Self-employed people could be missing out on a pension boost of more than £90,000 because they have not benefited from employer contributions. A typical employer may contribute £2,232 a year if a person earns an average salary of £26,664 p.a. over an average working life of 41 years, which amounts to £91,512.  However, self-employed workers [...]

New figures showing that the average asking price for a home in Londonhas risen to more than £500,000 for the first time could add to fears of a new house price bubble being fuelled by cheap mortgages and government schemes to boost the market. According to the Rightmove property website, the average price of a house coming on [...]

Canary Wharf Group Plc and Qatar’s sovereign-wealth fund won local-government approval to construct offices and 877 homes in eight buildings at the site of Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA)’s U.K. headquarters near the London Eye Ferris wheel on the River Thames. Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment and the controller of the Canary Wharf financial district [...]

Get rid of your pre-conceptions of London property. London investment property is not just high-end Mayfair or Canary Wharf. If you do your research you can achieve significant return on your investment at a much lower entry level. For instance, property close to the new Crossrail network is forecast for significant growth of circa £5.5 [...]

Pensions: Do you know what you are paying for? Recently, some of our customers have discovered that their pensions were not working for them yet they were paying for the privilege of having a badly managed pension fund. Many of the UK’s pension’s funds have severely under performed in recent years, and many look set [...]

MILLIONS are losing out on a £1billion pensions bonanza because they have lost track of their policies. A shocking quarter of those who have paid into a retirement fund have no idea where it is, a study revealed. Up to five million people could have lost their savings – with pensions brokers or big business [...]

MILLIONS of pensioners in the UK could have their retirement hopes ‘highly damaged’ by new European Union (EU) proposals, an expert has warned. Brussels want businesses to invest extra capital to protect themselves from risks, which could push the deficit for UK pensions funds to £450 billion. The move to ‘Solvency II’ rules could put [...]

Recently we have seen that Portuguese banks have been willing to lend money at more competitive rates than the 6%+ of 2011-2012.  This has seen an influx of foreign investment into the Algarve in particular. Now that rates are around 3% for borrowing, the Algarve investment properties are looking like a more tangible asset to [...]

The proposed single-tier pension could see payments drop by a quarter for millions of low earners. Millions of low earners are likely to see their expected state pension cut by up to a quarter as a result of government plans unveiled earlier this year. According to an in-depth analysis by consultancy Hymans Robertson, the plan [...]

Pension payments that are due today for expats in Cyprus, have been frozen to ensure that money from the UK Government ultimately reaches its intended recipient. The UK Treasury minister Greg Clark has confirmed that payments will resume once the situation becomes clearer, adding that it is possible to change the designated bank account online. [...]