Last remains of failed unicorn Powa Techologies to be sold this week April 19, 2016 Powa Technologies, one of the UK's first "unicorn" billion dollar startups, has found a buyer for the remaining part of its business after collapsing into administration earlier this year. Administrator Deloitte has found an as yet unnamed buyer for PowaPOS, the last of its three businesses, and is expected to finalise a deal by the end of [...]
Are fears about the UK commercial property market overblown? September 14, 2016 As Columbia Threadneedle Investments prepares to join Aberdeen Asset Management and Canada Life in re-opening its £1.4bn property fund, doubts persist over the future of the UK’s commercial property market. The Brexit vote brought three years of double-digit returns from UK property investments to a juddering halt. By early July, panicked investors clamouring to withdraw their [...]
How SoftBank won “national interest” backing from Theresa May for its “game-changing” Arm takeover November 7, 2016 Even the most devout follower of the London Stock Exchange’s RNS feed may have been confused by a statement issued by SoftBank last week. The Japanese lender published the number of staff employed by British tech giant Arm, a company it acquired in a £24bn mega-deal over the summer, as at 5 September. The figure, [...]
Will Brexit knock house prices? Not in prime central London May 13, 2016 In a bid to sway voters, George Osborne is predicting Armageddon in every economic sector as the collateral damage of Brexit. This week he pointed the finger at property prices, predicting a significant dampening if the UK votes to leave. The chancellor is correct that the property market does stall in the face of investor uncertainty, [...]
UK house prices: Who’s building Britain’s houses and can we really build 200,000 homes a year? November 26, 2015 How can the UK build more houses? [custom id="102"] Source: Data.gov all housing completions 1949 – 2013 The Conservatives came to power on the back of an improving economy and with the promise of more improvement to come. One area of the UK’s financial future that is far from secure is the housing sector. [...]
Why more private developers are looking to buy up the air rights above your building and make a fortune September 28, 2016 It isn’t hard to find a property expert claiming the future of the London housing market is up in the air. But there’s a growing band of developers who agree with them, albeit in a more literal sense. Smaller housebuilders have to get creative when looking for viable development opportunities, and for an ambitious few, [...]
Interest-only loans are going out of fashion, as number of current loans drop 16 per cent September 22, 2015 Repeated warnings that interest-only mortgages are a "ticking time bomb" appear to be filtering through to the market, with figures out this morning showing a 16 per cent drop in the number of such loans outstanding. A quarter of the reduction is the result of loans reaching maturity and being redeemed while a further 40 [...]
High stamp duty on prime property may prove self-defeating for the government October 2, 2015 In the days that followed the Conservative Party victory in May, the widely-held assumption was that normal service would resume at the prime end of the London housing market with double-digit annual growth. It was a proposition that never looked likely for several reasons, the principal one being a rise in stamp duty last [...]
Post-recession peak for home buyer deposits June 25, 2015 PROSPECTIVE homebuyers face having to pay the highest level of deposit since 2009. The average deposit reached £72,302 last month, according to figures released today by the Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB). It marks the highest deposit since the MAB first started publishing the data six years ago. The size of the average loan also ticked [...]
UK housing marktet: Record low rates spur mortgage lending climb September 9, 2015 Record low borrowing costs and competition between banks led to a rise in mortgage lending from April to June, figures released by the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority showed yesterday. The total value of mortgages advanced was £52.5bn over the period, a 15.1 per cent jump on the same time last year. The [...]