Belfast estate agent, Philip Johnston has won libel damages over unfounded newspaper claims which may have linked him to a murdered loyalist.
Mr Johnston received an apology from the Sunday World’s publishers in a settlement at the Northern Ireland High Court.
A statement read out in court on Wednesday said the article may have inferred that the estate agent had been involved in paramilitary and other criminal activity.
Mr Johnston’s barrister said: “The defendants unreservedly accept that any such allegations were totally without foundation and should never have been published in the first place.
“The defendants also acknowledge that the allegations were published at a particularly distressing time for Mr Johnston and they unreservedly apologise to him, and have agreed to compensation for the further damage unjustifiably inflicted upon his reputation.”
Mr Johnston said, “I plan to get on w…
Estate agent wins libel case.
Economic growth in Northern Ireland set for 2010
Northern Ireland’s economy is set to grow again in 2010, according to the head of the University of Ulster’s School of Economics.
Mike Smith said he predicted that the Northern Ireland economy would remain fairly flat during 2009 before moderate growth returned next year.
Mr Smith was writing in the latest First Trust Bank Economic Outlook and Business Review.
He said there were now signs that the global downturn may be slackening.
“On the basis of the evidence thus far in 2009, it is not unreasonable to expect a return to positive economic growth here in 2010,” he said.
He said that while some commentators have been vilified when they suggested “green-shoots” of recovery are appearing he believes that there are now signs that the global downturn may be slackening.
“In the US lending between banks has returned to something approaching normal,” he said.
“New housing starts in the US…
Property sales reach 18 month high!
According to new figures from The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) more houses were sold in April than in any month since October 2007.
The average estate agent sold ten properties in April, up from eight in March and a low point of five in August 2008.
Chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, Peter Bolton King, said: “What we are beginning to see now are consistent positive indicators that have held firm or improved since the beginning of the year.
“Six months ago people were talking about how British people’s attitude to owning property had changed in the recession.
“The NAEA always said that this was nonsense, and that demand for property remained strong, but confidence in the market had gone.
”These figures show that this confidence is returning.”…
Up to 35% drop in NI house prices
The University of Ulster Quarterly House Price Index, produced in partnership with the Bank of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive has shown that house prices in Northern Ireland fell by 10.8% in the first three months of this year.
Prices showed a year-on-year drop of 35% in the first quarter of 2009, the University of Ulster survey found.
With an average of £157,000, prices are already back at the pre-property boom levels of early 2006, but experts said prices had not yet reached the bottom.
The volume of transactions remained low, with just 692 sales during January, February and March.
The decline in property values did slow from the 16.6% fall in the last three months of 2008, according to the University of Ulster Quarterly House Price Index, produced in partnership with the Bank of Ireland and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.
A slight cause for optimism for the authors - Professors Alastair Adair and Stanley McGreal a…
Economic recovery in sight?
A new report from the Ulster Bank suggests that the worst of the economic downturn in Northern Ireland has passed.
Although NI’s private sector has seen business activity fall sharply and at a much faster rate than the UK average, there are signs of improvement.
The latest Ulster Bank figures suggest the pace of decline has slowed down.
April’s drop in output was the least marked for eight months and new businesses declined at a much weaker rate, the report states.
The labour market continued to deteriorate, but the number of job losses was less severe than in the six months prior to April.
The bank’s survey of firms - the Purchasing Managers’ Index survey (PMI) - found April had the highest reading for business activity in eight months.
The bank’s economist, Richard Ramsey, said: “A range of indicators, including the PMIs, suggest that the worst is now behind us… the latest survey indicates the hig…
Ulster Bank promises £500m for mortgages
The Ulster Bank, whose parent company is the Royal Bank of Scotland has announced that it will make 500m available for mortgages between now and the year end. The bank will be launching a total of 22 new mortgage products with immediate effect.
The Ulster Bank’s head of products, Derek Wilson, said that ” Our mortgage applications in general have increased by 70% since February, with the number of mortgage offers made by us in April close to April 2007 levels.
The Royal Bank of Scotland was one of a few who received a government bailout last year and have since been criticised for freezing lending. Mr Wilson hopes that this announcement will “shatter the myth” that getting a mortgage is next to impossible.
The new mortgage products will be available to first time buyers, those moving house and those wishing to switch lender, rates will start from 3.09% and will be available at up to 90% of the properties value.…
Consumer confidence up!
Nationwide’s consumer confidence survey recorded the biggest single upturn in nearly two years, as the overall Index rose from 42 points in March to 50 in April.
For full details of the survey, please follow the link below:-
Nationwide Consumer Confidence Index
Help for homeowners.
The government has brought in several new schemes to help those struggling with mortgage repayments.
The latest one, starting on 21 April 2009, allows some home owners who suffer a sharp drop in income to defer up to 70% of their mortgage interest payments, for up to two years.
The Homeowners Mortgage Support Scheme (HMSS) is being supported mainly by lenders in which the government has a big or controlling stake. But most of the other lenders say they will follow this lead anyway with their own borrowers who are in trouble.
People made redundant or who face a significant loss of income will be allowed to defer a proportion of interest payments for up to two years.
They will still have to pay back that money eventually, though. This could help families with one earner who has become redundant, a homeowner who has suffered a significant loss of overtime, or people who have had to take a lower-paid job. The main limit is a mortgage no larger than £400,00…
House sales up 40% in March.
The number of homes sold in the UK jumped by 40% in March from the previous month, according to figures from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
There were 60,000 property sales worth at least £40,000 each, compared with 43,000 in February.
The figures suggest that the slump in home sales seen in the past 18 months may be coming to an end.
Even when the figures are adjusted for seasonal trends, they still show a rise from 54,000 to 61,000, a jump of 13%.
The data is in line with other figures from the Bank of England, which showed that mortgage approvals rose significantly in February after stagnating for six months.
And surveyors have reported a steady rise in the number of enquiries at estate agents from potential home buyers during the past five months.
But mortgage lenders warned that a strong revival in the market soon was unlikely.…
House prices - less than 10% to fall.
The last month has seen the first real encouraging data on the housing market for quite some time, says a report from the centre for economics and business research (cebr).
Both the Halifax and Nationwide price indices have recently seen their first monthly rises since the end of 2007, and mortgage approvals rose to 37,000 in February.
According to the cebr, if mortgage approvals rise to between 60-70,000 per month, this could be enough to offset the impact of “meagre wage settlements and rapidly rising unemployment that will continue to unfold over the course of the year”.
This, they say, could lead to house prices bottoming out by the third quarter of the year.
However, the cebr also say that a more likely scenario is that mortgage approvals will only reach around 50,000 per month by late summer.
Even in these circumstances, though, the cebr’s forecasting models suggest that prices will only fall by a further eight to ten…
