Firms still hold back as house lending rockets January 21, 2014 WHILE credit is rapidly flowing into the mortgage market, new figures from the Bank of England suggest that firms are still holding back from borrowing to grow. According to data released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) yesterday, gross lending for housing rocketed during 2013, up by 49 per cent in the 12 months [...]
City Moves for 06 March 2014 | Who’s switching jobs March 5, 2014 BNP Paribas The investment bank has appointed Stephanie Sfakianos as head of sustainable capital markets for fixed income. She was most recently its head of liability management, having joined the bank in 2002. Sfakianos previously held fixed income roles at Deutsche Bank and HSBC. Allen & Overy The law firm has hired Karan Dinamani as a partner [...]
London housing bubble inflates further August 16, 2013 LONDON house prices soared to more than 12-times the average income in June, official figures showed yesterday, as economists warned the boom could prove unsustainable. Government policies to keep interest rates low and help first time buyers onto the property ladder are pumping up a bubble, analysts said. The average price in London shot up [...]
What you need to know before the open February 26, 2014 Markets are set to open mixed this morning ahead of UK GDP data, and with China fears pulling down metal prices. US markets finished a touch lower yesterday, but have weathered well the string of unimpressive data the country’s seen. Over in Asia, the Nikkei came down from a 4-week high, tainted by US data, [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 12 May 2014 May 11, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Fraud office steps up Barclays probe Bob Diamond, John Varley and other senior members of Barclays’ former management are set to be questioned under caution by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office, in an acceleration of its probe into alleged corrupt arrangements in Qatar as part of the bank’s emergency cash call in 2008. [...]
A recovery built on bricks and mortar January 12, 2014 Bovis chief executive David Ritchie tells Elizabeth Fournier why he’s not concerned about a new UK housing bubble THE LAST 12 months have been good ones for Britain’s housebuilders. After a financial crisis that saw billions wiped off the sector as credit dried up and house prices crashed, 2013 saw a return to form as [...]
Booming housebuilding pushes surprise fourth quarter construction increase February 14, 2014 In December of last year, output in the UK construction industry increased two per cent from November, and 6.3 per cent from a year earlier. The high-note end to the year was driven almost entirely by the surging housing market. When seasonally adjusted, the increase was 0.2 per cent over the quarter, flying in the face of [...]
Just-Eat curries investor favour for £900m float March 17, 2014 JUST-EAT beefed up its boardroom yesterday with senior hires from BSkyB and Hammerson ahead of a float next month, adding to the swelling ranks of firms looking to list in London. The 13-year-old business, which was founded in Denmark by entrepreneur Jesper Buch, said BSkyB chief financial officer Andrew Griffith would join the firm as [...]
Inflation is a nasty stealth tax. We should celebrate its defeat April 15, 2014 INFLATION, as Milton Friedman used to argue, is a form of taxation without legislation. Wealth is taken from some people – for example, holders of cash – and given to others – such as those with large debts. The process is stealthy, opaque, unpredictable and undemocratic, badly understood by citizens, and one of many reasons [...]
London’s housing shortage is cramming young families into shared homes February 6, 2014 The number of families living in shared houses ballooned by 70 per cent in the decade up to the last census, as typically young families are increasingly locked out of a the UK’s harsh housing market. The Office for National Statistics has broken down some census data on the number of concealed families in England [...]