Is the rise in city living paying off for smart investors? August 22, 2018 City living is experiencing a renaissance and it’s the perfect time for savvy investors to take advantage. As more people choose to leave the capital for a better quality of life in regional city centres, Birmingham has quickly become the top destination for those leaving London. Investing in a regional city such as Birmingham represents [...]
First-time buyers drop off market as mortgage completions sink August 22, 2018 First-time buyer mortgages fell sharply in the second quarter of 2018, signalling a drop in new homeowners coming onto London’s subdued property market. Roughly 10,300 new first-time buyer mortgages were completed in London in the three months to the end of June, marking a 3.7 per cent fall from the same period in the previous year. [...]
Vice Media’s online food brand Munchies is to expand its physical presence with a food hall venture August 21, 2018 Munchies, the online food channel owned by Vice Media, is to expand its presence in the physical world. The publisher has agreed to a brand licensing contract for a food hall at American Dream Meadowlands, a retail complex an under construction in New Jersey. Agreed between the online brand and the centre owner, Triple Five [...]
Help-to-Buy fuels rise in Persimmon’s profits August 21, 2018 Persimmon reported a 13 per cent rise in pre-tax profits for the first half of 2018 yesterday, as boosts from low interest rates and the government’s Help-to-Buy scheme eased fears that the housebuilder would be hit by a slowdown in the property market. Profits before tax rose to £516.3m in the six months leading up [...]
House transactions slide lower amid ‘stagnant’ property market August 21, 2018 The number of houses being bought and sold edged further down last month, as fears of a stagnant property market continue to loom large. Residential transactions were 3.2 per cent lower in July 2018 compared with the same month last year, according to the latest data from HMRC’s property transaction statistics. Read more: There is [...]
Bull run in student housing market as Allianz opens new chapter August 20, 2018 Allianz has completed a £350m investment into a joint property venture with Greystar and a Canadian pension manager, in a move that signals growing international confidence in London’s student housing market. In a £1.5bn project that aims to complete 10,000 new student beds and the doubling of its portfolio size within five years, German-based Allianz Real Estate [...]
Shareholder anger forces Countrywide to abandon pay plan August 20, 2018 Countrywide has rowed back on plans for an executive pay proposal in the wake of a potential shareholder rebellion. The UK’s largest independent estate agency drew anger from investors last week over a new incentive scheme which would mean cash payouts of over £20m for the beleaguered firm’s top bosses, including a £6m windfall for [...]
Greater London property lull sinks lower as house prices per square metre fall for the first time in eight years August 18, 2018 Property growth per square metre has slowed down in Greater London, providing fresh evidence of a subdued housing market in the capital. Greater London property space suffered the lowest growth out of any region in the last 12 months, with house prices per square metre (psm) falling for the first time in eight years. House [...]
House prices in the capital sink to lowest level since financial crisis August 15, 2018 London house prices have fallen at their fastest annual rate since the financial crisis, dragging the UK property market down to its lowest levels of growth in five years. House prices in London tumbled 0.7 per cent in the year to June 2018, marking the sharpest decline in annual growth since a 3.2 per cent [...]
Should you care how much cash you have in your pension? August 14, 2018 In the past you got a job, worked for a company and when you retired your employer gave you a pension. You had very little say over your pension arrangements, let alone any influence as to how or where it was invested. That has all changed and now, as never before, millions of people all [...]