All house builders articles – Page 3
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Comment
Construction redundancies remain high while vacancies remain low
As the real business of governing the UK begins to wind up again, the latest employment figures will do little to cheer the incoming government as it prepares to put chalk marks on where deep public sector cuts will be made.The overall figures showed the rise of unemployment continuing above ...
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Comment
Bank figures provide more jitters for the housing market
The latest data on mortage lending from the Bank of England will do little to steady the nerves of those in the house building world.The figures show the number of approvals for house purchases on a seasonally adjusted basis has taken a dip in the first quarter of this year.The ...
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Comment
We're back to double-digit growth in house prices, oh dear
House prices are booming again, crack open the champagne!Well maybe not.If I was a house builder reading the latest survey from the Nationwide building society showing a double-digit rise in prices over the past year (see graph) I would be worried.Looking at my short-term prospects, naturally I would be chirpy ...
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Comment
Why construction firms must recruit financial engineers
Financial engineers – you can be forgiven for holding them in total contempt. The finger of guilt for the recession ravaging construction firms points witheringly in their direction.But, galling as it might seem, construction now needs financial engineers more than it needs civil, structural, mechanical or electrical engineers.The tools and ...
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Comment
Why falling mortgages approval are spooking housing market watchers
The latest figures from the Bank of England showing the number of mortgage approvals at a nine month low have caused a bit of a stir and increased talk of a double dip in the housing market.Here’s a few reasons why.There is a historic link between the number of mortgage ...
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Comment
Good news on the planning front – rejections fall and applications for new homes rise
The data published today on planning applications on the face of it should provide house builders and their suppliers with some comfort.The figures show that in the final quarter of last year the number of planning decisions for major residential developments – those with 10 or more homes – rose ...
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Comment
Stamp duty - a tax rise that looks set to win votes
There is obvious glee within the housing market about the prospects of a two-year period free of stamp duty for those first-time buyers who purchase properties worth less than £250,000.The £250,000 threshold captures practically all of them, with significantly less than 10% of exceptions that will be mainly resident in ...
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Comment
Housing shortage, what housing shortage?
Few people disagree with the notion that there is a housing shortage in England. It is trotted out both as an argument for more social homes and as an underlying case for ever increasing house prices.I too subscribe to the view that we need to increase and enhance the English, ...
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Comment
Fewer redundancy in construction, but the future remains bleak on jobs
For the optimists in the construction industry there is much hope to be gleaned from the latest employment figures.Equally for the pessimists there is plenty within the numbers to fret about.So what should we make of the latest batch of labour market numbers that, among other things, show that 163,000 ...
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Comment
Bulls in the housing futures market turn sheepish
There has been a sharp change of mood among the traders of housing futures who punt large sums on the level of house prices at given years ahead.Traders had turned bullish last autumn and even at the end of the year the Tradition Future HPI was showing a projected ...
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Comment
Forecasts point to a tough and risky road ahead for construction
The latest Experian forecast is out today and it paints a broadly similar, albeit slightly more optimistic, picture to that of the recently released forecast from the Construction Products Association.The main point of departure is on the views towards housing. Here the Experian forecasters are more bullish, if you can ...
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Comment
Residential planning activity bounces back
The latest Government planning data on the face of it supports the view that there has been a bounce in activity within the house building sector.The topline data, released today, for residential planning decision show a fall in the September quarter compared with both the previous quarter and on the ...
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Comment
Why let planning just look like a lottery? Make it one
On the subject of Grant Shapps and John Healey, I attended the Housing Market Intelligence conference last week at which both spoke.I obviously recommend the conference because I have a vested interest in it and indeed the associated report, which I edit. But that is not the point.While the presentation ...
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Comment
How much has the recession cost house builders? um...
During a conversation with a colleague on the recent spate of cash calls by house builders I was quizzed on how much damage the recession had done to their balance sheets.I made a stab (a lucky guess as it turned out), but I should have had a number at my ...
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Comment
House building figures show huge jump in starts and completions
There were two big boosts in the numbers released today for house builders.First, the latest Government data on homes built in England are by far the best for more than a year with a massive leap in the quarter to June.Second, gross mortgage lending in July was up 26% on ...
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Comment
Job vacancies in construction drop to decade low
The latest jobless figures showing a leap of 81,000 people unemployed over the past quarter will come as little surprise to most people in the construction industry. They are seeing life getting tougher by the day, especially those with any links to house building.The major house builders have axed about ...
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Comment
A bad time for house prices to go negative
Nationwide released its latest house price figures today showing the a 1.1 per cent rise over the past 12 months. However, it also revised its forecast for 2008 down from no change to an overall fall.This will please neither estate agents nor house builders as they put Easter behind them ...
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