High house prices and strong rent growth lift landlord returns February 19, 2016 Landlords' annual returns have reached their highest for over a year, according to figures released this morning. Considering both the growth in rents and increases in property prices, landlords’ annual rate of return in January was 12 per cent. The figures, from estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rains, show that the average landlord in [...]
Accor Hotels sales and profits rise despite France slowdown following Paris attacks February 18, 2016 French hotelier Accor has posted a rise in full-year profits as a strong performance in the Middle East and Africa helped offset a sharp fall in sales in its home market following the Paris attacks. Accor is Europe’s largest hotel owner with nearly 3,900 hotels that it either operates or owns and 17 brands including [...]
UK house prices: If only the buy to let surcharge was an April Fool’s Joke – instead, it’s an attack on entrepreneurial Britain February 18, 2016 George Osborne sensed he was onto a winner when he moved to raise stamp duty on buy-to-let homes by three per cent. The UK property market has long been a hot topic. Powers-that-be rarely let opportunity pass, and the chancellor’s move is one to allow the government to have a bigger slice of the pie. [...]
Consumer’s guide to blockchain: How the cryptocurrency will revolutionise life for the consumer February 18, 2016 When I spoke to Peter Kirby, chief executive of blockchain startup Factom, he laughed when I described myself as a “blockchain traditionalist”. I meant that I still think of blockchain as the technology that made bitcoin credible – a peer-to-peer distributed ledger which immutably logs all transactions. This all sounds like jargon, so what does [...]
Innovative Finance Isa: A guide to the new product and what it means for investors February 18, 2016 In less than two months, the Innovative Finance Isa will be launched, enabling savers to hold peer-to-peer (P2P) loans within the tax efficient wrapper. Hailed as the moment the P2P industry will chassé into the mainstream, research suggests it’ll also be popular with savers. According to research by P2P lending platform ThinCats, one in four [...]
UK house prices: Britain’s property millionaires are set to triple by 2030 – as one in four London homes hit £1m February 18, 2016 Worried about how exactly to become a millionaire after the Adam Smith Institute's predictions this week that we will all be hitting the millionaire milestone by 2050? Not to fear – your property will do most of the work for you, according to new research out today that forecasts that the number UK properties worth at [...]
Investor pessimism soars to three-year high as gold becomes second favourite asset class February 17, 2016 Investors are at their most pessimistic for nearly three years, according to survey data released today. Lloyds Bank Private Banking’s investor sentiment index dropped to a score of 2.98 per cent this month. The score is compiled from the views of nearly 5,000 adults including 1,123 investors. The index is at its lowest level since May [...]
Local governments demand more control over starter homes after warning they will be unaffordable February 17, 2016 Local governments have today warned Westminster that discounted starter homes will be unaffordable to the majority that need them unless the scheme is given more flexibility. First-time buyers will be able to buy 200,000 new starter homes over the next five years at a discount of at least 20 per cent to market value. Research by [...]
Four mistakes newbie investors make – from following fads to gambling away your savings February 16, 2016 FOLLOWING FADS There are lots of esoteric areas of investment which sound fascinating and it’s easy to believe you have stumbled upon the next big thing – especially if performance has been good lately. I regularly hear from people with little saved who’ve invested in areas such as corn or liquid natural gas. Those niche [...]
Circle Property makes £42m debut on London’s junior market February 16, 2016 A regional property company chaired by former Land Securities boss Ian Henderson has listed on London's junior market with a market value of £42m. Circle Property, which was founded by a group of family investors in 2002 and also counts banking heir Jamie Hambro and the Duke of Roxburghe as non-executive directors, owns 16 commercial properties across the country valued at [...]