Redrow to raise £80m to help fund expansion April 24, 2012 SHARES in housebuilder Redrow rose by almost eight per cent yesterday after it said it would raise about £80m to increase investment in London and outside the capital, in a move that could raise the stake of its executive chairman to above 40 per cent. The company, one of the smaller London-listed housebuilders, said it [...]
One Savings Bank plans to double revenues April 20, 2012 One Savings Bank, a new British lender backed by US private equity firm JC Flowers, aims to double its assets to £4.5bn and could make acquisitions to boost lending to small businesses. The company was created in February 2011 after JC Flowers injected fresh capital into the mutually owned Kent Reliance Building Society, a casualty [...]
Persimmon says government scheme is boosting enquiries April 19, 2012 PERSIMMON yesterday said it enjoyed a strong start to the year, with the government’s NewBuy scheme helping boost demand during the spring selling season. The housebuilder, whose brands include Charles Church and Westbury, said it continued to outperform, with visitor levels to its sites over the first 15 weeks of 2012 up 10 per cent [...]
Persimmon in strong start to 2012 April 19, 2012 British housebuilder Persimmon said it had made a good start to 2012 with both visitor levels and orders up on last year, boosted in part by a new government mortgage scheme. The group, which in February cheered shareholders with a promise to return 1.9 billion pounds of surplus cash to them over the next decade, [...]
Tax dash boosts home buying April 16, 2012 February saw a sharp rise in the number of first-time buyers, according to figures out yesterday from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), as the stamp duty holiday’s end date in March drew closer. A total of 14,100 loans worth £1.7bn were taken out by first-time buyers in the month, up eight per cent by [...]
Demand for banks to give early warning of interest rate rises April 15, 2012 BANKS will this week come under fresh political pressure to give customers greater notice of hikes in interest rates. Labour will tomorrow table an amendment to the Financial Services Bill after customers of Halifax were given a minimum of only 14 days’ notice of an increase in the standard variable rate, despite the record low [...]
House buyers suffer as credit conditions batter mortgages April 12, 2012 TIGHTER credit conditions are starting to impact on lending to home-buyers, according to chartered surveyors’ figures published today. Loans for home purchase dropped to 43,450 in March – an 11 per cent drop on February and the lowest since December 2010, e.serv’s mortgage monitor revealed. First-time buyers particularly suffered, with loans for homes under £125,000 [...]
Miners and banks dent FTSE April 4, 2012 The FTSE 100 was dragged back by weaker mining stocks after minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s March meeting revealed that it is not planning any more monetary stimulus. Federal Reserve policymakers have backed away from the need to pump more money into the system as the US economy gradually improves, minutes of the central [...]
House prices in unexpected March rise April 4, 2012 House prices rose 2.2 percent in March, confounding forecasts for a 0.3 per cent dip, data from mortgage lender Halifax showed on Wednesday. House prices nudged down 0.6 percent in the three months to March compared with a year ago – the smallest fall on this measure since October 2010. That took the average price [...]
Co-operative Bank hikes its mortgage rate April 2, 2012 THE Co-operative Bank has become the latest UK bank to raise its standard variable mortgage rate (SVR) by half a percentage point in the face of higher costs. The rate will go up from 4.24 per cent to 4.74 per cent on 1 May – raising mortgages an average £15 per month for around 54,000 [...]