DEBATE: Is Rishi Sunak’s stamp duty holiday the right move? July 9, 2020 Is Rishi Sunak’s stamp duty holiday the right move? Clive Docwra, managing director of property and construction consultancy McBains, says YES. Raising the level where stamp duty tax kicks in to £500,000 is great news for the London property market. With the average cost of a home in the capital standing at close to £600,000, [...]
Before the Bell: Europe pointing to lower start as bulls take a breather March 2, 2021 Equity markets started off the new month on the front foot yesterday as lower bond yields combined with stimulus hopes from the US boosted sentiment. Last week, stocks saw some selling pressure as increases in government bond yields acted as an excuse for dealers to reduce their equity positions, indices were coming from a relatively [...]
London needs a homebuilding kickstart package, with social housing at its heart July 7, 2020 The government’s economic statement tomorrow is an opportunity for the chancellor to put building new homes at the heart of a plan to kickstart the recovery and help Britain bounce back after coronavirus. To achieve this, we need to see much more than Boris Johnson set out in his speech in Dudley last week. A [...]
NFTs: Learning lessons from the first steps in the digital collectables world June 17, 2021 Alex Lightman discusses how NFTs exploded on the scene and how they can have a successful future.
The answer to Britain’s housing crisis is more houses – not risky mortgages October 11, 2020 Housing experts were left scratching their heads this week after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his flagship policy to get young people on the housing ladder: bigger mortgages. Johnson plans to turn “generation rent” into “generation buy” by offering long-term, fixed-rate mortgages of up to 95 per cent of the value of the home. He [...]
Property of the Week: Leinster Gardens, the HQ of Andreas Papadakis’ publishing house Academy Editions goes on sale February 1, 2019 Faithful followers of fashion in interior design and architecture will have heard of Academy Editions. Leinster Gardens, Bayswater, £7.95m Back in the 1970s, it published over a thousand influential books and magazines dedicated to architecture and the decorative arts, drawing artists like Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney and Charles Jencks to the Bayswater headquarters of the [...]
Lockdown blues: Breakups and divorces support UK house prices July 21, 2020 The property market is currently defying gravity, with asking prices hitting an all-time high in July and spirits buoyant after the chancellor slashed the stamp duty homes tax. But estate agents say a less-publicised factor has been helping the property sector ride out economic turbulence better than most had predicted: A surge in lockdown breakups [...]
Persimmon’s first-half profit slumps before market rebound August 18, 2020 Housebuilder Persimmon’s pre-tax profit tumbled 42 per cent in the first half of the year, but the company said it had had an “excellent start” to the second half as market sentiment improved. The figures Persimmon’s profit before tax fell 42 per cent to £292.4m in the six months ending 30 June, down from £509.3m [...]
Housing transactions collapse in April as lockdown hits UK property market May 21, 2020 Housing transactions plunged in April as the UK property market was brought to a standstill by the coronavirus crisis. The latest data from HM Revenue and Customs showed that the number of residential property transactions last month was down 53.2 per cent compared to April 2019. Housing transactions were also 46.1 per cent lower than [...]
City Moves for 20 January: Who is switching jobs in the Square Mile this week? January 20, 2021 Snakes and Ladders provides a roundup of the most important hires and job moves across the City, every Wednesday afternoon. Email citymoves@cityam.com to be featured. Real estate and construction companies appear to be bustling in the capital with new projects and appointments across the UK. This week, Cromwell, Redrow and Savills boosted their firms with new appointments and [...]