General Election 2015: Tory election victory triggers London luxury property market surge as mansion tax fears dissolve May 10, 2015 In the hours after it became clear that the Tories had won a majority government at the general election, London estate agents reported a surge in luxury property sales as buyers' fears over Labour's proposed mansion tax were allayed. Over £100m worth of top-end central London property was sold on a frenzied Friday as estate [...]
UK house prices: Growth slows for the first time in 2015 May 8, 2015 UK house price growth has fallen on a three-month basis for the first time in 2015, according to Halifax. The figures For the three months to April 2015, house prices in the UK grew 2.2 per cent, lower than the last three months, when it was 2.6 per cent. On a monthly basis prices rose [...]
Derwent reaps £11m rent on London offices May 7, 2015 DERWENT London said yesterday that it has secured 23 per cent more rent this year so far than it achieved for the whole of 2014, as appetite for office space in central London continued unabated. The FTSE 250 developer, which owns the Tea Building in Shoreditch and Burberry’s offices at Horseferry House in Victoria, has [...]
Focus on Clerkenwell: Prices soar on the City’s edge May 7, 2015 While the Square Mile is London’s historical home of trade and finance, Clerkenwell on its northern edge is clearly the design equivalent. Since the Industrial Revolution, the area has housed craft workshops, printers, clockmakers and jewellers. The area is celebrating its rich design heritage this month with the sixth annual Clerkenwell Design Week from 19 [...]
Sainsbury’s dividend hit as profits plunge: Supermarket joins “horror show of income slashers” May 6, 2015 Sainsbury’s became the latest supermarket to take the knife to its final dividend yesterday, joining banks and oil companies in what analysts called a “horror show of income slashers”. Sainsbury’s said it will pay a full-year dividend of 13.2p per share, down 23.7 per cent on last year, after changing its policy in November [...]
Sainsbury’s share price falls after it posts first loss in a decade May 6, 2015 Nine years of uninterrupted sales growth came to a halt today as Sainsbury's reported a pre-tax loss of £72m. Investors were not impressed, and the grocer's shares were down 3.6 per cent to 264.8 pence this afternoon. The figures Sainsbury's said underlying profit before tax had fallen by 14.7 per cent to £681m in the year [...]
Construction growth drops on General Election uncertainty May 5, 2015 Growth in the building sector fell to its slowest pace in almost two years in April, according to an influential study from Markit yesterday. The purchasing managers’ index fell to 54.2 from 57.8 in March – still firmly above the 50-mark that indicates growth, but a sharp slowdown in the pace of rising output. The [...]
Mansion tax: The real losers of Labour’s policy may never be identified May 5, 2015 An exciting email pinged into my inbox at the end of last week. It was a link to the contents of the latest issue of the American Economic Association’s journal Economic Policy. For most people, these publications are not usually as gripping as, say, a Ken Follett novel. But nestling among the thickets of algebra, [...]
With Australia’s central bank the latest to cut interest rates, is the global recovery at risk? May 5, 2015 Steven Feng, a research fellow at Griffith University Asia Institute, says Yes The global economy risks slipping into a deflationary trap. The US recovery is built on shaky ground, the Eurozone faces an imminent threat to its integrity, hopes for supply-side reform in Japan have faded, and China is in de facto deflation. Emerging economies [...]
General Election 2015: The property market is freaking out at the prospect of a Labour government May 5, 2015 The property market is terrified of Labour-led government, one of the UK's largest property search websites has suggested, thanks to the prospect of falling house prices and rising interest rates. More on this story: How Tony Blair presided over the biggest rise in UK house prices in recent history According to Zoopla, Labour's policies on [...]