The recession here is a mere mouse-squeak in the roar of fame and infamy that rolls round these megalithic houses.

Blimey. The Telegraph's Caroline McGhie is in Hampstead, visiting a few properties that start at £25m on Courtenay Avenue and The Biships Avenue. Nor - apparently - is it just journalists visiting... the developers say they're getting viewings, and lots of them.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

... makes me reflect on research that came out several years ago about the young professional classes being attracted to more culturally mixed areas, attracted by their ethnic diversity and vibrancy... A visit to London's Hoxton and Shoreditch over the weekend confirmed this view. The run down streets were full of 20 somethings seeking pleasure and experiences all attracted by the places slightly edgy feel... These areas can often provide landlords with some great letting opportunities as properties tend to be cheaper than in more established areas but rents are strong and there is always the potential for more rapid capital appreciation as a result of gentrification.

Something tells me PropertyHawk's not from 'round here... but if he can find some of those cheap Hoxton or Shoreditch properties, I'm all-ears. (Not literally, obviously.)

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

According to X-Factor winner Leona Lewis, not only can you not take Hackney out of the girl, you can't take the girl out of Hackney. According to Virgin music news, she's in the process of buying the flat she's been renting.

Leona said: "We were renting it but the landlord was like, 'You have to get out now.' I talked him into selling it to me. When you're settled it's hard to move."

But why was her landlord about to kick her out? What kind of landlord wants to kick a tenant out when they clearly have the funds to pay the rent? Was this a buy-to-letter in trouble?

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

Following this, the Telegraph goes in search of London's most expensive council house, and finds a £2m Highgate lodge... temporary home to a woman and her 22-year-old son, who can now count George Michael, Sting and Tessa Jowell as their neighbours. There's a picture of it over at the Telegraph, and it's certainly very beautiful. I'm not sure I enjoy this kind of snidery and snobbery, though:

A local authority source said: "This must be the most expensive council house in Britain. The place is dripping with history and there are a lot of wealthy people who would give their eye-teeth to live there. To hand it over to a council tenant is extraordinary. It's like they made her lady of the manor overnight."

I mean... you could say the same about Tessa Jowell.

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And lives to tell the tale. Actually, this is an interesting piece about perception, reality and depressing territorial violence in the Hackney, Dalston areas; and it's sparked some lively debate in the comments section. Go visit.

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Spare a thought for Dalston primary school caretaker Patrick Ryan who's being forced to live among the rubble of the East London line extension. His neighbours have been bulldozed, his house remains, and it's a requirement of his job that he lives in it. The noise is apparently driving him crazy, and it doesn't sound as if he's getting much practical help from the local diocese (he's employed by a church school). Plenty of pastoral care though, which would be comforting if he could hear it.

[via BBC]

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The news, almost exactly a year ago to the day, was of Marcus Cooper's £32m purchase of Witanhurst, Highgate's 65-room West Hill mock-Georgian mansion, and plans to do it up and sell it on for an estimated £150m. By September, the talk was of a flip, for £75m. You see, those were the days... the days of 234% profit in less than two months. How things have changed. In the current market it takes an entire 12 months to make a measly 156% profit on a property. The news, today, is that London's second largest gaff - after Buckingham Palace - has, at last, found a buyer, and has been picked up, for £50m, by Russia's first richest woman, Elena Baturina... who according to the Telegraph is so rich she's actually married to a construction company.

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The club's keeping quiet, but there are whispers on the Guardian's sports pages that the Highbury Square might be big on deposits, but potentially low on completions when the 550 buyers who've stumped up 20% deposits are asked for the other 80% in the next two months. The clue might be here.

Flipping feeding frenzy or wave of sentimentality at Highbury? [November 25, 2008]

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The apartment - two bedrooms in Islington - cost, according to Foxtons, the asking price of £550,000. Tony Blair's spokesperson has issued a denial that the flat was actually bought by mum and dad. He didn't, however, deny that the flat was now owned by Euan. How - asks the Independent - did 24-year-old Euan, who has yet to start his £30,000-a-year graduate-trainee stint at Morgan Stanley, arrange that mortgage? (The Rat and Mouse wants to know why he paid asking price.)

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It's on Hemingford Road in Islington, and the vendors have managed to interest the Telegraph's property section, although it already appears to be under offer this morning. The story's interesting... two homes, without a party wall, previously joined at the hip and turned into a nunnery, re-converted by two separate owners, the extension at the back literally sliced in half by the two buyers.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate