The market for flats might be flat, but it's marvelous in mews-land. The Rat and Mouse hears on the grapevine that mews-specialists Lurot Brand are breaking records faster than Phelps, securing £1,220 a square foot in Hyde Park Garden Mews (previous record: £1,112) and £1,256 a square foot in Leinster Mews (previous record: £1,000). While the National Anthem's played and Team LB receive their medals, we can inform you that the properties in questions sold for £2.2m and £1.44m.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, London, property, real estate, real estate agents

The New York Times tours director Roland Emmerich's Knightsbridge apartment and finds a stuffed zebra, a 25ft Mao, giant murals painted by the man who reproduced the Louvre's art works for The Da Vince Code and...

... dioramas with scenes of notorious events like the actor Hugh Grant’s encounter with a Hollywood prostitute and the torture that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. “People can spend an entire evening discussing a film,” [interior design] Mr. [John] Teall said, explaining what some might consider obsessive attention to detail. “I liked the idea that a house might inspire the same” reaction.

More here.

Technorati Tags: design, interiors, London, property, real estate

The two-bedroom apartment above The Travel Bookshop - inspiration for and important location in Notting Hill - is on the market. Owned by the vendor, author and publisher (and bookshop owner) Sarah Anderson since 1981, it has its own front door, a good location on Blenheim Crescent and an eccentric feature window... a kitchen window looking down into the bookshop's skylight, giving a view of daytime browsers. It's with KFH, here... offers in excess of £899,950.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Her Camden neighbours have had enough of her "antics", they say, and are campaigning to the council to have her evicted. One of them, quoted here, has apparently been filming her frolics and fisticuffs, and will be handing the evidence over to Camden Council shortly. (What's that? The sound of half a dozen newspapers opening their cheque books?)

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

Said to be on the point of moving into a £20,000-a-month Mayfair rental... a hub for his family while he films a Robin Hood movie with Sienna Miller.

Apparently, there's this thing, where somebody sells a house to somebody else who buys it. Used to happen a lot. Here's one for sale. It's a three-bedroom end-of-row on Portobello Road, and it comes complete with a gallery space on the ground and lower ground floors. The space could be rented out, kept, or even converted. But the house is more interesting than that. Designed by Meadowcroft Griffin in 2004, it won a Conservation Commendation at the 2006 RIBAs, and it's bold inside and out, with the "good light" distributed throughout, rather than reserved for the gallery spaces. It's with The Modern House Estate Agents, with a guide price of £2.25m.

Technorati Tags: architecture, London, property, real estate

Buying agent Robert Bailey says: "The hoteliers are now selling their backpacker hostels to rich bankers who are, of course, converting them back into luxury homes. The hoteliers have been very canny, selling at the peak of the market - it will be interesting to see how developers who buy them fare.

The Telegraph revisits the Bayswater revival and finds "London's worst-kept secret". With the Lancasters due for completion this year, a glut of press coverage ever since Tony Blair's purchase(s), and the market doing what the market's doing, is there any value left in W2?

The Lancasters - some prices revealed (January 17, 2008]
Hookahs, hookers and Tony Blair get lucky... it's Bayswater time [November 19, 2007]

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Seems like an odd time to open a new branch, but that's exactly what Foxtons is doing. The Camden office - at 120 Parkway - opens its doors on Saturday, June 14, and will be celebrating their new premises with cappuccini and zero commission for the first 200 instructions. It's a courageous way of winning business from the rivals and getting a bunch of Foxtons boards about, but how will the zero percenters fair compared to the other clients when it comes to pushing homes?

[via housefund.co.uk]

Technorati Tags: estate agents, Foxton's, Foxtons, London, property, real estate, real estate agents

In one of the nicest roads in the area, in our opinion, this Fitzrovia mews house belongs to talented ads and docs director Daniel Barber - who was recently Oscar-nominated for a short film - and it's with Hudson Property, listed at £1.85m. Four bedrooms over five floors, and immaculate inside... particulars here.

Meanwhile, no panic in Noho [May 13, 2008]

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

We're talking about Lord Cadogan, the toff previously known as Viscount Chelsea, one of SW3's premier landowners, who according to this, just earned a much needed £30m in dividends from the Cadogan Group.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate