A recovery built on bricks and mortar January 12, 2014 Bovis chief executive David Ritchie tells Elizabeth Fournier why he’s not concerned about a new UK housing bubble THE LAST 12 months have been good ones for Britain’s housebuilders. After a financial crisis that saw billions wiped off the sector as credit dried up and house prices crashed, 2013 saw a return to form as [...]
The Bottle Opener: Why you shouldn’t overlook Rioja October 14, 2014 There are perks to being the Bottle Opener, and this is definitely one of them. I’m relaxing in the late Autumn sun, gazing across a rich vineyard down to the river Ebro. With me are two charming fifth generation descendants of the founder of one of Rioja’s great houses, and we are tasting some magnificent [...]
Barratt and Derwent benefit from recovery May 8, 2014 BARRATT Developments expects to secure reservations on more than a quarter of next year’s private completions by June as the UK’s housing recovery continues apace. Chief executive Mark Clare said yesterday that rising consumer confidence and better mortgage availability meant sales rates had now reached an “optimum level”, with Barratt registering an average of 0.77 [...]
It could be worse for Carney October 7, 2013 WHILE Bank of England governor Mark Carney faces problems convincing markets to accept his forward guidance scheme, new historical evidence suggests he may be getting off lightly. Newly released diary pages from Margaret Thatcher’s economic adviser Alan Walters claim that Bank governor Gordon Richardson “got a boll***ing” for raising the benchmark interest rate while she [...]
The rise of the London Village January 16, 2014 IT SEEMS these days everyone wants their slice of village life, even if they live and work in the heart of the city. The Big Smoke has always been made up of distinct neighbourhoods with their own character and lifestyle, but the idea of the London Village has really taken hold in the public imagination [...]
House sales jump as Help to Buy kicks in November 6, 2013 British house building company Persimmon has posted an increase in weekly private sales of 45 per cent in the third quarter. The firm attributed a large part of the stronger growth to the government's Help to Buy scheme, which the company says "has proved particularly attractive." Persimmon sold 3,000 homes under the first phase of [...]
Could this be the end of London’s housing boom? June 16, 2014 The property market boom could be seeing the first tentative signs of a slowdown, according to property website Rightmove. Prices across England and Wales rose by only 0.1 per cent in May according to the Rightmove house price index, compared to 3.6 per cent in April and 1.6 per cent in March. Average prices fell in [...]
Help to Buy “already delivering” says David Cameron as second phase sees over 2,000 applications November 11, 2013 Help to Buy is gathering momentum. This morning both RBS and Halifax reported strong uptake of its second phase, which was launched a month ago. 2,384 applications have been put in, totalling £365m of new mortgage lending. On average, households have asked to borrow around £155,000 for houses worth about £163,000. The UK average house [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 01 July 2014 June 30, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES EU slams US over Microsoft privacy A US attempt to force Microsoft to hand over emails held on servers in Ireland has drawn a strong rebuke from Brussels in one of the first tests of cross-border privacy raised by cloud computing. The US demand could contravene international law and should have been handled [...]
Letters to the editor for – 03/09 – UK risk disease, Help to Buy, Best of Twitter September 2, 2013 UK risk disease [Re: Both Left and Right should fear the threat to medical research in the UK, yesterday] London has the capacity to build a world class cluster for biomedical innovation. But John Hulsman highlights a stark example of a risk averse culture in this country – a disease we need to treat if [...]