It’s time for radical solutions to address London’s housing crisis December 17, 2015 As MP since 2001 for the most central London constituency, I cannot recall a time when housing issues have not dominated my postbag. No surprise, perhaps, when UK buyers compete for a limited supply of homes with a global citizenry seeking its own slice of prime London. But I have also witnessed how the polarisation [...]
Mortgage lending leaps as buy-to-let investors rush to buy December 17, 2015 November’s mortgage lending figures rose 23 per cent on last year, showing signs of a stabilising recovery in the housing market, figures published this morning showed. The Council of Mortgage Lenders' (CML) November report showed gross mortgage lending rose to £19.9bn last month, nine per cent lower than October, but up on last November's £16.1bn. Mohammad [...]
Fed rate hike: What you need to know about ahead of Janet Yellen’s big decision on US interest rates, from why it’s important to when it’s announced December 16, 2015 The world is waiting on tenterhooks for the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting, with the US central bank widely expected to announce its first interest rate hike in nearly a decade tonight. Barring “unanticipated shocks”, Fed members are expected to vote to lift rates by quarter to half a percentage point from their current historic low. After [...]
Fed rate hike decision: What’s expected to change, what it means, and how it will impact your investments December 16, 2015 The world is watching the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, as experts think it will finally raise interest rates from their record lows today.. The Federal Reserve’s main interest rate was cut to 0.25 per cent in December 2008, the depths of the financial crisis. It has stayed there since. It was an [...]
Bank of England: UK households can handle an interest rate hike December 15, 2015 British households are well placed to handle an increase in interest rates, the Bank of England said today. The Bank’s annual survey of 6,000 households compiled by NMG consulting found households were “in a slightly better position to cope with an increase in interest rates than they were a year ago”. The survey revealed that if interest [...]
The definitive guide to where you can afford to buy a home: Unless you earn £42,645 forget about living in London December 14, 2015 Where in the UK can you afford a house? If you're a first-time buyer, the answer is "very few places". If you earn under £42,645 per year, you’re going to struggle to find anywhere in the capital. Use the tool below on desktop to find out where you can afford to buy, based on the interest rate on [...]
The government’s buy-to-let stamp duty increase will cost landlords the equivalent of 11 months’ rental income December 14, 2015 George Osborne's hike of stamp duty on buy-to-let properties could cost landlords the equivalent of 11 months' income, new research has suggested. The Countrywide Lettings Index suggested that the three per cent rate will mean a 0.2 per cent drop in yields – the equivalent of 11 months' income, when you take into account borrowing costs. Those [...]
By punishing London’s buy-to-let investors, George Osborne is only hurting private renters December 11, 2015 According to a source at the Bank of England, 15 per cent of loans on their books are buy-to-let mortgages. The Bank has spent the last few years yanking levers for owner-occupiers to make sure they’re happy with its stress testing for interest rate rises. In the absence of such a shock absorber for buy-to-let [...]
Death of cash: What does a cashless society mean for your children? December 11, 2015 Within a generation terms like cheque book and piggy bank may sound as archaic to young people as the threepenny bit and halfpenny are now. From mobile payments to bitcoin, money is constantly evolving. Last month the UK Payments Council revealed that for the first time ever, non-cash payments had overtaken cash payments in [...]
Mortgage lending has another healthy month in November December 11, 2015 Mortgage lending climbed last month, according to new figures published this morning. There were 70,511 house purchase approvals in November, the data from surveyors e.surv show. Compared with the same month last year, the number of approvals is up 19 per cent. If accurate, the figure also surpasses August’s year-high of 70,748 approvals. E.surv's figures [...]