British property surveyors called on the Bank of England (BOE) to limit the increase in house prices, joining a chorus of concern about the potential risk of a new boom-bust cycle in the country’s housing market.
The proposal by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is for the central bank to take measures to slow mortgage lending if house price growth exceeds 5 percent a year.
The upturn in Britain’s property market is likely to be high on the agenda of the BOE’s Financial Policy Committee when it meets on Wednesday. The committee is charged with spotting risks in the financial sector and acting to head them off.
Annual house price inflation has already jumped above 5 percent, according to mortgage lender Halifax.
The government says its “Help to Buy” initiative will help first-time buyers get on the property ladder and says activity in the housing market remains far below its pre-crisis peak.
However, critics say the measures will push prices further out of the reach of first-time buyers.
A second, more controversial phase of the plan, which will provide state guarantees for riskier mortgages, is being drawn up by the Treasury ahead of its scheduled launch in January.
“Sending a clear and simple statement to the public that the Bank of England will not tolerate house price rises above 5 percent would help restrict excessive price expectations across the country,” the RICS report said.
“This policy would discourage households from taking on excessive debt out of fear of missing out on a price boom, and discourage lenders from rushing to relax their lending standards as they compete for market share,” it said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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