According to research from GLA Economics Londoners are leading the UK in environmental friendliness. It's partly that the roads are too expensive to drive, so we're forced onto public transport where we set new records for the number of people packed into a compartment. But it's also because we're relatively wealthy, which means we can spend a bit more on technology that comes with a conscience. If you want to read the full report, go here and download the pdf. But, be warned, it's a hefty document (replete with fancy Mayoral colour images of buses by night and shiny people by day).

The Rat and Mouse has traditionally taken a bullish stance on the housing market, and even today, with Nationwide reporting a -0.2% fall in June, and a mere four per cent rise in the year, we can't help marvelling at vendors' unwillingness to lower prices and spark the crash some people are itching to see. Has so much ever before rested on the next interest rate move? Down: a few more ftbs may be encouraged to the market and prices may recover. Up: who knows?

Green shoots for property market, says BofE [AboutProperty]
House prices fall again, says Hometrack [IFAOnline]
House prices rise 7%, says Persimmon [ThisIsLondon]
House prices decline, says Berkeley [Bloomberg]

Liz Dolan, writing in today's Telegraph, thinks she knows why governments have been so keen to turn us all into homeowners. It's so they can watch us plough all our earnings into our "investments", and then tax us on the profits... An article that examines rumours of capital gains tax on family homes, punitive council taxes and government equity release schemes, concludes thus:

Whatever the truth in this particular case, you can't get away from the fact that the writing is on the wall. The Government is bent on getting its hands on the wealth built up in our properties in as many ways as it can.

It's an interesting read.

According to a new survey by Charcol, and despite all the media fuss about everybody being a landlord, the buy-to-let sector is still dominated by 95% professional property investors. The survey also reveals that just one per cent of buy-to-let housing stock is owned by a landlord who has just the one property; 97% of landlords intend to hold onto their portfolio even if prices fall (which might finally put paid to the landlords-sparking-a-property-crash theory which has been doing the rounds for a year or so); and 75% of landlords intend to increase their portfolio in the coming year. More on landlords taking the long-term view, here.

Data from the British Bankers' Association shows home loan approvals for May 2005 down an astonishing 24% on May 2004. More, here.

Later in the conversation, she criticised the Blairs' new London home as "horrible", saying: "I said to them, guys, we're not going to get into this conversation because I'll only depress you. Suffice to say, I think you are nuts!"

First off, that's Carole Caplan - fitness guru, taste-maker, sister of discretion - talking to a News of the World reporter posing as an Arab "sheikh" (and we dread to think what, exactly, that consisted of). Read the full article to appreciate why slagging off Connaught Street is the least of Tony Blair's worries. (She also calls him a fat man who likes a drink.) Meanwhile, the Sunday Mirror has been running alongside the Connaught Street house, watching it haemorrhage money and devalue faster than a government promise:

Tony and Cherie Blair's dream home has crashed in value by £700,000 in just seven months. The couple paid £3.65million for the five-bedroomed Regency townhouse in West London in October. But estate agents say it is now worth less than £3million - even though, nationally, house prices have risen by 10 per cent in the last year.

The article goes on to point out that the Blairs' tenant is paying £5,000 a month less than the mortgage repayments. Jeez, sometimes it's nice not to be Prime Minister.

For sale: be the Blairs' neighbour for £2.75 million [June 20]
Blairs' property jinx reaches Bristol [June 17]
Blairs' Connaught Square rental deal leaks out - gradually [March 31]

After last month's debacle, you'd think Channel 4 might leave the agents alone for a while. But no. Today, they release the results of a survey of 40,000 people (a lot, by most standards) which show... 37% believe estate agents are lazy good-for-nothings who don't make enough of an effort if they haven't shifted a property in the first few weeks. There'll be more, tomorrow night, on Selling Houses. In the meantime, you can read this.

According to FemaleFirst, she's selling the Primrose Hill house she famously shared with actor Jude Law, and moving to the country. She will, however, be looking for a little crash pad in the £1.5 million category. Phil and Kirstie - stand by, it's a big one...

It's a -0.2% fall in May, according to Hometrack, but what's really exciting the media this morning is that it's the index's 12th consecutive monthly fall, giving a fall of -3.16% since June 2004. Agreed sales were, however, up (3.5%). Hometrack has cut its 2005 forecast from a 3% gain to "no move". More, here.

