Lending to London’s home movers sinks as first-time buyers edge onto the property market August 24, 2016 Home movers are releasing their grip on London's housing market, as data released from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) shows they took out fewer loans in the second quarter. CML said home movers withdrew 6,700 loans in the second quarter, a fall of 37 per cent as compared to the first quarter of 2016. [...]
Treasury is considering giving more powers to Bank of England over the buy-to-let market December 17, 2015 The Treasury is looking for feedback on giving the Bank of England more powers to control the housing market. Treasury officials announced today that they have opened a new consultation on the powers the Bank should have over the UK buy-to-let mortgage market in particular. The Bank's financial policy committee (FPC) is responsible for identifying, monitoring [...]
Opinion: Sotheby’s International Realty UK’s Robin Paterson on the benefits of Brexit on the London housing market July 21, 2016 In just four weeks the UK is already recovering from the ‘post Brexit dip’. We have seen the pound to euro exchange rate bounce back and we have seen our political dismay begin to correct itself with the welcome and surprisingly swift appointment of our new Prime Minister. We cannot deny that, in the first [...]
Proptech: Technology is poised to transform the UK housing market February 19, 2016 The phrase “fintech” has long since entered mainstream use, while buzzwords like adtech, edtech and medtech are becoming increasingly familiar too. Now a newish category is entering the technology startup lexicon: “proptech”. The UK’s property industry has remained stubbornly resistant to change, even as innovation reshapes entire verticals across the wider economy. Compared with, say, [...]
City Moves for 26 September 2016 | Who’s switching jobs September 26, 2016 RSM RSM has appointed Bart Somerville as a corporate finance director focusing on business and asset valuations based in the London office. Bart joins RSM from BDO where he was a director in the valuation team. Prior to that Bart worked at Deloitte UK for five years and PwC in Toronto for seven years. He’s provided [...]
Something must be done about the surge in short-term lets on Airbnb – or we will be left facing a housing disaster September 2, 2016 Just when it seemed news for renters couldn't get any worse – it has. Figures out today from the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) show that a surge in the numbers of short-term lets on Airbnb could be having dire consequences for renters in London. In the four months from February to June this year London Airbnb [...]
The FTSE crash is not Armageddon – but investors should still be light on their feet January 23, 2016 We all know that "hindsight" is the most successful trader in the world. Its performance has always been exemplary since time immemorial. However, alarm bells should have started ringing after the Shanghai Composite had added 150 per cent in value between June 2014 and June 2015, just when it was becoming decidedly obvious that China’s economy [...]
UK house prices: Total value of UK residential property hits £5.8tn January 12, 2015 The combined cost of all the homes in the UK has increased by almost a trillion in the last five years, according to data from the estate agent Savills. Adding the values of all the homes in Britain makes a heady total of £5.75 trillion, or 2.7 times the UK’s GDP. The region with by [...]
Stamp duty changes set to boost residential property sales December 10, 2014 The newly reformed stamp duty tax is set to boost residential sales, according to a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (Rics) market survey released today. The surveyors are forecasting a sales boost of between two and five per cent. The reforms ended the so-called slab structure of stamp duty and reduced the tax burden [...]
From cuts to capital gains tax to a review of the “salary sacrifice” scheme: Here’s what you missed from Budget 2016 March 23, 2016 Eye-catching schemes like the sugar tax, the lifetime Isa and cuts to corporation tax may have grabbed the headlines following last week’s Budget. But a number of the Treasury’s other announcements could impact directly on employees, savers and investors. Here’s a run-down of the best of the rest. REDUCTIONS TO CAPITAL GAINS TAX In two [...]