Taylor Wimpey says housebuilding bouncing back September 19, 2011 Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey said sales rates in recent weeks have been encouraging, as the industry has benefited from a seasonal surge in home buying activity, and added it is on track to deliver on margin targets. The country’s second largest builder by market value said net sales rates so far in the second half are [...]
Housebuyers struggle to get loans in London September 8, 2011 HOUSEBUYERS across the country were buoyed by higher levels of purchase approvals in August, the surveyors’ group E.surv said yesterday. Approvals were up 4.3 per cent on August 2010 and hit a 15-month high. However, Londoners missed out on the boost, with approvals dropping by 10 per cent compared with July’s figure. That is because [...]
SELLING September 8, 2011 DIRECTOR OF ESTATE AGENT DOUGLAS & GORDON Q.I have been told by three different agents that I will be able to sell my current property quickly, but I’ll struggle to buy an upgrade. Should I wait? A.Sometimes the best time to upgrade your property is when prices start to fall. This is because the gap between [...]
Redrow profit tops forecasts September 8, 2011 Housebuilder Redrow has posted full-year pre-tax profit ahead of expectations, thanks to a ten per cent rise in selling prices, but warned the outlook for the property market is challenging. Redrow, one of the smaller listed volume housebuilders, made £25.3m pre-tax profit in the year to the end of June, compared with £0.7m in 2010 [...]
House prices fall more than expected in August September 7, 2011 UK house prices fell 1.2 per cent in August, mortgage lender Halifax has said, after an 0.5 per cent fall in the second quarter, reinforcing views that current prices cannot be sustained by cash-strapped UK buyers. The fall is about twice the 0.6 per cent fall posted in the rival Nationwide measure of house prices. [...]
A rally in commodities gives a rare fillip to the FTSE 100 September 6, 2011 A RALLY by hard-pressed commodity issues hauled Britain’s top share index higher yesterday as investors fished choppy waters for bargains after sharp falls in the past two sessions. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was up 54.26 points, or 1.1 per cent, at 5,156.84, having hit a peak of 5,190.2 in the morning and [...]
Swiss move signals end of the phoney war September 6, 2011 YESTERDAY morning, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) took the bold move to put in place currency controls in the form of a minimum exchange rate between the euro and the Swiss franc at SFr1.20. The SNB said that it will protect the franc “with the utmost determination.” The SNB has also indicated that it is [...]
China’s service sector slows in August September 5, 2011 China’s fledgling services sector grew at the lowest pace on record in August, a private survey has shown, as new orders ebbed and measures to rein in the property sector started to pinch. The slowdown in the services sector, which accounts for less than 45 per cent of gross domestic product, reinforces signs that China [...]
How Washington created sub-prime September 4, 2011 AMERICANS love lawsuits. It’s the way they do business. But the news that the authorities supervising the US housing agencies are suing 17 banks over the sub-prime crisis was unintentionally hilarious. To see why, recall that the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp (Freddie Mac) – government sponsored [...]
Banks face $200bn US subprime suit September 4, 2011 LENDERS were dealt a heavy blow on Friday as a US federal agency filed 17 lawsuits against banks for allegedly mis-selling securities based on mortgages in the run-up to the financial crisis. Shares in Bank of America, the worst-hit, tumbled more than eight per cent on the news. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees [...]