Savills outgoing graduate charity committee has raised a total of £130,000 for Dreams Come True following an incredible year of fundraising activity, which will help grant wishes to terminally ill children and young adults. Savills employees participated in a number of charity events throughout the year including the London Marathon, the Three Peaks Challenge, the organisation of a 100km Arctic Trek due to take place in 2017 and a number of young professional networking evenings. The new committee already has a number of fundraising activities in the pipeline and look forward to raising  money for the charity over the coming year. Mark Ridley, CEO of Savills UK and Europe, comments: “The graduate charity committee has once again done a superb  job raising money for Dreams Come True. Their endless enthusiasm and creativity has encouraged people to generate donations from across the business and beyond. We want to thank them all for their hard work and commitment and would like to wish the best of luck to the new committee for the year ahead.” Source link

The most likely option for the business is the sale of some of its 19 hotels to allow one or more of the brothers to exit the business. Hotel investors have already begun circling the Grange Hotel business in anticipation of a sale. Other options include bringing in new debt to replace its current loans, which totalled £220m as of 31 March 2015. That debt matures in December 2018. It could also look to replace an existing equity source. All the content from this weekís magazine, including this article, is available in the new app. Managing director Tony Matharu said: “As managing director of the company I am always looking for opportunities for growth and shall continue to do so.” The three brothers started the Grange business 25 years ago, converting London offices to hotels. Grange Hotels has 19 properties spread across prime central London, comprising more than 2,000 bedrooms. Trophy assets include the 433-bedroom Grange St Paul’s, EC4, and the 370-bedroom Grange Tower Hill, E1. The brothers have never sold any of their properties. If a sale were to go ahead, sources said it would likely be of some of the smaller assets in the portfolio – such as the 120-bedroom Grange Bracknell in Windsor, Berkshire – which do not fit the company’s luxury profile. The Matharu brothers were included in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune of £862m. The latest accounts for the company show a turn­over of £125.9m and profit of £63m for the year ended 31 March 2015. Source link

Leaving the European Union would hit the UK residential property market with prices likely to be hit significantly and make mortgages more expensive, according to the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. Speaking on national television, he warned that if there is a Brexit, the term used to describe the country leaving the EU, then the values of homes will fall. He also revealed that the Treasury is about to publish a major piece of research on how Brexit would affect that UK economy and that one major issue that emerges is the effect on real estate, ‘You will see the analysis we will do, but I’m pretty clear that there will be a significant hit to the value of people’s homes and to the costs of mortgages. That is one example of the kind of impact, economic impact, that we get from leaving the EU,’ he said on of ITV’s Peston on Sunday politics programme. He has spoken out as the campaigning ahead of the EU referendum on 23 June hots up. The polls have been neck and neck but at the beginning of May an ICM poll put the leave camp slightly ahead at 45% compared to 44% for remain. The warning from Osborne comes as prices have started to ease slightly. The latest Halifax index, just published, shows prices fell by 0.8% in April. The market has been looking healthy recently with data from HMRC showing that sales have risen dramatically from 116,930 in February to 165,480 in March, the highest monthly total since records began in April 2005. While sales in the first three months of 2016 were 32% higher than in the same period last year, much of both the monthly and annual increases is likely to be attributable to a rush to beat the new stamp duty tax rates for buy to let and second homes in April. On top of this the volume of mortgage approvals for house purchases, a leading indicator of completed house sales fell by 2.5% between February and March. This suggests that the number of new buyers seeking to complete ahead of the stamp-duty surcharge had already begun to ease. Approvals, however, were still 15% higher than in March 2015, according to Bank of England, seasonally adjusted figures. Meanwhile, supply remains historically low. New instructions by home sellers fell marginally in March following three consecutive monthly increases. Market conditions remain very tight with stock levels nearly 20% lower than a year ago, at a near historical low, the most up to date monthly report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) shows.   BOOKMARK THIS PAGE (What is this?)      Source link

