Slump in home loans expected to be temporary March 10, 2015 Agents and brokers are expecting a pick up in mortgage lending this year after a sluggish end to 2014. Meanwhile, one of the UK’s most-watched house price indicators has changed hands. Gross mortgage lending was 8.1 per cent lower in the final three months of 2014 than in the three months to September, according to [...]
No more bubble? UK house price growth falls to 10.2 per cent August 19, 2014 House price hysteria has calmed slightly with prices rising by a marginally more modest 10.2 per cent in the year to June, compared with 10.4 per cent in May, official figures showed today. According to the Office for National Statistics' House Price Index, London and the South East continued to drive growth, with prices [...]
What makes Scandinavia furniture style so popular? April 30, 2015 Perhaps it’s because of the cold. In Scandinavia there’s more of an incentive to make the inside of your house look super-stylish because unless you want to get frost bite or, in some parts of northern Norway, eaten by a polar bear, the inside of your house is where you’ll spend the majority of your [...]
UK house prices soar as lack of homes fuels cost of living crisis September 22, 2014 House building in the UK has been in a continual state of decline since the 1970s, making it harder to own a home and to pay rent, according to a report released yesterday. In the several years preceding the financial crisis, just under 200,000 houses were completed per year – half the number that [...]
Jamie Ritblat’s Delancey in talks to sell the City’s Walbrook building for £600m February 1, 2015 THE OWNERS of the Walbrook in the City are understood to be in talks to sell the trophy office building for as much as £600m. Jamie Ritblat’s property company Delancey has owned the Walbrook building since 2011, when it acquired its owner Minerva for £200m. Although now almost fully let, the Foster and Partners-designed building [...]
Flying cars are coming with the AeroMobil 3.0, and you could buy one in 2017 March 16, 2015 In a couple of years, the super-rich could be travelling above traffic jams and avoiding the hassle of airports in their very own flying cars. For everyone else, the equivalent of a flying Uber is in the pipeline. AeroMobil, the Slovakian company behind the car-cum-aeroplane, hopes to sell its first manually-driven two-seater flying cars to [...]
Riskier house lending rises to five year high June 10, 2014 MORTGAGES with smaller deposits now make up the largest share of the mortgage market in five years, as the credit market recovers. In the first quarter of 2014, mortgages with higher loan-to-value (LTV) ratios were growing as a share of the market, according to statistics released by the Bank of England yesterday. Loans worth 90 [...]
David Cameron’s party conference speech: Here’s what you need to know October 1, 2014 David Cameron has delivered his final party conference speech before the 2015 general election, to a surprisingly upbeat audience. The start of the Tory conference was marred by the defection of Tory MP Marck Reckless to Ukip and a ministerial resignation. Since the weekend, former deputy mayor of London Richard Barnes and Tory donor Arron [...]
London house prices to finally cool down as homeowners rush to sell properties August 11, 2014 The frothy London housing market is likely to come off the boil in the months ahead, with owners rushing to sell their properties following the recent surge in prices and buyers increasingly reticent to match the escalating valuations. The number of people looking to sell homes in the capital has climbed by nearly a third, [...]
Recovery at risk as London house price boom outstrips wage growth, warns Moody’s August 5, 2014 Britain’s banking recovery is at risk from a housing crash, analysts warned yesterday – and that could throw the whole economy off track. The 17 per cent boom in London house prices is far outstripping wage growth, credit ratings agency Moody’s warned, and could come grinding to a halt. Rising interest rates could hit some [...]