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Frasers Centrepoint bails out of Arsenal apartment deal

Posted on 1 Oct 2009 | Comments Off

It’s likely to have forfeited its deposit of 10% of the £47m purchase price

FRASERS Centerpoint has pulled out of a £47 million (S$106 million) deal to buy 120 apartments at the site of English football club Arsenal’s old stadium, likely forfeiting its deposit.

Highbury Holdings – a unit of the holding company that owns Arsenal Football Club – has now sold the apartments plus some 25 others for £41.4 million to London & Stamford, an AIM-listed property group.

Reports in February said that Frasers, a unit of listed Fraser & Neave, had put down a 10 per cent non-refundable deposit for flats in the Highbury Square project but was unwilling to pay the rest in full upfront.

It instead proposed to pay the sum, reportedly £15 million, on a deferred schedule but the offer was blocked by one of the club’s banks.

Frasers yesterday said that it was ‘pleased’ the units had been sold. ‘The price achieved is a clear indication that the market has turned in London and that there is significant interest from investors in acquiring prime London property,’ a spokeswoman told BT. ‘Our decision not to complete enables us to focus on our existing property portfolio and our direct development projects in London.’ Continue reading →

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Posted in Developers, Overseas Property

Tagged Frasers Centrepoint, Highbury Square, London Property, UK Property

UK mortgage approvals up 81.4% in Aug

Posted on 24 Sep 2009 | Comments Off

But consumer credit and demand for re-mortgaging remains subdued

British banks approved 81.4 per cent more home purchase loans in August than the same month a year ago but consumer credit and demand for re-mortgaging remained subdued, a survey showed yesterday.

The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) said that 38,095 mortgage applications were approved last month.

That was similar to the 38,186 approved in July but significantly higher than August 2008 when activity in the housing market had almost ground to a halt.

The figures chime with other surveys showing that record low interest rates have helped stabilise Britain’s housing market after sharp price declines last year.

However, BBA director of statistics David Dooks noted that the big banks had picked up market share from smaller lenders and the broader picture may not be so robust.

‘The main high street banks’ mortgage lending has stabilised in a market where other lenders are largely inactive,’ he said. Continue reading →