New Year Honours 2016: Natalie Massenet, Carolyn McCall, Alan Yarrow and the men and women in business awarded Damehoods, Knighthoods, OBEs and CBEs December 30, 2015 Natalie Massenet, Carolyn McCall and Alan Yarrow are among the business leaders to make 2016's New Year honour list this year. Massenet, the entrepreneur who founded Net-a-Porter and McCall, chief executive of EasyJet, were made Dames, while Lord Mayor of London Yarrow was knighted. Outgoing Nationwide chief executive Graham Beale was awarded an CBE, as was [...]
Prime London residential rental growth slows to 17-month low as bank job cuts hit demand December 21, 2015 Job cuts and declining optimism at European banks has dragged rental price growth in London’s prime property market to its lowest level in 17 months, according to Knight Frank. The estate agency’s latest prime central London rental index fell by 0.4 per cent in December from the previous month, on the back of falling demand [...]
Want Christmas to last all year? You could buy a house on Holly Street for £194,465 December 21, 2015 If you want your Christmas spirit to last all year, try investing in a property on Christmas Lane or Holly Street – they'll be more affordable, and closer to the shops than the North Pole. Fewer pesky reindeer grazing outside, too. Data from Knight Frank has revealed the most popular festive street names include Holly, while the most [...]
UK retail sales smash expectations in November as the Black Friday effect hits December 17, 2015 UK retail sales performed better than expected last month, partly driven by sales on Black Friday. Retail sales grew five per cent compared with last November, and grew 1.7 per cent from October, the Office for National Statistics reported this morning. James Knightly, a senior global economist at ING, said sales had been expected to rise just [...]
Fed rate hike reactions: The best Twitter responses to Janet Yellen’s big move December 16, 2015 What to do when the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates from a historic low for the first time in nearly a decade, in a bill of health for the US economy? Why, take to Twitter, of course. Read more: What the world looked like the last time the Fed hiked rates The social media [...]
Bank warns looming credit boom risks housing bubble December 8, 2015 The noughties were not humanity’s greatest decade. It brought us boot cut jeans, velour tracksuits and 50 Cent – and now a report has warned that we could be heading back there, thanks in part to the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee (MPC). According to BNP Paribas Real Estate, if the MPC shies away [...]
UK housing crisis: Build to Rent investment to triple by 2020 December 5, 2015 Investment in Build to Rent will triple to £50bn by 2020, helping it swell from two to five per cent of the private rental sector, and providing minor relief to the UK's growing housing crisis. It's pertinent as the number of first time buyers and young homeowners are declining, at a time when private rental stock is [...]
Syria airstrike vote 2015: Here’s how your MP voted December 3, 2015 Last night MPs voted in favour of the UK beginning airstrikes against Islamic State (Isis) with an overwhelming majority of 397 votes to 223, following a gruelling 10-hour debate in the House of Commons. The move was controversial, with huge numbers of people protesting against military intervention. Some Labour MPs claimed they were being intimidated to [...]
London house prices: stamp duty reforms put brakes on the capital’s prime property market December 2, 2015 George Osborne’s tougher stamp duty regime has put the brakes on London’s prime housing market, Knight Frank figures show, as annual price growth slowed to 0.9 per cent in November. The upmarket estate agency said annual growth has fallen to its lowest level since October 2009, with a monthly decline of 0.3 per cent contributing [...]
London’s prime rental property prices have grown 22.2 per cent since Lehman Brothers: Faster than New York, Hong Kong and Singapore December 2, 2015 London's prime rental properties have gone up 22.2 per cent since the Lehman Brother's collapse of September 2008: faster than New York (15.4 per cent) while avoiding the falls seen by other cities such as Hong Kong (-14.4 per cent) and Moscow (-14.9 per cent). But despite this growth, prime rents in the capital have actually [...]