In the current economic trends it is seen that housing market has been flat in the recent months owing. In February as compared to the previous month the UK house prices were down by 0.9% that cancelled out the rise in the month of January as said by Halifax.
According to Lender part of Lloyds Group of Banking, the year on year prices had dropped by 2.8% in February. Thus the cost of typical home in UK is £162,657. Due to this uncertainty in economic climate the housing market was most likely to weigh down and as said by Lender it is likely to have modest fall in prices in 2011
As reported by Lender the month on month fall counteracts the rise of 0.9% in the property values. However the less stable quarter on quarter trend showed 0.4% decline in the prices.
The housing economist at Halifax Martin Ellis also predicted a decline of 2% in housing prices in 2011, leading to an uncertainty for the sellers. This current trend in the dropping of prices has resulted in emerging of fewer properties in the market in previous months. This is also predicted if the current trend continues it will create a balance between demand and supply and will prevent considerable fall in housing prices
John Lewis to offer first retail saving bonds
UK’s largest chain of departmental stores John Lewis is planning to raise £50m from their customers and staff in order to offer first retail savings bond. The departmental store chain is already offering various financial services to its customers including home insurance and credit card services, however retail savings bond will be first of its kind in the departmental store business.
The company will offer a minimum bond investment of £1,000 that will be offered to more than 1.5 million customers and about 0.7 million employees and staff members. A fixed interested rate will be paid @ 4.5% plus 2% in vouchers. The savings bond will be offered under the same financial services with the name “partnership” bond.
Currently there are no shareholders of the company, as it is owned by its employees. The chairman of John Lewis Partnership, Charlie Mayfield has high expectations from the idea and he aims to reduce its reliance on bank loans through this venture.
The fixed interest rate of 4.5% will be paid in cash for five years with the maximum investment of £10,000. However the additional 2% will be paid through gift vouchers and promotions to increase the business revenue of the departmental stores. The company has already made strong grounds with an exceptional growth of 28% in the retail stores and online shopping.
Bob Diamond gets £6.5m as Bonus
Barclays’ CEO, Bob Diamond receives diamond valued bonus of £6.5m for his exceptional performance in 2010. He led Barclay’s investment banking and wealth management operations that showed remarkable growth and performance. Annual salary of Mr. Diamond is £2.5m and with the banking sector running in saturated condition the bonus is sure to set new standards in the UK banking industry. Barclays is one of the four biggest banks in UK and it reported pre-tax profits of £6.07bn for the year 2010. Mr. Diamond has also been blessed with long term incentive award of £2.25m contingent on the future performance and his total pay package for the year 2010 sums up to £9m.
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