Derwent reaps £11m rent on London offices May 7, 2015 DERWENT London said yesterday that it has secured 23 per cent more rent this year so far than it achieved for the whole of 2014, as appetite for office space in central London continued unabated. The FTSE 250 developer, which owns the Tea Building in Shoreditch and Burberry’s offices at Horseferry House in Victoria, has [...]
Mansion blocks are real British antiques that can command impressive prices July 9, 2015 Most people think of estate agent hyperbole as a modern affliction. After all, what’s a contemporary house viewing if it isn’t peppered with “generous” reception rooms stocked with “state-of-the-art” smart systems in “vibrant” neighbourhoods? In fact, we may have the Victorians to blame for this, starting with the “mansion flat”. The term was coined in [...]
Living the Whincop Cheam: An interior-designed mansion with all the furniture thrown in April 30, 2015 In the town you grew up in, was there a road that everyone aspired to live on? It may have had the biggest houses or backed on to a luscious stretch of parkland, or it may simply have been where your MP lived, along with that guy who owned the local department store. In the [...]
Royal Mail share price drops as government nets £750m from sale of 15 per cent stake June 11, 2015 The government sold off half its remaining stake in the Royal Mail this morning at 500p per share – half again as much as its original price when it listed in October 2013. Read more: Lessons learned as final parcel of Royal Mail goes on sale The offer netted the government £750m, leaving it with [...]
UK house prices: Number of risky mortgages grows 64 per cent in five years May 6, 2015 In the aftermath of the subprime mortgage crisis, you'd have thought lenders had learned their lessons – but perhaps not, after a new study suggested the number of risky mortgages sold in the UK has risen 64 per cent since 2010. Using last year’s data from the Bank of England, Moore Stevens, an accountancy firm, [...]
One of the UK’s largest property companies really hates Conservative right-to-buy proposals April 14, 2015 On the whole, those at the top end of the property sector are a pretty conservative bunch – particularly when it comes to politics. After all, alienating those in control of your destiny is a fool's errand when you deal in something as politically sensitive as homes. So eyebrows in the property sector were raised [...]
David Cameron to unveil right-to-buy extension to housing association properties, which could benefit 1.3m families April 14, 2015 David Cameron is set to announce a bold extension of Margaret Thatcher's iconic right-to-buy scheme. In a move designed to appeal to C2 voters, the Prime Minister will pledge discounts of up to 70 per cent for around 1.3m families living in housing association properties towards buying their own home. Cameron will unveil the scheme as [...]
It’s your chance to own a museum-quality work at The Masterpiece London fair June 25, 2015 Anyone who has seen Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s David in the flesh will know that standing in front of a masterpiece is a transformative experience. There’s something incredibly humbling about viewing an object that represents a life’s work. The Masterpiece London fair is probably the only place on earth where you can [...]
Ivan Massow’s mayoral bid evokes Thatcher spirit: Entrepreneur explains why he’s the Tories’ best bet to replace Boris June 16, 2015 Ivan Massow is used to facing challenges. A successful entrepreneur from a dis-advantaged background involving various foster homes, he rose to prominence in politics in the 1990s when he became one of the first openly gay, high-profile Conservative Party members. “It caused me a lot of embarrassment at the time, because of course if [...]
Changing Chanel: How the design house has adapted to modern times September 21, 2015 Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only,” said Coco Chanel. “Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” For Chanel (that’s “Mademoiselle” to you and I) fashion was always more about the inherent predictability of the moment. When [...]