News Archive: 2008

10 October, 2008:

It really is location, location, location

Finding the perfect house is one thing, but finding it in the perfect location is quite another, and many are prepared to pay a premium of £20,000 to secure the ideal spot...

Planning needed for gardens

Whilst this month has seen the relaxation of planning restrictions surrounding home extensions, as TheMoveChannel.com's news story of October 1st reported; planning permission for garden alterations just got a whole lot more complicated...

Credit crunch causes fall of Empire

The ongoing economic crisis that is sweeping the globe has led to Brisbane's iconic high rise city centre project, Empire Square, being scrapped...

New property sites launched

TheMoveChannel.com, the leading international property portal, announces the launch of over 80 country specific property sites...

£2,000 knocked off average home

House prices tumbled for the eight month in a row in September, wiping more than £2,000 from the value of an average home, new figures from the Halifax show...

UAE lending difficulties

Banks in the Middle East are facing lending difficulties over their exposure to the real estate sector, experts are warning...

Turkey's Film Festival

The Golden Orange Film Festival will begin on Friday in Antalya in Turkey with all the stars of Turkish cinema and many from the international scene...

Millionaire's row

New research from Savills shows that Oxfordshire is the county of choice outside of London for buyers with more than £1million to spend on a property...

Mortgage deals removed

Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G), the mortgage lending arm of Lloyds TSB, has withdrawn some of its most competitive mortgage deals...

Pleas to landlords

Sir Philip led a group of retailers in asking landlords to consider pleas for help in the tough economic climate...

Dubai thronging with buyers?

The increased attendance at this year's Cityscape real estate expo in Dubai indicates interest in UAE property is growing, it has been suggested...

Buy-to-let backfires

The buy-to-let boom has blown up in the faces of borrowers who overstretched themselves to climb on to the property ladder, according to debt solution comparison site IVA...

Plundering and gazundering

Strict timeframes for property sales reduce exposure to gazundering, says Cluttons...

New level of volatility

Currency markets reacted to the UK's announcement of bailout measures to help the banking sector and central banks' rate cuts with a volatility that many traders have never experienced before...

Infinity delayed

The iconic Infinity Tower in Dubai is facing an 18 month delay and will not now be completed until 2011, it has been confirmed...

Market won't reach pervious highs

The Government's £500 billion bailout package should help the mortgage market recover stability...

Quality not quantity

Recession proofing measures taken by the overseas property industry is serving to increase the quality of properties available...

New HSBC for Glasgow

HSBC has confirmed that it has taken 18,750 sq ft of space at Premier Property Group's 141 Bothwell Street in Glasgow...

People first, not planning

The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) have today called for the new Mayor to adopt a ‘people first' agenda for planning in London, to secure more human scale homes and development in good quality local environments...

09 October, 2008:

Olympic plans unveiled

The Olympic Delivery Authority and main contractor Lend Lease have revealed the latest look for the London 2012 Olympic village, despite not having the necessary funding secured...

Asian banks copy rate cut

Following on from the interest rate cuts introduced this week by the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve and the Reserve Bank of Australia, two Asian central banks have also cut their rates in a bid to stave off the growing economic crisis...

Rate cut won't impact property market

Despite being much needed and much welcomed, the interest rate cut by the Bank of England is likely to have little impact on the UK property market...

Senator's home for sale

The former estate of Senator John and Cindy McCain is to be sold at auction on October 25th...

Spanish mortgage lending falls by half

The total value of new Spanish mortgage lending in August was down 47 per cent on the same time last year.

Four days for searches

New performance tables have revealed that the national average turnaround for local authority property search is four days...

Russian money reaps rewards

Russians are investing heavily in overseas property buying in the French Riviera, Spain and Central London...

Hole in one in Sicily

Those investing in property on the Italian island of Sicily may find that that golf tourism provides a boost to the value of their investment in the next few years...

Dubai overrun with new projects

Optimistic property developers in the Middle East are unveiling billions of pounds worth of new projects in what is seen as a smokescreen to what is actually happening in the region's markets...

Great catch

fish4, the parent company of www.fish4jobs.co.uk, www.fish4homes.co.uk, www.fish4cars.co.uk and www.fish4holidays.co.uk has today launched its new site, following months of investment, research and redesign...

Feeling empty

The removal of empty rates relief is ‘immoral', according to a senior Tory speaking in the House of Commons...

Left out in the cold

Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander (KSF), the UK arm of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing, has been put into administration by the Government...

Consumer code of practice to come in?

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is conducting a market study into sale and rent-back and is expected to publish it in the next ten days. One of the possible outcomes following the OFT market study could be to point towards a consumer code of practice...

Crazy paving

Paving over your front garden might seem a good idea when you are returning from the supermarket with a boot full of shopping and there's nowhere on the street to park within half a mile...

Tune in for property advice

Homes & Property TV returns to ITV1 for a third series of six fantastic and informative half-hour programmes at 7.30pm on Thursday nights...

Chainsaw massacre in Belgravia

War has broken out in that genteel Belgravia backwater of Kinnerton Street, former home of Prince Charles's mentor, Earl Mountbatten of Burma...

Abandoning far flung dreams

It is a dream of thousands of Brits - to buy a second home in a picturesque spot in France and wile away hot summers converting a dilapidated barn into the perfect home in the sun...

Record price for villa

A villa on St. Barts was recently sold for £22.3 million, which is believed to be a record price for the French West Indies resort, according to the Herald Tribune in New York...

Pain in Spain

Analysts are ridiculing a new index of residential property prices in Spain, which was supposed to bring some clarity to the market...

Keeping it in the family

Research from Halifax Home Insurance shows how Britons are increasingly warming up to the idea of recreating the extended family, and living with relatives, rather than immediate next of kin...

08 October, 2008:

Money Talks

It's all happening in the financial markets, with the Bank of England cutting the base rate to 4.5 per cent and Alistair Darling's £500 billion rescue plan...

Green living

British Waterways has unveiled plans to power 45,000 homes with wind and hydro-electric turbines along Britain's historic canals and rivers...

Australia slashes interest rates

In a move designed to boost the ailing Australian economy, the Reserve Bank of Australia has announced that it is slashing interest rates from seven per cent to six per cent...

Special agents

Licencing of estate agents has taken a major step forward with the approval by the board of the National Federation of Property Professionals (NFOPP) for proposals to introduce it for its members...

The land of the free?

Property developers in the US are starting to sell land cheaply and reap tax benefits from selling at a loss, it has been revealed...

600 mortgage products off menu

According to research carried out by Moneyfacts, the personal finance researcher, almost 600 mortgage products were withdrawn from the market last week, making borrowing even more difficult for potential homeowners...

£300 billion wiped off property values

The average value of homes in Britain has been falling by £43.84 every day since the beginning of the year, wiping a staggering £300 billion in value off the housing market since January...

Harry Potter comes to Florida

Good news for property investors: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is set to launch in Universal Orlando Resort in 2009, and will be a further attraction for holidaying Brits...

Ryanair flights to USA for £6

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary announces plans to launch transatlantic services, with ticket prices starting at just £6...

Monte Carlo hit by crunch

The global economic crisis could affect the development of Monte Carlo's multi million pound answer to Dubai, it has been revealed...