Strong mortgage market takes total UK lending growth to seven-year high January 4, 2016 Mortgage lending is climbing at its fastest pace since 2009 with total UK lending now growing at its fastest rate for seven years. Total mortgage lending in the UK climbed by £3.9bn in November, up 2.5 per cent on November 2014, according to figures released by the Bank of England this morning. “Lenders’ appetite for new [...]
SME health check: What 2016 holds for UK firms January 4, 2016 The past year has seen the continuation of steady UK growth alongside a degree of political stability after the re-election of the Conservative Party with a majority in May. The result is that business confidence in general is positive. But what of SMEs in particular? And what could 2016 bring? First, we’ve seen a huge [...]
KPMG: UK tax changes will slow down buy-to-let market December 29, 2015 The buy-to-let market will slow down next year due to a series of tax changes, accountancy giant KPMG has said. The changes, including a three per cent hike to stamp duty on buy-to-let homes, to be introduced in April, will put off buyers. KPMG’s Dermot Kallinan said: “It will be interesting to see whether buy-to-let investors opt to [...]
London house prices to climb five per cent in 2016, says Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors December 22, 2015 London house prices will climb five per cent next year as the shortage of homes coming to the market and rising demand lifts prices, according to a new forecast. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said prices were forecast to go up despite the launch of government initiatives to boost homebuilding. However, London price growth is [...]
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 [...]