Holiday Homes: Austria is on the up as Brits look to buy second homes that will maintain yields all year round August 11, 2016 If you need to get away from all the Brexit chatter, I know the perfect place to get some much-needed perspective. Over in the Austrian Alps, those dark clouds that dog us in the UK are lined with silver. Figures released from the Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO) this year have shown that the country’s [...]
Rents are up 2.6 per cent in the year to April – and the market could be heating up a lot more this summer May 27, 2016 Private rents in Great Britain were up 2.6 per cent in the year to April, according to data released today by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) – and the rental market could get a lot more heating over the summer months. Unsurprisingly, London was burdened with the largest rent inflation, with rents rising at a [...]
Holiday Homes: We fly out to Tenerife and find a volcanic paradise that’s a far cry from high rise tower blocks September 23, 2016 Tenerife was once synonymous with cheap package holidays and unsightly high rise tower blocks. Lately, however, the volcanic paradise isn’t just a place where baby boomers go to burn – it’s also where they go to buy. According to Spanish Property Insight, the Spanish property market has grown 23 per cent since 2015 – the [...]
London’s young renters are the only people in Britain spending over half of their income on rent, according to new research June 13, 2016 Londoners are spending the vast majority of their income on rent, according to new research. The average cost of renting a one-bedroom home in London is £1,133 per month, which takes up nearly 60 per cent of the average under 30’s post-tax income, nearly 10 per cent over the national average. Rents have increased by [...]
Investec’s wealth manager moves property funds to Thorpe Park and care homes July 26, 2016 Investec Wealth and Investment has turned its attention away from conventional property investment and towards GP surgeries, theme parks, hospitals, care homes and student accommodation. The wealth management and investment services division of Investec said on Tuesday morning that it had redeployed around 20 per cent of its real estate exposure – equating to £200m – from [...]
Londoners are now spending 70 per cent of their income on rent and bills June 8, 2016 Londoners are now shelling out a staggering 70 per cent of average income on their rent and essential bills, new data shows. Analysis from Portico London estate agents shows that for three and a half days of a Londoner's working week earns them enough to pay for rent, as well as taxes, housing costs and [...]
London must shake off its complacency over housing and infrastructure if it’s to thrive post-Brexit October 31, 2016 Rarely has a ranking of the world’s greatest cities been released in the past few years without London at its top, or very near it. PwC recently named the capital the world’s best city for opportunity, praising its economic clout, its attractiveness to foreign direct investment, its highly skilled workforce, and its status as a [...]
Sigma Capital profits rise ten-fold as push into private rental sector pays off April 19, 2016 Kuwaiti-backed property developer Sigma Capital has posted a jump in full-year profits after its push into the growing private rental sector (PRS) paid off. The Aim-listed company, which has offices in London, Manchester and Edinburgh, said revenues increased by 74 per cent to £6.72m last year while profit from operations rose 877 per cent from £1.63m to £1.82m. Profit before [...]
Renters in London are having the hardest time of all, suffering the smallest pay rises in UK and soaring housing costs April 6, 2016 If you rent a house in London and work full-time, chances are the economic recovery has been something you read about in the newspapers but haven’t felt in your pocket. That’s because over the last three years, London has experienced the slowest growth in average wages of any part in the UK, but the fastest increases [...]
This is how insurers can become part of the sharing economy July 13, 2016 If the general public was asked ‘what does the insurance industry do’, it’s unlikely the answer would be; ‘it supports entrepreneurial innovation and endeavour ’. But that’s precisely what insurers do and the exponential growth of the sharing economy has provided an interesting challenge for insurers in this role. Sharing enablers such as AirBnB, RideLink and Vrumi are [...]