London house price survey [June 24]
Rightmove reports [June 20]

New research from fresh-tasting consumer intelligence analysts Mintel suggests there's a good chance that while you might think you're going to end up with Mum and Dad's three-bedroom family home, the reality is that you'll be lucky to get Mum's collection of whimsies. The reason is equity release. Eleven percent of homeowners have already entered into some kind of equity release scheme to provide money for their old age, and a further 19 percent are considering it right now. A Mintel analyst, quoted here, reckons that in the coming years equity release schemes will become "a key financial planning tool", as expensive houses but under-performing pensions leave a generation of retired people asset-rich and cash-poor.

It's by Your Mortgage magazine, and it's predicting that for the next five years London prices will only manage to keep up with inflation. With remarkable confidence in its pinpoint predictions, the magazine consults its crystal ball and reveals a 2% rise this year, a -3% fall next year, standstill in 2007, and then a 4.6% rise in 2008 and a gain of 3.1% in 2009. So that's that sorted, then. More, courtesy of ThisIsLondon, here.

There's an intriguing story just posted by our New York friends at the excellent Curbed: sexual real estate. It's an American concept which basically works thus... if you've had sex there, you can add it to your portfolio. (Brief pause at this point for you to do some mental arithmetic....) Go straight to the Curbed post, by clicking this.

Could be, according to the minutes from the last Bank of England meeting.

An interesting new survey by Shelter reveals a new vision of British living, in which the "norm" of the average three bedroom family home is a thing of the past. The BBC, here, focuses on the London figure - 76% of Londoners don't think they'll ever afford a three bedroom family home. But everybody knows that there's nothing average or normal about London. What's more interesting is that the figure nationally has passed the 50% mark, at 61%.

The Guardian reports on the demise of top London madam Anne O'Brien, who was sentenced to community service yesterday for running busy brothels in residential areas in Mayfair and Marylebone. She was renting 164a Gloucester Place; but the Mayfair address - 32 Upper Berkeley Street, a Georgian townhouse - she is said to have bought for £1.2 million, paying almost half of that upfront in cash. Read the full story on the other side of this link.

It apparently counts as "breaking news" at the Sun... a third of us have added sheds in the last five years, bringing the proportion of shed-owners in the UK to an astonishing 55%. So if you don't have a shed, there's probably something wrong with you. Read the full story, here.

"If we could afford that extra five grand we could probably afford to live in Caterham or Banstead, but we can't."

... That's a resident of Merton's Pollard's Hill estate, on news that managers Moat Housing Group want to replace the greens with parking bays, at a cost of £5,000 per resident. Full story, here.

In an interesting morning read, the Independent visits Denmark Hill, and likes what it sees:

The station, the altered view and handsome houses are Denmark Hill's main attractions today. The hill is high enough to afford panoramic views of London's skyscrapers and helps explain the prevalence of well-preserved Georgian and Victorian houses.

The piece goes on to give some examples... but we suspect the best relative value is to be found by those with a bit more money to spend, looking at four or five bedroom houses.

It seems like only Thursday when we heard that Regent Street was waving goodbye to Dickins & Jones. And now it's Laura Ashley's turn to clear out and clear off, complaining of extortionate rents. Now the last time the Rat and Mouse visited Laura Ashley was the last time we decided to attend a Cotswold Conservative Association garden party in drag, but still... soon it'll just be Starbucks, dodgy mobile phone shops and the Apple store who can afford the area.

We're still the most expensive city in Europe, according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting (whose job it is to tell us stuff like this), but we've slipped down to third in the world, after Tokyo and Osaka. Moscow and Seoul followed in fourth and fifth. New York? With the dollar low against the pound, it was way down in 13th place, although it remained the most expensive city to call home in the US. The full report, on the other side of this link.

Damn right.

Research by the Woolwich into the proportion of pay being fed back into mortgage repayments confirms that London is still the most expensive place to own a home - even taking into account higher salaries. Londoners spend an average of 22.8% of their salaries on mortgage repayments, against a national average of 18.5%. The highest spending (proportionally) constituencies are Hackney South and Shoreditch, where the figure tops 30%. More, here.

Tim Henman's property portfolio [Telegraph]
Architecture fights cancer [Times]
Still cheaper to buy than to rent [Guardian]
What buyers want [FindAProperty]
How to spot a slum, before it's a slum [Times]

Over at Londonist, they're carrying the story of a potentially very dramatic addition to the London skyline. DIFA Tower (I know... too boring, it'll have to change) will be up to 40 metres higher than the Gherkin. The architect has been named as Kohn Pederson Fox, and the location... 6-8 Bishopsgate. Which means, from certain angles, it may well detract from the Swiss Re. What do you think? Good idea? Or not?

30 acres in the sky [March 14]

... a 2% increase between mid-May and mid-June. However, year-on-year the increase is way down to a paltry 2.4%. More, here.

At the weekend, the Telegraph carried this interview with the Hirsts, who are leaving Connaught Square before the Blairs move in. What's interesting is that £2.75 million will apparently buy you a bigger house than the Prime Minister's... including six bedrooms, four receptions rooms and three bathrooms. We'd bring you a link to the particulars, but the pages just don't load that way. So you'll have to go here and search yourself.

With 76% of UK homeowners planning on spending money improving their home in the coming year, adding to the £10.6 billion spent on home improvement in the last 12 months in the South East alone (more on those figures, here), this new stealth tax isn't going to go down well. Read here how the government is going to be checking up on your extra bathroom, off-road parking space, conservatory or shed, and then mugging you for being the homeowner they apparently want more of us to be...

Hardly worth rubbing shoulders with dodgy Peter Foster now, was it? According to Bristol estate agents, the state of play on the two investments that led straight to the "Cheriegate" affair is that, should the Blairs decide to sell up in the near future, they could lose as much as £60,000. Ah, so that's why they didn't (as they'd suggested they were going to) liquidate the properties to offset their expensive Connaught Square investment. More, here.

Blairs' Connaught Square rental deal leaks out - gradually [March 31]
Blairs savaged in buy-to-let market [March 7]

The worldwide rise in house prices is the biggest bubble in history. Prepare for the economic pain when it pops.

The Economist tells the interesting story of the global house price bubble. Those of a nervous disposition shouldn't click here.

He's apparently just visited the beleaguered Woolwich development where, according to this, he visited a couple of ordinary people and played a bit of hamfisted piano for them. Just stop - for one moment - and think how painful that must been. Like a scene from Blackadder, but you're not allowed to laugh...

According to the Guardian, the new e-conveyancing system is going to look as sci-fi as it sounds:

Under e-conveyancing, every chain will have its own progress chart, posted on a website. Squares coloured red or green will show when each party has passed each critical step of the property-buying process. When the whole grid turns green - and every party has given the final go-ahead - the transactions go through.

Actually, the Guardian's description - the best of today's bunch - is of a much improved system, that will take a lot of the insanity out of the final stages of buying or selling a house. All we need now is something can disarm the gazunderer or gazumper... after all, it'll take more than a network to stop some people behaving like shits in the days leading to exchange.

We've been contacted by an ITV producer, who's looking for London people with self-build experience:

The programme is a half-hour documentary which will focus on a few of the more ambitious projects within London over the past few years, it will also follow someone who is in the market for a house like this or who is currently chasing a small plot of land which they have plans to develop.

If that sounds like you and you're interested, contact us and we'll put you in touch with said producer.

It's been a while since we've had a stupid mortgage to report on, and then here comes the Bank of Ireland and Mortgages Direct with absolute corker. Aimed at lifting first-time buyers onto the property ladder (where they can flounder, slip and topple into gargantuan levels of debt before having their own and then their parents homes repossessed), the latest deal (we're not sure it has a name) allows a borrow to take away the full value of their own salary, plus four times the salary of their highest-earning parent (minus their own mortgage repayments), who will underwrite the debt. ThisIsLondon gives a good example of the insanity. A young person earning £20,000, with a parent earning £40,000 (but paying £3,000 on their own mortgage) could borrow up to £168,000. That would translate into roughly £1050 in repayments per month - on take-home pay of £1,200.

