Category Archives: Housing market

Evergrande lenders appoint receiver to seize Hong Kong HQ – sources

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Crisis at debt-laden Chinese property developer deepens in wake of default last year and failure to sell building

Lenders to the struggling Chinese developer Evergrande Group have appointed a receiver to seize its Hong Kong headquarters, two sources have said, as the world’s most indebted developer struggles to emerge from its debt crisis.

Evergrande is saddled with more than $300bn (£260bn) in liabilities and has been kept alive by a government-run rescue operation since it defaulted on $22.7bn of overseas debts in December last year.

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Australian property prices tumble at rates not seen since GFC

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Interest rate rises lead to dwelling values falling for third month in a row with Sydney prices down 5.2% since January

Australia’s property prices are falling at rates comparable to the onset of the global financial crisis or the 1980s downturn as higher interest rates deflate demand. Sydney’s drop, though, is already more precipitous than those earlier eras.

In July alone, dwelling values fell 1.3% on average nationally, marking a third consecutive monthly decline according to CoreLogic, a property data firm. Five of the nation’s eight capitals reported falls, with Sydney down 2.2% and Melbourne retreating 1.5% while prices in Brisbane, Canberra and Hobart were also starting to slide.

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Average UK house prices face slowdown despite hitting record high

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Weakening economy, cost-of-living squeeze and rising interest rates are cooling market, index shows

Annual house price gains across the UK have slowed for a third month as the weakening economy, cost of living squeeze and rising interest rates started to have an impact on the property market.

The average UK house price hit a new record high of £271,613, but there are “tentative signs of a slowdown,” Nationwide building society said.

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‘We’ve been inundated’: UK housing market frenzy shows no signs of slowing

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Buyers face bidding wars to snare homes despite soaring inflation, cost of living crisis and fears of property crash

It took less than a week to sell a two-bedroom garden flat in north London, with a guide price of £950,000. Featuring a large patio, garden, oak floorboards and underfloor heating, it is in a mixed area on the outskirts of Islington and Camden.

“We’ve been inundated with people wanting to see it,” says Andrew Groocock, a regional partner at the estate agents Knight Frank, which helped organise 23 viewings. “It ticks the boxes of exactly what’s hot in the market at the moment. It’s still an incredibly buoyant market. The last two years have been remarkable.”

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No-fault evictions: 200,000 renters in England served notices in three years

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Shelter says a private tenant is handed notice every seven minutes despite government promise to ban practice in April 2019

More than 200,000 private renters have been served eviction notices without doing anything wrong in the three years since the government first promised to ban the practice, housing campaigners have claimed.

Every seven minutes a tenant has been landed with a no-fault eviction notice since Theresa May’s Conservative government first committed to scrap them in April 2019, according to research by Shelter, the housing charity.

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Average house price in Great Britain exceeds £350,000 for first time

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Asking prices up 1.7% in March, biggest monthly rise for this time of year in 18 years, according to Rightmove

The average price tag on a home in Great Britain has topped £350,000 for the first time, according to Rightmove.

Typical asking prices hit £354,564 in March, up 1.7% or £5,760 compared with February, the property website said. It was the biggest monthly rise for this time of year in 18 years, and pushed the annual rate of growth in asking prices to 10.4%.

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Boomerang boomers: the over-50s moving back in with their parents

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Financial and relationship woes caused by Covid in the UK are driving a rise in older people returning to live with family

The Covid pandemic has led to growing numbers of baby boomers in Britain moving back in with their elderly parents, experts have said.

The reasons are varied, from the positive – grown-up children ensuring their parents had care and company during lockdowns – to the negative, including financial and relationship breakdowns.

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‘Eerie silence’ as Evergrande misses payment deadline

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As debt-laden Chinese property giant enters 30-day grace period, officials look to limit unrest and job losses

The embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande is inching closer to the potential default that investors fear, after missing an interest payment deadline.

The company, which has total debts of about $305bn (£222bn), has run short of cash, and investors are worried that a collapse could pose systemic risks to China’s financial system and reverberate around the world.

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Shares in China’s Evergrande plunge again as fears of contagion grow

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Hong Kong stock fell almost 17% amid default fears that are beginning to have a knock-on effect on other markets

Shares in the embattled Chinese property company Evergrande have plunged 17% as investors weigh up whether the group’s massive debt problems could trigger a broader sell off across all financial markets.

Related: ‘China’s Lehman Brothers moment’: Evergrande crisis rattles economy

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Chinese tycoon gets go-ahead to build vast central London ‘palace’

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Westminster council unable to block Cheung Chung-kiu’s grand plans for Knightsbridge property despite ban on “Monopoly board-style” homes

A Chinese billionaire has been granted planning permission to construct an eight-storey, 5,760-sq metre (62,000-sq-ft) private palace overlooking Hyde Park, central London.

