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August 31, 2008
by Kay Murchie
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Chancellor Alistair Darling said the UK is facing the worst economic downturn in 60 years and it will be 'profound and long lasting'.
Mr Darling's stark warning comes as the Nationwide revealed that the average house price has fallen by 10.5% over the last year – this represents the fastest fall since 1990.
Furthermore, ...
August 29, 2008
by Gill Montia
The housing market slowdown has hardly been good news for property portal, Rightmove, as its share price reflects.
However, the company has just reported a 63% rise in pre-tax profit in the six months to the end of June, to £19.8 million.
Revenues for the period increased 49%, to £37.8 million, with both sales to new members and revenue per ...
by Kay Murchie
In a bid to boost its economy, Japan has revealed a stimulus package worth 11.7 trillion yen (£59 billion).
It is hoped that the package will help citizens cope with rising fuel and food prices and help agricultural and fishing businesses affected by soaring costs. It also aims to reduce expressway tolls, increase medical services for the elderly and help small-medium ...
by Kay Murchie
According to figures from the Commerce Department, the US economy grew at a revised 3.3% annually in the second quarter of 2008 against a previous estimate of 1.9%.
Analysts believe this makes recession less likely. Avery Shenfeld, senior economist at CIBC World Markets, argues that the US is still an economy that faces slow times but not a recession.
Government tax rebates ...
by Kay Murchie
The UK's biggest buy-to-let lender, Bradford & Bingley (B&B), has posted a loss of £26.7 million for the six months to the end of June.
The result compares with a pre-tax profit of £180.4 million in the same period of 2007.
Credit impairment charges for the six months rose to £74.6 million, up from £5.3 million in the first half of last ...
August 28, 2008
by Elaine Frei
European equities markets saw gains Thursday after the US Commerce Department reported that the US economy grew by 3.3 percent in the second quarter of the year.
In London the FTSE 100 added 1.32 percent to 5,601.2 while the FTSE 250 gained 1.47 percent to 9,271.7.
With their biggest markets in the United States, building materials group Wolseley (LSE: WOS) ...
by Gill Montia
Taylor Wimpey, the UK's biggest housebuilder, has reported a catastrophic slide in sales during the first half of the year.
Sales of the group's homes fell nearly 31%, to 8,494, during the six month to the end of June.
According to a report in The Times, the level of sales equates to half-a-house per week across the developer's sites.
At the same ...
by Gill Montia
Leeds Building Society has today reduced the interest rate on its five-year fixed-rate home loan from 5.99% to 5.84%.
The lender has also knocked £500 off the completion fee, reducing it to £999.
However, the rate reduction only applies to customers who sign up for the society's Homecover insurance through to 31 August 2013.
Those who prefer another provider will have to pay ...
by Brian Turner
I took out a self-certified mortgage with GMAC two years ago, because as a company director traditional lenders tend to get very confused when your income is not a straight salaried income-taxed income.
Like many company directors, I instead take an income in the form of dividends. On the low interest rates everyone enjoyed at the time a self-cert seemed ...
by Brian Turner
The BBC publishes a report: Savings returns 'beating' shares which makes the outlandish claim:
Savers putting their money in funds investing in UK stocks and shares would have made more money since 2000 by putting it in savings accounts instead.
To make such a claim requires extreme generalisation and a complete ignorance of investments.
It's a complete straw-man argument, and a disingenuous piece ...
by Gill Montia
Nationwide is the first lender to publish figures for the UK's housing market in August.
The building society has reported a 1.9% drop in prices during the month, taking the annual fall to 10.5%.
The average price of a home now stands at £164,654, or £19,000 less than in August 2007.
The lender says that the cost of a home has now fallen for 10 ...
August 27, 2008
by Kay Murchie
Research by Thomson-Reuters Lipper, commissioned by the BBC, has found that savers investing their money in savings accounts have benefited rather than investing in UK stocks and shares.
The research found that if £1,000 was invested at the start of the decade, it would now be worth £1,094 in an average UK unit trust compared to £1,358 in a typical savings account.
The ...
by Elaine Frei
Most European equities markets saw gains Wednesday after early declines on continuing worries about more losses for banks.
