The fabulously old school Bangkok hotel with proper Thai hospitality August 9, 2025 Amari Bangkok hotel review: impressively fresh thinking from this Bangkok hotel entering its fifth decade Walking into the Amari Bangkok, you enter into a spectacular atrium where there is dozens of storey’s worth of space above your head. Here in the lobby, there are five staff to every guest and check-in – this is Thailand, [...]
KKR pushes for Assura to ditch PHP deal amid bidding war August 8, 2025 The bidding war between private equity giant KKR and retail investor Primary Health Properties (PHP) has heated up after KKR pushed for Assura to ditch an already recommended takeover offer from the latter. KKR’s investment vehicle Bidco – which is also by fellow US private equity Stonepeak – said on Friday it has held discussions [...]
AIM directors ruffle shareholder feathers with exec pay shenanigans August 7, 2025 It’s not just Tesla awarding eye-watering pay to execs. Even the bosses of the smallest of small caps are finding novel ways to boost their remuneration. That appears to be the case for the directors of AIM-listed property company DCI Advisors. In October 2023, DCI proposed an incentive plan which, by the calculations of the [...]
House builder blames ‘broken planning system’ and interest rates for loss August 7, 2025 In independent house builder has blamed the “broken planning system” and high interest rates putting off first time buyers for it falling into the red. Cheshire-based Eccleston Homes has reported a pre-tax loss of £1.2m for the 12 months to 31 October, 2024, down from the £2m profit it achieved in the prior year. New [...]
House prices rise ahead of key Bank of England rate decision August 7, 2025 House prices rose at their fastest pace since the start of the year in July, as buyers shake off concerns about higher property taxes and push ahead with purchases. Prices rose 0.4 per cent in June, according to the latest index from Halifax, with the average property price now £298,237 compared to £297,157 last month. [...]
InsurTech funding slumps despite AI demand August 7, 2025 Global funding for InsurTech startups slumped in the second quarter of the year despite demand for AI as companies looked to the tech to help drive efficiencies and process claims. According to the second-quarter 2025 Global InsurTech Report, a collaboration between Gallagher Re and CB Insights, global InsurTech funding declined by 16.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter [...]
Over 50s mortgages help LiveMore turbocharge growth August 6, 2025 According to Legal & General Mortgage Services, which is involved in around a third of all mortgage transactions in the UK, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of over-50-year-olds applying for mortgages. Rising house prices, coupled with increasing longevity, have pushed the average age of the first time buyer to 33, with [...]
Professional landlords to replace ‘hobbyist’ investors August 5, 2025 The much-publicised decline of the small-scale private landlord is leaving huge scope for professional lenders to take their place, in a ‘net positive’ for the market, according to property experts. Private landlords are being squeezed from all directions: A combination of lower tax relief, higher mortgages and tighter regulation has continuously pushed yields down. Amateur [...]
Housing affordability creeps up amid wage growth and rate cuts August 1, 2025 Housing affordability in the UK has slowly been improving amid slower house price growth than wage growth, as well as a fallback in mortgage rates. House prices grew 2.4 per cent in the year to July, according to Nationwide’s latest house price index, while wage growth was five per cent. The price of a typical [...]
‘Responsible landlords’ urged to stay in the private housing market July 31, 2025 The UK’s landlord association has urged landlords to remain within the country’s private housing sector, warning that their exit could lead to a ‘disastrous’ outcome for tenants. Arguing that private landlords selling up is a direct cause of homelessness, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) said that “responsible landlords” need to stay in the market [...]