Housing boom helps Howden May 1, 2014 Kitchen supplier Howden Joinery yesterday reported an 11.2 per cent rise in UK revenue in the first 16 weeks of the year, helped by stronger consumer spending and a recovery in the housing market. The company said like-for-like revenue for outlets open more than a year increased 8.5 per cent. Howden Joinery said it had [...]
Lights out for darker skies: First World War started with a crash August 3, 2014 For the City, the Great War began with a financial crisis. Even before Britain committed itself, Europe’s great powers ranging against one another spelled disaster: the collapse of the magnificent, peaceful edifice of international trade built between the empires. As told in Jerry White’s riveting account of London in the war, Zeppelin Nights, on Friday [...]
Student housing landlord looks to raise £110m from London float May 13, 2014 EMPIRIC Student Property is to become the latest student housing fund to list on the stock market as it seeks to take advantage of a demand for rooms from wealthy overseas students across the UK. The fund plans to list next month as a real estate investment trust (Reit) and is looking to raise £110m [...]
M&S is having an identity crisis: Only radical action can save it now July 8, 2014 Thousands of articles have been written about, and just as many reasons given for, the ongoing struggles of Marks & Spencer (M&S). The latest one, given only yesterday by none other than the chief executive himself, Marc Bolland, was the “settling-in” period of the new website. This, of course, is balderdash, or at least peripheral [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 20 June 2014 June 19, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Ministers blast shambolic IT overhaul A Whitehall initiative to loosen the hold of big business on government contracts has come under fire from cabinet ministers, who have told the prime minister that “shambolic” IT provision by smaller firms has brought their departments to a virtual standstill in recent weeks. Vince Cable, business secretary, [...]
Will London property prices keep going up? Here are five factors that could decide May 12, 2014 The London property market did rather better than anyone might have thought during the recession, which has led experts to ask what could happen in the boom, what are the constraints and how London will adapt if it is to continue to grow at its current rate? These are some of the question CBRE’s [...]
What you need to know before the open May 15, 2014 A less positive open is expected today, as investors digest the EU inflation and growth numbers due out today. So far, numbers have shown a shock flatlining of French growth in the first quarter, as the stuttering economy saw household consumption drop. It’s a different story in Germany, however, where warmer weather saw the powerhouse [...]
UK banks benefit from housing upturn as corporate lending remains weak October 23, 2013 Citi Research has released a report concluding that there is an increasing upside to UK banks. Analysts cite several positive indicators leading to a positive assessment of the sector. There was a significant increase in mortgage volumes in July and August, with gross mortgage lending for the eight months to August 2013 amounting to £99bn, [...]
House sales hit six-year high as activity spreads across the UK April 9, 2014 PROPERTY sales have soared to their highest level in six years as the housing boom grips regions across the UK, a new survey by property experts revealed today. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said the housing recovery is “well and truly underway” with buyers testing the market right across UK and not just [...]
Average London house price to top £700,000 by 2020 April 14, 2014 LONDON house prices are set to rise 54 per cent over the next six years, leaving the rest of the UK’s property market even further behind, new research claims. A typical home in the capital will be worth more than £700,000 in 2020, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). This rapid [...]