In London, the FTSE 100 added 1.05 percent to 5,528.1 while the FTSE 250 gained a bare 0.04 percent to 9,137.1.
House builders and retailers slowed the 250 as music and book retailer HMV Group (LSE: HMV) led declines there with a drop of 7.66 ...
by Gill Montia
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) is reducing interest rates for most of its mortgage products, with immediate effect.
Cuts of between 0.10% and 0.55% across all but one of the bank's home loans are accompanied by the launch of a two-year fixed-rate deal at 5.99%, which is available to both new and existing customers.
A 1% arrangement fee applies and loan-to-value (LTV) ...
by Gill Montia
The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is demanding a review of Home Information Packs (Hips) because the slowdown in the housing market means that some of the packs are out of date before a property is sold.
The packs were intended to simplify and speed up the house selling process but the majority of estate agents opposed ...
August 26, 2008
by Elaine Frei
European equities markets were mixed Tuesday.
In London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.63 percent to 5,470.7 and the FTSE 250 dropped 0.53 percent to 9,133.6 as base metals prices declined, sending shares in miners lower.
Iron ore producers led miners lower, with Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO) down 10.7 percent for the biggest decline on the 100 while International Ferro Metals (LSE: ...
by Kay Murchie
According to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller survey of US national home prices, property prices in the US were down a record 15.4% in the second quarter of 2008 compared to the same quarter in 2007.
According to the report, the decline in house prices were nationwide indicating that the housing market downturn is continuing in America.
However, even though house prices are still ...
by Gill Montia
Stewart Milne Homes, the housing developer with projects across Scotland and the North of England, has launched a fixed-rate mortgage equivalent to 4.99%.
The loan is fixed until August 2011, after which a bank variable rate applies for the remainder of the term.
The Aberdeen-based company, which specialises in family homes and apartments, says the offer applies to a range of Stewart ...
by Gill Montia
The British Bankers' Association (BBA) has released data on lending for July, showing that 22,448 mortgages were approved during the month.
The figure is slightly ahead of June's when 22,369 home loan applications were successful but represents a 65% decline on July 2007.
It is also well below the average for the six months to the end of June, which ...
by Gill Montia
Accountancy firm, BDO Stoy Hayward, has revealed the extent to which criminals are targeting housing associations in scams that are costing the sector up to £400 million a year.
BDO head of fraud services, Simon Bevan, believes that fraudsters are attracted to social landlords because they make easier prey than the banks.
Last year the firm was instructed in four investigations relating to housing associations ...
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In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Chancellor Alistair Darling said the UK is facing the worst economic downturn in 60 years and it will be 'profound and long lasting'.
Mr Darling's stark warning comes as the Nationwide revealed that the average house price has fallen by 10.5% over the last year – this represents the fastest fall since 1990.
Furthermore, ...
The housing market slowdown has hardly been good news for property portal, Rightmove, as its share price reflects.
However, the company has just reported a 63% rise in pre-tax profit in the six months to the end of June, to £19.8 million.
Revenues for the period increased 49%, to £37.8 million, with both sales to new members and revenue per ...
European equities markets saw gains Thursday after the US Commerce Department reported that the US economy grew by 3.3 percent in the second quarter of the year.
In London the FTSE 100 added 1.32 percent to 5,601.2 while the FTSE 250 gained 1.47 percent to 9,271.7.
With their biggest markets in the United States, building materials group Wolseley (LSE: WOS) ...
Research by Thomson-Reuters Lipper, commissioned by the BBC, has found that savers investing their money in savings accounts have benefited rather than investing in UK stocks and shares.
The research found that if £1,000 was invested at the start of the decade, it would now be worth £1,094 in an average UK unit trust compared to £1,358 in a typical savings account.
The ...
European equities markets were mixed Tuesday.
In London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.63 percent to 5,470.7 and the FTSE 250 dropped 0.53 percent to 9,133.6 as base metals prices declined, sending shares in miners lower.
Iron ore producers led miners lower, with Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO) down 10.7 percent for the biggest decline on the 100 while International Ferro Metals (LSE: ...