Category: Construction Industry Today | Subscribe to Construction Industry Today Feed Published Wed, May 25th 2016 Timber frame manufacturer Scotts of Thrapston has used fermacell on a pioneering school build. Posted via Industry Today. Follow us on Twitter @IndustryToday Gypsum fibre dry lining boards from Fermacell have helped a specialist timber frame manufacturer make a promising start in a new sector. Scotts of Thrapston in Northamptonshire have 95 years’ expertise in the equestrian and garden buildings sector but recently decided to try and break into the education sector by supplying modular classroom buildings. They specified 153 of fermacell’s 1200mm x 2400mm x 12.5mm boards for their first such project, Weldon Church of England Primary School, in their home county, and have not looked back since, also using fermacell for another school and an office building. The fermacell panels were used to line the walls and ceilings of a £175,000 replacement for a 20-year-old modular building at Weldon in Corby, where pupil numbers have doubled to 200+ in just over 40 years, and have been used throughout the classroom, a group room, lobby, toilets and storeroom. The 18.5m x 6.5m building, which is also clad in timber and roofed in coated steel profiled panels, was constructed as a flat pack over two weeks at Scotts’ production facility in Thrapston, then transported by truck to Weldon and erected by a team of four men using an all-terrain fork lift truck in just six weeks during term time. Scotts estimate this is just a fraction of the time it would have taken for a traditional bricks and mortar build, saving contractors and therefore clients considerable amounts of money and reducing reliance on good weather. The new, well-insulated building is more than double the size of its predecessor, which even lacked running water, and makes use of full-length windows to maximise natural daylight and reduce the school’s reliance on artificial lighting. The fermacell boards have helped bring the new classroom into the 21st Century in other ways too as a large new wipe board can be hung from the boards without recourse to pattressing which is time consuming and more expensive in terms of materials and labour. Scotts’ business development manager Philip Goldstone said the fermacell boards were specified by them for multiple reasons. “Their density helped from a structural engineers’ point of view and their robustness provides good impact resistance which is essential in this sector,” he said. “From a fire resistance point of view they have a good burn time and they are moisture resistant. But probably most impressive is their racking ability. Their holding strength is such that we don’t have to do any reinforcing. The school can hang its wipe boards and shelving without any damage occurring.” He added: “The other benefit we liked was that the fermacell boards didn’t need skimming. We were just able to join the boards and then paint them. The finish it gives was perfectly acceptable.”  The company had become familiar with fermacell over time but this was the first time they had used the boards. Philip said: “We had had some training from Fermacell so we knew what tools we would need and there were no issues at all. We were perfectly happy working with it.” They have now also been used on the walls and ceilings at Sutton Benger primary school in Chippenham, Wiltshire, which comprises classroom, lobby, storeroom and toilets, and at stone supplier Digby Stone’s new flagship offices in Halesowen, West Midlands. To view Scotts of Thrapston’s video of Weldon Primary School go to http://www.scottsofthrapston.co.uk/page.php?article=1600&name=Scotts+education+buildings+on+film ENDS   Source link

Newcastle Intermediaries has announced today that it has launched a new 2 fixed rate mortgage product which will be available exclusively for re-mortgaging customers. The product is fixed at 1.99% for two years and is available up to 80% LTV, with the ability to overpay by 10% each year, free valuation and legal fees. Steve Carruthers, Head of Mortgage Distribution at Newcastle Intermediaries, had this to say: “The cost of remortgaging can often be a challenge for borrowers each time their mortgage deal expires. This product offers a low fixed rate in an uncertain economy, with the flexibility of overpaying up to 10% each year. The free standard valuation and legal fees means there are some upfront savings to be made too.” Source link

Leeds Building Society has announced that it has expanded its interest only mortgage range with new deals for larger loans of up to £1.25m. The new products include a two year interest only at 1.60% up to 50% LTV, and a 1.70% two year fixed rate part and part interest only mortgage at 1.70% up to 75% LTV. New products come with a free valuation as well as fees assisted legal services for standard remortgages, and a £1,999 fee. The range is aimed at high net worth borrowers wishing to use an interest only mortgage as part of a wider investment strategy, or for home buyers who can expect their future income to rise significantly, such as when they complete professional qualifications. In May 2015 the Society added to its existing interest only mortgages available up to 50% LTV, by introducing part and part mortgages up to 75% LTV, with up to 50% LTV on interest only and the remainder on a capital and repayment basis. Jaedon Green, Director of Product and Distribution, said: “It’s now a year since we launched our part and part mortgages. These won an industry award for product innovation and we continue to improve our criteria. We listened to feedback from intermediaries and improved lending criteria on part and part to accept sale of property as a repayment strategy for the interest only portion of the mortgage. The range is suitable for remortgage and home purchase and offers a choice of fee and incentive combinations. As anticipated when we launched part and part, we’ve seen particularly strong demand for remortgages from homeowners with interest only mortgages. Part and part can help borrowers who’ve yet to make any progress paying down their original interest only loan to start reducing their debt without the payment shock of switching to a full repayment mortgage.” Source link