£1,000,000 • Two storey rear extension and alterations to front facade and fenestration. Change of use from Class Use A4 (Pub) to A1 (Retail) at ground floor and Class Use B1 (Office) at first floor. Refurbishment of existing first floor offices. Creation of 3no. addi
£7,000,000 • Residential development of 92 dwellings including provision for the over-55’s
£1,400,000 • Outline application for erection of 18 dwellings and access road – all other matters reserved
Prime country house prices in England rose by 1.1% in the second quarter of 2014, taking the annual increase in prices to 5.2% over the year to June, the latest index shows.
In means that prime country house prices have now increased for six quarters in a row and are up 5.2% year on year, according to the index from Knight Frank.
The firm pointed out that although still playing catch-up with the prime market in London, where prices increased by 7.8% over the year to May, this is the strongest rate of annual growth in the prime country market in four years.
Sales are also increasing with the volume of prime country sales completed in the second quarter some 11% higher than the corresponding period last year. This was driven primarily by the sub £2 million market which accounted for 80% of Knight Frank sales over the three months to June.
The index reports says that the higher volume of sub £2 million sales has contributed to stronger price rises for homes valued below this threshold. While average values of sub-£2 million prime properties rose by 1.3% between April and June, growth in value for houses worth over £2 million was 0.6%.
In the super prime market, that is homes worth over £5 million, values actually fell by 2.3% over the course of the quarter, although they remain 1.2% higher on an annual basis.
While there are indications that buyers have started to factor the higher 7% stamp duty charge for £2 million plus properties into decisions, fresh uncertainty surrounding the possible introduction and form of a mansion tax has contributed to lower price growth for homes worth £2 million and more.
On a regional basis, the Home Counties and South West markets have continued to benefit most from the London ripple effect, with house price growth spreading outwards from central London.
Additionally, these markets are being boosted by the return of London buyers. This is reflected in country hotspots, many of which are close or within commuting distance of the Capital. Prices of prime property in Winchester and Cobham rose by 2.6% in the second quarter, while prices in Virginia Water were 2.5% higher and in Oxford values climbed by 1.8%.
Looking to the future, there are signs momentum may be slowing slightly. While the number of property viewings was fairly steady during the three months to June compared to the same period last year, the number of prospective buyers registering their interest in buying a prime country home fell by 2%, the report also says.
‘After little or no price growth for a couple of years, the increased activity in the country market is slowly filtering through to price growth,’ said Rupert Sweeting, head of Knight Frank Country.
He explained that there are areas that are more active than others with counties like Hampshire seeing a significant increase in sales reflecting renewed confidence from London buyers.
‘The ripples have not reached the far flung…
Cloud computing security firm Alert Logic, which will create 130 highly skilled jobs in Cardiff, has move into temporary offices in the capital
Property prices in Dublin are 22% higher than a year ago and are now growing at a faster rate than at any time since the height of the housing boom, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.
Meanwhile price across the country are up year on year to the end of May by 10.6%, higher than the annual 8.5% increase recorded in May, suggesting that the property market recovery is growing outside of the capital city. This compares to a fall of 1.1% recorded in the 12 months to the end of May 2013.
In Dublin prices were up 4.2% month on month. The price of residential properties in the rest of Ireland rose by 0.6% in May compared with an increase of 0.1% in May of last year. Prices were 1.8% higher than in May 2013.
In Dublin apartment prices were 19.5% higher in May when compared with the same month of 2013 but the CSO said that it should be noted that the sub-indices for apartments are based on low volumes of observed transactions and consequently suffer from greater volatility than other series.
House prices in Dublin are 44.4% lower than at their highest level in early 2007. Apartments in Dublin are 53.4% lower than they were in February 2007. But overall prices in Dublin are still 46.3% lower than at their highest level in February 2007.
The price of properties in the rest of Ireland is 47% lower than their highest level in September 2007 and overall, the national index is 45.1% lower than its highest level in 2007.
Experts do not believe there is a risk of a housing bubble. Conall Mac Coile, chief economist at Davy Stockbrokers pointed out that there is a low number of transactions and a low volume of building starts.
But he added that specific measures to boost sustainable housing starts are needed. Few houses are being built because many building firms were damaged or went out of business during the financial crisis.
Also, existing home owners are currently unwilling to sell. High levels of home loan debt, a legacy of the property bust, mean many households cannot contemplate selling for some time, analysts say.
US, Chinese and Russian buyers were among the most active foreign buyers in Spain in the first quarter of 2014, according to new data from the General Council of Notaries in Spain.
The number of Spanish properties bought by these nationalities increased by 88.9%, 83.1% and 62.6% respectively in the first quarter compared to the same period a year earlier.
Foreign buyers accounted for 19.4% of all Spanish property sales in the first quarter of 2014 and non-residents accounted for 47.9% of these.
The regions seeing the strongest rise in foreign buyers include The Basque Country with an increase of 43.3%, Catalonia up 41.1%), the Balearic Islands up 36.4%, Asturias up 34.8%, Andalucia up 32.5% and the Canary Islands up 23.8%. The number of purchases by foreign buyers in Madrid has also jumped significantly, up by 42.5% year on year.
Foreign property purchases are increasing with British buyers now accounting for 13.8% of all foreign purchases, French buyers account for 10.5%, Russians 8.4%, Germans 7.5% and Belgians 6.9%.
The average price of a property purchased by a foreign buyer continues to fall and currently stands at €1,486 per square meter, a fall of 3.8% year on year.
According to Kate Everett-Allen, head of international residential research at real estate firm Knight Frank, the growing presence of US, Russian and Chinese buyers is a sign that the Golden Investment Visa initiative, introduced in September 2013 may be starting to have an effect.
The scheme, designed to attract non-European Union investors by offering a two year residency permit in return for a €500,000 investment in real estate has already been effective in Portugal but until now there has been little evidence to judge its impact in Spain.
The Notaires report also shows which nationalities pay the most for their Spanish homes. Norway and Sweden came out on top in the first quarter of 2014, paying on average €1,935 per square meter €1,732 per square meter respectively.
Irish buyers paid more than British buyers, although both were around the middle. Romanian and Moroccan buyers paid the least, averaging €800 per square meter and €795 per square meter respectively.
Slow, steady prime house price growth is now fanning out from London with regional markets recording annual price growth for a fourth successive quarter, according to latest analysis from international real estate adviser, Savills.
The UK prime market average rose by 5.7% in the year to the end of June and 3.1% in the first six months of 2014, the Savills prime regional index shows.
Though less than the growth seen in the first quarter, second quarter growth averaged 1.1%, in line with prime London where the rate of price rises has slowed and suggesting that the gap between the two markets may have peaked.
The strongest growth continues to be seen closer to the capital reflecting a displacement of London housing wealth into commuter markets. The prime suburbs have outperformed the capital for the first time since the credit crunch, recording growth of 5.7% in the first six months of 2014, compared to the prime London average of 4.9%.
‘There is now clear evidence that the recovery is taking hold across the UK more widely, with a return to former 2007 peak values still a useful benchmark of that recovery,’ said Lucian Cook, Savills UK head of residential research.
Across the Savills prime regional index values remain on average 5.6% below their former peak, while the outer commuter zone, a ring of up to one hour’s travel distance from the capital, saw a return to peak in the second quarter. However, beyond the commuter zone, prices remain some way below their 2007 peak, despite annual price growth
At the extreme, in Scotland, where the forthcoming independence referendum is causing some uncertainty, particularly amongst buyers from outside Scotland who are key to a full recovery in the high value markets, prices are 21.9% below peak.
The market above £2 million remains more fragile, with the price threshold that resulted from stamp duty increases remaining entrenched. This is evidenced in the prime country house market which recorded quarterly growth of just 0.1%.
‘The recovery in this high value marketplace is hard to generalise, since every property and location is unique. Some properties are selling rapidly, with competition, while others require price adjustments to sell as fragile buyer sentiment remains susceptible to the changing news agenda, in particular the renewed spectre of a mansion tax,’ explained Cook.
The analysis also reflects the fact that buyers continue to favour urban locations. Prime properties in regional cities saw growth of 1.7 % in the three months to the end of June, with annual growth totalling 8.1%.
This compares to quarterly growth of 0.9% for village properties and 0.5% for prime properties in rural locations, and annual growth of 5.3% and 3.3% respectively. Prime cities are now on average just 1.7% below peak, compared to prime rural properties which are 13.5% below.
‘The prime market is responding to…
Over half of all mortgaged residential property in the UK is not covered by any form of protection insurance, it has been revealed.
