House price slump not finished yet March 6, 2012 HOUSE prices fell again in February, reversing January’s rise and continuing the slow downward trend of the year. Prices dropped 0.5 per cent in the month, following January’s 0.6 per cent rise, taking the average price to £160,118. Over the last three months, prices are down 1.1 per cent, and 1.9 per cent on February [...]
War on Britain’s aspirational classes March 6, 2012 THERE is something very wrong with Britain’s tax system. Imagine you are an aspiring, successful hard-working individual; after several years putting in the hours, you now earn £42,475 a year. You’re already a victim of the tax system: you pay no tax on your first £8,105, but then face 20 per cent tax on the [...]
War on Britain’s aspirational classes March 5, 2012 THERE is something very wrong with Britain’s tax system. Imagine you are an aspiring, successful hard-working individual; after several years putting in the hours, you now earn £42,475 a year. You’re already a victim of the tax system: you pay no tax on your first £8,105, but then face 20 per cent tax on the [...]
Millions set to pay higher mortgage rate March 4, 2012 MORTGAGE repayments are set to rise across the board, with millions of borrowers expected to pay more each month. Over one million Halifax and NatWest customers have already been hit with rate rises, while some new customers to Santander will also see repayments go up. Those banks have blamed higher funding costs on wholesale and [...]
Fixing rates is a safer option March 4, 2012 ALONG with discussing our regularly inclement climate, house prices and mortgages are a national obsession of the British. However, according to the latest research from unbiased.co.uk, there is room to take the level of interest in the interest we pay on our mortgages up another notch. Unbiased.co.uk has recently found that only 49 per cent [...]
FTSE flat as ECB pours in more funds February 29, 2012 The FTSE 100 was flat this morning with investors awaiting another injection of cash from the European Central Bank, aimed at propping up the Eurozone. The ECB is expected to pump about 500bn euros (£422bn) into the Eurozone’s financial system to fight the region’s debt crisis, enabling banks to tap as many of the ultra-cheap, [...]
City AM interview Paul Fisher of the Bank of England February 23, 2012 Senior Bank of England official Paul Fisher was interviewed on Wednesday 22nd February 2012, by Allister Heath and Julian Harris from City A.M. The edited transcript is as follows: Paul, would you like to start with how you see the outlook at the moment? I think it continues to be a story where the outlook [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 21, 2012 ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT Peel Hunt has downgraded its recommendation on the asset manager from “buy” to “hold” but upgraded its estimates and target price on the stock, with the latter climbing from 270p to 280p. The broker says strong performances in its key equity funds have led to upgrades of 2012 and 2013 estimates by [...]
House sales up 23% on last year February 21, 2012 There were 64,000 UK property sales in January, up 23 per cent compared the same month last year, according to figures from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Sales numbers endured the traditional post-Christmas dip, falling from 86,000 in December. But the January figures are the highest since 2008. Yesterday the Council of Mortgage lenders said [...]
Mortgage lending up by 10% February 20, 2012 Gross mortgage lending hit £10.5bn in January, up 10 per cent compared to the same month last year, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Lending fell by 14 per cent from £12.2bn from December but was still substantially up on figures from January 2011. CML chief economist Bob Pannell said he [...]