London Report: Mortgage lending down but price of houses still rising June 29, 2014 MORTGAGE approval numbers are expected to fall to a 10-month low of 62,000 for May, after the introduction of tough new rules in the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) in April. Howard Archer, of IHS Global Insight, said: “This would be down from 62,918 in April, 66,563 in March and a 74-month high of 75,838 in [...]
Fortnum & Mason’s Canadian owner makes £105m windfall February 22, 2015 THE CANADIAN owners of Fortnum & Mason and Associated British Foods have made £105m in dividends – most of which will go to charitable causes – after another buoyant year. Accounts filed recently on Companies House reveal that Wittington Investments, one of the main investment vehicles of the Weston Family, paid out £63m in the [...]
Goring Holdings profits slip after a makeover for the London hotel February 15, 2015 The owner of The Goring, where the Duchess of Cambridge stayed on the eve of her wedding, suffered a 13 per cent slump in profits last year after it carried out a major revamp of the luxury hotel. Goring Holdings, a family-owned group which also owns two luxury residences in France, reported pre-tax profits of [...]
Becoming Mr Matchmaker: Venntro founder Ross Williams talks going mobile, nature v nurture, and ginger dating August 16, 2015 A week today, Ross Williams will be a married man. “Oh, I’m not stressed, nervous, anxious, oh no,” he laughs. But Williams shouldn’t worry – after all, he’s got a wife and mother-in-law-to-be who are “absolutely fantastic” organisers, and his relationship was founded on a very firm footing: he and his fiancée met on an [...]
Barratt profits double on sales at six-year high July 10, 2014 Barratt Developments, the biggest housebuilder by volume in the UK, yesterday announced it expected annual pre-tax profits to double to around £390m, buoyed by higher demand from a strong property market. The earnings figures would be record-breaking for Barratt, beating analyst forecasts and up from £192m in 2013. The forecast comes as the group saw [...]
Join the party at The Bevenden in Hoxton February 12, 2015 Hoxton has shed its origins as a humble East End neighbourhood over the past few years; it’s better known as party central these days, bursting as it is with eclectic bars and clubs, gourmet fast food diners and pop ups. New homes are on sale in a “boutique” development that’s hoping to capitalise on the [...]
UK house prices: Is the government’s pension reform about to put strain on the property market? February 16, 2015 Britain is in the grip of a property shortage, and it could be about to get worse. New legislation means that from April many pensioners will be able to cash-in their pension pots, with many expected to invest in the buy to let market. The market seems ill-prepared for such interest. Data from Rightmove, the [...]
Property firm Grainger achieves sales growth despite electioneering building February 5, 2015 PROPERTY management firm Grainger said despite the good start to the year, the company expects the months leading up to the election to result in a softer market on home sales as uncertainty weighs on market sentiment. The company saw sales in the four months to the end of January increase by four per cent [...]
Regency Mews: Filling in the spaces in Camden Town March 26, 2015 As space becomes increasingly scarce in sought-after parts of central London, Britain’s biggest housebuilders are looking to literally fill the gaps with innovative architecture. This space in the heart of Camden Town was transformed from a makeshift factory site office into two contemporary London homes. The project was taken on by Taylor Wimpey Central London, [...]
London house prices: Growth slumps July 25, 2014 The boom might be ending: London House Prices have stagnated in July, recording their first almost growth-free month since December 2012. According to data from Hometrack – which is a survey rather than indexed data – prices in the capital were unchanged at zero per cent for July, down from 0.5 per cent in June and 0.6 per cent [...]