Nearly 60% of people would rely on savings to cover mortgage repayments if they couldn’t work despite most having £10,000 or less, according to research from life and pensions provider Friends Life.
London has the lowest take up of protection insurance with more than 775,000 homes at risk but overall some six million homes in the UK could be at risk.
The firm says that it highlights the financial tightrope many people are walking when it comes to their largest investment.
‘To find that six million homes are at risk because the owners have no financial safety net protecting them is almost unbelievable. Buying a house is the biggest investment most people will ever make and it’s hard to comprehend why people wouldn’t want to safeguard that,’ said Steve Payne, managing director of UK Protection at Friends Life.
‘It has never been more important for people to be getting advice about protection insurance. Property prices are continuing to rise so a home as an investment is getting more valuable, another reason why protecting it is so important,’ he added.
Home ownership can be protected by life insurance, critical illness cover or income protection. Then should the worst happen and a property owner dies or becomes ill and is unable to work, the pay out from their insurer could be used to cover the cost of their mortgage.
Life insurance continues to be the most popular form of protection. However, only 38% of mortgage payers hold a policy, and take up falls even further for critical illness cover at 14% and income protection at 7%.
Londoners are most at risk with those owning property in the capital least likely to have any kind of protection insurance, despite property prices being the highest in the UK. The survey showed that just 34% have any form of protection insurance, lower than anywhere else in the country. It means owners of more than 775,000 homes in London are unprotected.
‘With the average house price in London now over £450,000, property in the capital is a huge investment. That figure is likely to rise further, yet Londoners do least to protect their greatest asset,’ said Payne.
Residents in Northern Ireland, on the other hand, were more financially savvy with nearly double having some form of life insurance, critical illness cover or income protection.
The UK’s biggest building materials group has been put up for sale just 18 months after its creation.
Building materials giants Lafarge of France and Holcim of Switzerland have announced merger plans that include the sale of the UK company Lafarge Tarmac of which Lafarge owns 50%.
This suits the other joint venture partner, Anglo American, down to the ground because it has long been looking to get out of building materials. To ease the way for a sale of Lafarge Tarmac, Anglo American said that it would sell its half share to Lafarge for £885m (US $1.5bn) in cash. Allowing room for negotiation, and Lafarge/Holcim being more flexible, that puts an approximate price tag of at least £1.6bn on Lafarge Tarmac. The vendors will likely seek a premium on top of this, since a single buyer would have total control of the business, which might be considered more than twice as valuable as a 50% stake. With a control premium, the price could be more like £2bn.
Lafarge and Holcim announced that they were in merger talks in April.
The sale of Lafarge Tarmac is one of a number of remedies that they have now set out in a bid to satisfy competition authorities.
Approximately 20% of the €32bn revenues of the future LafargeHolcim group will be in Europe. To satisfying the European Commission regulators, they are planning to sell:
In other countries the planned disposals are:
Lafarge Tarmac in the UK was created in January 2013. It has 330 sites across the country and 6,600 employees. It provides aggregates, asphalt, cement, readymix concrete, lime and powders and contracting services. It has gross assets of £2.86bn, including goodwill and made a pre-tax loss of £66m in its first year.
Comment: Potential buyers?
UK competition regulators required certain assets to be sold as a condition for the creation of Lafarge Tarmac. This created an opportunity for Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal to enter the cement and concrete business. For £285m, he bought five quarries, a cement plant and 172 readymix concrete plants, among other things, and created Hope Construction Materials. His son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, is chairman of Hope.
While Mr Mittal undoubtedly has the finance and ambition required to acquire Lafarge Tarmac should he wish, it would mean a whole new reorganisation of the entire UK industry.
Breedon Aggregates, created in 2010 by Peter Tom and Simon Vivian, former bosses of Aggregate Industries and Hanson respectively, is also acquisitive and ambitious. While its leadership has the experience to front a deal for Lafarge Tarmac, the £1.5bn price tag is way beyond anything Breedon has countenanced before.
Another prospect is an institutional investor stepping in, rather than a strategic one, with the prospect of further upheaval five years down the line.
Whatever happens, as Sam Cooke sang in another context, a change is gonna come.
Nearly a half of new home sales by Taylor Wimpey are now helped by public subsidy from the taxpayer.
During the first half of 2104, Taylor Wimpey completed 4,755 private homes were private completions. Approximately 2,000 of these were sold with Help to Buy equity loans.
