Travis Perkins profits jump as Help to Buy boosts confidence February 26, 2014 Building merchant Travis Perkins has reported a rise in profits before tax of 12 per cent to £321m for the year ended 31 December. Revenue climbed to over £5bn, with annual growth of five per cent on a like-for-like basis. The company partly attributed the rising confidence in the building industry to the government's controversial [...]
Booming housing market could see Help to Buy scaled back February 18, 2014 UK house prices continued their forward march at the end of 2013, with the capital pulling even further ahead from the pack and the average house price hitting £250,000. Figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown London house prices rose 0.9 per cent in December, putting them more than a fifth higher than [...]
Mortgage sizes boosted as Help to Buy kicks off November 18, 2013 THE SIZE of the average mortgage swelled in October, reaching the highest level against house prices since January 2009, according to figures released by Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) today. In the month that the second phase of the government’s Help to Buy scheme of mortgage guarantees began, MAB says that the average loan-to-value (LTV) rate [...]
Help to Buy lifts housebuilder Taylor Wimpey November 14, 2013 HOUSEBUILDER Taylor Wimpey yesterday raised its profit margin forecast for 2014 and said it expects profitability will return to long-run levels the year after, helped by government schemes to encourage house-buying. The company, which like rivals saw profitability slide during a long and deep recession, said its 2014 operating profit margin could improve by 200-300 [...]
Banks say over 2,000 applied for Help to Buy November 11, 2013 HALIFAX and RBS reported strong interest in the first phase of the government’s Help To Buy scheme this morning, saying they had received more than 2,000 applications in the first month of the programme. Halifax recorded 1,309 applications under the scheme in its first month, while state-backed Royal Bank of Scotland also said today it [...]
Help to Buy lifts Persimmon new sales past 3,000 November 6, 2013 HOUSEBUILDER Persimmon said yesterday it has sold over 3,000 homes under the government sponsored Help to Buy scheme, in yet another sign of rising confidence in the housing market. Chief executive Jeff Fairburn said that while 90 per cent of sales were to first-time buyers, growing market confidence was prompting more second and third-time buyers [...]
Brand Index: Help to Buy comes as Brits cheer up about the economy October 8, 2013 THIS week, banks including RBS, NatWest and Halifax will begin taking applications for 95 per cent mortgages under phase two of the government’s controversial Help to Buy scheme. The initiative is intended to help buyers who cannot afford a hefty deposit onto the property ladder, but critics say it could lead to another housing bubble. [...]
Virgin Money is the fourth lender to join Help to Buy October 7, 2013 VIRGIN Money yesterday became the fourth bank to sign up for the Help to Buy Scheme, which from today will offer state guarantees to homebuyers. It joins RBS, Lloyds’ Halifax brand and challenger bank Aldermore in offering mortgages with deposits worth as little as five per cent of the home’s value. However, new figures on [...]
Row escalates as Help to Buy policy launched October 7, 2013 CRITICS of the government’s Help to Buy policy rounded on the scheme yesterday, accusing it of risking another property bubble. Speaking to the BBC Sunday Politics, Jonathan Portes, head of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said: “The main impact of this scheme will be to push up house prices. Who loses? People [...]
Mortgage lending hits 2008 levels even before Help to Buy extension September 30, 2013 THE HOUSING market had begun picking up steam even before the government rushed forward the next stage of its Help to Buy scheme, Bank of England figures showed yesterday. In August, when lenders still believed that the latest set of mortgage guarantees would not be available until January, the number of mortgages approved rose to [...]