Good morning.
Last night the industry came together to celebrate the 17th annual EG Awards. Find out who won what here.
Meanwhile, winners and losers are emerging in the world of BTR, as a “mystery shopping” investigation reveals a chasm in service and quality between the best and worst of the UK’s biggest build-to-rent schemes. While some have “real wow factor”, others just have dirty fridges and mould.
Former housing secretary Robert Jenrick claims he fought with the Treasury to get more cash for cladding(£).
Meanwhile, EG talks to another former housing minister, Mark Prisk, as well as the BPF’s Melanie Leech and Vivienne King, chair of the Shopkeepers’ Campaign, to discuss what the Budget means for property – and the missed opportunities.
Landlords and second-home buyers only narrowly missed being whacked with a stamp duty surcharge(£), which was pulled from the Budget at the last minute. That’s one to look forward to next year, then.
And lenders(£) now say it is a dead cert that the Bank of England will raise interest rates(£) next week, after the chancellor splashed the cash on Wednesday. The expected rise is already being priced into mortgages(£).
Meanwhile, the boom in mortgage lending(£) helped Lloyds Banking Group(£) to double pretax profits to £2bn over the last quarter.
A sharp rise in creditors using court action to recover debts(£) has fuelled fears of a jump in insolvencies.
And Evergrande has narrowly avoided a formal default for a second time this week, making a $47.5m interest payment just hours before the extended deadline.
Florida’s Palm Beach is “sold out, there’s nothing left”, reports The FT (£).
As Halloween approaches, The Times (£) finds out what it’s really like to live in a haunted house.
And finally, trailers for the spooky psychological thriller Last Night in Soho appear to have doubled searches for properties(£) for sale in the central London area. Hopefully those doing the searching are aware that prices have changed somewhat since the swinging 1960s, when the film is set. Back in the sixties the average price of a Soho pad was £4,418. Now it is over £1m, or £4m for a house. Now that is scary.
