The survey was by Lloyds TSB, and its Borough (Kensington & Chelsea) dominates the top ten list. Campden Hill Square has an average property price of £4.9m... former home to Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser (and venue for the famous IRA bomb meant for her previous husband Conservative MP Hugh Fraser in 1975. Second came Merton's Parkside, with an average price of £4.8m, and Drayton Gardens was third with average prices of £4.4m.

The rise and rise of top-end London property... it appears unstoppable. New figures by Primelocation show "prime" London property up 10% in 2011. That's £306 a day.

[photograph by Peter Jordan]

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

A 44-year-old former helicopter pilot committed suicide due to the possible homelessness of his family after the changes to Housing Benefit in November. The Coroner commented:

“What I find particularly tragic in this case is this act appears to be pursued by a man who was not suffering from an illness and appears to have made a considered act in response to his inability to find employment. The fact his housing benefit was about to be cut and the family would be at risk of having nowhere to live, and being ordered to give up his training course because of the Job Centre's rules, would appear to be especially poignant and tragic.”

Suddenly it's all starting feel so much more real.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Wandsworth's three hotspots, according to the Telegraph:

These are the Nightingale Triangle, a trendy pocket of cottages and terraced houses near Balham and Clapham South tube stations; the so-called Toast Rack – a cluster of larger Victorian and Georgian houses located near the restaurant Chez Bruce, where a young Gordon Ramsay honed his skills; or The Tonsleys, an area of smaller houses close to Wandsworth Town train station. The last of these is where BBC One’s hit comedy Outnumbered is filmed.

And prices are - according to the piece - rising at particularly alarming rates, leaving anyone renting in the borough with the idea of swooping on a family home as soon as it hits the market  in a very expensive position.

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"The magazines were left behind in various different rooms. Luckily my children are four and one so they didn't register them. My husband thought it was really funny. They weren't English ones."

Because foreign porn's hilarious?

It's an interesting piece, actually, about the experience of moving out of your Wimbledon house during the tennis so that a player can move in. There's even a specialist letting agency - Tennis London - arranging short-term lets between locals and tennis players. Residents close enough to the club and prepared to move out for the duration of the tournament can expect to earn as much as £10,000 a week.

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The Campaign For Real Ale is fighting plans by the owners of Wimbledon's popular Brewery Tap pub to build flats on its first and second floors. The concerns are that - with the removal of the landlord's living accommodation -  the pub will turn into a poorly managed wine bar. More here.

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In Blackpool, a tenant's revenge [Blackpool Gazette]
Posen downplays inflation risk [Reuters]
Take That's "Metric" Mark Owen sells Wandsworth house after "10 affairs"... vowing it's time to "start again" [New Magazine]
Why not buy in London? [Hong Kong Standard]

The Rat and Mouse - it's about your house

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It's a six-bedroom detached house, built in 1912 for an army officer, and - although it's been properly refurbished - still has a few nice features (colonial-style veranda... presumably ordered by the India-based army officer who commissioned it, log-burning fire in hallway). Other features? A rare mulberry tree in the garden. It's with Marsh & Parsons, £3.35m. Particulars here.

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It's a slim three-bedroom house detached in Streatham... should she take advantage of current upward trends and sell while the going's good not bad? Or add it to their current rental portfolio, making a hat-trick? Details here, and if you can bring yourselves to care, drop me a line or comment below. Agent comments more than welcome.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

... Bow, Walthamstow, Clapton, Harringay, Deptford and - that old chestnut again - Tooting... apparently.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

The Telegraph takes a look at SW18's most expensive home, ever. The former Gabonese Embassy, in Parkside, Wimbledon, has been redeveloped by re-developer Bob Camping, and has apparently had interest from Andy Murray (who knew he was so loaded?) and Russell Crowe, despite a record-breaking £18m price tag. Wimbledon, you see, has unique appeal:

"People want to live in Wimbledon," says Camping. "You are close to village life without moving out of London. Women don't want to be stuffed away while their husbands are at work."

Hear that? Husbands... don't stuff your women away while you're at work.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate