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3 Signs Your SME Needs SAP Implementation

By
Elliot Preece
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All SME owners know that the way you do business can change rapidly as your company and brand grows, regardless of what services you provide. Having a larger customer base means having more data to sort, more products to sell, and more transactions to keep track of. SAP, which is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, allows you to oversee every part of your business through one system, and can be used regardless of how small or large your company is.

SMEs and startups can especially benefit from SAP to help them grow and develop over time, and it’s often better to implement the system sooner rather than later. Here are three main signs to look out for when growing your business, which could tell you it’s time to look into getting SAP for your business.

You’re managing too much information across too many forms of software

As your business grows, you’ll have to start dealing with more data and keeping track of larger volumes of product. This makes inputting data even more time-consuming, with more pressure to ensure information is accurate at every stage. You may even have to update systems, or install more software in order to keep track of the growing demands of your business. If you and your staff are using multiple systems to record, track, and process information, it may be time to start thinking about implementing SAP software.

Using more than one system can make the overall running of your business time-consuming, as you may need to input information multiple times for each programme in use. This doubles the amount of work for your business, as work is often duplicated across each unit of business. Having various systems means that your business doesn’t run as smoothly as it could, and can even lead to inaccuracies if information is inputted incorrectly at each stage.

Investing in SAP software, however, can take this struggle away, as it integrates all the systems you need in order to keep your business running smoothly. As Eursap explain, the latest update to the software is still “outstanding in real-time analytics, simulation, and being able to handle multiple dimensions at the same time”. As all information is stored on a single database, you’ll be able to see accurate data at each stage, which can free up time to allow you to work on other aspects of your business.

Your financial processes are extremely long or complex

Financial and accounting processes are often the first parts of a business that show signs of needing an SAP system. Startups and SMEs often rely on paper invoices and physical records of all sales and orders, so you may have to dedicate a large chunk of time inputting the information into various accounting softwares. Having multiple systems also increases the chances of your finances being mismanaged, which can wreak havoc on your business. A lack of financial control can lead to potential cash-flow problems and incomplete forecasting and projections, which can stop you from taking advantage of potential opportunities to grow.

Accounting software has been a core category for SAP since it was founded in 1972, and the latest update has kept it at its forefront. Eursap’s guide to new features in SAP S/4Hana 1709 explains the key innovations in the area of finance, including the SAP Financial Closing cockpit, which is a core part of the update. This provides transparency throughout the closing cycle of your finances, and improves productivity with automated closing tasks. The update also offers a simpler data model along with improved user experience, which improves productivity, giving you more time to focus on growing your business.

You don’t have easily accessible business intelligence

Entrepreneurs need to have business intelligence in order to analyse data and determine areas for development and growth. If relevant data is collected and analysed correctly, effective business intelligence can give small business owners an advantage over competition. However, gathering data can be difficult if you have a number of different software packages in use within your business. In the best case scenario, it can take hours in order to get the right data to analyse, while in the worst case it can take days.

As the pace of business is faster than ever before, business owners and managers need access to information as quickly as possible in order to make informed decisions about their company’s future. If you find yourself spending time going through all systems and analysing data, it could be time to implement an SAP system. This will ensure that all of your data is in one software package, making it much easier to collate and analyse, and keep you better informed about the current state of your business.

Regardless of the size of your business, you can implement SAP software in order to keep track of business processes, and in order to plan for the future. Effectively using an SAP system can also help you with projections for your business, which can help you grow and develop your business to deal with more customers.

4 Things to Consider Before Taking Out a Personal Loan

By
Elliot Preece
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Since 2008, a growing number of people have started using personal loans to pay for bills and other everyday expenses. In fact, recent statistics show that as much as 40% of young people in the UK now use payday loans, pawnshops or other short-term loans on a regular basis.

Taking out a personal loan can help you manage your short-term financial obligations. However, like all major financial decisions, it’s something that you need to approach with a certain amount of thought and planning.

From repayments to your personal cash needs, there are several things you need to consider before taking out a personal loan. We’ve listed four of these things below, along with tips and tactics to help you borrow effectively, intelligently and affordably.

How much will it really cost?

Personal loans aren’t free — in order to borrow money, you’ll need to pay interest. Before you take out a personal loan, it’s important that you calculate the total amount you’ll need to repay over the course of the monthly installments.

Loan providers like Mr Lender list the total repayable amount online, letting you see the cost of your loan before you borrow money.

It’s never a good idea to take out a loan without a full understanding of how much it will cost to pay back. Take note of the total cost of a personal loan and you’ll be a more informed borrower, making it easier for you to manage the installments and pay it back on time.

Do you meet the loan criteria?

Not just anyone can take out a personal loan. If you want to borrow money, the lender you talk to will want to see that you’re capable of repaying the loan on time. In the UK, this means you’ll need to meet the minimum criteria for a personal loan.

Most lenders will require that you’re a UK resident of 18 years of age or more in order to take out a personal loan. You’ll also need to provide proof of employment and income verification, which proves that you have enough personal cash flow to manage the loan installments.

Loan criteria can vary based on your needs and expectations, meaning you might be eligible to borrow from one lender but not another.

Do you really need it?

Personal loans can be extremely helpful in certain circumstances, but they’re not cheap. This means it’s important to ask yourself if you truly need to borrow any money before you consider taking out a loan.

If you have enough money in your savings account to pay your bills and immediate expenses, it’s almost always cheaper to use existing cash than a personal loan. If you’re borrowing to pay for a consumer good or other non-essential item, ask yourself if you really need it.

Personal loans are designed for uncommon financial situations and emergencies, not for buying an item you notice in a shop window. If you’re considering taking out a loan on a whim, spend a day or two to consider whether or not you truly need it before you fill out an application.

How will you repay it?

Finally, it’s important to consider how you’re going to pay off the loan. Responsible borrowers understand how much a loan costs and how they’ll repay it, making it much easier to manage the monthly installments.

Before you take out a loan, take note of the monthly installments and plan out how you’re going to pay them off as they become due. The best approach is to prepare a full budget that lists your income and expenses, letting you see exactly how much you’ll have left over every month.

This approach makes repayments easy instead of difficult, saving you from the financial stress that can result from trying to pay off a personal loan without a clear long-term plan in place.

What benefits can you get from trading

By
Elliot Preece
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Let’s face the fact that Forex is blooming as a new profession. Many people are becoming interested in this profession today and many of them are investing their money. Everybody knows that Forex market is the biggest investment market in the world. All of the world’s biggest stock markets are compared nothing when it comes to matching with the Forex market. This is a profitable trading profession that you can do from home and you will never need to leave your home again. The most amazing thing is there is no limit to your success and money in Forex. You have got plenty of opportunities to try and if any of them get hit, you will be the rich trader in Forex. This article is going to tell you what marvelous and wonderful benefits awaits you in Forex. You will find that you have opened a new door of opportunities and you can make a lot of money if you work a little hard.

Financial stability

Those who are trading the Forex market for a long time in the United Kingdom are very rich. All the successful traders have managed to secure their financial freedom just by trading the live asset. But mastering the art of trading is not so easy. You have to learn all the technical and fundamental parameters. Based on that you have to develop a balanced trading system which will help you to place profitable trades in favor of the long-term trend. Once you truly master the art of trading you will never have to look back. You can easily live your life to the full without worrying about your financial needs.

Flexibility in work time

Being a full-time trader, you will be your own boss. You will never have to take orders from the superiors and most importantly you can easily set your trading routine according to your need. You don’t have to stare at your trading platform. Learn from the expert traders in the UK and see how they place trades. Design your trading routine in such a way so that you can have some spare time for your family.

The opportunity to endless profit

It is the best thing that can happen to any man in the world. If you are trading in Forex and you get to click on your luck, you do not have to worry about anything in your life. Your life will be settled and you can enjoy the view of your trees from your won mansions. The best benefit that the only Forex will provide you and no other professions in the world is the opportunity to make endless money. It can also be considered as the business but you have got the chance to make money instantly in your trades. You have got your computer and trends showing in your chart and placing on trade can make you rich. Many people led miserable lives before they started trading in Forex and their lives have changed. If you are disgusted with your office work and you want a raise in your income without telling your boss, this is the right profession for you.

The chances of becoming your own boss

Perhaps the most tempting reason why people choose Forex though it has numerous risks in the market is that of the chance of becoming your own boss. Nobody will shout at you and you will understand how peaceful this is. You can start your own trading account with as small as £10 and can make the profit today.

The blessing of leverage

We are not sure if we should call leverage a blessing as it also loses them money, but it helps the traders to place big trades with their small account. If you are sure of a trend and you want to trade big, leverage trading is the right thing for you.

Amazing tips to trade the short time frame in Forex market

By
Elliot Preece
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Trading can be done in many ways and every trader is different in the Forex market. You need to develop your trading system based on your trading knowledge to become a profitable trader. If you try to make money based on other people’s trading system the chances are very high that you will become the greatest loser. You need to assess your personality, and based on that, you need to pick your desired timeframe to trade the market. It’s true that most professional traders in the United Kingdom will suggest you trade the higher timeframe data but this doesn’t mean that you can’t make any profit in lower time frame trading. However, lower time frame trading is extremely risky and you can’t afford to make mistakes. Most importantly, you need to have precise knowledge about trade management or else you will blow your trading account. Today, we will give you some amazing tips which will help you to become a profitable trader in the shorter time frame.

Use of price action trading strategy

The price action trading system is one of the most reliable trading systems with which to trade the Forex market. It’s nothing but the study of the raw price data to find the most profitable trade setups at the key levels. Some novice traders say that understanding all the basic parameters of the Japanese candlestick pattern is extremely hard but if know the psychology behind the formation of each candlestick, it won’t take much time to master the art of trading. But when you use the price action confirmation signal in the lower timeframe you need to do the multiple time frame analysis to filter out the false trading signals. Doing multiple timeframe analysis will greatly improve your trading performance.

Simple support and resistance level trading

Keeping things simple is one of the key ingredients to becoming a profitable trader. If you get involved in the binary options trading UK community, you will see that most of the successful traders have a very simple trading system. But developing the perfect trading system is not so easy. Most of the time, traders don’t understand the nature of this market. They simply try to trade this market based on their gut feelings. Try to draw the perfect support and resistance level in the higher time frame. Once you have identified the perfect support and resistance level, switch back to the lower time frame and try to look for potential price action confirmation signal. Some retail traders often try to place trade against the long-term existing trend. But betting against the market trend is nothing but a suicide mission. Make sure that you are placing a trade with low-risk exposure.

The golden 2% rule of money management

Risk management is often known as the Holy Grail of the Forex market. Most novice traders lose money due to their aggressive approach to trading. They even risk more than 10% of their trading capital in a single trade. But if you look at the successful traders in the United Kingdom you will be surprised to see their conservative way of trading. They might be trading the lower timeframe, yet they trade this market by following the simple 2% rule of money management. As a retail trader, you will always have to face losing trades and there is nothing you can do to avoid such loss. You have to consider your losing trades as your business costs.

Trading the lower timeframe data is extremely challenging. If you can follow these simple tips you will see that lower timeframe trading is extremely easy. Being a new trader you should never try to trade the market with your real money. Try to gain confidence by using the demo trading account.

Additional Bank Branch Closures Could Result in Almost 100 Lost Jobs

By
Elliot Preece
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"London, UK - April 26, 2011: Group of teenagers are withdrawing cash from Lloyds TSB ATM on London Street. Rear view."

Lloyds Banking Group has recently announced that 49 of its branches throughout the UK will close. The announcement marks the second mass closure of Lloyds retail banking branches, after approximately 100 branches were closed during the middle of 2016.

Lloyds operates retail banks such as Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Bank and Halifax. The company noted that the closures are due to a decline in demand for traditional banking services and an increase in demand for digital banking.

The financial services group has seen a reduction in bank branch visits that has extended over several years — a trend that’s been widely reported in the industry as a whole. The closure of the bank branches could result in the loss of up to 100 jobs.

The company’s branch closures are strategic, aimed at reducing its total retail branch numbers without affecting quality of service for account holders. Lloyds stated that approximately 95% of its account holders will still be within five miles of a local bank branch.

Approximately 90% of customers of Bank of Scotland and Halifax will also be located within five miles of their nearest operational branch.

In a statement, the company said that customers “are increasingly choosing to use digital and mobile channels for their everyday banking needs. As a consequence, the number of customers visiting some of our branches has declined in recent years.”

“Branches remain a key part of the service we offer to customers, and we continue to make significant investment in revitalising our network, shaping it to their needs.”

The bank’s decision to close branches has run into opposition from the Unite union, which has claimed that the closures make it more difficult for many people to access local banking.

Unite national officer Rob MacGregor commented on the closures, stating that many were part of an “unnecessary” bank branch closure programme. MacGregor noted that Lloyds recently returned to profitability and mustn’t “ignore its corporate social responsibilities.”

The closures are part of Lloyds’ long-term strategy to reduce its physical footprint by closing an estimated 400 branches. The company plans to replace many of its bank branches with “micro branches” without counters, staffed with self-service machines instead of employees.

The micro-branches will be staffed by two people to assist with problem solving and provide specific services to customers. Customers will be connected with mortgage advisors through video link, allowing Lloyds to reduce the cost of operating its branches.

Lloyds isn’t the only banking company to cut back on physical branches in recent years. The Royal Bank of Scotland announced earlier this year that it would close up to 158 branches in response to the increase in demand for online banking services among account holders.

HSBC also announced earlier this year that it would close up to 62 additional branches, on top of 55 branches already planned for closure. Other banks to downsize their High Street footprints include the Yorkshire Building Society, which plans to close up to 48 branches.

Up to 2,500 Jobs Lost as Wholesaler P&H Goes Into Administration

By
Elliot Preece
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Motion blur of two men moving boxes in a warehouse.

Palmer & Harvey, one of the UK’s largest grocery and tobacco wholesalers, has entered into administration. The company’s pre-Christmas collapse has resulted in 2,500 redundancies in the immediate term, with up to 900 more potentially lost jobs in the near future.

P&H is one of the UK’s largest grocery and tobacco wholesalers, supplying goods to as many as 90,000 convenience stores and grocery stores throughout the country. Some of P&H’s top customers include Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

In business since 1925, Palmer & Harvey has been a significant part of the British grocery and tobacco industry for almost a century.

The company has faced financial difficulties for some time, with efforts made to strengthen the company’s finances since earlier this year. PricewaterhouseCoopers, working as administrators for P&H creditors, have pointed to poor cash flow as the primary reason for the collapse.

Other reasons for the administration include unsuccessful efforts to bring in outside financing to  fuel the company’s operations. P&H’s collapse comes shortly before the Christmas season — a major retail and grocery shopping period.

Many of P&H’s top customers have contingencies in place after the company’s collapse, with Sainsbury’s and Costcutter already announcing contingency plans to ensure certain products remain in stock.

However, the business’s entrance into administration means that there could potentially be short term shortages of some products supplied by P&H in UK convenience and grocery stores, such as cigarettes.

Prior to administration, P&H employed almost 4,000 people around the UK. The business was the UK’s top supplier of tobacco products, responsible for a large part of brands such as Japan Tobacco International and Imperial Brands’ products supply chain in the UK.

The company had reportedly hoped for a financial restructuring from companies in the tobacco industry, many of whom have previously relied on P&H for wholesale distribution in the UK. As of November 29, however, the company has formally entered into administration.

P&H isn’t the only wholesale grocery company in the UK to face financial difficulties. Brands such as Costcutter are also reportedly under pressure, with weak UK consumer spending a major threat to many retail businesses.

New data from the Office for National Statistics shows that UK household spending growth had slowed to 0.1% in the three months to June. The rate of growth is the slowest on record since the last quarter of 2014.

Weak wage growth has also affected UK retail spending habits, with consumer spending less and household budgets under squeeze.

Earlier this year, P&H entered into talks with several of its top customers, including a proposed extension to existing deals with Tesco that would extend P&H’s contract with the supermarket giant to five years.

However, with the company’s financial collapse, the future of both its confirmed and proposed agreements with customers such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s remains uncertain, as do the 900 jobs that could potentially be lost over the coming months.

SoftBank Seeks Uber Shares, at Steep Discount

By
Elliot Preece
-
San Francisco, USA - June 7, 2016: Outside the headquarters of the ride-sharing company Uber, located at 1455 Market St in San Francisco

Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank Group Corp. is aiming to acquire a large stake in Uber Technologies at a steep discount, reportedly hoping to spend $6 billion to acquire shares in the ride-hailing company at a significant discount from its latest valuation.

Uber, which is currently valued at $69 billion, has had a rough year, dealing with a series of key scandals including a hushed up security breach and a range of sexual harassment lawsuits.

SoftBank, as well as its partners, hopes to acquire as much as $6 billion of stock in Uber with a 30 per cent discount, pricing the ride-hailing company at $48 billion rather than its current $69 billion valuation.

The deal, should it go through, would be one of the largest ever acquisitions of stock in a private company.

SoftBank’s potential partners include firms General Atlantic and Dragoneer Investment Group, a “long-only, growth-oriented public and private” investment group based in San Francisco. Uber’s management has reportedly been responsive to the offer of outside investment from SoftBank.

For Uber’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, a deal with SoftBank could be an opportunity for Uber to raise new funds while gaining a large, powerful supporter to help the company move forward after a tough year.

2017 has been a difficult period for Uber as a company. The company was forced to admit its role in covering up a major security breach that affected over 55 million users and drivers. The company’s previous CEO, Travis Kalanick, also resigned after a workplace culture scandal.

