Monday property news update
Infections in retreat, property taxes return and Brexit's big week?
3 minutes to read
Infections in retreat
Covid-19 infections have fallen by 30% during England’s month-long national lockdown and the virus is now in retreat, according to a large-scale study of more than 100,000 volunteers.
The reproductive number of the virus was estimated at 0.88, reinforcing data released on Friday which showed infection numbers were shrinking by up to 2% every day.
Officials will today publish analysis of the health, economic and social impacts of the pandemic and the measures taken to suppress the disease before Tuesday’s vote on the new tiered restrictions. Meanwhile, the UK is on track to become the first country to approve the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, with the aim of delivering the first jabs as soon as December 7.
Property taxes are back in focus
Property taxes are back in focus after last week’s government spending review.
Tom Bill this morning speaks to Mark Hayward, the chief executive of NAEA Propertymark about how tapering might work and how likely an extension to the holiday might be. We talked on Friday about why tapering the SDLT holiday would be a sensible move.
Tom also checks in with Nimesh Shah, CEO of tax advisory specialist Blick Rothenberg, to unpick proposed amendments to capital gains tax. Mr Shah estimates that, under the new proposals, the current take of £10 billion would double to £20 billion, which is about two months’ worth of furlough payments.
The final 'significant' week?
Britain and the European Union are once more heading into a “very significant” week in Brexit negotiations, with fishing now the largest remaining hurdle. The teams were in talks for 12 hours a day at the weekend and discussions will continue today in the hope of reaching a deal this week.
As of this morning, there is just a month to go before the end of the transition period. The government will mark the day by outlining a new plan for paying subsidies to farmers post-Brexit in what it will call the biggest change in farming policy for half a century.
You can read more on Rural markets, from Brexit to HS2 and grouse shooting in Andrew Shirley's latest Rural Update, published this morning.
China's sustained rebound
China’s economic rebound is gathering pace. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 52.1 in November from 51.4 the previous month, the highest since September 2017.
The pick-up was driven by strong domestic demand as consumer sentiment continues to recover, as well as an export boost ahead of the Christmas holiday period.
Meanwhile global stock markets will today cap a record month.
How will property markets perform in 2021?
This is the subject of our two end of year webinars the Knight Frank research team are hosting tomorrow and on Wednesday.
Tomorrow’s edition at 12:30 will focus on the prospects for the UK. We will take a deep dive into the future of the office, the housing market and also confirm which investment sectors to watch next year.
Wednesday’s edition at 09:00 will look at global trends with a focus on US markets, Asian investor priorities and the outlook for global markets.
Click here to register.
In other news...
Luxury e-commerce wars heat up, Amazon goes on a hiring spree without equal, Expats return to Dublin to find a transformed property market, remote work: how are you feeling? The EU pitches new post-Trump alliance with US, Farmers are facing an unclear future after Brexit, the UK secures two million more doses of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine, and finally, first-time buyers boost as ban lifted on deposits from Bank of Mum and Dad.