Including housing association jobs and joint ventures, Taylor Wimpey completed 5,766 new homes in the first half of 2014, an 11% increase on the first half of 2013.
Average private sale price was up 9% to £224,000.
Although some build costs are increasing in certain trades and materials, the company said in a trading update, “these are being maintained at manageable levels”. As a consequence, operating profit margin for the first half of 2014 is expected to be 16%, up from 13.1% for the same period last year.
“We believe that the market risk in the short to medium term has reduced in the first half of 2014 due to a general underlying economic improvement, the extension of Help to Buy to 2020 and balanced prudential measures to reduce long term risk,” the board said.
Half-year results will be announced on 30 July.
Infrastructure construction projects account for much of the £6bn of projects that have today been allocated £2bn of support from the government’s local growth fund.
This is the first round of what the government is calling ‘growth deals’. These provide funds to local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), which are partnerships between local authorities and businesses, or projects that benefit the local area and economy. LEPs bid for the money in competition with each other. The government puts in a third of the money; the LEP finds the other two thirds. (It’s an old Heseltine idea.)
The government is planning to put £12bn towards these competitions. Today it has announced the Local Growth Fund for 2015 to 2016, which sets out where the first £2bn is going.
Projects winning backing include more than 150 roads, 150 housing developments and 20 railways stations.
Specifically, they include:
Prime minister David Cameron said: “Growth deals are a crucial part of our long-term plan to secure Britain’s future. For too long our economy has been too London-focused and too centralised. Growth deals will help change all that. They are about firing up our great cities, towns and counties so they can become powerhouses.
“By trusting local people, backing business and investing in infrastructure, skills and housing, we can create thousands of new jobs. And that means more economic security, peace of mind and a brighter future for hardworking people across the country.”
Lord Heseltine, who provided advice on the initiative, said: “In every experience I have had of backing local people, local experience and local initiative the results have seriously exceeded expectations. Today’s announcement is a giant step in the rebalancing of our economy.”
Confederation of British Industries deputy director-general Katja Hall said: “Businesses and local authorities have been working hard to develop their plans for growth and it’s great to see that hard work starting to bear fruit in this announcement. Giving funding to the people best placed to invest it will help unlock the potential of our towns and cities – but this cannot be a one-off.
“Growing our local economies requires bold thinking, big ideas and a commitment to stay the course. We need to stick with what’s working and see all political parties supporting these projects.”
A roofing company has been fined £17,500 after a worker was hospitalised for five days from a fall.
Reactive Roofing (UK) Ltd from Potters Bar was prosecuted by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) after an investigation found that it failed to provide safety measures to protect workers from falls.
A 23-year-old worker from Dagenham was repairing a fragile asbestos cement roof at a business park in Hoddesdon on 3 May 2011 when it gave way beneath him.
He sustained serious fractures to his skull and an eye socket, a fractured wrist, major bruising to his back, a gash to his left leg and cuts to his head which required stitches.
Stevenage Magistrates’ Court heard on Friday (4th July) that workers were relying solely on scaffold boards placed over the fragile asbestos roof sheets while overlaying the roof with wooden frames made of battens and covered in tarpaulin. While installing the final frame, the worker walked across an unprotected area of the roof and it gave way beneath him.
HSE told the court that using scaffold boards in isolation was inherently unsafe as workers would have been at risk during the placement and removal of the boards, as well as during the installation of the wooden frames. This meant that the workers were at risk of falling through the roof at several points during the project.
Reactive Roofing had not fully assessed the risks and should have ensured that suitable equipment, such as platforms, coverings or guard rails was installed.
Reactive Roofing (UK) Ltd of Hatfield Road, Potters Bar, Herts, was fined a total of £17,500 and ordered to pay costs of £7,077 after pleading guilty to two breaches of the Work at Height Regulations 2005.
HSE inspector Paul Hoskins said after the hearing: “Reactive Roofing’s workers were exposed to unacceptable risks of falling from the roof or through the fragile asbestos sheets for several days. Their failures led to a young man being severely injured but could very easily have resulted in a fatality. Simple measures such as using barriers to prevent access to fragile areas or safely installing adequate coverings over the fragile roof sheets would have meant workers were protected.
“It is essential that the hazards associated with working at height are recognised and understood by those carrying out the work. You should never work on a fragile roof without a safe system of work.”
