Business Finance Junction – March 2015

First Time Buyers deposits in the UK have increased by 15% in a year to average of almost £30,000, which, according to analysis,  has been driven by lower stamp duty bills. Consequentially, purchase prices for first time buyers have climbed to a new record, showing an average of £160,304, with Londoners putting down an on-average deposit of £73,711, compared to Wales at £7,032.

Oxford is the most unaffordable place to buy a house  with a property-to-price earnings ration that outstrips London according to research.  House prices are 16.1 times the local average annual income compared to 15.7 times in London. The average cost of a house being £426,720 and average earnings of £26,500.  London, Brighton and Reading followed to make the top 5.  Liverpool, Derby, Swansea, Nottingham and Birmingham were the top 5 most affordable places.

January figures showed 100m visitors browsed homes for sale on Rightmove, there were 1.5m pages of property over the month and infighting helped  between Zoopla and OnTheMarket may have helped. OnTheMarket forces agents to make a choice between Rightmove and Zoopla, a restrictive ‘only one-other porthole’ rule.

Aldermore Bank has announced its intention to proceed with an initial public offering (IPO).  Funded in the main by online retail and SME deposits and established in 2009, it has grown from some 50 employees to almost 900 employees and it expects to be eligible for inclusion in FTSE UK indices, with Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank leading the exchange listing.

RBS continues to take the headlines. After a seventh year of straight losses a £421m bonus pot has caught press attention and public outcry. RBS broke the record for the biggest loss in UK corporate history of £24bn and at the time of its bailout had little capital to absorb losses. Now the banks investment side is too expensive and can’t stand alone and is cutting back its presence from 51 countries to 13 (a quarter of the size it was).

Postage Stamp costs  rise at the end of March. First Class is 63p, Second Class 54p, a rise of 1.6% and 1.8% respectively, and Large Letters at 95p will have risen of 2.1% and 74p for Second Class Large Letters have a 1.4% rise.  Parcel costs have been retained at Christmas prices for Second Class small, and there’s a drop for medium size parcels for any who want to send out parcels that will be delivered with a smile, but not necessarily on time.

Image and Article credit: Copyright SUF © 2015