F1 owner makes bid for auctioneer Bonhams June 9, 2014 PRIVATE equity firm CVC Capital Partners is understood to be among a list of suitors circling the auction house Bonhams after tabling a preliminary takeover offer last week. Bonhams, which has sold classic cars such as replicas of Aston Martins driven by James Bond, could fetch hundreds of millions of pounds, according to Sky News.
Surge in profits for Berkeley as housing booms June 18, 2014 HOUSE builder Berkeley’s pre-tax profits rocketed upwards in the year to the end of April, soaring by 40 per cent as the housing market rapidly picked up strength. Profit after tax rose by £83.2m, a boost of 39.7 per cent on the prior year, bringing the total for the year to £292.9m, and earnings per [...]
UK house sales at their highest since 2007, but seasonally adjusted figures show drop July 22, 2014 There was another sign that the UK property market may be cooling, after the HMRC released figures showing that the number of properties sold in the month of June had dropped – when the numbers are adjusted by season. Although the raw number of sales for June, 109,580, is the highest since November 2007 (and [...]
Could this be the year the Man Booker Prize is won by an American? September 9, 2014 Two Americans have made the shortlist of the Man Booker Prize for the first time in the literary award's history, after it was opened to any author writing in English. Joshua Ferris's To Rise Again at a Decent Hour and Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – published respectively by Penguin Random [...]
Co-operative Group sells off farming arm to Wellcome Trust for £249m August 4, 2014 The Co-operative Group continued offloading its non-core assets yesterday with the sale of nearly 16,000 hectares of British farmland, 15 farms and over 100 residential properties to health charity the Wellcome Trust for £249m. The sale comes just three weeks after The Co-op sold its 774-chain pharmacy business for £620m, as the group looks to [...]
Top five tips for buying property at auction for beginners August 14, 2014 There’s more than one way to buy a property, but a significant proportion of buyers still favour making a trip to the estate agent or, increasingly, searching online to find their next home. For years, savvy property investors have found bargains in auction houses, where a vast range of buildings, from period houses in need [...]
Bluewater shopping centre sold for £696m June 25, 2014 Land Lease, an Australian Developer with interests across the UK, has sold its 30 per cent stake in Bluewater shopping centre for £696m to Land Securities Group. The deal is expected to net the company A$480m (around £265m). The proceeds from the sale will go to pay down debts and fund investments in development projects [...]
Latis Homes founders Robert Luck and Krishan Pattni talk dream designs and planning nightmares August 10, 2014 Without the regulatory constraints imposed on our housing market, between 1974 and 2008, average house prices would have risen from £79,000 to £147,000, rather than to £226,000. That’s according to a new report by Christian Hilber of the LSE and Wouter Vermeulen of UV University that looks at the impact of supply constraints on house [...]
Tracey Emin’s “My Bed” sold for £2.5m, breaking artist’s record July 1, 2014 The famously messy bed created by contemporary artist Tracey Emin went for over £2.5m at auction today, breaking the artist's record. “My Bed”, which was exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1999 and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize, sold for the significant sum during the postwar and contemporary auction at Christie's in London. Consisting [...]
Focus On… The City: residential is finally taking off in the Square Mile September 5, 2014 When it comes to residential developments, the Square Mile has a bit of an image problem. The ancient financial heart of the City of London has been abuzz with business for 1,000 years and it’s still graced by some of the capital’s most impressive architecture. Around 370,000 people go there to work every day, but [...]