Property Entrepreneurs: London-based tech start-up Virtual Walkthrough has gone global after buyout by US firm Matterport October 28, 2016 You know you’re onto something when the big guys start taking an interest. And for James Morris-Manuel of Virtual Walkthrough, the last few months have seen proof that his concept of walking people through building interiors has reached the big time. Morris-Manuel has just sold his business to larger US company Matterport. The move means [...]
Holiday Homes: We fly out to Tenerife and find a volcanic paradise that’s a far cry from high rise tower blocks September 23, 2016 Tenerife was once synonymous with cheap package holidays and unsightly high rise tower blocks. Lately, however, the volcanic paradise isn’t just a place where baby boomers go to burn – it’s also where they go to buy. According to Spanish Property Insight, the Spanish property market has grown 23 per cent since 2015 – the [...]
UK Commercial Property Trust reports fall in asset value August 18, 2016 UK Commercial Property Trust (UKCPT) reported a fall in the value of its assets per share yesterday, down by 0.2 per cent in the six months to the 30 June. The news comes after Norway’s sovereign wealth fund cut the value of its UK real estate holdings due to the Brexit vote and the uncertainty [...]
Post-Brexit demand for residential property is good news for developers and investors September 30, 2016 An attractive capital, offering high value jobs, an educated workforce, stunning architecture, centuries of history, a peerless reputation for arts and culture and some of the best schools in Scotland, Edinburgh remains a highly sought after property market. With demand sky high, across both the owner-occupier and private rented (PRS) sectors, prices and rental yields [...]
Italy’s referendum has started the clock ticking on the collapse of Europe December 6, 2016 There are real advantages to playing the dumb American. As much of the world thinks no one born on my continent could ever know anything about their country, I am at a perpetual advantage. Just over a week ago I found myself in Milan, explaining to investors the reasons for the Trump phenomenon. Late in [...]
HSBC’s shares rise four per cent despite larger-than-expected profit slump after Brazil disposal November 7, 2016 HSBC's share price rose by more than four per cent this morning, despite a sharper-than-expected slump in profits in the third quarter – although stripping out currency fluctuations, things looked rather better… The figures Pre-tax profit at the British lender fell 86 per cent to $843m in the quarter ended 30 September, down from $6.1bn in [...]
Government approves Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant but with revised conditions September 15, 2016 The government approved plans to build the controversial £18bn Hinkley Point C project, but with revised conditions. The move, which paves the way for the UK's first new nuclear power plant in a generation, includes measures to ensure French utility giant EDF remains the controlling partner during the construction phase. Whitehall will also be able to intervene in the sale of [...]
Focus On Camberwell: The area’s cool neighbours and artistic connections make up for the lack of Tube September 29, 2016 Gentrification is taken to be a fairly modern concept; the word conjures up images of property developers covertly following artists home to scout out the area for substantial profit. In fact, the Victorians have been at it ever since the first railways began connecting previously far-flung districts to the capital and Camberwell was one of [...]
Gear4music proves that buying musical instruments online is the way to go October 18, 2016 Shares in Britain's largest online musical instrument retailer fell by two per cent despite posting half-year results that showed it had grown revenue and profit by over 70 per cent. The numbers Aim-quoted Gear4music's revenue increased from £12.5m to £21.6m with gross profit rising from £3.3m to £5.8m. The company's gross margin percentage – the percentage of [...]
Q&A: What makes Britain’s family businesses tick? October 27, 2016 Family businesses are rarely mentioned in the debate about how best to support Britain’s smaller companies, and yet they make up a sizeable proportion of SMEs. According to the Institute for Family Business (IFB), of the 4.6m family-owned firms in the UK, 99.6 per cent are small. To find out more, we spoke with professor [...]