News
Billionaire's property empire collapses as administrators try to sell £500m of London offices
The embattled property empire of well-known, Syrian-born billionaire, Simon Halabi, has suffered a further fall from grace as six of its most expensive London properties are put into administration. Earlier this year, The...
22nd October, 2009 • more >
Base rate decision unanimous
The decision to freeze the base rate of interest at the all time low level of 0.5% was made unanimously, minutes from the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) last meeting have revealed. Minutes from the meeting have also show the decision for the Bank...
21st October, 2009 • more >
Size of bank bailout 'breathtaking'
The Governor of the Bank of England has described the extent of the bailout of the UK's financial institutions as breathtaking. Speaking to members of Scottish business organisations in Edinburgh, Mervyn King said that the banking sector had been...
21st October, 2009 • more >
Landlords express BTL concern
Landlords have expressed concern that new regulation of the buy-to-let sector will increase borrowing costs. Reacting to yesterday's proposals by the FSA, which will bring BTL under regulatory regime, the National Landlords Association (NLA), said...
20th October, 2009 • more >
Property entrepreneur slashes his own pay package
Following a disastrous year for the commercial property market, it has emerged that the chief executive and chairman of property company Heron International Holdings took a hefty cut in his own pay package and dividends. ...
20th October, 2009 • more >
FSA sets out plans to regulate individual brokers and ban self cert
Announcing major reforms for the mortgage market in its review discussion paper, the FSA stated that the new proposals reflected its changed approach to a more “intrusive and interventionist” style of regulation. The key features of the...
20th October, 2009 • more >
Missing adviser may have lost his clients more than £200m
It has been several weeks since City trader and adviser, Nick Levene, was last seen but over thirty of his clients are said to be frantic about what has happened to the millions of pounds they entrusted him with. Total claims have now...
20th October, 2009 • more >
Chief Economist's Weekly Brief 12-10-09
In politics, as in comedy, timing is everything. With the end of the summer recess being marked by MPs returning to Parliament today, political rhetoric is increasingly focused on addressing rising deficits. Withdrawing the fiscal stimulus without...
19th October, 2009 • more >
Sellers in property box seat
The balance of power in the housing market continued to swing towards the seller in October, according to the latest research from Rightmove. Average property asking prices increased by 2.8% over the month, the largest October rise in six years. As...
19th October, 2009 • more >
Chief Economist's Weekly Brief 19-10-09
The Dow Jones breached the 10,000 mark for the first time since October 2008 last week, as positive Q3 company earnings announcements and better than expected retail sales data boosted investor sentiment. The stock market is now...
19th October, 2009 • more >