BREAKING NEWS – top 5 stories 24/02/2021
MARCH BUDGET CAN NOT COME SOON ENOUGH FOR HOUSING MARKET
Until Rishi Sunak makes a definitive play on the stamp duty question, nothing is certain, the good thing it is only eight days until certainty washes in. There is now talk of an extension that will mirror the end of pandemic restrictions, a three-month span, six-weeks has also been talked up, as has no extension.
If there is an extension – in truth all it does is creates another cliff edge further down the line, causing much stress and pressure to the housing market.
CONNELLS GROUP MAKE PRE-TAX PROFIT OF £51.8M DESPITE PANDEMIC
Proving that strong management and a successful operation across multiple income streams can turn out a profit in any market, the Connells group despite the volume of actual sales being down, still produced nearly £52M of profit before tax.
David Livesey commented that the result showed their, ‘resilience and ability to react quickly to change, combined with a strong market’ going on to say, ‘we recorded a healthy profit that is marginally ahead of last year, once again showing the strength in our diversified business model.”
DESPITE PROFITS FALLING 30% HSBC FIFTH LARGEST MORTGAGE LENDER
Though as a group undertaking HSBC has recently announced it had made a 5BN loss after tax, its mortgage arm produced just over 10% of all mortgage lending last year, putting it in a strong position entering 2021. This all comes off the back of strategic push in the last five years to increase their positioning in this vertical.
GCE of HSBC Noel Quinn commented, ‘We have had a good start to 2021, and we are cautiously optimistic for the year ahead.’
PROPTECH FUNDING IN UK ACCELERATED IN 2020
A recent analysis has shown that the proptech sector is maturing with regard to inward investment being focused on bigger projects. Globally investment in proptech is a multi-billion-dollar concern, with of course tech now fast becoming the hottest commodity on many share price indexes.
It is estimated that over £6BN is now tied up in the UK property technology real estate sector, a large portion in the commercial real estate side. With new investment keen to push on the digital revolution, fuelled by the Pandemic and the need to trade efficiently, whatever the market conditions provided.
PROPERTY VALUE RISE SHOWS YOU CAN NOT BEAT BRICKS AND MORTAR
As an agent having seen at least three boom and bust cycles, so as always, the devil is in the detail, but recent government figures show that on ‘average’ property prices increased by 8% last year. The average property is now nudging just over £250,000.
Though of course in Newcastle that might buy you a four-bedroom detached, in Chelsea well, let us just say you are going to need eight times as much – £2M and that will not be a four-bedroom detached property for sure.
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