Game, set and match for Wimbledon house prices Most of us have more chance of winning a set – well maybe a game – against Andy Murray, than buying a property near the All England Lawn Tennis Club Wimbledon starts in less than a week’s time, and thousands of excitable
13 August 2016 – by David Hatcher The managers of more than £14bn of funds currently frozen to redemptions are considering a co-ordinated reopening. The move comes after Aviva this week said its £1.8bn fund would stay sealed for redemptions for at least six to eight months. Many funds
The British construction industry was pummelled in August, as an infrastructure slowdown added more pain to the struggling sector in the wake of the EU referendum. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said construction output fell by 1.5% in August month on month, in comparison with July’s 0.5% increase, and
Game, set and match for Wimbledon house prices Most of us have more chance of winning a set – well maybe a game – against Andy Murray, than buying a property near the All England Lawn Tennis Club Wimbledon starts in less than a week’s time, and thousands of excitable tennis fans will descend on the All England Lawn Tennis Club in South West London for two weeks, to watch their favourite players fight for the honour of being crowned Wimbledon champion. To get into the spirit of Wimbledon, online estate agents HouseSimple.com has carried out some research looking at the average price of property near to the All England Club, and compared to average prices near to the Australian, US and French Open venues. The figures reveal that average house prices in Wimbledon Village, SW19, which is a short walk from the courts are far and way the highest of all four tournament venues. At more than £1.5m, you’d actually have to win the Wimbledon Championships to be able to afford to buy a property close by. Average property prices in Wimbledon Village currently standing at £1,591,939, compared to £604,932 near Melbourne Park, the Australian Open venue, £466,193 close to the site of the US Open, in Flushing Meadows, and just £459,957 near Roland Garros, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. With this year’s men’s and women’s Wimbledon champions each picking up a cheque for a cool £2m, they wouldn’t get much change if they bought in Wimbledon Village, although average property prices across the whole of SW19, are a little more reasonable at £874,857. But if you think average property prices are eye-watering near to the All England Lawn Tennis Club, HouseSimple also looked into property prices close to some of the few tennis clubs in the UK that have quality grass courts, and you could pay a premium of as much as 282% to live just an overhead smash away. The average price of property near to the Holland Park Lawn Tennis Club is just over £4.34 million; that’s 281.5% more than the average of £1,138,333 for that postcode area. Slightly more affordable, are property prices near to the Halton Tennis Centre, close to Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire. At an average of £642,917, they are 54.6% higher than the £415,783 for the postcode area. The following table reveals average property prices and the price premium you could pay to live near to one of the UK’s lawn tennis clubs. Region Name of tennis club Average property price in postcode area (£) Average property price next to tennis club (£) Price premium (%) London Holland Park Lawn Tennis Club £1,138,333 £4,343,167 281.5% London The Hurlingham Club £1,110,978 £2,694,139 142.5% South East St George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club £752,076 £1,255,083 66.9% London Queen’s Club £1,138,333 £1,140,167 0.2% South East Stoke Park Country Club £346,099 £825,000 138.4% London Roehampton Club £719,965 £732,199 1.7% South East Pit Farm Tennis Club £515,186 £701,944 36.3% South East Halton Tennis Centre £415,783 £642,917 54.6% East Midlands The Leicestershire Tennis and Squash Club £201,336 £305,142 51.6% Alex Gosling, CEO of online estate agents HouseSimple.com comments: “Most of us have more chance of winning a set – well maybe a game – against Andy Murray, than buying a property near the All England Lawn Tennis Club. However, property prices close to the Wimbledon Championships pale in comparison to average prices next to the Holland Park Lawn Tennis Club. Even if you combined the men’s and women’s winners cheques, they still wouldn’t cover the average price of a property in the area.” Image: Yuri Turkov via Shutterstock Source link
13 August 2016 – by David Hatcher The managers of more than £14bn of funds currently frozen to redemptions are considering a co-ordinated reopening. The move comes after Aviva this week said its £1.8bn fund would stay sealed for redemptions for at least six to eight months. Many funds have the same investors and they have raised concerns that whichever fund opens first will be at an unfair disadvantage. The proposal could help stabilise the different vehicles which have been steadily selling assets since their closures in early July. Five funds run by Henderson, Aviva, Colombia Threadneedle, M&G Investments and Standard Life closed to redemptions in the aftermath of the EU referendum. In the days following the vote to leave the EU, the UK’s biggest retail funds were flooded by requests from investors to redeem cash fearing a decline in property values. One fund manager said: “It would be helpful to have some kind of co-ordination under the auspices of the Association of Real Estate Funds. The different fund managers are conferring and the Financial Conduct Authority is being kept informed.” All the content from this weekís magazine, including this article, is available in the new app. Another said: “It is not easy to open again without creating a moment of uncertainty for yourself. You want funds to talk to each other and come up with a sensible solution rather than try to arbitrage each other.” The need to involve the regulator is of particular importance in order to avoid breaching anti-competition regulation. The FCA’s new chief executive Andrew Bailey has already said that the sector “needs to be looked at”. The biggest concern for managers is that if they reopen their funds with insufficient liquidity, there is another rush on redemptions and this erodes confidence in their funds for good. This occurred in Germany following the financial crisis in 2009 and led to the sale of €14bn (£12bn) of assets between 2012 and 2015 and the near disappearance of the industry in the country. “The doomsday scenario is going for the door and then having to shut again – then you are dead in the water,” said another fund manager. Aviva’s plan to remain closed into 2017 has caused dismay among its rivals, some of which believe delaying reopening could tarnish all funds. Source link
The British construction industry was pummelled in August, as an infrastructure slowdown added more pain to the struggling sector in the wake of the EU referendum. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said construction output fell by 1.5% in August month on month, in comparison with July’s 0.5% increase, and against economists’ estimates of 0%. The statistics agency said all new work fell by 1.4%, while repair and maintenance dropped by 1.5%. Year-on-year figures also painted a bleak picture for the industry, with construction going up by 0.2% compared with August last year, which was way below consensus forecasts for a 1.2% jump. A major driver of the slowdown was a fall in infrastructure activity which dropped by 5.1% in August after a 6.1% rise in July. Infrastructure decreased by 9.3% compared to August last year, which the ONS noted marks the sixth consecutive month of year-on-year decreases. Infrastructure accounts for projects such as roads, water, sewage, electricity and railways. A senior statistician at the ONS, Kate Davies, commented: “As the fall this month is led by infrastructure, it seems unlikely that post-referendum uncertainties are having an impact. “Monthly construction data can be quite erratic, though, so we would warn against trying to read too much into one set of figures.” Meanwhile, total new home building fell by 1.3% compared with July, with new public and private housing dropping by 2.1% and 1.2%, respectively. The amount spent on repair and maintenance went down to £3.9 billion in August, which was its lowest level since September 2013. Chief UK and European economist at IHS Markit, Howard Archer, said that the overall contraction in construction activity is likely to weigh down third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Construction output accounts for approximately 5.9% of GDP. However, a ramp up in government spending could help revive the industry. Mr Archer said: “The construction sector will take some heart from Chancellor Philip Hammond prioritising infrastructure and housing initiatives in his fiscal efforts to support the economy.”
