More than 2,000 people have already cashed in their Help to Buy Isa just four months after launch – getting a bonus of just £421 June 30, 2016 Perplexing news from the Treasury, which has reported more than 2,000 people have so far cashed in their Help to Buy Isas – meaning they've made an average of just £421. The figures, published this morning, showed 1,490 properties were bought in the four months to the end of March through the scheme, which gives savers a £50 [...]
Borrowing reached an 11-year high before the EU referendum June 29, 2016 Lending to British households grew at its fastest pace in a decade in the run up to the EU referendum, new figures from the Bank of England have shown. Consumer credit – a measure of loans and credit card debt, but not mortgages – grew by 9.9 per cent in the year to May, the fastest [...]
UK house prices rose in June – but will Brexit hit house prices? Three experts give their view June 29, 2016 It seems the nation's house buyers were unperturbed at the prospect of a Brexit vote, after new figures showed house prices rose in June – despite warnings by the chancellor. Figures from Nationwide this morning showed prices crept up 0.2 per cent in June, or 5.1 per cent in the year to the end of [...]
First-time buyers beat off Brexit fears and paid record prices for property in May June 29, 2016 Brexit fears didn't put first-time buyers off from mounting the property ladder, as data out today shows they spent record sums on their homes in May. First-time buyers paid an average of £173,282 on their first ever home in May – a record high – according to data from estate agents Your Move and Reeds [...]
Remortgaging in May was at its highest level since 2008 – but experts predict Brexit woes will hang over the market until aumtumn June 29, 2016 Remortgaging hit £5bn in May, the highest value for May since 2008, according to research released today. At 32,334, the number of remortgage loans was 31 per cent higher in May than in the same month last year, according to research from Legal Marketing Services (LMS). The average amount of equity withdrawn was £33,600, up 43 per [...]
Q&A: Should we worry about the UK losing its AAA credit rating? June 28, 2016 The UK suffered the embarrassment of a downgrade to its credit rating from not just one, but two of the leading agencies yesterday. Standard and Poor's (S&P) stripped the UK government of its gold standard triple-A rating, while Fitch also knocked a notch from its rating. Treasury debt is now graded as double-A, the third [...]
Here’s how Brexit will affect house prices, according to experts June 24, 2016 It's official: we're out, after almost 52 per cent of the UK population voted in favour of Brexit. There had been conflicting views of how a vote to leave the EU would affect house prices before the referendum took place, with some suggesting a falling pound would cause foreign buyers to flock to the UK property market, [...]
I’ve already voted, but I’ve changed my mind – and it’s all to do with house prices… June 23, 2016 I’ve long been a eurosceptic – suspicious of the EU regime and its unelected, barely accountable opacity-swathed ethos. I’m a democrat and a free markets kind of guy who objects to a lurching federal super-state, any hint of a single currency or a loss of our sovereignty. Unelected autocrats in expensed Mercedes doing as they [...]
Five of the best: Ethical banks to stash your savings June 22, 2016 Banks have been mired in scandal over the last decade. The 2008 financial crisis has been followed by countless investigations and fines. Big banks have variously been caught out for mis-selling products, violating sanctions and manipulating prices of gold, silver, currencies, and libor interest rates. Not surprisingly, headlines have been filled with ire over banks’ unseemly [...]
A Brexit view from Berlin: On balance, we would miss the Brits June 22, 2016 Jointly owning a property in Germany without a contractual agreement can be very risky. Statistically, people in Germany own a property for longer than they are married. If the respective property is jointly owned and the marriage breaks up, it can result in mortgage difficulties. For many Britons, its relationship with the European Union might [...]