Intelligent design: Made.com co-founder Chloe Macintosh talks knitting and the importance of opportunities April 26, 2015 When Chloe Macintosh sat down with a friend of a friend, she didn’t expect to get a job out of it – or to go on to become the co-founder of e-commerce furniture company Made.com. But Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com and mydeco.com, isn’t any old coffee meet-up – and there’s nothing ordinary or unremarkable [...]
Return to Utopia: The desire to live where you work harks back to the industrial towns of yesteryear February 19, 2015 On frosty, damp mornings like the ones London has seen of late, the morning commute is worse than ever. Biting winds followed by packed, sweltering trains, followed by more wind – it’s as if the commute was specifically designed to make you as ill-prepared as possible for the day ahead. Yet it’s accepted by millions [...]
This time last year Foxtons was an investor favourite – what happened? December 4, 2014 It was just over a year ago that London estate agent Foxtons became the darling of the London Stock Exchange with a stonkingly successful IPO. Having floated at 230p, valuing it at £649m, shares in the company rose sharply to a peak of 285.5p in its first day of trading. By the end of February, [...]
Greece banks on 11th hour Eurozone deal February 16, 2015 Greece’s maverick finance minister Yanis Varoufakis remains adamant a deal with creditors will be struck on the country’s finances today despite farcical negotiations last week ending without even an agreement on a joint statement. “Our resolute stance on totally logical matters will, in the final analysis, lead to a mutually beneficial convergence, even at the [...]
UK house price growth slowest since 2013 January 29, 2015 House prices in the UK have risen at the slowest pace in more than a year, according to the latest figures from building society Nationwide, a further sign that the UK housing market is cooling. Annual house price growth slowed for the fifth month straight to 6.8 per cent this month, down from 7.2 per [...]
UK house prices growing at the slowest rate since November 2012 January 8, 2015 House prices grew by 0.3 per cent in December, their slowest rate since the three months to November 2012, according to data released by Halifax. Today's data is further evidence of a sluggish housing market in the second half of the year, slowing from a peak of 3.5 per cent for the three months to [...]
OnTheMarket will need to win the Google battle before it can really challenge Zoopla and Rightmove January 28, 2015 OnTheMarket.com, the new property website from the Agents’ Mutual group of estate agents, launched with much fanfare this week with an apparent threat to the “duopoly” enjoyed by Rightmove and Zoopla. Zoopla, as the less well-visited of the two property portal giants, seemed in particular danger as one of the requirements of OnTheMarket.com meant [...]
Bank of England financial crisis minutes: BoE dubbed “the angel of death” by City watchdog January 6, 2015 At the peak of the crisis, the City watchdog was so scared that a lender’s discussions with the Bank of England could cause a run on that lender, it dubbed the Bank: “The angel of death.” Throughout the financial crisis, the Bank of England had to tread a careful line between propping up failing parts of [...]
London house price boom set to cool down May 28, 2014 LONDON’S housing market is likely to slow down over the summer and return to normal levels of growth in the coming years, Britain’s biggest building society said today. Prices in the capital have shot up by as much as 20 per cent in the last year, but are likely to gradually slow down to increase [...]
The UK housing market needs Help to Supply – not Help to Buy May 21, 2014 THE UK housing market needs Help to Supply, not Help to Buy. The government’s housing scheme has helped first-time buyers get a leg-up onto the property ladder, but that privilege has come at a price – with house prices higher than otherwise, as the subsidy became capitalised in prices. The planning system has created a [...]