This is what will happen to house prices in 2017 December 14, 2016 How will the UK's favourite asset fare in 2017? It's safe to say that the Brexit vote has not caused the immediate and catastrophic housing crash that former chancellor George Osborne was predicting before the referendum. But the outlook for property next year is not particularly rosy. Liberum analysts are expecting house prices to fall [...]
Bellway boosted by Help to Buy December 13, 2016 Bellway's share price was up two per cent this morning after the company said its sales grew by seven per cent, with reservations boosted by the government's Help to Buy scheme. The figures The housebuilder announced that its reservation rate was 176 per week for the 18 weeks from 1 August to 4 December, up from 165 per [...]
Financial watchdog wants to know if the mortgage system is working to the detriment of consumers December 12, 2016 Britain's financial regulator has put the competitiveness of the mortgage sector under the microscope and launched a sweeping review into industry practices. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) today announced it wants to focus on whether or not customers are getting the best deal from the commercial arrangements between lenders, brokers and other players. Read more: Remortgaging valuations boom [...]
Quiz: Do you have the A-Level maths skills needed to understand your bank? December 8, 2016 If you've ever fretted about your finances, you can breath a sigh of relief – from APRs to ISAs and every acronym in between, understanding bank statements requires an A-Level knowledge of maths, it turns out. Jargon terms are making it impossible for most people to judge whether they are getting a good deal from their bank. More [...]
Remortgaging valuations surge and drive rest of mortgage market as homeowners try to lock in low interest rate deals December 7, 2016 Homeowners scrambling to lock into mortgage deals before a rise in interest rates drove remortgaging valuations to surge almost 25 per cent year-on-year in November. Remortgaging outperformed all other mortgage market valuation activity last month, according to research from Connells Survey & Valuation, rising 4.9 per cent compared to October. Read more: Time to remortgage? [...]
These are the seven biggest risks facing housebuilders in 2017 December 6, 2016 Think housebuilders have had a bad year? Well, these analysts think 2017 could be worse. On the day of the Brexit vote, housebuilders were subjected to some of the most dramatic sell-offs of any stock. None of the big housebuilders have regained the ground they lost on the day. Read more: EU regulation protecting newts [...]
US regulators have been much harsher than their UK counterparts while European authorities have been even kinder… December 5, 2016 US regulators have slapped fines on banks at four times the level imposed by their UK counterparts in connection with interest rate and foreign exchange manipulation. A total of 12 banks have been fined $9.8bn (£7.7bn) by US authorities over the last four and a half years. This compares with £2bn imposed on 11 lenders by UK authorities. [...]
Risk and reward: Adam French, co-founder of Scalable Capital, left Goldman to develop an algorithm for matching retail investors with the right ETFs December 5, 2016 For two years, Adam French knew he was leaving Goldman Sachs. “The day I quit was quite liberating – it’s just not that easy to step away from a Goldman job,” says the former trader, and chief executive and co-founder of digital investment management firm Scalable Capital. There was no “eureka moment”, he adds – [...]
British households taking on more debt as almost half struggle to pay credit card bills on time December 5, 2016 Almost half of British consumers struggle to pay off their credit card bill each month, while the proportion taking on more debt over the last five years has risen sharply. Borrowing has continued to rise to record highs in the wake of the vote to leave the European Union. The proportion of borrowers who have [...]
UK house price growth slowed again in November December 1, 2016 House prices grew by 0.1 per cent in November, with the rate of growth slowing to 4.4 per cent from 4.6 per cent in October, and analysts pointed to market uncertainty and cautious buyers and sellers having a cooling effect on the sector. The Nationwide House Prices Index showed the average price of a house [...]