Opinion: How to tell if you’re in a buyer or a seller’s market and how that affects your purchase/sale? August 31, 2018 How do I know if my area is a seller’s market? A seller’s market is great news for homeowners. The balance of power is in your favour as there are more buyers than homes for sale in the area. Properties sell quicker and often attract multiple offers causing a bidding frenzy. At PropCast, we’ve built [...]
British consumer borrowing growth slowest since 2015 as personal debt stutters August 30, 2018 British consumers added to their borrowing at the slowest pace since the end of 2015 in July, adding to signs the rapid increase in the UK's personal debt pile is losing momentum. The annual growth rate of consumer credit, including credit cards and other forms of non-mortgage debt, slowed to 8.5 per cent, a level of [...]
Mortgage approvals sink back down as housing activity grows thin August 30, 2018 Mortgage approvals suffered a renewed dip in July, underlining fears of stagnant activity levels throughout the UK’s housing market. Last month approvals for house purchases edged down to 65,000, bucking a slow rise to a five-month high in June, according to new bank of England (BoE) statistics. Remortgaging approvals also dropped 5.5 per cent to 45,000 [...]
Bank of Cyprus sells €2.8bn of bad loans to Apollo August 28, 2018 Bank of Cyprus Group has agreed the sale of €2.8bn (£2.5bn) in bad loans to US private equity giant Apollo in a deal that the bank – laid low by the Eurozone crisis – said will be “transformative”. Apollo, which manages assets worth $270bn (£209bn), will pay €1.4bn for the non-performing loan (NPL) portfolio – [...]
America’s record bull market: five charts that tell the story August 24, 2018 The US stock market is on its longest bull-run in history. It began on 9 March 2009 and, so far, has lasted nine years, five months and 13 days. As of today, it beats the great equities performance of the 1990s. A bull market is broadly defined as one that rises over time without falling [...]
Property legal Q&A: I own a flat with a short lease and cannot afford to extend it. I am now facing difficulty selling my property. Do I have any options? August 23, 2018 You don’t say how short the lease is but it appears to be short enough to deter potential buyers from buying your property. Some lenders require a minimum of 85 years left to run on a lease before they will be willing to lend. Parties are generally worried the nearer the lease gets to 80 [...]
OneSavings lifts loan growth forecasts but warns of weaker Buy-to-Let mortgage market August 23, 2018 Specialised lender OneSavings Bank raised its expectations for loan growth today, despite pressure on profit margins amid a weaker Buy-to-Let mortgage market. The FTSE 250 firm’s loan book grew 11 per cent to £8.1bn during the first six months of 2018, with full-year targets for net loan book growth upgraded to high-teens percentages from an [...]
Charter Court signals ‘confident’ outlook as profits jump and it announces maiden dividend August 21, 2018 Buy-to-let lender Charter Court reported a big jump in profits today and its first dividend less than a year after its initial public offering. Profit before tax rose by 57 per cent year-on-year to £93.1m for the first half of 2018, almost reaching the £111m profit made for the entirety of 2017. Charter Court listed [...]
House prices in the capital sink to lowest level since financial crisis August 15, 2018 London house prices have fallen at their fastest annual rate since the financial crisis, dragging the UK property market down to its lowest levels of growth in five years. House prices in London tumbled 0.7 per cent in the year to June 2018, marking the sharpest decline in annual growth since a 3.2 per cent [...]
The global financial crisis 10 years on: A timeline of the global events that shaped the crash from the credit crunch to the recession and beyond August 7, 2018 Ten years ago this week the credit crunch started to bite. Take a look back at the global events that shaped one of the biggest recessions in history. Early tremors: February to June 2007 Early signs of trouble build, but are mostly missed. The giant Freddie Mac, also know as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage [...]