British mutuals seize customers from big banks February 26, 2014 THREE major building societies yesterday reported big increases in profits for 2013 as the sector seized customers from the big banks. The Yorkshire Building Society saw pre-tax profits jump to £199.3m, up 26 per cent on the year. It is the second largest mutual behind Nationwide, and its gross lending volumes increased 48 per cent on [...]
London property prices: More million-pound properties have been sold in London this year than ever before October 31, 2014 London house prices might be cooling, but things are certainly hotting up at the premium end of the market. Sales of properties costing more than £1m have reached record levels in the UK with 6,143 houses sold in the first half of the year- 70 per cent of which were in London. That’s nearly 2,000 [...]
Letters to the Editor – 09/04 – Student migrants, Stamp duty, Best of Twitter April 8, 2014 Student migrants [Re: It’s a national scandal that Britain is driving away foreign talent, yesterday] Lord Bilimoria hits the nail on the head. The government’s ridiculous net migration target has had the perverse effect of forcing the Home Office to tighten up the rules on international students, who are presumably the very migrants we should be [...]
House sales hit six-year high as activity spreads across the UK April 9, 2014 PROPERTY sales have soared to their highest level in six years as the housing boom grips regions across the UK, a new survey by property experts revealed today. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said the housing recovery is “well and truly underway” with buyers testing the market right across UK and not just [...]
Capital Markets Union: Europe’s bid to reboot lending to businesses February 18, 2015 Creating large-scale, US-style capital markets in the EU could boost lending to businesses by hundreds of billions of euros, providing a vital boost to its struggling economies, European Commissioner Lord Hill said yesterday. The vast majority of small firms in the EU rely on bank lending for finance, a dependency which became a serious weakness [...]
How one million homeowners have only known ultra low rates March 4, 2014 MORE than one million first time buyers have jumped on the property ladder in the five years since the Bank of England cut interest rates to 0.5 per cent, raising fears that borrowers are unprepared for a rate rise in the years to come. It is five years to the day since the base rate [...]
Surveyors say house shortage is lifting prices February 12, 2014 A SHORTAGE of homes is forcing up house prices across the whole of the UK, according to a leading survey published this morning. The alarming figures follow a separate data release yesterday which showed mortgage-lenders ramping up loans to first-time buyers who are anxious to get on the housing ladder. Demand in the market appears [...]
UK house prices drop for the first time in 17 months September 30, 2014 UK house prices have dropped for the first time in 17 months, dipping 0.2 per cent between August and September. In price terms, this means a drop of £931 for the average residential property, from £189,306 to £188,374. The data, from Nationwide, shows the annualised growth rate also slowed to 9.4 per cent from 11 [...]
Lastminute.com sold for £76m to Swiss travel firm December 16, 2014 TRAVEL site Lastminute.com, founded at the height of the dot.com boom in 1998, has been sold to Bravofly Rumbo Group in a £76m deal. The sale will see current owner, US-based Sabre, swallow a big loss, having bought the holiday site for £577m in 2005. Swiss company Bravofly made the winning bid yesterday, following a [...]
London house prices could fall next year after booming 2014 October 6, 2014 The boom in London house prices will not only end next year, but could even fall, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). Their own forecast puts the decline at 2.6 per cent for 2015, which would be the first annual fall since 2009. House prices in the capital are expected to [...]