Focus On Woolwich: Crossrail, a huge regeneration project, cultural quarter and affordable housing in SE18 July 14, 2017 The West End, the Southbank, Shoreditch and now… Woolwich? Could this south east London suburb be the new place you head to on a Saturday night to soak up some culture? If it’s astronomical house price rises over the past five years are anything to go by, it could well be. In March, planning permission [...]
No let-up in falling London house prices, says Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) July 13, 2017 There has been “no real easing” in the pace of decline of London house prices, a survey has suggested, with 45 per cent of chartered surveyors in the capital saying they observed a fall in prices in the past three months. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said stamp duty, Brexit and the political [...]
20 years on, could the Asian financial crisis be repeated? July 12, 2017 The Asian financial crisis of 1997 was a traumatic dislocation for financial markets that I experienced first hand, working as a fund manager for Schroders in Singapore. The fallout was shocking. The Indonesian economy, for instance, shrunk by 85% in US dollar terms during the aftermath, a contraction unthinkable today. Twenty years on, the pressing [...]
How geopolitics trumps economics July 7, 2017 Earlier this week I attended the "Athens Seminar", an economic and political round table discussion that has been hosted annually since 1979. I thought it would be of interest to share some of the main takeaways, as they help understand the current environment. Since the global financial crisis, economic and financial issues have dominated this [...]
American investment in London property is at an all time high due to the fall in sterling. But what are they buying and where? July 7, 2017 Earlier this week, US citizens all over the world were celebrating Independence Day, yet for the first time in a long time, many of them had one eye on the fireworks and another across the Atlantic on the bargains to be had back in the Old Country. Following the fall in the pound due to [...]
It takes a village: How Simon Rogan transformed a Cumbrian town into an international culinary destination July 6, 2017 The village of Cartmel lies just beyond the boundaries of the Lake District. It’s quietly beautiful, with squat stone buildings, rows of shops selling postcards and tourist knick-knacks, and a 12th century priory that dominates the town square. You can find lazy, bucolic idylls like this dotted across this part of the world; it’s the [...]
Property mogul Vincent Tchenguiz wants to sell his portfolio of Hilton hotels for £600m, Savills and JLL have been appointed as advisers July 5, 2017 Vincent Tchenguiz is looking to sell a portfolio of 10 Hilton-branded hotels for £600m. “We’ve had these hotels for nearly 15 years and I think now is a good opportunity to sell them,” the property mogul told City A.M. Tchenguiz confirmed he is looking to sell the 603-bedroom Kensington Hilton individually for £300m. However, he [...]
Lloyds has unveiled a massive shake-up of its top team July 5, 2017 Lloyds Banking Group has revealed how it is preparing itself for its new strategic plan: a huge shake-up of its top team, which includes the departures of two of its senior executives. In a statement today the lender said Andrew Bester, the group director of its commercial banking team, and Simon Davies, its chief people, [...]
High London house prices are not a bubble waiting to burst July 5, 2017 History is replete with examples of financial bubbles, from Dutch ‘Tulipmania’ in the 1630s and the South Sea bubble of 1720, through to the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the dot com boom and bust at the turn of the twentieth century. Could London house prices be the next big bubble to burst? To [...]
The clock is ticking for traditional wealth managers July 4, 2017 We need a new approach to wealth management. With the FCA turning its attention to the sector, pressure is mounting on the traditional culture of high fees and indifferent service. How many of us either enjoy, or are comfortable with, managing our own money? Well, that depends on what we mean. For many of us, [...]