying the highest proportion of their property’s asking price since 2004, with the average house going for more than 99 per cent of the asking price in London. In March so far, buyers are shelling out 96.2 per cent of property asking prices, according to Hometrack’s assessment of [...]
Lloyds is the real driver behind the mortgage boom February 27, 2014 Britain’s housing market is booming, with mortgage lending soaring and prices rising at giddy, pre-crash rates. But not everyone is taking part – of Britain’s biggest four banks, two cut gross new mortgage lending last year, and one barely budged on the year. In fact, the boom in lending is almost all coming from Lloyds. [...]
Soaring number of low deposit mortgage deals February 24, 2014 NEW FIGURES released this morning suggest that the number of products for the highest loan-to-value (LTV) mortgages has tripled since the surprise launch of the second phase of Help to Buy in October. The number of products available for buyers with only a five per cent deposit has soared from 43 to 132 in less [...]
What you need to know before the US open February 20, 2014 US stock index futures suggest markets will open lower, as investors look again towards ongoing emerging market turmoil. The continuing and severe violence in Ukraine at the moment has seen the country’s hryvnia plummet to five-year lows, and state debt insurance rising to 2009 highs. Weaker growth from China – the Markit/HSBC purchasing managers’ index [...]
Barclays hikes bonuses to hold onto top staff February 11, 2014 BARCLAYS has been forced to increase bonuses in a bid to attract the best staff in the US and Asia, where competition is particularly fierce, the bank’s boss said yesterday. The bonus pool increased by 10 per cent to £2.38bn, even as profits for 2013 fell 32 per cent to £5.2bn. Chief executive Antony Jenkins [...]
Scale of house price boom in prime London revealed January 20, 2014 AVERAGE house prices have doubled to over £1m in dozens of wards inside and surrounding London in the past decade, soaring despite the effect of the financial crisis. Research by property group Savills and the Property Database, based on Land Registry figures, shows the huge rise in prices recorded in the most sought-after parts of [...]