Westminster city council granted Cheung Chung-kiu, a Hong Kong-based property tycoon, permission to partly demolish and reconstruct 2-8A Rutland Gate, in Knightsbridge, in order to create his vast new home, which experts said could be worth up to £500m when completed.

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House asking prices hit record levels across Great Britain

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Rightmove data shows largest June increase since 2015 but economists suggest Covid boom may be fading

House asking prices have hit record levels across every region of Great Britain, according to latest figures, although some experts have questioned whether the pandemic boom is finally starting to wane.

The price of properties coming to market rose by 0.8% month on month in June to a third consecutive record of £336,073, according to data from Rightmove, a property listings website.

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‘Real thuggery’: Cornwall boats vandalised amid ‘incomer’ tensions

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Some blame new residents and second-home owners not keen on sight and sounds of ‘local’ vessels

The spot could hardly be more idyllic. A Cornish creek fringed by apple trees where boats bob at high tide and dogs and children frolic in the mud at low.

But there is trouble in the parish of Feock after a string of acts of vandalism aimed at those bobbing boats led to a wave of anger, fear and suspicion.

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A year of Covid crisis: a glimmer of economic hope at the end of the tunnel

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Twelve months after the pandemic struck the Guardian’s economic tracker reveals real risk of lasting damage

When Boris Johnson announced the first stay-at-home order, effectively shutting down whole sections of the economy, it was hoped the tide could be turned within 12 weeks. As many months later, lockdown measures are being relaxed for a third time and Britain still faces a lengthy road to recovery from the worst recession for 300 years.

As restrictions ease, the chief economist at the Bank of England, Andy Haldane, warned that despite the reopening of the economy, the risk of a “jobs equivalent of long Covid” remains for workers across the country.

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London population set to decline for first time since 1988 – report

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Economic fallout from Covid pandemic and rise of home working likely to spur exodus

London’s population is set to decline for the first time in more than 30 years, driven by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and people reassessing where they live during the crisis, according to a report.

The accountancy firm PwC said the number of people living in the capital could fall by more than 300,000 this year, from a record level of about 9 million in 2020, to as low as 8.7 million. This would end decades of growth with the first annual drop since 1988.

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Super-rich buying up ‘Downton Abbey estates’ to escape pandemic

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Sales of £15m-plus English country homes breaking records as wealthy families ‘recalibrate their priorities’

The world’s super-rich are seeking to escape from coronavirus lockdowns in cities by buying multimillion-pound English country estates to create Downton Abbey lifestyles, complete with butlers, cooks, housekeepers and armies of gardeners.

Estate agents are reporting a surge in sales of vast country estates and former castle properties, which until Covid-19 struck had become increasingly hard to shift as the richest of the rich instead opted to live in luxurious skyscraper penthouses, on tropical islands or superyachts.

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Revealed: Sheikh Khalifa’s £5bn London property empire

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Documents reveal UAE president owns multibillion-pound property portfolio spanning London’s most expensive neighbourhoods

The row of 1960s-built houses with untidy gardens on a quiet cul-de-sac near Richmond upon Thames appears to have little in common with Ecuador’s red-brick embassy in Knightsbridge, where Julian Assange spent seven years in hiding, just across the road from Harrods.

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House for sale in London, good location, overlooks park, a bargain at £185m

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Developer seeks to cash out of investment in John Nash-designed terrace with views of Regent’s Park

Developers have stuck an asking price of £185m on a house overlooking Regent’s Park in central London in what would be the UK’s second most-expensive home purchase.

The property firm Zenprop is targeting foreign billionaires as potential buyers of 1-18 York Terrace East as it seeks to cash out of a 2016 investment.

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Oil price jumps after Gulf of Oman tanker ‘attacks’ – business live

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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as tanker fires send crude prices soaring

Iran hasn’t said who it thinks is responsible for today’s attacks off its coastline.

But on Twitter, foreign minister Javad Zarif has described the attacks as beyond suspicious:

Reported attacks on Japan-related tankers occurred while PM @AbeShinzo was meeting with Ayatollah @khamenei_ir for extensive and friendly talks.

Suspicious doesn't begin to describe what likely transpired this morning.

Iran's proposed Regional Dialogue Forum is imperative.

Here’s the key line from president Rouhani’s speech on Iranian TV:

“Security is of high importance to Iran in the sensitive region of the Persian Gulf, in the Middle East, in Asia and in the whole world. We have always tried to secure peace and stability in the region.”

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