Trades unions have voiced their criticism of the Construction Workers Compensation Scheme for being unilateral, in direct contravention of the recommendations of a committee of MPs.
The House of Commons Scottish affairs select committee, which has done much to shine a light on the scandal over the past couple of years, said that restitution “must not be left just to the companies themselves to determine what this should be, but it must be agreed after negotiations with the relevant trade unions and representatives of blacklisted workers”.
No agreement was reached with the trade unions or representatives of blacklisted workers prior to the scheme’s launch last Friday (4th July). Representatives of the eight companies behind the scheme sought the support of the construction unions but failed to get it. They went ahead with the scheme regardless and determined their own settlement terms.
The High Court case brought on behalf of hundreds of blacklisted workers is scheduled to begin on Thursday this week (10th July).
Ucatt general secretary Steve Murphy said: “Blacklisting companies have ignored MPs and ignored blacklisted workers in launching this scheme. This is simply a cynical gimmick before the High Court case begins.”
The blacklisting construction companies behind the TCWCS are; Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Costain, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska UK and Vinci.
The construction unions also feel that the money on offer is inadequate, given the size of these companies. The maximum pay-out is £4,000 for fast-track applicants, rising to £20,000 to the most affected victims of the Consulting Association blacklist – which ran from 1993 to 2008 years.
To get compensation, victims must drop their legal action. Union leaders are urging members to hold firm, telling them that they are likely to get a bigger sum through the courts.
GMB national officer Justin Bowden said: "To try and present such a grossly inadequate sum of money as meaningful compensation for the devastating damage inflicted on the livelihoods and families of the thousands of people they blacklisted, and for the gross invasion of privacy they committed, suggests they are sorry only that they got caught and saw their corporate reputations dragged through the mud, nothing more.
“These construction companies lied and spied and this is the paltry price they place on 15 years of blacklisting. Their cut price compensation offer is not an act of genuine contrition, it is a PR stunt. Legally represented blacklisted workers are likely to get a much better settlement through the Courts.
“The eight companies between them have a turnover of over £34 billion and pre-tax profits of £1.04 billion, they can afford properly to own up, clean up and pay up."
£1,900,000 • Demolition of the former switchgear building and the erection of 25 dwellings (which include a mix of size, type and tenure), associated landscaping, and with access served off Westwey, Granville and Stavordale Roads (Full)
£6,000,000 • Student accommodation building comprising 128 studio flats, including ancillary communal facilities and retail unit, associated landscaping, car parking and ancillary works.
£500,000 • Warehouse building.
£100,000 • Outline application with access and scale to be considered and all other matters reserved for the demolition of the existing dwelling and erection of two dwellings and formation of new access
£100,000 • Erection of extension to rear following demolition of detached sorting office
£200,000 • Proposed conversion to 4no. 1 bed apartments. Minor external alterations, demolition and extension.
£1,100,000 • Outline application for the erection of 15 dwellings to include access
£800,000 • Proposed warehouse building.
£200,000 • Construction of replacement roof and conversion of hotel to four residential flats
£200,000 • Proposed erection of 3 new dwellings with associated garaging and parking with private amenity spaces all to the side and rear of 21 Castle End Road Maxey
£1,000,000 • Demolition of no 16 & 18 The Drive: erection of two storey building with accommodation in roof and basement comprising 11 two bedroom, 1 one bedroom and 2 three bedroom flats, formation of vehicular access and provision of associated parking.
£1,500,000 • Use of the first to eight floors of the building for residential accommodation (Class C3) comprising 4 x 1 bedroom flats, 11 x 2 bedroom flats and 7 x 3 bedroom flats, reconfiguration of the ground and basement floors to provide retail (Class A1) and rest
£300,000 • Change of use from residential Institution (C2) to dwelling houses (C3) including external alterations and modifications.
£100,000 • Pre-application advice for the erection of two houses
£100,000 • Proposed amalgamation 2x 1 bed flats into one 3 bed flat on the ground floor together with the erection of a single storey ground floor rear extension.
£300,000 • Demolition of single storey retail unit and construction of four storey building comprising 3No. 2 bed and 1No. 1 bed apartment with associated landscaping, cycle parking and refuse provision. (Revised Application).
£100,000 • Single storey extension to indian restaurant kitchen
£100,000 • Two-storey side extension to provide two self contained flats.