Property prices fall 3pc December 13, 2010 ASKING prices for homes in England and Wales have fallen three per cent over the past month to stand just 0.4 per cent higher than a year ago, due to economic uncertainty and low mortgage approvals, according to property website Rightmove. December’s fall follows a 3.2 per cent decline in November, with further drops possible [...]
500,000 households in negative equity December 12, 2010 CLOSE to half a million British households could be facing negative equity, according to survey released today by the Bank of England. Between four and five per cent of mortgage holders owe more than the value of their properties, it was revealed in the Bank’s final quarterly bulletin of this year. There are 11.4m mortgages in [...]
Tight credit holding back UK recovery December 12, 2010 LENDING remains too low and is “holding back the economic recovery,” the Bank of England said today. The news comes after the Bank reported that mortgage approvals fell for six successive months to October. Tight credit conditions continue to hold back recovery in the housing market, analysts say. Yet banks are ahead of schedule in [...]
Mitigate your currency risk December 9, 2010 THE ONGOING Eurozone sovereign debt crisis might have been disastrous for most Europeans, but for some Brits, it must have provided welcome relief. Thanks to European worries, the pound has rallied by nearly 6 per cent against the euro in little more than a month. For many pensioners living abroad on sterling denominated pensions, or holiday [...]
Why switching accounts must be made less of a challenge December 8, 2010 Current accounts play a cornerstone role in retail banking and yet are a major barrier to greater competition in the sector. All too often customers say it is just too much hassle to change. As a result, inertia rules. Switching rates on current accounts are as low as six per cent, compared to 20 per [...]
Home-builders ramp up incentives to lure hard-up first-time buyers December 2, 2010 HOME-BUILDERS have always offered buyers deals, but some are more valuable than others. Take, for example, the West Bromwich Building Society’s offer in 2004 of a free Rover car worth over £7,000 – a year before the car-maker went into administration. The downturn has left house-builders with new-builds sitting empty all over the country, and [...]
UK recovery confounds City experts December 1, 2010 FAR from slowing down, Britain’s recovery is intensifying. Yesterday’s economic data was remarkably good, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) suggesting that manufacturing is now growing at its fastest rate since 1994. Manufacturing accounts for under nine per cent of UK employment but remains vital to exports, despite the growth in recent years of financial [...]
House prices down 3.9 per cent on June December 1, 2010 HOUSE prices fell by another 0.3 per cent in November, mortgage-lender Nationwide announced yesterday. The news follows an even sharper drop in the previous month, as prices fell 0.7 per cent on September. Prices have either fallen or stagnated since June, according to Nationwide’s statistics. The average house price in the UK is now £163,398, [...]
Spending hits ten-year low in households November 30, 2010 FAMILY spending in the UK has fallen to a ten year low, according to government figures released yesterday. The average weekly spend dipped to £455 per household last year, down from £471 in 2008, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The figures reflect households tightening their belts amid recession, as the economy shrunk by [...]
October’s mortgage approvals lowest since Feb November 29, 2010 THE number of mortgage approvals in Britain fell to its lowest in eight months in October, but mortgage lending rose twice as fast as expected, according to official data released today. The Bank of England said mortgage approvals numbered 47,185 in October, down from 47,369 in September. This is the lowest level since February 2010, [...]