House prices to cool off after mortgage dip October 7, 2014 MORTGAGE lending fell significantly over the past three months, according to the Bank of England, suggesting the housing market will cool further. This is the first negative figure since the final three months of 2011 and marks a significant reversal in housing trends. House prices boomed over summer and are expected to grow 17 per [...]
Landlords’ property wealth on track to climb to £1 trillion in 2015 November 6, 2014 Private landlords’ property is worth £930bn – and is set to reach £1 trillion next year on the sustained rise in UK house prices, according to estimates by Kent Reliance. London has seen the biggest rises in wealth over the past seven years. From 2007 to 2014, landlords in the capital saw the value of their [...]
Taylor Wimpey bumps up profit forecast despite cooling market November 11, 2014 TAYLOR Wimpey yesterday upgraded its full-year profit margin forecast, thanks to a rise in sales, even as the effects of the government’s Help-to-Buy scheme launched last year began to fade. Chief executive Pete Redfern said housing market conditions “moderated, but remained positive” over the summer, echoing comments made by other builders of the cooling conditions. [...]
Surprise as UK construction falls by 3.9 per cent in August October 10, 2014 UK construction contracted by 3.9 per cent in August – far worse than the 0.5 per cent expansion predicted by economists. Surprisingly almost no one saw this coming: a Bloomberg poll of analysts predicted a 0.5 per cent rise: 4.4 percentage points too optimistic. Every analyst polled by Bloomberg predicted expansion. As the Office of [...]
London house prices could fall next year after booming 2014 October 6, 2014 The boom in London house prices will not only end next year, but could even fall, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). Their own forecast puts the decline at 2.6 per cent for 2015, which would be the first annual fall since 2009. House prices in the capital are expected to [...]
Public sector borrowing improves in October – but not enough to get financial year back on track November 21, 2014 Public sector net borrowing, excluding banks, has fallen by £200m year-on-year to £7.7bn in October – but it looks to be a case of too little too late when it comes to chancellor George Osborne's targets for the financial year. Figures published by the Office for National Statistics this morning showed that year-on-year borrowing [...]
Buyout house OpCapita acquires Spanish food retailer La Sirena November 3, 2014 SPAIN’S biggest frozen food retailer has been snapped up by UK private equity house OpCapita. La Sirena Alimentacion Congelada, which has 237 small stores catering for the busy metropolitan crowd in Catalonia and Madrid, was acquired with funds from OpCapita’s consumer opportunities fund. It is the second transaction from the fund, which made its maiden [...]
Labour plans to double number of first-time buyers October 16, 2014 The Labour party will set out plans to give first-time buyers top priority by handing more powers to local communities in England for new house building. The party will pledge to double the number of first-time buyers over the next 10 years should it be returned to office. Furthermore, Labour wants 200,0000 homes a year [...]
Interest rates forecast to remain at record low until 2016 November 17, 2014 Interest rates set by the Bank of England (BoE) might not rise off their record lows until 2016, economists from HSBC said yesterday. HSBC recently offered a 0.99 per cent mortgage rate for an initial two-year period – its lowest ever rate. Meanwhile, political uncertainty, low inflation and weak economic growth are all set to deter [...]
UK house prices grow nearly 12 per cent in a year – but in London it’s closer to 20 per cent October 14, 2014 The average price of a UK house rose by 11.7 per cent in the year to August, with London still leading the way. Figures published by the Office for National Statistics this morning showed that house price inflation was strongest in England, up 12.2 per cent, followed by Northern Ireland, where prices rose 9.6 [...]