The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
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Battersea to put Gehry and Foster flats on sale: Hundreds of homes designed by renowned architects Norman Foster and Frank Gehry will go on sale at Battersea Power Station this month, the Owners revealed, with prices starting at £495,000.
Property prices in London drop by 8%: Almost a quarter of all properties on the market in the most exclusive parts of London had to be reduced in price in August, in the latest sign that the capital’s housing boom is coming to an end.
UK’s largest building society, Nationwide, reported that house prices in the UK unexpectedly fell in September, its first decline in 17 months which indicated signs that the property market in the UK was decelerating.
Bank of England calls for legal power to cap loan-to-value ratio on mortgages: The Bank of England has accepted legal powers to rein-in the mortgage market and prevent another housing bubble.
Help to Buy gets stamp of approval from Carney: The government’s £12 billion subsidised mortgage scheme has been given the all-clear by the Bank of England, despite sharp criticism from organisations including the International Monetary Fund.
UK construction PMI recorded an unexpected rise in September In September, the construction PMI in the UK climbed unexpectedly to a level of 64.2, compared to a level of 64.0 in the earlier month. Markets were anticipating the construction PMI to drop to 63.5.
Almost a fifth of British mortgage holders say they would "really struggle" with any increase in interest rates, according to a survey released on Thursday by a public body. Most economists expect the Bank of England to start to raise interest rates early next year as Britain's economy continues to grow rapidly, but the BoE has said that high household debt is a major reason why it is likely to proceed cautiously. The Money Advice Service, a public body set up in 2011 to provide free financial advice, said that 19 percent of mortgage holders said they would "really struggle to find the extra money" to cover any increase in repayments. This proportion increased to 47 percent if mortgage payments were to rise by 150 pounds ($240) a month - roughly equivalent to an interest rate rise of 2 percentage points on a 150,000 pound mortgage with a term of 20 years. "Mortgage holders need to be more mindful of the fact that a rise in interest rates is widely predicted - even for those on a fixed rate, as their deal will come to an end sooner or later," said Nick Hill of the Money Advice Service.
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Knight Frank cashes in on property boom with 33pc jump in profits Property group urges clarity on housing and infrastructure policy, as it unveils significant jump in both profits and turnover Soaring property prices have helped estate agent Knight Frank to record annual profits, up a third to £136.6m. The estate agent and commercial property group said turnover was also up 12pc to £392.7m in the 12 months to March 31 - a period during which house prices in the UK jumped by 8pc. Alistair Elliott, group chairman and senior partner of Knight Frank, said the profits boost was delivered despite a “substantial” investment in the business; Knight Frank has recently opened offices in Ireland, Germany, South Africa, Taiwan and Malaysia and has been expanding its presence in the North American commercial property market. Mr Elliott said house prices in the UK have been kept high by a lack of new housing stock and urged clarity over housing and infrastructure policy as the political parties enter the general election race. However, he added that signs of increasing housing supply in some areas will “help normalise certain markets”. There have been a few early signs of a housing market correction, with homeowner borrowing falling between July and August.
Knight Frank to build on London success
Crossrail development drives property boom Property prices are rising along the Crossrail route, four years before the high-speed line is due to open
House prices: Londoners threaten to flee the capital over housing costs: Londoners are threatening to leave the capital in their droves as many struggle to pay rocketing housing costs, as wealthy overseas and domestic cash buyers prop up housing prices.
LONDON (Alliance News) - The average asking price for a house in the UK was flat on month in September, property tracking website Hometrack said on Friday - snapping a string of 19 straight months of gain. That followed the 0.1% increase in August. Among the individual components of the survey, new buyers with agents, volume of property listings, sales agreed and asking price achieved all moved lower in September. On a yearly basis, prices climbed 5.0%, slowing from the 5.5% increase in the previous month.
Dublin property prices soaring: Dublin’s property prices are soaring faster than London’s, soaring 25.1% in the year to August, and easily outstripping the British capital’s 19.1% rise.
Property will become a bigger pensions play The pressure to invest in property is unlikely to abate for years
London overtakes Hong Kong as world’s priciest city for companies to situate staff: The strength of the sterling has made London the world’s most expensive city for companies to locate staff, overtaking Hong Kong which has held the record for five years in a row.
Miller cements plans to hive-off homes arm: Housebuilder Miller Homes kicked off its long-anticipated flotation with plans to raise £140 million through a listing that will propel the firm into the FTSE 250.
Former Premier League striker builds case for U.S. property: Footballer turned real-estate tycoon Robbie Fowler is urging British investors to consider investing in U.S. property.
Fleeing Londoners push up commuter belt home costs: Londoners leaving the capital have spent £17 billion on new houses in the past year, pushing up prices in the commuter belt.
Lodha Group, India’s largest housing developer by sales, is launching an aggressive drive to become one of the biggest investors in London’s residential property market with plans to spend as much as $5bn by the end of 2018. Mr Lodha said he now planned to spend about $3bn acquiring new assets, alongside a further $2bn for construction, to develop a slate of properties ranging from super-prime to mid-market. “We want to be among the top two developers in London in the next five years,” he said. (Financial Times)
Ghost tube stations worth billions go on sale: Transport for London (TfL) is preparing to invite companies to bid to transform London’s abandoned underground stations into a network of tourist attractions, retail hubs, hotels and museums.
Rents hit a record high as new mortgage loans keep climbing: London rents hit a record high of £1,161 on average last month, according to figures out from LSL Property Services.
Tax changes hit wealthy foreign homebuyers: A little-noticed tax change has levied another blow on foreign buyers of luxury London homes, adding to the slowdown in the previously booming sector.
House Prices Are Rising At 20 Times Wages By Motley Fool | Thu, 18th September 2014 - 17:38 We're so used to frantic house price growth that we've come to see it as normal. So when the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published figures this week showing UK house prices rose 11.7% in the last year, nobody blinked. Crazy growth in London of 19.1% was similarly shrugged off. That's just how London rolls these days. On the same day, the ONS published the latest CPI inflation figure, which showed a slight dip to 1.5%. I expected screaming headlines pointing out that house prices are now rising at eight times inflation, or almost 13 times in London. Nobody seems to have noticed. Wage Slaves Here's an even more astonishing figure. The ONS also published annual wage growth figures which showed that pay, including bonuses, rose a meagre 0.6% over the last year. This means UK house prices are rising a mind-boggling 20 times faster than wages. In London, the figure is almost 32 times faster. This can only end one way. 20 Reasons Why House Prices Will Crash Even more amazingly, most commentators in the property and mortgage industry actually welcomed the house price growth figures, claiming they were the sign of a healthy market. I beg to differ. It is the sign of an insane market. House prices simply can't keep rising at 20 times wages. Crazy Days There is more growth to come. Estate agents and mortgage brokers are now gearing up for a hectic autumn, and they're in a confident mood. Lenders have embarked on yet another mortgage price war, as they battle to hit their lending targets before the end of the calendar year. The property industry can smell blood, or rather money, and they're not going to stop now. Never Ending Mortgage Worse, neither are buyers. Instead of saying no to insane house prices, first-time buyers are stretching their repayment terms to as long as 35 or even 40 years, rather than the traditional 25-year term. More than one in 10 existing homeowners are doing the same, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Yes, this can cut your monthly repayments, but there is a price to pay. If you took out a £150,000 repayment mortgage at 3.5% over 25 years, you would pay total interest of £75,282. Over 40 years, your total interest bill would be £128,923. That's £53,641 more. Mortgage Madness As Herbert Stein's law says: "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." The only question is when. In April, the Financial Conduct Authority launched a regulatory overhaul called the Mortgage Market Review, designed to take some of the heat out of the housing market. That calmed lenders... for about a fortnight. Bank of England measures to cut maximum loan-to-income ratios don't appear to have slowed the beast at all. If interest rates start rising next year, as most people assume, maybe
Central London completions to hit 10,000 next year, says JLL: Housing completions in central London could reach 10,000 in 2015 for the first time in years thanks to a surge in construction activity, even as new housing starts and prices at the centre of the capital start to slow.