Part of SoftBank’s interest in the deal could be Uber’s negative public image. Kirk Boodry, an analyst at New Street Research, stated in Bloomberg that SoftBank’s deal could be aimed at achieving a price that “builds in all the negative news” about Uber.

Uber has had an extremely challenging year, facing everything from sexual harassment issues to a security breach that cost the company the trust of both its drivers and customers. It’s also currently stuck in a criminal probe over its alleged attempts to spy on its rivals.

The probe recently turned up revelations that Uber’s employees used encrypted messages to “spy” on its competitors without a record of communications. Employees were reportedly told how to destroy “sensitive” messages to reduce the risk of messages leaking to the public.

Uber is alleged to have spied on rival Waymo, formerly the Google Self-Driving Car Project, in a bid to steal corporate trade secrets. Richard Jacobs, Uber’s former corporate surveillance team manager, was one of the most recent members of the company to testify in court.

The ride-hailing company is also facing a multimillion-dollar consumer protection lawsuit over its role in covering up a major security breach. The lawsuit, filed in Washington, could result in fines for the company over its lack of efforts to properly respond to the hacking break-in.

For SoftBank, Uber’s mounting scandals are almost certainly viewed as a liability, but also as an opportunity for the well-known telecommunications giant to acquire shares in fast-growing Uber at a significant discount.

Higher Unemployment and Weak Growth Risks for UK, Warns OECD

By
Amy Richards
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Monitor view over a male shoulder, job search title on the screen, close up. Education, business concept photo

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has warned the UK that higher unemployment and slow economic growth are likely in the future, partly due to economic uncertainty regarding Brexit.

The warning was published as part of the latest OECD economic outlook, which lists economic data and projections for a variety of countries. The OECD data states that UK growth is likely to slow over the next two years from its current rate of 1.5% to as little as 1.1 per cent.

A slow in growth could have significant implications for the UK economy. Currently, the jobless rate is at a record low level of 4.3 per cent across the country. A decline in growth could lead to fewer employment opportunities and an increase in the number of unemployed individuals.

The OECD report also states that falling consumer confidence and a reduction in investment in UK businesses could affect growth, in addition to the “negative impact of uncertainty about the final outcome of Brexit negotiations.”

According to the document, a “modest rise in the unemployment rate” is likely as a result of the slowdown in economic growth. The report states that UK job creation “is losing momentum” as the number of people classified as economically inactive begins to grow.

“Economically inactive” individuals in the UK grew to 8.8 million over the past reporting period — the most significant increase in the last seven years. In the quarter to September, employment was approximately 32 million after a sustained decline from April to June of 2015.

Other financial risks to the UK include a growing level of consumer debt. Combined with fairly stagnant wages and a consistent level of inflation, the report states that this poses a significant risk to the UK’s continued growth and economic stability.

Finally, significant levels of inflation caused by uncertainty over the value of British currency are also to blame for the recent slowdown in economic activity.

The report’s conclusions indicate that Britain will be the only major economic to experience a slowdown in growth for three continuous years. According to the OECD data, Britain will stay alongside Japan as one of the slowest growing of the world’s developed economies.

According to the report, consumer debt is a particularly pressing issue for the UK. With large amounts of consumers owing credit card debts and personal loans, the OECD report states a major default risk in the event that economic conditions continue to slow down.

The report recommends more stringent affordability checks for personal loans and sources of credit to reduce lending risks. Despite this, the Bank of England recently declared that lenders had passed its “stress tests” for coping with a disorderly Brexit.

In response to the potential economic slowdown, the government has taken a series of steps to stimulate economic activity. Philip Hammond introduced a new housing policy aimed at reducing the cost of purchasing property for new buyers — a scheme that’s attracted controversy.

While the UK will likely remain near the end of the pack amongst developed economies over the coming years, economic activity continues to grow in developing countries such as China, India and Vietnam, bringing the global growth forecast to 3.6% for 2017.

Undercover Report Reveals Challenging Work Conditions at Amazon Warehouses

By
Elliot Preece
-
Hagerstown, MD, USA - June 2, 2014: Image of an Amazon packages. Amazon is an online company and is the largest retailer in the world.

Ever since Amazon overtook Wal-Mart as the world’s largest retailer in 2015, things have been on the up and up for the e-commerce giant.

Its founder, Jeff Bezos has gone from a technology industry success story into the richest man in the world, based largely on the value of his Amazon ownership. The company, which Bezos founded in his garage in 1994, has grown tremendously over the past two decades.

