We will soon find out whether America’s recovery is real September 23, 2012 FEDERAL Reserve chief Ben Bernanke took aim at the housing market this month, saying it was one missing piston in the economic engine. The Case-Shiller Home Price Index tomorrow will be the economic equivalent of a peek under the US bonnet at the start of the third quarter, with some wondering if the hum of [...]
Crest Nicholson mulls return to stock market September 20, 2012 CREST Nicholson, one of the UK’s biggest housebuilders, is mulling a return to the stock market five years after it was taken over during the housing crisis as it looks to take advantage of returning optimism in the housebuilding sector. A source familiar with the company told City A.M that a flotation was one of [...]
Mortgage lending slips as rents are pushed up to new record September 20, 2012 MORTGAGE lending slipped in August, while tenants were hit by still-climbing rents, two sets of data released yesterday showed. Gross mortgage lending fell one per cent into August, the Council for Mortgage Lenders (CML) revealed yesterday – meaning lending was four per cent lower than August 2011. “The housing numbers are far from strong,” noted [...]
Lloyds first bank to use cheap funds from state programme September 19, 2012 LLOYDS became the first bank to use the government’s new Funding for Lending scheme (FLS) yesterday, drawing down £1bn from the Bank of England. It pledged to lend the money on to businesses and households. However analysts said they do not expect Lloyds’ overall lending to rise, as the bank is still rebalancing in the [...]
Lenders hit by loan maturity September 19, 2012 MILLIONS of interest-only mortgage holders are set to be clobbered as their loans expire over the next eight years, property data firm Xit2 revealed today. Some 1.3m interest-only mortgages will expire by 2020, the data shows, and for over 1m of these – together worth about £116bn – there is no final payment plan, Xit2 [...]
Mortgage lending booms in July as market strengthens September 12, 2012 A JUMP in loans to home movers outweighed a slip in lending to first-time buyers, data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders revealed yesterday, leading to an overall increase in mortgage market lending. There were 30,500 loans made to homeowners moving house in July, up 8.2 per cent from June, together totalling £5.1bn, again up [...]
Your first move onto the property ladder September 9, 2012 UK HOUSE prices saw their biggest fall for a year in the three months to July 2012, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). But the capital is bucking the trend. London property prices grew by 6.5 per cent over the last year, according to last quarter’s Greater London Authority London Housing Market [...]
More homes would make climbing the second step easier September 9, 2012 GETTING a foot on the property ladder is hard. But, taking the second step could be even harder. Agonising market conditions mean that it could now be the most challenging time to be a “second stepper” in years. Research shows that a first-time buyer stays in their first property for around four years. Since the [...]
Hollande is forced to nationalise mortgage lender on default fear September 2, 2012 FRENCH president Francois Hollande was forced to nationalise France’s second biggest specialist mortgage lender on Saturday night after a cash drought left it unable to pay its debts, meaning the government could be on the hook for up to €20bn in guarantees. Credit Immobilier de France (CIF), which has around four per cent of the [...]
House prices show biggest monthly rise since 2010 August 31, 2012 British house prices showed their strongest monthly rise in more than two-and-a-half years this month, mortgage lender Nationwide said today, in contrast to a generally weak picture for the country’s property market and broader economy. Nationwide said house prices rose by 1.3 per cent in August after falling a downwardly revised 0.8 per cent in [...]