Zoopla hires bankers to draw up options for sale September 8, 2013 PROPERTY search website Zoopla yesterday said it had hired investment bankers from Credit Suisse as it eyes a float or potential sale of the business. The company, which is controlled by Daily Mail General Trust, is understood to have commissioned the bank to draw up a list of proposals to determine the future of the [...]
Liberal Democrats split on state of the UK economy September 15, 2013 A MAJOR split over the economy among Liberal Democrat ministers was laid open last night, with Nick Clegg and Vince Cable revealing tension at the highest levels of the party. Deputy Prime Minister Clegg rubbished business secretary Cable’s idea of restricting the second part of the Help to Buy scheme – which will see [...]
Rightmove founder and chief to retire November 8, 2012 ED WILLIAMS announced yesterday he is to retire as chief executive of Rightmove, 12 years after co-founding the property website. Nick McKittrick, who co-founded Rightmove alongside Williams and currently serves as finance director and chief operating officer, will succeed him as chief executive. Rightmove was set up in 2000 with £10m and was valued at [...]
Taylor Wimpey order book hits record levels July 31, 2013 TAYLOR WIMPEY said “a much improved and healthier housing market” had helped it to deliver a 42 per cent jump in half year profits. The housebuilder yesterday revealed pre-tax profits of £109m on sales up 11 per cent to £1.01bn in the six months to 30 June. “There has been meaningful improvement in the housing [...]
Housebuilding boss downplays Help to Buy influence August 19, 2013 Housebuilder Bovis Homes Group has announced a 19 per cent jump in first half pre-tax profits to £18.6m and that it has already sold around 90 per cent of its homes for the year. However, its chief executive denied the success was due entirely to a government-fuelled housing bubble (release). Bovis’s average house price increased [...]
London Report: UK’s corporate calendar packed in results season July 28, 2013 THE CORPORATE calendar is packed this week, as businesses including ITV, BP, Lloyds, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland update the market amid a swathe of other results. The week begins with figures from Fidessa Group, Hammerson, InterContinental Hotels Group, Intertek Group, JKX Oil & Gas, Keller Group, Senior, Vernalis, Reckitt Benckiser Group, National Grid, [...]
We must urgently fix Britain’s horribly broken housing market July 18, 2013 IT’S called the law of supply and demand, a basic concept that Labour and coalition politicians sometimes find difficult to grasp. If you try to mess with it, it ends up biting you, and hard. Take residential property. In a free market, if the price for something goes up, people tend to produce more of [...]
London house prices up 1.2pc over February February 17, 2013 A SMALLER than usual February bump failed to put a dent in the rapid pace of London house price growth, according to data out yesterday. London’s asking prices grew at 1.2 per cent in the second month of 2013, Rightmove said this morning, the slowest growth seen since 2009 in the usually strong month. But [...]
We must build more homes to tackle bubble, not tax more June 11, 2013 IF you want to know why a wealth tax should not be adopted in Britain, look no further than France. Over 8,000 French households were hit by tax bills that topped 100 per cent of their income last year, Les Echos reported this weekend, citing finance ministry data. For these people, the only way to [...]
Investment to cut rent hikes February 3, 2013 THE SPEED of rent growth is set to slow down in 2013, according to a survey out this morning, due to an influx of new investment. Investors are piling into buy-to-let, the survey from Rightmove suggested, due to high returns. Twelve per cent of accidental landlords are looking to boost their capacity, the survey showed, [...]