Rationality is taking hold in the more mundane parts of the capital, where rich foreign buyers do not tread. Photograph: LondonPhotos/Homer Sykes/Alamy Is the London property market finally about to crack? The country-within-a-country that is London has for years defied the house price falls seen elsewhere in Britain, and as recently as early May surveyors were reporting a "mini boom" in parts of the capital.But the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reports that London, far from defying price falls, is actually leading the way. The ONS, whose data is regarded as more robust than many of the figures put out by the commercial organisations, says prices in London fell by 0.2% in the 12 months to March 2012."The annual decrease in England was driven by ... Continue reading →

Across east london near the Olympic site landlords are attempting to evict tenants and cash-in on the Games, says Shelter. Photograph: Anthony Charlton/AFP Three years ago two junior doctors, both working in East End hospitals, found a flat in a new tower block near the Olympic site in Stratford. They were perfect tenants, professionals who always paid the £1,256 a month rent on time. But in December the letting agent dropped a bombshell. The rent would jump to £1,500 a month – much more than they were expecting. But worse was to come. They were told they would have to pay nearly £2,000 to remain in their flat during this summer's Olympics – or face eviction. The doctors were outraged and refused to pay. But ... Continue reading →

All at sea: What will the future hold for Cyprus if Greece exits the euro? Photograph: Alamy One of the mysteries of the Greek financial crisis is that there are any deposits left in the stricken country's domestic banks. Since 2009, it's estimated that €2-€3bn has been withdrawn from Greek banks every month. The pace has picked up markedly in recent days; on Monday alone €700m was taken out of the banks, and the Greek president told reporters: "The strength of banks is very weak right now."A friend recently returned from a 600km trek across the countryside outside of Athens. Many roadside shops and restaurants were abandoned or locked. Locals were not willing to accept cards. Everything had to be in cash, and she sensed ... Continue reading →

Is babysitting really worth the money parents are expected to pay? Photograph: Sharon Dominick/Getty Images Their acrobatically minded 10-year-old would terrify me as I begged him to stop tightrope-walking the bannister. Their ancient cocker spaniel would poo all over the kitchen floor and I'd clean it up. But as a 16-year-old, I was grateful for my £3 at the end of the evening's babysitting. Thirty years on (OK, 33 years on) and I'm arranging babysitting for a 50th birthday bash. Just two to three hours on a Saturday evening. I offer £30 to a friend's 15-year-old – madly generous, I thought. "Make it £35 and I'll do it," she snapped back.I'm in awe. I cannot believe the inflation rate for babysitting has been 1,000% since ... Continue reading →

1 Your pensionIf you are retiring this year Greece has been very, very, bad news for you. There is an ongoing slow-motion collapse in annuity rates, and this week it got a little worse. When a man aged 65 swaps £100,000 in his pension pot for an annuity – a regular monthly income for the rest of his life – the sum will be just £6,000 a year. That compares with the £14,000 a year that someone retiring in 1990 earned from a savings pot of £100,000. If the pensioners wants to build in 3% a year cost-of-living increases into the annuity, the rate he'll get for that £100,000 will be a paltry £4,150 a year.But why blame Greece? Because the surprise status of the ... Continue reading →

Crack out the bubbly? Despite a Spansih parent group, Santander is not heavily exposed to the eurozone turmoil. Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA Santander is the British high street giant with a Spanish parent group. Will the pain in Spain spread to Britain? Already Twitter is alive with speculation, with customers of the bank wondering what it means for them. We answer the common questions.Should I be worried about Santander?The bank is keen to underline just how much it is ring-fenced from its Spanish operations. Santander's UK operation is wholly-owned by, but autonomous from, Banco Santander. It is authorised and regulated by the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) and a spokesman says it has its own balance sheet, separate from its parent company.He also says 90% of ... Continue reading →

Burger me: McDonald’s is reported to have paid upwards of $100m to be the 'Official Sponsor, Retail Food Services' at the 2012 Games. Photograph: Alamy It was bad luck for the Olympics organisers that their test events last weekend were held on one of the dreariest, greyest, coldest May days most of us can remember. It was even worse luck if you hadn't eaten before you arrived.I was hoping to be impressed by the Olympic Park. Instead, we shivered on the windswept tarmac of one of the thoroughfares (it really is huge), whose architectural inspiration evidently came from a Tesco car park. The queues for everything were enormous. And, after waiting 20 minutes, I parted with £4.80 for two coffees. And none of that fancy ... Continue reading →

Holidaymakers travelling to Europe this summer on budget airlines face soaring fees for taking just a single bag on the plane – and staggering costs if they have to make any changes to their tickets or discover at the airport that their bag weighs too much.Ryanair's new "high season" rate of £70 return for a 20kg bag to go into the hold comes into force in June and lasts to October, with an £80 charge if you're heading to the Canaries, Greece or Cyprus.If you don't book online, but turn up at the airport with your bag, the fee rises to a staggering £130 one way.Meanwhile, passengers on easyJet this summer face a charge of up to £32 for a 20kg suitcase on a return ... Continue reading →

Some London areas have house prices 20% up on the 2007 market high, according to estate agents. Photograph: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images The early 2012 rebound in the housing market has run out of steam, according to Britain's surveyors, who have reported price declines and falling activity across the country in April in the latest evidence of a broader economic slowdown.The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said that 19% more surveyors reported price falls than price rises, while newly agreed sales turned negative and the number of properties on the books of surveyors rose again. RICS blamed the end of the stamp duty holiday on properties below £250,000, adding that "weak economic data has eroded confidence in the market".Only London defied the downturn, with surveyors in ... Continue reading →

The price of a property is just a function of how much finance can be mobilised to pay for it. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Back in 1989 I foolishly bought my first property, a one-bed flat in a miserable part of south London. I borrowed as much as I could, stretching to 4.5 times my income, took the mortgage on an interest-only basis, and put down a deposit of just 5%. Within two years the property's value had fallen by half. As for the "repayment vehicle" I'd set up, a Pep (personal equity plan), I quit paying in after a couple of months anyway.More than two decades later, the door is closing on interest-only mortgages, and probably rightly so. They have been one of the ... Continue reading →