Plasma mortage [January 19]
Stupider and stupider - the 130% mortgage [January 18]

London leads property slowdown [ThisIsLondon]
Haart estate agents announce - good month for London [FindaProperty]
House price growth drops 50% [Guardian]
Residential growth back on track, say NAEA [NAEA]

The Independent is understandably excited about Farm House, Farm Street, Mayfair. It's only the second time the property has come to the market in 50 years, and it comes with a remarkable history. It was, apparently, once a farm (the deeds contain a mention of a right of way for sheep), but more recently (start of the 20th Century) it was rebuilt in 16th Century style, using original medieval doors and panelling. It's been owned by Gloria Swanson, by Thelma Furness (Gloria Vanderbilt's sister) and it's been "used" (ahem) by the old Prince of Wales and Wallis Simpson. It's with Strutt & Parker, listed at £4.25 million.

For sale: The Old Forge [June 1]

Thanks to Tom (from lively music technology blog Music Thing) for pointing out an interesting way to buy a new(ish) walnut floor. It's started getting a bit of action on Ebay this morning. We're not sure whether that's because, or despite of, the minor stiletto heel damage caused by Anna Ryder Richardson. The story goes... the floor was originally in the show apartment penthouse at Manchester's Hacienda conversion. But Richardson trampled all over it during the launch party, so it had to be replaced. It's up for sale here, measures approximately 25 x 20 ft, and the action ends just after midday tomorrow.

They picked a right old day to launch, but Opromark might just be one of the most interesting new property investment schemes in a long time. Effectively a trading floor for shares in buy-to-let properties it allows members (membership is free) to buy and sell shares (for as little as £1) in a range of properties, sharing the rental income as a kind of dividend, and exposing themselves to profits from a rising market without the responsibility or risk of buying a whole property. We're going to join and have a fiddle around in the coming days, but from where we're sitting right now it looks very interesting. And the website's laudably clear and well-designed. More, here.

A couple of squatters found inside an old lady's Bayswater home have been jailed. While the woman was away, staying with a sick relative, squatters had moved in, helped themselves to electricity and indulged in such inelegant living that the owner said she almost had a heart attack when she saw how they'd left the place. It's actually a sad story. The house had been her home for 60 years - now she's afraid to move back in, and can't afford to repair the property because she'd let her insurance lapse. Just how bad is the squatter problem? How long do you have to leave a house before you're in danger? How long do you have to leave it before squatters have any kind of moral right to use it as shelter? More, courtesy of the the BBC, here.

Yesterday, it was the ODPM. Today's numbers are courtesy of the RICS, and, to summarise: - 49% of RICS members are reporting falling rather than rising prices (the highest proportion since the 1990s crash) - the brief rise in the number of potential buyers has come to an end - sales are 29% lower than this time last year - there are 25% more unsold properties on the books than this time last year. Surveyors are putting their faith in an interest rate reduction. More, here. Or find the actual, factual report on the other side of this link.

Monopoly dog put down [ThisIsMoney]
34 Lillieshall Road, Clapham - the life of a house [Ham & High]
Out-of-date ODPM house price figures - small fall [ThisisMoney]
Wandsworth benefit fraudster and property tycoon - named and shamed [ThisIsLocalLondon]

According to the Telegraph, Multiplex and the other developers in the consortium behind the Stratford City development plan are working hard to hide internal disputes about how to move forward. The plan - including a massive retail and housing scheme in a 180 acre site designed around the new Channel Tunnel link - is central to London's 2012 Olympic bid. Now there are questions about whether every member of the consortium is fully committed... looks like trouble (particularly if you're one of the growing number of private investors who've picked up property in the area on the back of the regeneration plans).

Wembley kills off Multiplex boss [May 27]

The Yorkshire Bank has been testing the confidence of homeowners again. And, apparently, 54% of property owners believe their homes will rise in value in the next 12 months. In London, the figure is 57%. Yorkshire Bank is claiming this as a sign in growing confidence in the market. But, interestingly, the figure is down everywhere in the UK (except Wales) on last year's results.

This year, according to an Inland Revenue official quoted here in the Times, things are going to change:

"Our advice is, don't wait for us to come looking for you."

And it certainly looks as if Wimbledon residents, accustomed to making a quick tax-free buck by renting out their homes, front gardens are parking spaces for the tennis, are in for a tussle. Inland Revenue agents will be in the crowds, walking the streets, checking the estate agents. And worst of all - they're hard to spot. Apparently, they look just like you and me.

