First time buyers bounce back on to the property market as stamp duty changes take effect August 22, 2016 First-time buyers have finally started taking a bigger slice of London’s most exclusive postcodes, as stamp duty changes scare off landlords. The proportion of prime London home purchases made by first-time buyers went from 22 per cent in the first quarter of the year, up to 34 per cent in the second, according to data from [...]
Arsenal 0-2 Tottenham: Five things we learned as goals from Heung-min Son and Dele Alli send Spurs through to League Cup semi-final December 19, 2018 It was a testament to the importance of this match that both sides opted to pick their strongest possible line-ups, despite it only being a League Cup tie. Ultimately, Tottenham’s best was better, as they knocked out Arsenal with a 2-0 win – just their second ever victory at the Emirates. In times gone by, [...]
Will Budget 2017 affect UK house prices? Here’s what Philip Hammond’s Budget will mean for property sales November 20, 2017 As with most Budgets, this Wednesday’s fiscal extravaganza has been heavily trailed by the government – so it should come as a surprise to few that one of the main focuses is expected to be solving the UK’s housing crisis. In advance of the speech, Theresa May has hinted at policies to “build more houses, [...]
Property of the Week: Interior designer Elspeth Lynn sells her home in Bayswater that’s an homage to Gatsby glamour January 11, 2019 For some people, making a house a home is fun, but for others it’s a chore. Especially – as is the case in many of central London’s most desirable postcodes – if it’s not even your main residence. If you don’t have time for a fixer upper, simply buy an interior designer’s flat. As luck [...]
How the arrival of the World Wide Web has changed the mortgage market March 12, 2019 In 1989, the Swiss physics laboratory, CERN, was buzzing with information but it had one big problem: ideas, data and knowledge held by the lab was stored across incompatible computers. A young scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, envisioned creating a unifying structure for sharing information across its computer systems. He wrote a proposal for a linked information [...]
The risers and fallers of London boroughs ranked on house price growth as wider UK demand remains robust February 19, 2018 Housing demand remains resilient fuelling "cautious optimism" among new sellers in most regions of the UK, according to a new report fromRightmove. Average asking prices were up by 0.8 per cent (£2,414) this month, with all regions but one recording the price of newly-marketed property rising this month. The south west was "a very marginal [...]
UK house prices: Country property prices are much higher than those in the city September 30, 2017 Rural house prices are a fifth more expensive those in cities outside London, according to the Halifax. The average country house price is £263,050, compared with the average urban price of £218,596. The biggest difference is in the West Midlands, where prices are almost 50 per cent more. “Homeowners looking to escape to the country [...]
Ineos confirms talks to buy £2.3bn North Sea oil fields from Conoco Phillips November 18, 2018 Ineos has confirmed it is negotiating to buy several North Sea oil fields from US energy giant Conoco Phillips. The Sunday Times, which first reported the story, said the two were in exclusive talks over North Sea oil and gas fields, valued at up to $3bn (£2.3bn). Ineos told City AM that it has opened discussions [...]
UK housing crisis: Let’s hope for a housing revolution in 2018 December 20, 2017 As the temporarily restored bongs of Big Ben sound at midnight on 31 December, those in the property sector could be forgiven for letting out a little sigh of relief at the passing of yet another year in which the government has resolutely failed to solve the housing crisis. Two stories today illustrate how severe [...]
Bitcoin steals gold’s shine as new investing in bullion drops by a fifth December 5, 2017 Bitcoin is stealing the spotlight from gold as trading among first-time buyers slid to the lowest point since the metal’s price sank in 2015, new data suggests. Gold trading among existing private investors rebounded as bullion prices steadied in November, but falling interest among new investors caused BullionVault’s gold investor index to dip to 53.9 [...]