Money

We don't want to use bridging finance as this seems really expensive, but we would be looking to sell the property after we have done the refurbishment - can we get buy-to-let mortgage to do this?

I am in the process of moving a defined benefit pension to another fund with a view to being in control of my money. My question is that I thought when it was moved I could take a chunk of cash 25 per cent tax free leaving the remainder invested? Then I read that for example if I took £20K, £5K would be tax free and £15K taxable, or is this something else that follows later?

Think of it as a secret Batcave of high-end cars, but instead of being concealed beneath the grounds of Wayne Manor it's cocooned by high-rise buildings and the M4 motorway. It's the undercover hub of luxury car franchise HR Owen's VIP Services division that allows those with deep pockets to rent anything from a 600bhp Lamborghini to a swanky Rolls-Royce for a day, week or even months at a time. You can even choose the chauffeur that comes with it. Rob Hull paid it a visit.

Fresh signs of a slowdown in the housing market are expected this week when one of the most highly regarded barometers of the sector is released. The UK Residential Market Survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is seen as one of the best lead indicators of house price movement. It is expected to show a dip in the balance of members reporting house price rises.

Imagine having an unlimited budget to buy a property anywhere in the world. What house would you pick? These homes revealed in exclusive research by property website Rightmove could be yours if money really was no object, including, clockwise from top left, a six-bed house in Australia, a seven-bed villa in Thailand, an eighteen-bedroom mansion in Italy, a ten-bed villa in Morrocco, a six-bed house in Brazil, and a eleven-bed house in California, USA.

Woefully slow broadband is the bane of many households. A recent report from consumer group Which? identified 11 local authorities where broadband speeds do not reach a proposed legal minimum of ten megabits per second. But for many, there is an answer. It is called fibre optic broadband, the latest evolution in broadband technology. Where it is available, prices for this kind of superfast broadband are coming down while speeds are going up.

Equipment that was thrown away as obsolete junk just a few years ago can fetch hundreds - sometimes even thousands - of pounds. Renewed sales of vinyl passed three million for the first time in 25 years this year. Enthusiasts keen to find something suitable to spin their new discs on are turning to old players that were previously just cluttering up the house or collecting dust in the attic.

They may be being nudged out of the family wagon picture by the SUV, but pick a classic junior executive-style saloon and you can't go much wrong. They're usually quite luxurious while neatly balancing decent power and performance with economy. Add in a fair bit of space, lots of kit and often a premium badge, and you have a desirable car that is usually out of reach. But not here. For a budget of £10,000 you could have any of these, our top 10 choices.

A prepayment funeral plan can take much of the worry out of financing a send-off - but almost half the money paid out can be pocketed in administration fees and commission. Someone who puts aside £3,900 - the average cost of a funeral - might end up with just £2,300 to fund it after £1,600 is gobbled up in charges. The provider might then hand over up to £800 of its cash share as payment to a salesman.

Carol Smillie, the former presenter of BBC home makeover show Changing Rooms, has signed a global licence deal with television shopping channel High Street TV for her range of underwear. In 2012, she launched DiaryDoll - women's underwear with a waterproof layer designed to help those with the worry of heavy periods.  When she launched it with TV presenter and former tennis player Annabel Croft, she said: 'We think we have come up with a glamorous product in a very unglamorous sector.'

The figures, which include deals for Belgian Anheuser-Busch InBev's £79bn takeover of brewer SAB Miller and Japan-based Softbank's £23.4bn buyout of technology firm ARM Holdings, are revealed as US giant Vantiv makes a £9bn swoop for payment firm Worldpay. It is sparked a fresh row over UK takeover rules, with MPs warning crucial British companies are being snapped up on the cheap by their foreign rivals.

The organiser of some of Britain's biggest shows, including the House & Garden Festival and Olympia Horse Show, has been put up for sale with a £600 million price tag. The Mail on Sunday understands Clarion's owner, Providence Equity, has hired HSBC and US investment bank Moelis to sound out buyers.

The sheer number of new cars - and fact most people don't have a spare £30,000 to spend on one - means the finance boom won't have escaped many people's notice. But if buyers can't afford it, that's their problem isn't it? So why has the Bank of England joined the list of people worried about all this The clue is that it's not the borrowers it's concerned about, it's the lenders.

House prices fell by £2,125 last month, the equivalent of £70 every day, new figures from Halifax suggest. Activity in the property market has been muted in recent months as a squeeze on household finances and stamp duty curb people's appetite for moving home or investing in buy-to-let

A parent has written to us to ask This Is Money readers whether the cost of a UK university education and the career prospects in post-Brexit Britain mean he should move abroad to study and start a career in Europe.

Over 20 years ago, my parents gave their home to both me and my brother. My mother has now passed away and my father is deceased. What happens with the selling of the property? So we have equal rights and what can I do about my brother changing the locks?

Cuts in payouts to wealthy pensioners should be introduced gradually from 2019, because otherwise the state pension age will have to rise for everyone, argues an academic study. Some form of means-testing of the state pension is necessary to make it affordable for future generations and fairer for those with lower life expectancy, it says.

Whereas five years ago, lenders would look at your income and let you borrow on a multiple of that, now they have to assess whether they think you can afford to repay the loan. You do still have options though. Many of the smaller building societies now specialise in cases just like yours.

The consensus on the US stock market at the moment is that after this strong run over recent times it is now 'expensive' relative to other markets in terms of how the price of shares compares to the earnings of the companies. Many investors both professional and personal see this as being time to cash out to some degree.

An opt-out system - placing business profits straight into a pension - is being pushed for because only one in seven of the UK's 4.8million-strong self-employed workforce is doing this at present. That means many will simply be unable to afford to retire, warns a report by pension giants Aviva and Royal London, which arrives as the Government confirms plans to include self-employed savers in the auto-enrolment system for workers.

To clear the average national household debt of ?13,000 at 6% interest with a monthly repayment of ?100 will take around 17 years. There are, however, plenty of simple ways to make significant savings on your regular spending that could clear your debt - or boost your savings - in less than a year. This is Money's top 50 - updated - money-saving tips may appear light-hearted but are deadly serious.

Choosing the right DIY platform is crucial but a wealth of choice and changes to charges have left many investors scratching their heads. We pick some of the best. We also highlight why investing in an Isa makes sense, as it should protect your hopefully growing investments from tax forever.

The amount you can save into a pension ultimately depends on what you can afford - but the longer you leave it the more you will need to save. We tend to put ambitious targets on our hoped-for income in retirement and then underestimate how much we will need to set aside to achieve that. So how much should you save?

Worries over debt in the economy have been raised in the latest bank Financial Stability Report in the wake of fresh speculation that interest rates may rise sooner than most expect. The latest MPC meeting led one investment bank, Nomura, to suggest a rate rise could come as soon as August. Economist George Buckley said comments from Bank chief economist Andy Haldane's and the 5-3 split made an early move more likely.

Compare your pay to the national average and see whether your employer treated you to a pay rise in line with the the rest of your profession. Farmers, care and air travel assistants were big winners on the pay scales in 2016. Travel agents, careers advisers and probation officers lost out.