Home sales up despite low supply May 7, 2014 THE HOUSING market’s upswing showed no signs of subsiding last month, with the average homes sold for each chartered surveyor at the highest level since 2008, according to a report published this morning. According to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the imbalance between demand and supply in residential property worsened last month. Despite [...]
Charles Dickens’ penny savings bank up for sale May 22, 2014 Grand financial institution sure to be a hit in trendy Clerkenwell BUILDINGS that do business usually stay that way. It used to be rare for people to live in old offices and factories, but now many more are coming onto the market as agents take advantage of the residential boom. “I certainly have never come [...]
Charles Dickens’ penny savings bank up for sale May 22, 2014 Grand financial institution sure to be a hit in trendy Clerkenwell BUILDINGS that do business usually stay that way. It used to be rare for people to live in old offices and factories, but now many more are coming onto the market as agents take advantage of the residential boom. “I certainly have never come [...]
Use of Help to Buy scheme picks up pace May 29, 2014 INTEREST in chancellor George Osborne’s controversial Help to Buy scheme is accelerating among buyers, even amid warnings that it is doing nothing to boost the UK’s supply of homes. Up to March, 7,313 applications for the mortgage guarantee part of the scheme had been approved. Demand was much stronger in the later months of the [...]
House prices see third drop in 15 months April 4, 2014 House prices fell 1.1 per cent in March, according to the Halifax House Price Index. The fall marks only the third monthly drop in 15 months. Halifax pointed out that the monthly movements can be volatile and cited the three month-on-three month measure as a more reliable guide for underlying trends. House prices in the [...]
London’s house prices up 17 per cent in one year April 15, 2014 LONDON’S hyperactive housing market is sending prices surging up, rising at more than three times the pace of the rest of the UK during the year to February. Yesterday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that house prices in the capital have risen by 17.7 per cent in the year to February, in comparison [...]
Escape the dizzying heights of Dubai May 22, 2014 Discover wild side of the UAE’s lowest new development THE ENDURING mental image conjured by Dubai is one of sparkling steel towers reaching so far into the sky they’re in danger of bothering a deity. The city’s reputation as a paean to Middle Eastern wealth and excess, a hub of consumerism and hotel franchises, means [...]
What you need to know before the open May 16, 2014 A mixed open’s expected for European markets today: economic data aren’t expected to push things higher, and worries over how strong the US economic recovery actually is are adding to a lack of investor confidence. Yesterday, the S&P 500 posted its biggest one-day fall in a month. The bond surge seems to suggest that, despite [...]
Bank of England hits out at BIS report warning over low interest rates July 16, 2014 Recent international warnings on low interest rates from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) were criticised yesterday by UK policymakers, who suggested the central bank hub was operating in a bubble secluded from political reality. Bank of England governor Mark Carney said that the report had been written in “the vacuum of Basel”, [...]
London Report: FTSE falls from highs on global growth jitters July 7, 2014 BRITAIN’S top share index retreated from a three-week high yesterday on concerns about the pace of global economic growth, with cyclical sectors such as miners and banks worst hit. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index ended 0.6 per cent lower at 6,823.51 points after climbing to its highest since early June in the previous session. The [...]