Mortgages cheaper than renting

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Figures have shown that people paying off a mortgage are spending less every month than those renting.

Halifax found that the average mortgage for a three-bedroom house among those recently taken out is 600 per month – more than 100 cheaper than the average monthly rent.

People living in the same type of property but as tenants were paying 716 every month, figures which offer a timely boost for UK mortgages.

Mortgage holders in the capital were paying a tenth less than renters, the figures also showed.

The trend for mortgages being the cheaper option is a reversal on the situation four years ago, when people buying their own home were paying nearly a third more than those renting.

Back in 2008 the mortgage rate on a new deal averaged 5.75%. However, the historic low base rate of 0.5% has put paid to that, taking the average rate to 3.63% in 2011. The same three-year period also saw house prices drop by more than a tenth.

Copyright Press Association 2012

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Clegg calls for tax on mansions

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People who own properties worth more than 2 million should face a mansion tax, the Deputy Prime Minister has said.

Nick Clegg said he wanted to see a new tax introduced on the highest-value homes in the UK property investment market.

He said: “I know the mansion tax is controversial, but who honestly believes it is right that an oligarch pays just double the council tax of an average homeowner even if their house is worth 100 times as much?

“And who seriously thinks we would kill aspiration through a levy on the 0.1% of the population who own 2 million homes?”

The move was among a series of measures proposed by the Liberal Democrat leader as he pledged to support faster tax cuts for low and middle-income earners.

He said he wants Chancellor George Osborne to introduce the planned income tax threshold of 10,000 more quickly than planned.

This will help to relieve the growing pressure on household budgets, Mr Clegg said.

He told the Resolution Foundation think-tank that current plans to gradually raise the allowance over the next few years were no longer enough, as family finances face a “state of emergency”.

Copyright Press Association 2012

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Cape Verde – The Country With No Recession and Huge Tourism Growth !

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Cape Verde is a fantastic place to invest and has seen a huge growth in GDP over the last few years as shown in the chart below :

At the same time the rate at which the country’s GDP is growing is consistently much higher than the UK :

Tourism growth is running at a recent rate of 20% per annum and this is set to continue but even long term growth in tourists runs at 7.2% per annum which is helping keep the country in a continuous state of undersupply and healthy returns for investors in well managed resorts.

In addition Boa Vista is clearly the island everyone wants to be on and it has eaten into market share rapidly as new hotels open with Sal in particular losing out.

Our other blog in January referred to the BBC Radio 4 visit to Cape Verde and Evan Davis’s surprise over the strength of the economy.

Boa Vista island, Cape Verde is a fantastic place to invest in a world of uncertainty.

This news story has come from the Santa Monica Resort development blog.

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