However, a new undercover report from the Sunday Mirror reports that the rapid growth of the e-commerce giant may have come at a cost, with difficult conditions for workers in many of the company’s fulfilment centres.

Photographs and video taken by an undercover reporter show Amazon workers falling asleep while standing up at their stations. Workers at many of Amazon’s fulfilment centres are held to strict standards, with some reportedly required to process a parcel every 30 seconds.

Alan Selby, who spent five weeks at the company’s fulfilment centre in Essex, noted that some workers had been rushed out of the warehouse by ambulance after collapsing at work after long shifts and demanding weekly house.

The investigative reported claims that AMazon treats its workers as “expendable commodities”, and that humans are viewed as the least efficient part of the company’s operations.

Employees at the warehouse are reportedly required to work as many as 55 hours a week, with timed toilet breaks and challenging targets for fulfilling orders. Workers, who are paid £8.20 per hour, are required to pack as many as 120 items per hour.

This target is reportedly set to rise to 200 items per hour, further increasing the strain placed on workers at the e-commerce company’s fulfilment centres.

Workers at the Essex centre are reportedly discouraged from sitting during their shifts, which can extend for as long as 10 hours per day. Productivity metrics, such as a worker’s “units per hour” are continually displayed to encourage maximum efficiency.

The undercover report isn’t the first to document difficult conditions for Amazon workers. An earlier report carried out by a BBC reporter, who worked undercover at an Amazon depot for several weeks, found that the company’s drivers were under severe pressure to meet targets.

Drivers reportedly exceeded the speed limit to make deliveries on time, as well as urinating in bottles due to limited time for toilet breaks. Despite these issues, some drivers claimed to find the job “sometimes enjoyable” due to customer satisfaction.

In a statement, Amazon notes that it “provides a safe and positive workplace with competitive pay and benefits from day one.” The e-commerce company is “proud to have created thousands of permanent roles in [its] UK fulfilment centres in recent years.”

“We offer great jobs and a positive environment with opportunities for growth. As with most companies, we expect a certain level of performance.”

“Targets are based on previous performance achieved by our workers. Associates are evaluated over a long period of time as we know a variety of things could impact the ability to meet expectations in any given day or hour.”

London House Prices Climb to 14.5 Times Average Earnings

By
Andrew Mcaffrey
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Typical white stuccoed terraced houses detail in London

London house prices have risen to a new record high, at 14.5 times the average earnings of local residents. New data from Hometrack shows that property in London continues to rise in price, often at a pace that far exceeds earnings growth.

Last year, home prices in the capital earned international attention after research showed that the average London home cost more than 14.2 times the city’s average salary. Prices this year are up even more, increasing the home-price-to-earnings ratio to 14.5.

Property prices have risen in many of Britain’s major cities over the past decade, with areas like Cambridge and Oxford following closely behind London. However, in certain parts of the UK, the average home price has remained relatively steady over the past 15 years.

Property prices in the South East, as well as Liverpool, Newcastle and Liverpool have stayed at the same earnings-to-home-price ratio for the last 15 years. In some cases, housing prices have fallen relative to local salaries.

However, London’s status as an important international business hub and desirable property market have set it apart from the average. The house-price-to-earnings ratio for London is now at its highest level in the last 15 years.

Several factors have contributed to this boom in housing prices. Falling mortgage rates over the past few years have increased buying power for many London residents, resulting in a surge in the cost of residential property.

Other factors include increased buying interest from international residents, many of whom live in London as a second home, as well as a slight decline in real wages across the UK.

Despite this recent growth, analysts believe London’s house prices may not continue to rise at current levels. A recent report in Estate Agent Today states that the London residential property market could potentially underperform as housing prices adjust to match buyer expectations.

Richard Donnell, research and insight director at Hometrack, stated that home unaffordability in London has “reached a record high despite a material slowdown in the rate of house price growth over the last year.”

“Lower housing turnover in the capital has led to a tightening of supply in recent months, which has stabilised house price growth. Even so, the gap between average earnings and house prices in the capital has never been wider.”

Rising property prices are a major cause of concern for low-income households in London, with many properties requiring a deposit of more than £100,000, putting them out of reach of many people on below-average incomes.

In spite of rising property costs relative to salaries, London has fallen slightly in its total cost of living over the last year. Currency fluctuations mean that London now ranks third in global cost of living rankings, behind New York City and Hong Kong.

Other areas of the UK with fast-growing house prices include Birmingham, where properties in the Ladywood area have increased in value by a staggering 17% over the last year, according to data from Barclays.

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