Fool sells house, rents [Motley Fool]
Cost of moving: £10.6 billion [What Mortgage]
It's Open Garden Squares Weekend [Londonist]
Stratford and the Olympics, in detail [Times]

That's it from us until Monday. I'm off to a strange party and I've just been told I'm expected to wear a white evening suit. I'm assuming it's a wind-up, because I've looked in my wardrobe and guess what..? Have a casual weekend.

It's a five-storey Georgian home in Regent's Park's Conway Street, it cost £1.6 million and Madonna's giving it to the Kabbalah organisation to use as a hotel/drop-in for Kabbalists. Well, we say Kabbalists, but the prospect of any 18th century Eastern European freethinking mystical geniuses popping in is fairly remote. Britney Spears or Demi Moore on the other hand... More, here.

That's the message from a brand new Halifax survey into a thousand (a thousand? does that count as science?) homeowners in the UK? They were asked about how friendly they were with their neighbours, how much they'd trust them with a key or a secret. And the level of neighbourliness is officially up on this time five years ago. Scottish neighbours are the friendliest. London neighbours are the second most unfriendly. Second? I know, surprising isn't it? Apparently, you get the most unfriendly neighbours in the north east. More, here.

... remain on hold, for the tenth month running. More, here.

At least they're buying up the UK's stately homes, according to a new piece of research by Country Life magazine. (More, here.) Which just goes to show - you don't need much class to live the genteel life. Hang on, we knew that already.

... and destined for the new Collins dictionary.

BBC News have made this a headline today partly because it's their own research and they've a Money Programme Special going out tomorrow on the subject. But it's still an attention-grabbing collection of figures: one in four parents say they've a child (presumably their own) in their twenties or even thirties living in their home; one in seven parents have had to remortgage or take out a loan to cover the increased costs; and of that quarter, a quarter of them would really prefer it if their children left. "Honey, We Can't Get Rid of the Kids" will be shown on BBC 2, tomorrow at 7pm.

Kick out your kids [May 9]

There's news that Berkeley Homes have downed tools on the Royal Arsenal regeneration in Woolwich, as a disappointing London market forces them to focus on shifting what's ready, before completing more conversions. The Arsenal is Berkeley's flagship development, and it's certain that other developers will be watching what happens next very closely indeed. It's also certain that bargain hunters, looking for a fab new flat in one of the city's most striking buildings, can hope for some hefty discounts among the conversions just completed or about to be brought to the market. How do we know? It appears that somebody from the sales office suggested to an Evening Standard reporter that they "bring their chequebook". The full story, here.

Anyone remember, back in April, when the Rat and Mouse looked at a National Homebuyers' report into lax security during viewings? Well, the Independent's Fiona Brandhorst looks at it again, and - perhaps inspired by the Independent's word-rate (we've all been there) - considers an alternative career in thievery:

A laptop in the front bedroom could have been whipped into my Birkin-size bag in a second. An un-cashed building society cheque stuck to the noticeboard could probably have been useful with the right contacts. Downstairs, I could have taken her keys from the "his and hers" key holders, to return later to take the plasma TV screen and hi-fi system.

What a cliff-hanger! So does she return later and rip the joint off? Go here to find out.

Help yourselves [April 28]

Okay, we broke a cardinal rule of Internet journalism. Never make a throwaway comment about a cult sci-fi series unless you are actively seeking a thousand emails pointing out how little you know about it. Last night, the Rat and Mouse suggested a London estate agent was named after a character in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Actually, it appears that the Douglas Adams character was named after the estate agent. Amongst the emails, the most polite and lucid and helpful came from Max:

Hmm -- maybe you're joking, but just in case: the character is of course named after the estate agent's Islington branch, near the late author's home. Not that I'm a sad H2G2 geek or anything.

Thanks; and especially for the link, which seems to clear things up. Except (and just watch me break that rule again) how is it that the estate agent was established in 1979 (according to its website and, according to the BBC, the "Hitchhiker's Guide..." was first broadcast in 1978?

