Autumn Budget 2024: Stamp duty for second homes upped to support first-time buyers October 30, 2024 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has increased the amount of tax Brits will pay when buying their second home to provide support for first-time buyers and those moving home. Second-time buyers previously paid three per cent stamp duty on homes worth up to £250,000. From tomorrow, they will pay five per cent tax. The increase will also [...]
Housing market continues to strengthen as mortgage rates fall October 29, 2024 New figures from the Bank of England showed that 65,600 new mortgages were approved in September, the highest figure since August 2022.
On housing, the government’s numbers just don’t add up October 29, 2024 Developers can only build at the rate they can sell, and this is intrinsically linked to mortgage financing. Long-term, fixed-rate mortgages above the 4.5 times income threshold can be part of the solution, says Arjan Verbeek The United Kingdom’s housing market is at a critical juncture. The government has pledged to deliver 300,000 new homes [...]
First-time buyers could see huge tax hit under rumored Budget change October 28, 2024 First-time buyers could see huge tax hit under changes rumored to be included in the Autumn budget. It has been rumoured that Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will rule out any changes to stamp duty land tax in the Budget. Stamp duty land tax currently applies to homes costing over £250,000, but in March [...]
House prices rising slowly but 2024 still a ‘bumper year’ October 28, 2024 2024 is set to be a “bumper year” for house sales thanks to rising real incomes and lower mortgage rates, according to Zoopla’s latest house price index. The level of new sales has increased to its highest level since late 2020, the survey showed. There are 306,000 homes currently working through the buying process, 26 [...]
Unique Rolls-Royce Phantom Goldfinger is the ultimate Bond car October 25, 2024 As an emphatic statement of wealth, it’s hard to top a Rolls-Royce made from solid gold. But then Auric Goldfinger was never the modest or timid type. It was 1964 when this evil mastermind scaled the Swiss Alps in his Phantom III Sedanca de Ville, pursued at a safe distance by Sean Connery as James [...]
How might the Autumn Budget affect the housing market? October 24, 2024 The property market is, finally, doing well. In September, a closely-watched survey of estate agents found that sentiment in the market turned positive for the first time in two years. Market sentiment has improved as mortgage rates have started to fall. House prices have ticked up to their highest level in more than two years. [...]
London theatre icon Rob Madge: I’ve been drinking with Joanna Lumley (imagine if it was Echo Falls!) October 23, 2024 Rob Madge is one of Britain’s biggest grassroots theatre success stories. They tell Adam Bloodworth about their creative process You might not have heard of Rob Madge, but it’s hard to sum up the massive impact their career has had on the UK theatre industry. Madge, who uses they/them pronouns, has a naturalistic style of [...]
Autumn Budget: Which taxes will Rachel Reeves hike? October 22, 2024 With the Autumn Budget set to be delivered in just a few days, speculation about which taxes Chancellor Rachel Reeves will opt to raise has reached fever pitch. On entering No 11 Downing Street, Reeves commissioned the Treasury to conduct a thorough spending audit, which she claimed unearthed a “fiscal black hole” of £22bn, paving [...]
How we saved Britain’s small businesses millions in energy costs – and counting October 22, 2024 Small businesses across the UK have had to face the wrath of rising energy costs for years - and entrepreneur Joe McDonald is fed up with it.