One in seven homeowners 'to fall into negative equity'
By Harry Wallop and Emma Thelwell
Last Updated: 12:34am BST 31/07/2008
 Have your say  Read comments
About 1.7m homeowners – or one in seven – may fall into negative equity over the next year as the UK housing market deteriorates further, a leading financial body has warned.
Such a figure would match the depths of the 1990s housing crash, which saw an unprecedented number of people in financial misery as a result of house price falls.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=A1YourView&xml=/money/2008/07/30/bcnequity230.xml
Downturn in high street sales is worst since the mid-1980s
By Edmund Conway
Last Updated: 12:33am BST 31/07/2008
The high street is now suffering its worst slump since comparable records began a quarter of a century ago, new figures show.
The pound fell by more than a cent against the dollar after the CBI reported retail activity dropped in July by far more than analysts expected. The business lobby group's distributive trade survey showed a balance of 36pc of companies said sales volumes had weakened since last year.
The balance is the weakest since the survey began in 1986, underlining the scale of the high street slowdown.
advertisement
<script language=javascript src="/core/NetGravity/mpu.js"></script>
<script language=JavaScript src="http://ads.telegraph.co.uk/js.ng/site=business&spaceid=mpu&sz=200x200&sz=240x400&sz=250x250&sz=300x250&ls=f&transactionID=1217592855241&Section=business&view=details&xml=/money/2008/07/30/cnsales130.xml"></script>
<script language=JavaScript src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/pmv.telegraph.tg/business;kw=;cat=business;tile=2;sz=300x250;ord=2008.8.1.12.12.54.0?" type=text/javascript></script>
<script src="http://tags.expo9.exponential.com/tags/telegraphcouk/Business/tags.js" type=text/javascript></script>
In further evidence of the housing market's collapse, every single one of the household goods and furniture retailers reported a drop in annual sales - an unprecedented situation.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/money/2008/07/30/cnsales130.xml
Australia faces worse crisis than America
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
Last Updated: 12:33am BST 31/07/2008
Have your say Read comments
The world's financial storm has swept through Australia and New Zealand this week amid mounting signs of contagion across the Pacific region.
| |
 |
The penny is finally dropping. |
Financial shares were pummelled in Sydney on Tuesday after investor flight forced National Australia Bank (NAB) to slash a £400m bond sale by two thirds.
The retreat comes days after the Melbourne lender shocked the markets by announcing a 90pc write-down on its £550m holdings of US mortgage debt, an admission that it AAA-rated securities are virtually worthless.
In New Zealand, Guardian Trust said it was suspending withdrawals from its mortgage fund owing to "liquidity difficulties in the market".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=A1YourView&xml=/money/2008/07/30/cnoz130.xml |