London Barometer August 30, 2012 DIRECTOR OF DOUGLAS & GORDON JULY seems to show, rather surprisingly given the Olympics, Jubilee and summer holidays, that it’s pretty much business as usual for the London market. Applicants are up 20 per cent year on year and stock levels remain stubbornly low. While sentiment in the UK generally seems to be negative, London’s [...]
Moody’s chops 3CIF’s rating on bailout fear August 28, 2012 MORTGAGE lender Caisse Centrale du Credit Immobilier de France (3CIF) yesterday saw its long-term debt rating slashed from A1 to Baa1 by ratings agency Moody’s, as it continues to seek a buyer. The troubled institution cannot access capital markets, and in July announced plans to sell itself. But its long-term future is far from assured [...]
International money bolsters central London property boom August 27, 2012 INTERNATIONAL cash is flooding into the London property market, as foreign buyers capitalise on weak sterling, a report released today by Cluttons claims. The property consultants predict a 3.2 per cent annual increase in prime central London house prices, driven by cash buyers – in turn driven by the weak pound. Compared to the 2007 [...]
Consumers hit by energy and mortgage price hikes August 22, 2012 CONSUMERS are facing up to an autumn of painful price rises after one of the country’s biggest energy suppliers yesterday hiked its charges, just hours after Santander confirmed that it would increase the interest rate on many of its mortgages. SSE, formerly Scottish and Southern Energy, said a nine per cent jump in tariffs from [...]
Fewer deals on offer for first time buyers August 22, 2012 THE MORTGAGE market has tightened up over the past six months, but remortgage lending has bounced back, according to reports. The number of high loan-to-value (LTV) mortgages has plummeted, with a collapse in 90 per cent and 95 per cent mortgages offered, MoneySupermarket said yesterday. Its data shows that 95 per cent mortgage availability has [...]
Mortgage lending jumps ahead of Funding for Lending Scheme August 20, 2012 MORTGAGE lending jumped sharply in July, according to industry data published yesterday, with the government’s new Funding for Lending Scheme expected to boost loans further through August. Gross lending rose eight per cent to £12.7bn in the month, reversing the fall to £11.7bn in June, the Council of Mortgage Lenders revealed. However, analysts warn the [...]
Darling calls on Osborne to find economic Plan B August 19, 2012 ALISTAIR Darling yesterday called on George Osborne to find a Plan B for the economy or cause “immeasurable” damage to the country. “It’s as if you’re both saying there’s nothing you can do and nature must take its course,” the former chancellor wrote in an open letter published in The People. “You really must act. [...]
You can bank on Tesco to become competitive in financial services August 6, 2012 TESCO has had a challenging 2012 to date. We saw the rebasing of group earnings in January; an unwelcome slowdown in trading at loss-making Fresh & Easy in the US; decelerating trading conditions in Central Europe; and impacts from restrictions on large store opening hours in South Korea – its most significant market outside the [...]
Bank of England holds rates despite darkening economy August 2, 2012 THE Bank of England held fire on new policy yesterday, despite the darkening outlook for the UK economy. Its Monetary Policy Committee decided not to increase quantitative easing (QE) and kept rates on hold again, an approach analysts have put down to a concern to see how funding for lending (FLS) and the most recent [...]
Fed keeps rates on hold but hints it will act soon August 1, 2012 THE FEDERAL Reserve last night decided to hold fire on fresh action to stimulate growth, despite admitting the economy was slowing. In a noticeably more pessimistic portrait of the US economy than last month, the central bank said that economic activity “decelerated” in July and reiterated its former stance that it would hold interest rates [...]