The best bluetooth headphones: Listen to music unencumbered by pesky cables May 27, 2015 JAYBIRD BLUEBUDS X These are our pick of the bunch, a perfect combination of great, bassy sound, comfortable fit and lightweight design. They’re water-sealed, so you can wear them while you work out and not have to worry about sweating in them and the adjustable honeycomb ear grip ensures they won’t fall out while you’re [...]
This dairy is now a multi-million pound Mayfair mansion worth £25m April 16, 2015 A former dairy farm in the heart of one central London's most prestigious locations has been transformed from a simple cowshed into a multi-million pound home worthy of countesses, rather than cows. The more than 8,000 sq ft site on Farm Street in Mayfair, which is close to Grosvenor Square and The Dorchester and just [...]
General Election 2015: Rent controls pledged by Labour to woo “generation rent” April 26, 2015 Ed Miliband is seeking to woo a generation of voters priced out of the property market with a promise to stop landlords making significant increases to rents. The Labour leader has pledged to cap rent rises at no more than the rate of inflation over the term of a three-year tenancy if elected at the [...]
General Election 2015: What our business leaders want from the next government May 6, 2015 City leaders want the next government to back new businesses in a big way, supporting start-ups and promoting financial education in schools, according to a survey by City A.M. For the last three weeks, City A.M. has asked leaders of FTSE 100 companies and Tech City start-ups alike what policies would entice them to [...]
Housing shortage hits first-time buyers despite government help March 26, 2015 The UK’s chronic housing shortage is forcing first-time buyers to accept lower quality properties. Natural light was cited as not being vital by 51 per cent of prospective buyers, survey figures released today by estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rains show. Additionally, 63 per cent would go without a bath while 11 per cent [...]
Buy-to-let: It’s not all about capital growth March 17, 2015 The stability of rents against average incomes makes for an attractive proposition. The UK – and London in particular – has been the beneficiary of large inflows of global capital into property in the last few years. While most of these funds have flowed into commercial real estate, a growing proportion is being directed into [...]
Britain’s anti-immigration arms race could make the housing crisis worse April 16, 2015 With the polls still tight, the battle between the two main political parties over who has the strongest policy on controlling immigration is reaching its peak. Yet the contest to be crowned toughest on immigration threatens to jeopardise efforts to address one of the other big issues of the election campaign – the chronic shortage [...]
Miliband’s disappointing stamp duty pledge won’t make the tax less stupid April 27, 2015 Housing, and its affordability crisis, is a bigger issue at this election than in any other for decades. Sadly, that hasn’t translated into policies that could effectively solve the problem, and yesterday’s announcements by Labour leader Ed Miliband will not change that. Labour plans to introduce a three-year stamp duty exemption for first time buyers, [...]
Restaurant review: Be prepared to shell out for Crab Tavern July 21, 2015 Crab Tavern is the tenth restaurant to open at the City’s newest dining destination, Broadgate Circle. It’s now overflowing with the kind of high-end, high-turnover gastro-chains that private equity guys go nuts for: opening branches in the City completes a perfect capitalist ouroboros in which we can literally get rich off of our own appetites. [...]
UK house prices: Number of risky mortgages grows 64 per cent in five years May 6, 2015 In the aftermath of the subprime mortgage crisis, you'd have thought lenders had learned their lessons – but perhaps not, after a new study suggested the number of risky mortgages sold in the UK has risen 64 per cent since 2010. Using last year’s data from the Bank of England, Moore Stevens, an accountancy firm, [...]