London property prices: More million-pound properties have been sold in London this year than ever before October 31, 2014 London house prices might be cooling, but things are certainly hotting up at the premium end of the market. Sales of properties costing more than £1m have reached record levels in the UK with 6,143 houses sold in the first half of the year- 70 per cent of which were in London. That’s nearly 2,000 [...]
Carpetright shares soar 12 per cent as sales rise December 15, 2014 Improving economic sentiment lifted sales at Carpet right and its shares have soared by more than 12 per cent today. The figures Carpetright — the retailer which kits out homes with carpets, rugs and flooring — said group revenues rose 2.6 per cent to £227.9m for the six months to the end of October, up [...]
Galliford Try to share in £250m MoD contract December 18, 2014 HOUSEBUILDING and construction group Galliford Try said yesterday it has won a contract with the Ministry of Defence to work on £250m worth of building projects in Scotland. Next Generation Estates Framework is a programme launched by the MoD to replace a mix of management, maintenance and development contracts across the UK defence estate, due [...]
Slow spending growth could hit economy November 11, 2014 THE UK’S strong recovery is at risk of slowing due to weaker growth in consumer spending, consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said today. For the past two years, an increase in consumer spending has been fuelled by strong employment growth, raised income tax personal allowances, and low mortgage interest rates. Another boost to consumer spending has [...]
Is London FinTech recession-proof? January 21, 2015 The global financial tech capital faces few challenges. London's financial technology (FinTech) sector is booming. In the last few weeks alone consulting services giant Accenture opened its third London FinTech accelerator programme – whose alumni includes one of the capital’s most promising FinTech startups Digital Shadows. And last week the Canary Wharf Group added [...]
UK and London house prices mapped: An average wage in Blackpool will buy you less than two square metres in Chelsea December 2, 2014 Click on the buttons in the top right to reveal the layers The average wage in Blackpool will net you one and a half square metres of floor space in Chelsea, while a Westminster dweller could buy 42.6 metres of home in Blaenau Gwent, such is the disparity in the UK’s housing market. Westminster is [...]
Selling public land is just the start: Three steps to solve London’s housing crisis November 19, 2014 WE HAVE got to the stage that, if you don’t know there’s a serious housing shortage in London, I’d assume you must be living in a cave. This shortage comes with increasingly obvious social and economic ramifications. London First recently published research showing that more than half of workers (56 per cent) have difficulties paying [...]
Zoopla boss Alex Chesterman isn’t fazed by Agents’ Mutual launch November 25, 2014 Agents’ Mutual doesn’t faze the property portal boss Alex Chesterman isn’t worried by the upcoming launch of what could be Zoopla’s biggest challenge to date, Agents’ Mutual, a property site led by several major estate agents launching in January. “The majority of estate agents are not participating in Agents’ Mutual,” he says. “So far [it [...]
London house prices: Property market losing momentum November 23, 2014 London house price growth is continuing to fall below the national average, new data shows today. House prices grew by 1.2 per cent nationally from September to October, according to figures released by estate agents Haart. Meanwhile, prices only rose 0.3 per cent in the capital from September to October. The recent monthly trends are [...]
Mortgage approvals fall to lowest level since July 2013 October 29, 2014 Mortgage approvals have fallen to a 16-month low, adding further weight to the argument that the housing market is slowing down. Lenders approved just 61, 267 mortgages in September, figures published by the Bank of England revealed this morning, continuing the decline from a peak at the start of this year. In total, [...]