Property

The house price predictions for 2011 are mainly for modest 1-2% falls, although a couple of bears expect double digit declines. Nobody expects prices to rocket.

In this guest post, Rick Todd of Expat Investing considers whether buying a property overseas is a good decision, or just a complication on the otherwise blue horizons.

Stamp duty for first-time buyers was scrapped in the budget, provided they contain themselves to spending less than £250,000. Easy, unless you live near London.

First time buyers will pay no stamp duty on houses up to £250,000, but spending £1 million costs more

Funny how one of the world’s richest men understands how young first-time buyers have been impoverished by crazily high house prices.

A frozen chicken would cost £47 if the cost had risen like house prices have since 1971. Does it matter?

All the major UK house price predictions for 2010 in one spot. This way, they can all be wrong in the same boat!

You can’t live in an equity portfolio, however much it helps you sleep at night. Should I follow the rich kids into property?

Price declines have been extreme, and in the medium-term the investment case for commercial property still stands.

I think the time has come to buy commercial property. And almost nobody agrees with me.

Property has bond-like qualities, in that it represents a solid asset that produces an income via rents.

(Image by: magnus) What has the UK government got against young people? Why is it obsessed with pulling up the drawbridge to anyone who’d like to buy a home but who can’t afford (or won’t pay) credit bubble prices? I will declare my interest: I rent, having decided several years ago that housing was too [...]

While many people have made a fortune out of property in the UK over the past few years, some have lost a packet – even as prices continued to rise. These are the so-called ‘Sell-to-Rent’ brigade, who attempt to time the peaks and troughs of the house price cycle by selling their home at the [...]

THE SCENE: A beautiful couple – they might be models fresh from a home shopping catalogue photoshoot – relax in their sixth-floor two-bedroom, two-bathroom, new build apartment. He is in the kitchen area, mixing up mojitos on the island unit. She is on the balcony, gazing across the city landscape (an out-of-focus backdrop of railway [...]

A friend (let’s call him Peter, which is nicer than his real name) has bagged a pay rise from the BBC. Well done Peter. (Incidentally, Peter’s job is to shepherd the flocks of so-called ‘runners’ you find clogging up TV and film sets. If you’re ever at such a media palaver, you can easily spot [...]