Monday newspaper round-up: House prices, second-hand cars, Covid cash

(Sharecast News) - Asking prices for homes coming on to the market in Britain rose by a record 2.3% in February, according to the property website Rightmove. The listing site said it was the biggest monthly increase in the 20 years it has kept records and meant the average advertised cost of a home was up by £7,785, to £348,804. Over the past 12 months, asking prices have gone up by 9.5%. - Guardian

One in five nearly-new cars are now selling at more than their brand-new equivalents, as disruption to supply chains continues to push used cars to record values. The closure of forecourts because of Covid and an ongoing shortage of semiconductors are the main forces behind a major mismatch of supply and demand, which has been worsening over the last few months. The average price of a used car on Auto Trader's marketplace has increased 29% over the last year, according to its latest figures. Average prices are up more than £4,200 in just six months. - Guardian

Almost one in 10 drivers caught out by London's weekend congestion charge have had their fines quashed, new figures reveal. More than 34,000 of the 387,174 penalty charges issued during 2021 have been overturned, according to figures released to The Daily Telegraph after a Freedom of Information request. - Telegraph

Credit Suisse has been rocked by a huge data leak, the latest scandal to engulf the Swiss bank, with fresh accusations that it served some clients who were alleged to be involved in torture and drug trafficking. A leak of accounts belonging to 30,000 of the bank's clients, totalling £80bn, detail funds controlled by corrupt businessmen and politicians. - Telegraph

Britain's motor dealers will together post record annual profits of up to £1 billion in the coming financial reporting season but are refusing to return hundreds of millions of pounds in taxpayer handouts which got them through the pandemic. An investigation by The Times reveals that increasing margins from galloping car price inflation and staff cost-cutting will propel almost all large motor retailers to best-ever profits in 2021, and in some cases all-time records by a wide margin. - The Times