Carney: House price boom set to end in 2016 January 18, 2014 BANK of England governor Mark Carney expects the recent surge in the property market to cool by 2016, as figures today confirm that house sales have returned to levels last seen in early 2008. The governor said that he is projecting “a continuation of the current momentum into 2014, before decelerating around the middle of [...]
Carney: House price boom set to end in 2016 January 15, 2014 BANK of England governor Mark Carney expects the recent surge in the property market to cool by 2016, as figures today confirm that house sales have returned to levels last seen in early 2008. The governor said that he is projecting “a continuation of the current momentum into 2014, before decelerating around the middle of [...]
Soaring mortgage numbers renew fears of bubbly housing market January 15, 2014 (Laura Lean/City A.M.) The latest housing data is enough to fuel concerns that a "new housing bubble could develop in 2014", says IHS Global Insight's Howard Archer. Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) figures show mortgage numbers rising by 14.9 per cent in the year to November. There's a more troubling surge among first-time buyers. They [...]
Young Britons hit hardest by housing crisis January 10, 2014 PR consultancy MRM has released a report investigating the attitudes of "Generation Austerity," aged 20-29. Their results set today's young people radically apart from the rest of the population, in their attitudes to personal finance. When asked what is the most important thing for you to save for right now, 37 per cent of generation [...]
Bank of England says Help to Buy is driving mortgage availability increase January 8, 2014 Some more data to buttress evidence of a rapidly picking up housing market, this time from the Bank of England. The Bank's credit conditions survey showed demand for house purchase loans and mortgages went up in the fourth quarter of 2013, with mortgage demand at its highest level since 2007. Along with secured lending to [...]
House prices drop unexpectedly – but don’t rule out a bubble just yet January 8, 2014 Mortgage lender Halifax has reported that British house prices fell 0.6 per cent month-on-month in December. The unexpected dip in house prices is a stark contrast with the 1.4 per cent month-on-month increase reported for December by Nationwide. In a poll of economists conducted by Reuters before the data release, not one predicted a fall [...]
RBS sells chunk of Charter One ahead of exit from US banking January 7, 2014 RBS QUIT retail banking in and around Chicago yesterday, selling 94 Charter One branches to US Bancorp. The British lender is planning a wider exit from the US, aiming to float its American bank Citizens, which includes Charter One, later this year. It bought into Charter One a decade ago, and is now partly reversing that [...]
Letters to the Editor – 06/01 – Gold speculation, Payday lending, Best of Twitter January 5, 2014 Gold speculation [Re: Here’s why Capital Economics thinks gold will bounce back this year, Thursday] Buying gold at current prices is speculation, and not just over the potential removal of Indian import restrictions. Its price tells you about fear in an economy at any given point – and there just isn’t that fear around that [...]
Mortgage loans to reach £170bn mark for 2013 December 19, 2013 MORTGAGE lending dipped slightly during November, down £600m from the previous month, despite a surge over the past year. According to the latest estimate from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), gross mortgage lending dipped to £17bn last month, but stayed 30 per cent higher than the figure in November 2012, demonstrating how much more [...]
Housebuilders pledge to end advance sales of homes overseas December 18, 2013 A TOTAL of 11 housing developers have signed a pledge to market their properties to UK buyers first, or at the same time, as marketing abroad. Concerns about properties being sold to foreign investors who then choose not to live in them have led to claims that many London streets are unoccupied while demand in [...]