Ukraine crisis and warm weather hammer EU-Russia trade May 15, 2014 Trade between Russia and the EU slumped in the first three months of 2014, according to figures to be released by Eurostat on Friday, reports Euractiv. EU imports from Russia dropped nine per cent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, with the volume of Russian imports standing at €49bn (£40bn), [...]
It’s high time you bought a plot in paradise April 10, 2014 Daniel O’Mahoney plays prospective buyer (and golf) at the resort THE sun-kissed Algarve region is hardly Portugal’s best-kept secret, and certainly not among British holidaymakers. It shows as soon as you step off the plane – plastered around Faro airport are loud English adverts for Marmite and ketchup. But only a 20 minute drive after [...]
Rising lending sparks surge in house prices August 12, 2013 THE PROPERTY market is steaming ahead of the rest of the economy, as mortgage lending and a surge of buyers in July drive the UK’s emerging recovery. Figures revealed today show that July saw the largest rise in house prices since before the crash, after statistics out yesterday confirmed that lending to first-time buyers [...]
UK housing soars back to pre-financial crash prices October 15, 2013 THE PRICE of an average house in the UK steamed past its previous nominal peak during August, reaching record levels again, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures revealed yesterday. The announcement came as Martin Weale, a member of the Bank of England’s rate-setting monetary policy committee (MPC), voiced his concern over the recent [...]
The Bank of England is playing with fire by keeping rates so low May 14, 2014 INTEREST rates won’t be going up any time soon, even though the economy is now booming. The reason is simple: the Bank of England is deadly serious about using other tools to calm down the housing market if it feels that it is overheating; interest rates, or at least the Bank base rate, are now [...]
A village in the heart of London October 10, 2013 It’s a tale of two towns with Clapham, but this new property in the Old Town allows residents to sample the best of both worlds CLAPHAM is the Dr Jekyll of south London districts. By day, it’s as genteel as you like. Well-to-do mothers crowd the streets, sipping good quality coffee while gently rocking babies [...]
Latis Homes founders Robert Luck and Krishan Pattni talk dream designs and planning nightmares August 10, 2014 Without the regulatory constraints imposed on our housing market, between 1974 and 2008, average house prices would have risen from £79,000 to £147,000, rather than to £226,000. That’s according to a new report by Christian Hilber of the LSE and Wouter Vermeulen of UV University that looks at the impact of supply constraints on house [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 06 May 2014 May 6, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Loopholes for Cameron on EU treaty David Cameron’s demands to renegotiate British membership of the EU would not necessarily require a treaty change, according to the top Brussels lawyer who helped to draft every EU treaty from Maastricht to Lisbon. Jean-Claude Piris, former legal counsel of the European Council and the Council of [...]
Housebuilders urged to sell to Londoners first March 11, 2014 BORIS Johnson has urged housebuilders and developers to sign up to a new deal to stop giving buyers living abroad the first chance to buy London homes sold before they’re built, in a bid to get more Londoners onto the housing ladder. Speaking at Mipim, the property industry’s annual conference in Cannes yesterday, the London [...]
Tories alone on home loan plan September 29, 2013 DAVID Cameron yesterday announced that a controversial scheme offering taxpayer-subsidised mortgages will launch this week, without consulting his coalition partners and despite mounting criticism that he is stoking a new housing bubble. The second part of Help to Buy, which will enable buyers to purchase a house with a deposit of just five per cent, [...]