So the million pound council house was in SW3, and the £700,000 council flat is in Primrose Hill. The Mirror is making a serious fuss about this Victorian duplex, built and previously owned by the council. But, come on, it's a period three bedroom flat with a garden in a nice north London area, not the kind of 1950s box that almost cracked seven figures in Chelsea... where's the story? Oh yeah, it's that an estate agent named after a character from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" could have such a great list.

The facts... as reported by Halifax? A monthly change of -0.6% in May, leaving us with a gain of 0.1% since the beginning of the year. Go here for the actual pdf of inertia.

Prices up 0.3% in May [June 2]

But he doesn't seem too bothered. We're still hunting. Any advances on Notting Hill, Mr Scoble?

The future - it's somewhere in Notting Hill [May 3]

It's no surprise Madonna is spending time away from her London home and in New York. Reportedly the first single from the new album is a song called "I Love New York."

But what do they know?

Incoming celebrity alert - Beyonce [June 6]

Heathrow third runway plans unveiled - west London houseprices face bumpy landing [BBC]
Don't let the bubble burst in your face [FT]
The negative equity-protected mortgage [Times]

Set for a bit of morning TV? No, nor us. But just in case... here's something from the Independent on Sunday about a new series on BBC1, 10am weekdays, reporting on the property auction experience.

That's right - according to the Mail on Sunday, and now surfacing on the Internet, here. The story goes that she's fallen for a five-storey, five-bedroom property in Chelsea, with a 30ft double reception room and 32ft split level garden. The story also goes that it's with Knight Frank estate agents, and she's made an offer of £2.6 million (which, if it's accepted, suggests to the Rat and Mouse she's bagging a bargain). We can't find anything on the Knight Frank website that fits the description and comes in anywhere near that figure.

So here's Scotland on Sunday with a piece about how two-thirds of the top end of Scottish property purchases are by non-Scots (or twats as the Scots call them). Okay, we can believe that. The reason given is that even expensive Scottish houses are cheap, and with this whole rise in super-lucrative Internet blogging, you don't have to be in London. They talk to a Savills agent, called Jamie MacNab, who were going to take a punt about and assume is with a Scottish office:

"When you think that our London office is selling £60m houses, Scottish houses, even at the very top end - which is around £2.5m - are dirt cheap."

£60 million houses. Come on... hands up. Which London agent told him that?

For sale: £50 million on Bishop's Avenue [May 11]

It won first price in the RIBA Future Homes competition (2004), was listed as one of the Independent's Top Ten Modern Buildings (2004), and won Best Building in the London Architecture Bienalle (2004). And now you can buy it. Clerkenwell House - sometimes known as The Gap - is the result of inspired problem-solving... how could architect Joe Hagan build a house on a plot which he'd bought for just £35,000, but which measured just 11 feet wide? The steel-and-glass seven-storey home for sale today is unique. For £1.15 million you get three double-bedrooms, three bathrooms, a roof terrace with a proper view, and keys to Clerkenwell's skinniest address. Go here for particulars; here for some background.

There's some new research by the Federation of Master Builders that reveals that, of the third of us who opt to pay builders cash to avoid VAT, 80% are left unsatisfied with the work. The point - apparently - is that cash-payment is a shortcut to cowboy builders. The survey doesn't, however, reveal the satisfaction-level of those of us who pay by cheque or credit card. No matter. The FMB are starting a campaign to have the VAT level reduced to 5.5%. After the French government did something similar, there was a significant shift in employment from the dodgy to the legit. More, here.

Barnet is the new Hackney, if you believe researchers at Middlesex University. Apparently, crime has gone up by 40% in the last four years, and the total number of offences was higher last year than in Hackney and many other inner city boroughs. The average cost per household is now running at £1,540 - more than is spent on clothes and fruit and vegetables. Police put the rise in violent crime at least partly down to new ways of defining it. These days, an assault that results in just "a slight reddening" is classed as actual bodily harm, whereas before it was merely common assault. We're not joking. See?

The Nationwide's house price figures are out. It's a 0.3% rise in prices during May, and a 0.5% over the last three months. That's a reduction from 0.9% and 0.6% for the previous equivalents. At these levels, though, you could argue the variations don't matter. The market's treading water... how rhythmically it's treading water is merely a detail. Go here for the Nationwide report; and here for a bit of BBC coverage.

Crazy at the top [May 31]
Hometrack reports - another slight fall [May 23]