Foxtons results: Another dive in profits thanks to London house prices March 8, 2017 Shares in struggling London estate agent Foxtons took a dive today after it admitted London's cooling market pushed down profits last year. The figures Revenues fell 11 per cent to £132.7m in the year to the end of December, Foxtons said today – while pre-tax profits fell more than half, from £41m in 2015 to £18.8m in 2016. Lettings revenue fell one per [...]
Are car loans a slow-motion car crash? June 29, 2017 The car industry understandably attracts a lot of attention in the financial press. Although the sector is small compared to giant sectors like financials and technology, cars are culturally relevant in a way that banks are not. The auto industry is involved in areas of exciting technological change, such as electric cars and autonomous driving. [...]
Renters to be priced out of the market by 2026 as deposits rocket 40 per cent March 10, 2016 A lot has been made of the problems first-time home buyers are having at the moment – but won't someone please think of the renters? A new report by Money.co.uk has suggested even those in the rental market could be priced out of the market by 2026 – as deposits rocket by 40 per cent to [...]
Mapped: The best (and cheapest) towns to commute to London from January 17, 2017 It's the holy grail for Londoners of a certain age: a town close enough to the capital to commute from, but far enough away to be affordable. Now London's best commuter town has been named: step forward, Amersham. The Buckinghamshire town, 27 miles from London (and 59 minutes on the Tube), has been ranked the [...]
Thousands of Londoners flock to access government’s Help to Buy scheme February 8, 2016 A government scheme aimed at helping Londoners onto the housing ladder has already already been flooded with thousands of requests since its launch last week. Housing minister Brandon Lewis said London Help to Buy – an extension of the equity loan scheme that has been available to buyers around the country since April 2013 – [...]
Housebuilder shares rise as Conservatives promise 200,000 cheap starter homes for first-time buyers March 2, 2015 Shares in the UK's largest housebuilders bounced this morning, after the Conservatives pledged to make 200,000 "starter homes" available cheap for first-time buyers if they win the election. Shares in Taylor Wimpey rose 1.54 per cent to 147p in early trading, while Barratt rose 0.87 per cent to 520p and Persimmon rose 1.36 per cent [...]
Demand for homes in London is falling as prices keep rocketing – except in these two boroughs April 6, 2016 It looks like rocketing house prices are having a demotivating effect on London home buyers, after new figures suggested demand for homes has fallen across many of the capital's most exclusive boroughs. The figures, by online estate agent Emoov, found demand for homes in Southwark fell 50 per cent between the final quarter of last year [...]
Getting onto the housing ladder is £2,300 a year cheaper than renting, says Santander December 14, 2015 First-time buyers could save £2,300 a year by getting on the property ladder compared to renting, according to research by Santander Mortgages. The average monthly rent in the UK is currently £995 compared to monthly repayments of £805 for the average first-time buyer household, meaning buyers could save £190 a month, the lender said. In [...]
The NASDAQ of advertising: Reprogramming programmatic with Infectious Media January 30, 2017 About 10 years ago, programmatic advertising was but a twinkle in the eye of some Silicon Valley bods, determined to bring about a sea change to digital advertising transactions. They were unaware, perhaps, of the flood that opening this sluice would bring to AdLand, nor the landscape that would remain when the new tide washed [...]
House prices: Mortgage lending jumps in February as landlords make last sprint ahead of April stamp duty hike March 11, 2016 The rush to beat April's stamp duty surcharge on second homes continued to fuel record high levels of lending in February. House purchase approvals reached 72,799 in February, up 17.4 per cent on the same month last year and the second highest monthly figure since January 2014, according to figures released today by UK chartered surveyor e.surv. This was [...]