Housebuilder Bovis Homes has today issued a positive trading statement after saying it expects profits to be ahead of expectations for the 2010 year. The company, which is one of the smaller listed housebuilders, said it will also start paying dividends again to shareholders. Many housebuilders took a battering during the housing market slump and [...]
Housebuilder Barratt Developments has issued its first half trading update, delivering a mixed picture. The firm, which is one of the largest housebuilders by volume, said completions fell to 4,832 units from 5,053 in the first half, as private completions dropped. Revenues were unchanged at £875 million but its operating margin grew to 5% from [...]
Barratt Developments is the latest housebuilder to report a slowdown in the housing market as buyer demand continues to fall. The group’s chief executive, Mark Clare, said the traditional autumn period has been “weaker than anticipated”. Government spending cuts, and the uncertainty surrounding the economy, have also had a major impact as buyers adopt a [...]
Barratt Developments has reported a 14% increase in private reservations for the period 1st January to 9th May 2010, compared with the previous six months. In addition, overall forward sales rose 32% on a year earlier, to £1.07 billion. In the first half of 2010, the average selling price of a Barratt home is on [...]
Two of the UK’s best known house builders have reported signs of improvement in the property market. Barratt Developments experienced an 11.9% rise in visitor numbers during the six months to the end of June (compared to the previous six months) and private sales reservations rose an encouraging 18.6%, on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, Redrow [...]
In a trading update covering the 19 weeks to 10th May, Barratt Developments has reported that visitor and reservation rates have risen as the Spring selling season gets underway. Cancellation rates averaged approximately 16% for the period, compared to 25.7% a year earlier. Visitor levels per site for the 19 week period were down 6% [...]
Property developer Barratt Homes has followed rival Redrow in reporting a substantial loss for 2008. The company blames falling property prices, a shortage of mortgage funding and writedowns on the value of its land bank for a pre-tax loss of £592.4 million, compared with a profit of £192.4 million in 2007. The group’s average selling [...]
Barratt Developments is less than optimistic about the future direction of UK property prices. According to reports in The Telegraph and Daily Mail, the housebuilder is offering a huge discount to property investors who are prepared to buy five or more flats or houses from its Yorkshire East division. This week, Nationwide reported that UK [...]
Housebuilder Barratt Developments has announced a range of sales incentives. The company’s pre-tax profit fell by 68% in the six months to the end of June as unsold stock languished on its books. In an effort to tackle the lack of confidence in the property market that is keeping its showroom carpets pristine, the builder [...]
Gender directive could slash men’s annuity payouts
The EU Gender Directive, which came into force today, could see men losing up to £10,000 from their annuity payouts, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Under the new rules insurers are no longer allowed to take gender into account when setting annuity rates and premiums on insurance products. Men previously enjoyed higher annuity rates than [...]
Home rental costs down in November
The cost of renting a house in England and Wales fell by 0.4 per cent in November, its first dip since March, according to a survey by LSL Property Services. Average rent was £741m during the month, returning to the level seen in September. However, it was 3.4 per higher than in November last year. [...]
Lloyds TSB halts sale of packaged accounts in branches
Lloyds TSB will stop selling packaged account in its branches from 1 January 2013, until its sales procedures are brought into line with those operated by sister bank The Halifax. Lloyds TSB is one of the main providers of packaged accounts in Britain, with around one in three of its customers choosing to pay fees [...]
Housing market recovery to continue next year
Recent improvements in the housing market should continue into next year, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Gross lending is estimated to have increased to £12.9 billion in November, helped by the Funding for Lending scheme which provides banks and building societies with lower-cost funding, which they are then supposed to pass on [...]
Newcastle Building Society exits interest-only mortgages
Newcastle Building Society has stopped offering interest-only mortgages to new borrowers, following the lead of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide, Co-operative bank and Coventry Building Society. The decision will not affect existing Newcastle customers and applications for interest-only mortgages received before 14 December will still be processed. Prior to the credit crunch, interest-only mortgages [...]
Less than half of Brits considered creditworthy
Fifty-seven per cent of UK adults are at risk of having an application for credit turned down by a mainstream lender according to a new report. The ‘Mind the Credit Gap‘ report commissioned by aqua credit cards suggests that even people with a good credit rating and earning more than £50,000 could have a credit [...]
Monthly incomes £22 lower in 2012
The average monthly income of UK households fell by £22 in real terms compared with last year, according to a survey carried out for the Bank of England (BoE) by NMG Consulting. People on lower incomes have seen their income eroded more than higher earners and households still have high levels of debt the BoE [...]
Savers dig deep to fund Christmas
New research from the Halifax suggests that savers are funding their Christmas spending with money set aside for other purposes. Thirty-seven per cent of 2,138 savers surveyed by the bank at the end of November had withdrawn savings in the last three months. The average amount withdrawn was £1,186, more than double the average savings [...]
Financial data at risk from unsafe passwords
According to a survey by the Payments Council the problem of having to remember a different password for several accounts means that many internet users are compromising the security of their financial data. Internet users have 22 password-protected accounts on average and many use the same log-in details for more than one account, even though [...]
Wonga launches Paylater loans on retailer website
Payday loan company Wonga has launched a new Paylater service on furniture firm Cotswold Company’s website. The service, which allows customers to “buy now, pay later” will be introduced on other retailers’ sites in the near future. Although the Paylater branding is similar to Wonga’s, the Wonga name only appears in the small print. A [...]
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