Mining gains offset retail weakness March 29, 2012 The FTSE was broadly flat in early trading with a bounce back in the mining sector helping to offset weaknesses among blue chip retailers like Marks & Spencer. Official figures which yesterday saw the UK’s GDP figures revised down have hit investor sentiment while energy stocks are coming under pressure from volatile oil prices. But [...]
House prices in biggest monthly fall for two years March 29, 2012 House prices suffered their sharpest monthly fall in more than two years in March, as first-time homebuyers braced for the removal of stamp duty exemption, mortgage lender Nationwide said. Nationwide reported one per cent seasonally adjusted fall in house prices on the month, the biggest since February 2010, and a sharp contrast to the 0.3 [...]
Credit easing targets SMEs March 21, 2012 THE CHANCELLOR officially launched his flagship credit easing scheme in yesterday’s Budget, making £5bn of guarantees available for banks to pass on a subsidy to small businesses. But it also emerged that some banks are setting a minimum floor of £25,000 for loans available through the scheme, cutting out access for many “micro-businesses” that the [...]
Mortgage lending sticks to upward path March 20, 2012 MORTGAGE lending has increased for the seventh consecutive month, on a year-on-year basis, new figures showed yesterday. Gross lending stood at £10.7bn, up slightly from £10.65bn in January and 14 per cent higher than the £9.4bn last February, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) revealed yesterday. That is lower than the £12.22bn in December and [...]
Housing market gets brief boost March 14, 2012 ACTIVITY jumped in the housing market in January as first-time buyers rushed to beat the end of the stamp duty holiday this month, but house prices fell in January according to government data. Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed a 23 per cent rise in lending to first-time buyers compared with January [...]
UK and Europe on a collision course March 13, 2012 IT is the elephant in the room, the issue nobody wants to talk about. But the growing, irreconcilable gulf between what UK voters and their continental counterparts want from European integration will eventually become as important a question as the fallout from the economic crisis. The scale of the challenge is laid bare by YouGov-Cambridge [...]
Housing plan under attack March 12, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT will back up high loan to value mortgages worth up to £500,000, it announced yesterday, as the scheme was attacked as ineffective and economically dangerous. “The government’s NewBuy guarantee scheme, like many such schemes over the years, smacks of desperation,” said Jonathan Samuels, CEO of Dragonfly Property Finance. “The concern is that NewBuy [...]
UK and Europe on a collision course March 12, 2012 IT is the elephant in the room, the issue nobody wants to talk about. But the growing, irreconcilable gulf between what UK voters and their continental counterparts want from European integration will eventually become as important a question as the fallout from the economic crisis. The scale of the challenge is laid bare by YouGov-Cambridge [...]
Government backs 95% mortgages for first-time buyers March 12, 2012 The government has launched a new mortgage indemnity scheme that is designed to allow first-time buyers to step onto the property ladder and boost the construction industry. Under the NewBuy scheme major lenders including Barclays, Nationwide and Natwest will allow people to borrow up to 95 per cent of the value of a home, with [...]
House price slump not finished yet March 6, 2012 HOUSE prices fell again in February, reversing January’s rise and continuing the slow downward trend of the year. Prices dropped 0.5 per cent in the month, following January’s 0.6 per cent rise, taking the average price to £160,118. Over the last three months, prices are down 1.1 per cent, and 1.9 per cent on February [...]