Hopeful house buyers put off by low supply February 5, 2012 A SHORTAGE of suitable housing is preventing potential first-time buyers from stepping onto the property ladder, according to data released this morning. Asked to name their biggest concern about buying a home, the second most common response among potential buyers was the difficulty of finding a property. “In the final quarter of 2011, the numbers [...]
Santander takes €1.7bn property hit January 31, 2012 A MASSIVE write-down on its Spanish property portfolio wiped out Santander’s profits in the fourth quarter of last year, the bank revealed in full-year results yesterday. The lender was forced to make a net provision of €1.67bn due to the plunging value of its assets, mostly in Spanish real estate. That took its bottom line [...]
US mortgage deal closer January 23, 2012 US STATE and federal officials are nearing a deal with the nation’s five largest mortgage lenders to settle claims of foreclosure that drove people out of their homes. Democratic state attorneys general and Obama administration officials met yesterday in Chicago to discuss the terms of the settlement. People familiar with the talks have said Bank [...]
Mortgage lending edges up January 23, 2012 MORTGAGE lending rose at the end of last year compared to 12 months earlier, yet levels remain relatively deflated. Gross mortgage lending in quarter four of 2011 reached £37.2bn – up on £33.6bn in the final quarter of 2010. Yet total loans are significantly lower than before the credit crunch. Gross mortgage lending last year [...]
House loans grow despite grim economy January 16, 2012 THE HOUSING market showed signs of life in November with sales and remortgages both rising, data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) revealed yesterday. Growth is expected to continue in the months before March, after which first-time buyers will no longer benefit from stamp duty exemption. Overall lending for house purchase rose four per [...]
Crunch easing for euro banks January 11, 2012 THE EUROPEAN Central Bank (ECB) has succeeded in kick-starting bank funding markets, prompting a rush to issue debt that has reached levels not seen since before the latest credit crunch took hold. Funding costs for banks on the continent have plunged to their lowest level since April on the back of a flood of new [...]
VIRGIN: THE TOP TEAM January 9, 2012 CHAIRMAN SIR DAVID CLEMENTI City grandee David Clementi is a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, a role he held until 2002. He has also been chairman of FTSE 100 insurer Prudential and chief executive of private bank Kleinwort Benson. CHIEF EXECUTIVE JAYNE-ANNE GADHIA Jayne-Anne Gadhia has worked at a range of RBS and Virgin [...]
House prices fall in December January 6, 2012 House prices fell 0.9 per cent on the month in December, mortgage lender Halifax said, confounding expectations of a modest pick-up. House prices fell 1.3 per cent in the three months to December versus a year ago, a bigger decline than the 0.8 per cent drop forecast by analysts. The average price of a home [...]
Euro woes return with a vengeance January 5, 2012 EUROPEAN banks were caught in a wave of new anxiety yesterday as doubts over capital-raising plans and Hungary’s solvency caused investors to drop stock in the continent’s major lenders. Shares in UniCredit, Italy’s biggest bank, dropped 17.3 per cent to their lowest level since 1985 as markets fret over its heavily discounted rights issue, which [...]
Banks drag FTSE down as UniCredit prices at discount January 4, 2012 CONCERNS over the Eurozone sent Britain’s top shares into reverse yesterday after the previous session’s sharp gains, as Italian lender UniCredit priced a rights issue at a huge discount, and a German bond auction failed to excite. The FTSE 100 fell 31.46 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 5,668.45, albeit in light volume, at 79 [...]