All articles by Brian Green – Page 24
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Comment
Public sector keeps construction orders afloat
The new orders figures were out today and they hint at a uplift, with the headline figure showing a 2% rise comparing the three months to July with the previous three months.And recently when I speak to people in the industry they seem a bit more optimistic.Sadly any support to ...
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Comment
Halifax sees house prices up 3% from the bottom
The latest figures from Halifax put the price of an average house (not seasonally adjusted) up by 3% on the low they reached in March this year and broadly on a par with the level at the end of last year.This will no doubt help keep alive the hopes that ...
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Comment
Output figures show continued fall in cash flowing into construction
At first sight the latest construction output figures provide some relief. The fall in output in the second quarter of the year estimated to be just 0.5% and there was a slight rise in the output of new work measured in constant prices.But then it is always worth taking a ...
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Comment
CIPS: construction still the sick man of the UK economy
There is nothing remarkable about the latest CIPS construction survey other than the comments, which are somewhat more guarded than those that accompanied last month's data.It found workload in the industry still falling on its measure which registered 47.7 in August against a no change mark of 50.0. This compares ...
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Comment
Why the price of an average house is not going up
Average house prices indexes may be on the rise, but the price of an average house is not.That, unless I very much mistake it, is the message from the latest Hometrack survey, which in August measured the first rise increase in house prices since July 2007.But as is well documented ...
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Comment
GDP figures stick with estimate of 2.2% fall in Q2 construction output
No surprises in the GDP figures out today, after the savage revisions made to the previous quarter.Things aren't quite as bad as first thought. GDP was revised up gently from a drop of 0.8% in the second quarter to a drop of 0.7%. This was down to a more favourable ...
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Comment
Caution rules in house price debate
The latest Nationwide house price survey for August recorded the fourth rise on the trot and puts the average price of a house £12,500 higher than in February. Surely this means the slump is over and the price of houses is back on the way up?Well no, or should I ...
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Comment
£9 billion owed in trade debt to UK's building specialists
It's a risky time to be owed money. Contractors and clients in the property world are falling like flies.So it was quite disturbing to calculate that £9 billion is outstanding in trade debt to the UK's building specialist contractors. And that doesn't include all the specialists involved in civils and ...
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Comment
House building figures show huge jump in starts and completions
There were two big boosts in the numbers released today for house builders.First, the latest Government data on homes built in England are by far the best for more than a year with a massive leap in the quarter to June.Second, gross mortgage lending in July was up 26% on ...
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Comment
Summer sale has started in the housing market, says Rightmove
Today's Rightmove figures showing a drop of 2.2% in the price sellers are asking for their homes provides a reminder of the need to remain cautious about the direction of the housing market.The numbers are obviously being spun to point to the £5,000 drop in prices providing summer bargains to ...
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Comment
RICS survey finds some breathing space before the real storm hits
The surveyors' body RICS found that public sector funding was providing some much needed relief for the construction sector.The shift in the numbers in its construction market survey was quite marked. The balance of firms seeing a decline in workload reduced to -26 from the -45 figure in the first ...
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Comment
Recession deeper than we thought says Bank of England
The recession is proving to be deeper than the Bank of England expected when it previous produced an inflation report in May.That in part explains the extension of the quantitative easing programme that rather surprised many commentators.I have cut and pasted below some words of Bank of England Governor, Merveyn ...
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Comment
Redundancies in construction jump to 170,000 over 12 months
The latest employment figures show a continued shocking rate of redundacies in construction with another 42,000 jobs shed from the industry in the second quarter of this year.That makes a total of 170,000 recorded job losses over the past 12 months.The number of redundancies was slightly down on the previous ...
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Comment
How to stop suicidal bidding: punish the abusers
Let's start with an assertion: Suicidal bidding in construction is not consistent with fair trade and is not in the best interests of the consumer, the client, the industry or the long-term prosperity of the nation.It's a view. It has merit, particularly in the eyes of those who witnessed the ...
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Comment
CML provides further evidence of the housing market becoming more buoyant
The Council of Mortgage Lenders today adds yet more weight to the view that the housing market is in a period of stability if not growth.Its June figures show a 23% increase in the number of home loans over the past month taking the total to a level not seen ...
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Comment
Survey shows widening North-South house price divide
The latest RICS survey out today adds yet more evidence to suggest a widening north-south gap in the housing market.Prices are now rising robustly in the equity-rich, high housing-demand south, while for most of Britain house prices remain on a downward slope. The exception to the north-south split is Scotland, ...
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Comment
Construction trade survey confirms worsening slump
The latest trade survey covering both the contracting and materials sectors underlines both the depth and the rate of decline in the construction sector with pessimism rampant across all sectors.As in all surveys there are glimmers of light and hope. The survey, compiled by the Construction Products Association, showed that ...
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Comment
Forecasters call the bottom of the house price slump
The increasing stretch of stable house prices is leading forecasters to call the bottom of the slump.The Nationwide late last month tentatively said it may be time to think the unthinkable that house prices may exit 2009 higher than they entered it.Last week much was made of the RICS saying ...
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Comment
Ignore those saying new construction orders are on the rise
I feel sure there will be someone penning near euphoric words about the 18% rise in orders in the second quarter, which is the opening line of the statistical bulletin released today.Ignore it.The new orders figures bounce about like a drugged kangaroo at a rave party, only it's tougher to ...
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Comment
RICS: Housing market remains fragile, despite recent improvement
The message from the latest update on the housing market from the surveyors' body RICS is that while the market may have found a clearing it is not out of the woods yet.There has been a torrent of better news on the housing market with both the Nationwide and the ...