London rent prices: Surge pushes capital to twice rest of UK for first time July 27, 2014 The cost of renting in London is rising at nearly twice the pace of the UK, reaching more than double the average for the rest of the country for the first time. New figures released today by Homelet indicate that the rents on new tenancies in London are rising much more rapidly than official [...]
Our obsession with monetary stimulus will end in disaster September 3, 2014 It is now six years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and considering that the US economy has officially been in recovery for the past five years, that equity indexes have put in new all-time highs, and that credit markets are once again ebullient to the point of carelessness, it is worth contemplating that monetary [...]
Tax expensive homes more, European Commission tells UK June 3, 2014 George Osborne’s been urged to up council taxes on higher value properties today – by the European Commission. The commission’s said that, in order to keep house prices under control, the UK also needs to build more houses and trim the Help to Buy 2 scheme – where the government advances 15 per cent of [...]
Living in luxury in London… as a student? September 5, 2014 Students deserve better and they’re willing to pay for it. At least, this is what some of the country’s leading estate agents and developers are starting to realise, and they’re happy to oblige with a range of quality alternatives to traditional student digs. Gone are the days when students were expected to put up with [...]
IMF flags worry over UK house price increases June 6, 2014 THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) delivered the strongest warning yet from an international organisation about the risk of a property price bubble in the UK, though it said there have been few signs of a credit-driven bubble in house prices so far. “House price inflation is particularly in high London, and is becoming more widespread”, [...]
British homes gained £7,000 in value in May June 5, 2014 THE UPSWING in house prices shows little sign of slowing according to the Halifax, with a typical house adding 8.7 per cent to its value in the period between May 2013 and last month – and gaining around £7,000 in the last month alone. The Halifax index suggests that UK house prices are now back to [...]
In graphs: London house prices up 18.7pc in just a year June 17, 2014 House prices in London rose 18.7 per cent in the 12 months to April according to new figures released today by the Office of National statistics (ONS). Across the country prices were up 9.9 per cent, with growth outside London and the south east at 6.3 per cent. Despite figures from Rightmove yesterday showing the market [...]
House market recovery lifts Dixons’ sales September 9, 2014 DIXONS CARPHONE, the newly formed high street giant, said yesterday it had made a strong start to the year, with sales basking in the aftermath of the World Cup and benefitting from rising consumer confidence. Chief executive Sebastian James said that the recovery in the housing market helped to boost demand and that while consumer [...]
CNBC Comment: Why UK banks aren’t riding the recovery July 28, 2014 THE TIES between Britain’s banks and its economy have always been close. But they have seemed even closer in the post-banking bailout era. On Friday, when RBS rushed out its second quarter results a week early (which was rather odd in itself – don’t companies usually only rush out results if they’re either worse than [...]
What you need to know before the US open June 3, 2014 A lower open is expected for European markets this morning, as investors look towards inflation and unemployment numbers for the Eurozone. The prospect of new intervention from the European Central Bank, expected to be announced at its policy meeting this week, has been buoying market confidence. Asian counterparts moved higher in trading today, on the [...]