City Moves for 18 November 2016 | Who’s switching jobs November 18, 2016 Lee Baron Lee Baron, a specialist in property management, has appointed Steven Room as head of residential development. With over 30 years’ experience in the property sector, Steven has worked directly with a range of housebuilder, developers, landlords, investors and property managers at firms such as Kinleigh Folkard & Haywards, County Estate Management, Haywards, The [...]
City Moves for 25 October 2016 | Who’s switching jobs October 25, 2016 Travelodge Hotel chain Travelodge has appointed Hannah Thomson to the position of people director. She will take up her new role from 1 November. Hannah will report directly to the chief executive Peter Gowers and joins the Travelodge operating board. Hannah began her career with the John Lewis Partnership businesses, John Lewis and Waitrose, where she held a range of roles in [...]
P2P property investment lender boosted by banks scaling back October 18, 2016 Peer-to-peer (P2P) platform Saving Stream has reached a new milestone of £200m in lending to property investors. The company, which was founded in 2012, said its performance has been boosted by banks reducing their lending, especially since the Brexit vote. Read more: Neil Woodford-backed P2P lender reports loss as it seeks sustainable future Saving Stream has [...]
Why new rules for your buy to let mortgage could be in the pipeline, as Bank of England handed new powers by Treasury November 16, 2016 The government is to hand the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC) new powers to better regulate the buy to let market. The new abilities, which are intended to help better protect the financial system from any wobbles in the buy to let market, will allow the FPC to direct the Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial [...]
Remortgaging valuations surge and drive rest of mortgage market as homeowners try to lock in low interest rate deals December 7, 2016 Homeowners scrambling to lock into mortgage deals before a rise in interest rates drove remortgaging valuations to surge almost 25 per cent year-on-year in November. Remortgaging outperformed all other mortgage market valuation activity last month, according to research from Connells Survey & Valuation, rising 4.9 per cent compared to October. Read more: Time to remortgage? [...]
City Moves for 22 March 2016 | Who’s switching jobs March 22, 2016 RPC Consulting RPC Consulting – the insurance consultancy arm of RPC – has appointed four senior insurance actuarial professionals to its team in London and Cambridge. Pete Lee, James Norman and Tony Lovick all worked at EMB (now Willis Towers Watson). Natasha Regan joins from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC). Pete has over 25 years’ [...]
Sterling’s slide spurs international buyers into looking for a London home November 18, 2016 The slide in sterling since the Brexit vote has encouraged foreign buyers into the London property market. The proportion of international buyers increased six per cent in the third quarter, as compared to the second, according to research from Fionnuala Earley, residential research director at Hamptons International. The proportion of international buyers now sits at 29 [...]
Countrywide blames volatile residential sales market for 40 per cent drop in profits February 25, 2016 Britain's largest residential property services group Countrywide suffered a 40 per cent slump in profits last year after a slowdown in house sales following the General Election and increasing competition from online agents took its toll on the group. The company, which owns 50 high street brands including Hamptons, Blundells and John D Wood, said pre-tax profits slumped to £47.7m in [...]
The total value of all the property in the world is $217 trillion – 2.7 times the world’s GDP January 25, 2016 Add up all the property in the entire world, and you get $217 trillion (£152.2 trillion) of assets, a new report has suggested – that's 2.7 times the world's GDP. "To give this figure context, the total value of all the gold ever mined is approximately $6 trillion, which pales in comparison to the total value of [...]
Why there won’t be much property magic in the Autumn Statement November 21, 2016 There is a long list of measures which, were they to appear in this Wednesday’s Autumn Statement, would be regarded as a magical outcome for us real estate types. For example: serious increases in the capital budget to fund infrastructure, which is both a facilitator of new development and a prerequisite for community acceptance of [...]