They pop up every so often, the converted broom cupboards with asking prices that outstrip Scottish castles. This one... 11ft by 5.5ft, a genuine ex-broom cupboard, and smaller, apparently, than a snooker table... isn't for sale, but it must have been a slow news day at the Mirror, because they've invited themselves in and had it valued, nonetheless. It's in Knightsbridge, across the road from Harrods, and according to a local agent could fetch anything from £150,000 to £200,000. More here.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Thanks to the Rat and Mouse reader for the tip... "apparently" - and we're trusting you on this one - this is Daniel Craig's very lovely 4-bedroom mews house in SW7, complete with gym, cinema and conspicuously placed Tom Ford book. Guide price: £4.25m; particulars here.

If these walls could talk... Max Clifford edition [January 21, 2010]

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

According to Mouseprice.com, Belgravia's Chester Square remains on top if the UK house price league, with an average property value of £6.6m, proving a vision of a property-owning democracy worked out well for Margaret Thatcher.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Courtney Love loves Hyde Park.

"I am going to move here. I am getting a house in New York and a house in the UK. A flat, anyway."

Between the second sentence and the third, presumably she typed W1 into Primelocation.

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It started on Facebook... a simple little invite to a few friends, meeting at a Mayfair mansion they didn't own. And it ended up with 2,000 revelers having their party ruined by police in riot gear, concerned the property was actually going to collapse, due to the number of people clinging to its exterior and climbing onto its roof. More here. According to the Guardian:

The police spokesman said: "Inquiries are under way to establish who the organisers were."

Perhaps they should start their enquiries with the Guardian, where the two organisers are interviewed at length.

Fox said: "I've never seen that many people, except at festivals. As we were leaving the police said 'it's all kicking off you'd better get out of here'. They didn't know we had organised the party and were responsible for this chaos around us."

Doh! The organisers believe that the property's co-owned by HSBC, and the event was intended to be part protest, part squat, part old-fashioned rave. Could this be the start of a new chapter in the ongoing Mayfair squat story?

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Marcus Cooper Group - the developers behind Witanhurst - are back with a gala development... seven listed office buildings in the prime real estate area around Regents Park are to be turned back into the mansion they once were. Plans - lodged with Camden Council - suggest something on a truly grand scale... 50,000 square feet, two staff houses and a car park. People are already talking about London's first £100m home. More here.

Witanhurst plans dig deep [September 25, 2009]
Witanhurst - flipped, but slowly [July 17, 2008]

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

There's a Press Association piece here about Ocean... this extremely striking houseboat moored at Cadogan Pier, and currently marketed by Foxtons, at £1m (illustration, above). They're saying it's the most expensive houseboat they've ever had on their books, and it comes with a swimming pool, a sunken (literally) utility room, three bedrooms with bathrooms and that kick-ass location. It's not, however, the most expensive houseboat currently on the market. Check out this Putney-moored four-bedroom extravaganza, with a 30ft reception room and a guide price of £1.3m (illustration, below). I've always thought there was a real romance to the houseboat, but that may well be because I've never lived on one. Anyone have any London houseboat experiences, good or bad?

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

The London market's set to blow up in an extravagant excess of top Capital property values, according to London Central Portfolio, a property search and management company. Expect - according to LCP chief Naomi Heaton in conversation with the Standard here - Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea prices to rebound 80% from recent lows.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

And this time, they're extracting maximum metaphorical victory by picking former Home Secretary David Blunkett's one-time grace-and-favour apartment at 62 South Eaton Place. It's been lying empty since Blunkett left three years ago... alarmed, CCTV-monitored, bullet-proof glazed. Somebody apparently left the window open. (David!!!) More here.

The luxury squatters strike again [November 25, 2009]
Westminster Council: sell or be squatted [November 18, 2009]

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

I'd heard - on the grapevine - via a number of estate agents about growing numbers of Italians setting up home in London, driven by a combination of a strong Euro and a strange domestic tax situation involving a temporary amnesty. Now - according to Investors Chronicle:

An influx of Italian cash buyers to the central London property market is skewing house price indicators and leading to over-optimistic forecasts of a housing market recovery.

The story comes via, ahem, Capital Economics, and uses data from Savills, who claim 80% of Kensington enquiries and 70% in Knightsbridge are from Italian buyers.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate