Sweden’s disastrous experiment with rent controls should be a cautionary tale for London January 24, 2020 How to make excellent meatballs, win Eurovision with style, and start a domestic argument over flatpack furniture — Sweden has taught the world so much. But setting aside our love of ABBA and Ikea, there’s another lesson to take from the experiences of our Scandinavian cousins. Sadiq Khan will spend the first half of 2020 [...]
Quintain secures £150m to build more Wembley homes January 23, 2020 Property developer Quintain is planning to build almost 400 new homes in Wembley after completing a £150m financing deal with Goldman Sachs. The funding will allow Quintain to construct 398 rental homes across three new buildings in Wembley Park, next to the Boxpark site. The development – due to be completed by May 2022 – [...]
We must not get stuck in an EU thicket January 22, 2020 Boris Johnson’s victory in the General Election means Britain will now, finally, after three years of dithering and obstruction, be free to set out on its own path of trade-energised growth and prosperity. Rather surprisingly, the UK’s political classes and business seem shocked that the UK will not be aligning to European regulations. They overlook [...]
Donald Trump threatens high EU car tariffs if deal is not reached January 22, 2020 US President Donald Trump has threatened to slap “very high” tariffs on car imports from the European Union unless it strikes a trade deal, accusing the bloc of being “tougher than China” to deal with. In an unexpected press conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump trained his sights on the EU, [...]
Shopping centre owner New River ‘pleased’ with tenants’ Christmas trading January 22, 2020 Property landlord New River this morning said it was pleased with its tenants’ performance during the Christmas trading period despite a drop in footfall at its shopping centres. The real estate investment trust (REIT) said its top 15 tenants, which include Sainsbury’s, B&M, Primark, Next and Iceland, had reported a “robust” trading performance despite “challenging [...]
Close Brothers shares fall on subdued trading update January 22, 2020 Shares in UK merchant bank Close Brothers have dropped after a trading update showed economic weakness taking a toll on its banking division and it said that costs are likely to grow. The update – which covered the five months to 31 December – said the lender’s loan book remained flat, while modest growth in [...]
London’s rental growth hits four year high January 22, 2020 London’s rental growth hit a four year high last year as the number of properties available for tenants plummeted, according to the latest research. Rents in the capital rose at 2.8 per cent in 2019 – the highest rate for almost four years – as the available supply of homes has plummeted 20 per cent [...]
Sainsbury’s to cut hundreds of management jobs January 21, 2020 Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s said today it would cut hundreds of management roles. It said the move was part of its plan to further integrate Sainsbury’s with catalogue retailer Argos which it bought in 2016 in a £1.4bn deal. Sainsbury’s said it had reduced its senior leadership team by 20 per cent since the start of [...]
Energy services firm Sureserve enjoys rising profit as demand increases in core markets January 21, 2020 Sureserve enjoyed a rise in core profits of more than one-quarter last year, as demand grew in its two core compliance and energy services markets. The Aim-listed company maintains and installs boilers, and makes sure homes are energy efficient among other services Profit excluding exceptional items rose 26 per cent to £8.3m in the 12 [...]
UK property transactions soar after General Election January 21, 2020 UK property transactions soared at the end of last year, according to government data, as both sellers and buyers made the most of renewed confidence following the General Election result. Residential property transactions in December jumped 6.8 per cent year-on-year to 104,670, a 6.2 per cent rise on November’s number. The total number of non-residential [...]