Housebuilders should be re-evaluated February 29, 2012 PERSIMMON, the UK’s biggest housebuilder by value, is experiencing improving fortunes like most in the sector – but it is still a shadow of its former self. Pre-tax profits, which were 55 per cent higher at £148.1m, are nothing compared to the £600m or so that was the norm in 2006. Still, the outlook for [...]
Aspiring first time buyers believe house prices are back on the up May 8, 2011 THE number of aspiring first time buyers is at its highest for a year as people increasingly expect house prices to recover. One in three respondents expect house prices to increase, according to a Rightmove survey. At the beginning of the year, just over one in five prospective buyers expected house prices to lift. Yet [...]
Scardino exit at Pearson sparks FT sale rumours October 3, 2012 THE FTSE 100’s first female chief executive Dame Marjorie Scardino stepped down as head of Financial Times owner Pearson yesterday, after more than 15 years in charge. Scardino, who has transformed Pearson since she took charge in 1997, will be replaced by the head of the firm’s successful education unit John Fallon. The move sparked [...]
PROPERTY NEWS January 12, 2012 NEW KINLEIGH FOLKARD & HAYWARD OFFICE Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward has opened a new branch in Borough. Borough as an area has been identified within Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward’s strategic five year branch expansion plan. With over 50 branches across London, 11 of which are located in the South East region, the new branch will [...]
House prices flat as Britons stuck renting February 26, 2012 HALF of Britons do not expect to buy a house until they are in their forties, a survey showed today, while the housing market stayed flat again through February. Average rents rose to £890 per month at the end of 2011, but 61 per cent of renters cannot afford to buy, according to a survey [...]
Private equity slips in stakes July 30, 2012 PRIVATE equity funds have started to slip behind their private company rivals in the bidding war to snap up firms for the first time since 2007, research published today shows. Average price to earnings multiples paid by trade buyers in this quarter have surpassed private equity prices by 130 basis points. BDO partner Andrew Ware, [...]
What the other papers say this morning August 16, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Gold price fall as Asian demand dips Global demand for gold is seeing a significant slowdown as top consumers in India and China pare purchases amid weak economic growth, abruptly halting a consumption boom that started five years ago with the onset of the financial crisis. The World Gold Council, a lobby group [...]
Mortgages up as stamp duty return nears February 29, 2012 UK MORTGAGE lending surged in January and consumer credit also expanded, official figures showed yesterday, though economists do not expect the jump to be sustained. Analysts believe loans rose because the stamp duty holiday for first-time buyers ends later this month, prompting a short-term rise in loan applications, though numbers remain well below pre-recession levels. [...]
Bovis leader calls for lenders to raise awareness of NewBuy August 20, 2012 THE CHIEF executive of Bovis Homes yesterday called for banks to take further action to promote the government’s NewBuy scheme as first-time home buyers remain left in the dark. David Ritchie praised the scheme, which offers 95 per cent loan-to-value mortgages, but said reservations were still trickling in at three or four per week. “What [...]
Repossessions forecast to rise February 9, 2012 HOUSE PRICES are set to fall in 2012 as unemployment rises and household income stays depressed, according to yesterday’s forecasts from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and today’s LSL house price index and e.surv mortgage monitor. The weak economic outlook is also set to push up repossessions as more borrowers fail to keep up [...]