How likely is a UK property market crash and what IS happening with house prices? March 31, 2023 This week prospective buyers were hit with another flurry of less-than optimistic reports about the outlook for the housing market; house prices continued to fall in value and mortgage approvals struggled to get above pre-pandemic levels. Nationwide’s report found that house prices fell 3.1 per cent in March, the largest annual decline since July 2009 [...]
Banks, inflation, recession, gold AND Ocado: Five lessons the markets taught us this week March 31, 2023 It’s spring. The days are longer, the sun is shining, and fears about the imminent implosion of the global financial system are fading, for now anyway. Markets appeared to calm down after several weeks of banking-related aftershocks and both the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 were on course to end the week on a positive [...]
House prices fall in largest annual drop since 2009 as inflation and higher borrowing costs dampen property market March 31, 2023 House prices fell 3.1 per cent in March, the largest annual decline since July 2009 as consumer confidence remained weak and household budgets came under increasing pressure from high inflation. According to data from Nationwide, East Anglia, which was the strongest performing region last quarter, saw a significant slowdown, with prices falling 1.8 per cent [...]
UK narrowly avoids recession as penny pinching Brits help GDP grow 0.1 per cent March 31, 2023 The UK was not formally in a dreaded recession between October and December, with UK GDP increasing slightly by 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022. Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the economy marginally improved from an initial estimate of “no growth”. [...]
Recession? Five graphs that show where the UK economy is and where it is heading March 31, 2023 Are we in a recession? Aren’t we in a recession? Are we headed into a recession? At this point, who knows. At the start of the year, everyone said “yes definitely, and a bad one”. Now, those projections look a bit overcooked. Essentially, it’s on a knife edge. City A.M. takes a look at the [...]
Broadband, mobile bills and council tax rises threaten ‘awful April’ for householders already facing cost of living crisis March 31, 2023 Households battling the cost of living crisis are facing an onslaught of price hikes that could leave the average family hundreds of pounds a year worse off. From April 1, millions of people will face increases to their broadband, mobile, water and council tax bills. Most local authorities are putting up council tax by 5 [...]
Arbuthnot profit leaps after rate hikes but bank backs ‘conservative’ model as UK prospects ‘not clear’ March 30, 2023 Arbuthnot Latham saw its profit surge with rising interest rates boosting its coffers, as the lender sought to distance itself from recent difficulties in the banking sector. Pretax profit in 2022 lept to £20m, up from just £4.6m last year as net interest income grew by over £30m. The boutique bank said this increase [...]
Controversial Help to Buy policy to boost home ownership to end tomorrow March 30, 2023 A flagship policy to boost home ownership among young people will come to an end tomorrow. The Help to Buy Scheme, launched in 2013, will be wound up, after more than 350,000 people used it to buy their first home, with more than £2.2bn of support last year. But some property experts have warned the [...]
FTSE 100 close: Ocado delivers bumper gains while Next zips lower March 29, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 was hoisted higher by the UK’s largest retailers surging today, except high street bellwether Next, which stumbled badly. The capital’s premier index bumped more than one per cent to 7,564.28 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, surged 1.28 per [...]
Mortgage approvals snap back following mini budget chaos, but net lending at lowest since 2016 March 29, 2023 Mortgage approvals have improved for the first time since August, as the market begins to shake off the stress of the mini-budget, however experts have warned that the housing market will “remain price sensitive”. According to the Bank of England’s Money and Credit report for February, net mortgage approvals for house purchases increased to 43,500 [...]