Endowment policy holders with Standard Life have been cheered with double digit returns on their investments for 2006, easing the deficit that many face on their policies.

Standard Life said that the rise in stock markets in 2006 would lead to year-on-year increases on payout. They also said that the growth in fund values would enable them to reduce the number of with profits policies that are subject to punishing exit fees.

Many property experts declared that 2006 would be the end for the current property boom with prices that were no longer sustainable, yet 2006 managed to be another booming year with Nationwide reporting average an average house price increase of 10% or £45 a day.

With 19,000 home repossessions expected in 2007, rising to 20,000 in 2008, the figures presented by the Council of Mortgage Lenders yesterday don't make for the most optimistic property report of 2007. The rise in repossessions in UK have now tripled in 2 years, yet despite this they are still some way from 1991's figures when a massive 75,540 homes were repossessed in a single year.

It has been reported that the number of homes being repossessed rose by 65 per cent in 2006, suggesting higher interest rates are beginning to bite.

More than 17,000 properties were repossessed in 2006, this compares with around 10,000 in 2005.

This dramatic increase means that in 2006 one in every 690 mortgage-holders lost their homes.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) released the figures today stating that it expected the number of repossessions to continue rising steadily to 19,000 in 2007 and 20,000 in 2008.

The Times newspaper has reported that Gulf Finance House, an investment bank based in Bahrain that specialises in real estate property development has announced that it is setting up a new office in London specifically with the aim of buying stakes in British property companies.
The Times says that BFH has hired Joe McGrane, managing director from Royal Bank of Scotland to lead the operation, which will be based in London's West End.
The news comes after a great deal of press speculation that HBOS PLC was getting ready to sell its stake in builder McCarthy & Stone.