The Rat and Mouse - snorting property news off glossy particulars

Home Information Packs - could they cause a bubble? [Times]
Olympic redevelopment, first CPO's issued [ThisIsLocalLondon]
Kate Moss apartment shopping in New York [Mirror]
Interest rates more likely to rise than fall [Reuters]
Ken's skyscraper lust threatens London sightlines [Telegraph]

Saturday's Financial Times carried a lengthy and poetic architectural conjecture about post-Olympics east London. Architects from Arup Associates and Fletcher Priest both beat the FT journalist to the punch, insisting that Stratford City will be no Canary Wharf, and that planning is community-up. The picture painted is still a little confusing, but with its grid system and high-speed train link to Europe, it's an exciting one. Read the full feature on the other side of this link.

"He just wants to be seen as an ordinary guy with the same problems as families up and down the country."

That's a colleague talking about Tory PR master David Cameron. It's going to be a challenge, though, as the Sunday Mirror reports on his successful off-loading of a five-bedroom Ladbroke Grove townhouse for £1.1 million, more than twice the sum he paid for it ten years ago. The sale doesn't leave him homeless. He still has his £650,000 Oxfordshire constituency home, and up to £21,634 a year in public money towards his mortgage. Just like other families up and down the country. It's going to take more than removing his tie on television to normalise Cameron in his battle with David "Buster" Davis. The Rat and Mouse suggests he goes all in - gets himself a hot hatch and some proper arm candy, or learns to rock out.

The results of a survey, here, by Mortgage Express, show demand for rental property and yields both up in the third quarter.

John McCririck's wife, of Albert Terrace Mews, does her bit for local house prices and talks to the Ham & High about the increasingly unpleasant atmosphere on Primrose Hill:

"There would be one small group of men over in one area and another in another area and it can be desperately dangerous."

A "walk in the park" compared to living with John McCririck, you'd think. But she's joined by fellow residents, who claim the influx of celebrities to the area has lowered the tone and attracted celebrity-spotters, party people and drug dealers. Full story, here.

A new survey by Post Office Home Insurance purports to suggest that while we love reading about celebrity cribs in the Rat and Mouse we wouldn't want to live right next door to one. But the figures aren't so clear. Almost half (46%) of the ordinary, boring, non-celebrities who gave up their time to be polled said they would, in fact, like to live next to a celebrity, and their celebrity of choice would be highly dependent on their gender. Men apparently quite like the idea of "popping next door" to see Jordan. Women prefer Beckham. And it looks like these respondents were old enough to know better, because there's a separate sub-result for women under the age of 24 in which Brad beats Beckham. Men of any age apparently still prefer Jordan. Meanwhile the over-55s - in an act so cliched I can't help suspecting purposeful obfuscation - nominated Cliff Richard. And the celebrity neighbour we'd like least? Gordon Ramsay. What's interesting about the poll is the [warning: sound file] Stella Street fantasy the idea of a celebrity neighbour seems to encourage... like, Ramsay will really be bellowing obscenities all day, Jordan's bound to be posing in a bikini, Cliff Richard will be humming wholesome hymns, Beckham will be reading Beano in his boxers. Okay, that last one might have the ring of truth... But from the emails we receive, having a celebrity neighbour is more like having no neighbour at all. More, here.

Sky News reports that Betfair has just added a house price betting facility to its website. Betfair isn't a bookmaker, it facilitates a good bet by matching the two opposing sides of a wager (and then takes a commission). You can find the property market section from the front page via the "financial bets" button.

That's what the results of a survey by SnogLondon (I'm not making this up) suggest, anyway. The dating organisation interviewed 5,000 single tube users to get a sense of the system's pick-up hotspots. If you're heterosexual girl, go for the East London line; if you're a heterosexual boy, take the Bakerloo line. Unfortunately, the survey doesn't go into more pansexual detail, but hey it's a start. Full results, here.

A report out today reveals that almost half the population of Westminster, Chelsea and Kensington are people living alone, and almost a quarter of singleton Londoners said they'd rather continue to live alone indefinitely. Looking at those neighbourhoods, what I'm wondering is: does being rich enable you to live alone, or does living alone make you rich? More, here.

While Lucas doesn't flaunt his newfound wealth - he lives quietly in North London with his long-term boyfriend - Walliams is a regular on the party scene, guzzling champagne and revelling in his extravagant lifestyle. He snapped up Oasis star Noel Gallagher's old pad, Supernova Heights - a £3million mansion in fashionable Primrose Hill, North-West London - and is often spotted cruising around in his vintage Mercedes.

That's the Mirror, indulging in some old-fashioned Little British journalism there. The piece breaks down their merchandising campaign (in shops near you very soon), to show how they'll soon by loaded to the tune of £11 million each.

The Rat and Mouse - gathering it all up so you don't have to

Landlords bullish [FindAProperty]
King: Rate cut? Fuggedaboudit! [Guardian]
Feng Shui - stupid, but just won't go away [TheMoveChannel]
Clueless Brits don't understand their mortgages [BBC]
Three bedroom houses with gardens - officially the past [Telegraph]
How to buy a flat in south London [Independent]
London property prices outpace salaries [BBC]
Property guide to lovely Ealing [FindAProperty]

This is a rare one... a Betterton Street (off Drury Lane) town house with freehold, large rooms and a layout with loads of character. It comes with planning permission for a loft extension and terrace, too. It's with LDG, on the market at £1.25 million, and you'll find particulars here.

Ladies of West Hampstead [September 27]

Nunhead shares its postcode with Peckham and lacks an official border, but enthusiast Ron Woollacott, quoted in the Independent, knows where Nunhead starts and ends. The area gets the paper's "More For Your Money" treatment this week, and it's an interesting piece about an interesting place with a village community and independent shops. And one of the most celebrated cemeteries in London. Prices aren't rock-bottom, but if the Nunhead achieves conservation status (apparently sought by residents) they could look good.

"I feel totally safe playing polo on a field full of pros. But when amateurs are all over the field, someone can get killed. They have more guts than brains. They charge after every ball and don't know when to hold back."

That's America's commercial property king Tom Barrack comparing the property market with the polo field. America's bubble-anxiety is newer than our own crash-concern, and it's yet to be seen whether they can show the restraint necessary to sit tight and whether the storm in the same way British investors and homeowners appear to have. Barrack clearly has doubts, and his decision to more-or-less sell everything except casinos is making the headlines right now. He points to high oil prices and the knock-on effect of more expensive building materials as the major cause for concern. A glut of discounted new-builds, sold off by over-stretched American developers who need out quick, may just be what pops their bubble. That and over-eager amateurs who in the short term (and to add another metaphor) call every raise... More, here.

Because, according to this, he's just arrived back from New York (where he made the fairly basic mistake of reporting a burglary and then forgetting to hide his stash before the police came around looking for evidence), and the US banker currently renting his Hampstead home won't play ball and clear out. He's currently in a London hotel, but what he'd really like is a bit of home comfort where he can properly hide his stash and make a nice cup of tea. All offers to the usual address.

Wherever he lays his hat [August 31]

The estate agent stalkers over at Curbed and Brownstowner are getting excited about a new form of marketing spotted parked up in Brooklyn. The Corcoran car is a little Nissan with a discreet message - Ask me about real estate... a long, long step back from the gaudy estate agent motors we're used to being carved up by on the streets of London. I can't believe we were first on this. It won't be long before everybody's competing for the best estate agent wreck snap... although I reckon we've won that one already.

Foxtons mini adventure [January 18]
Schadenfreude, scalps and stupidity [January 17]

The Rat and Mouse - stalking the London property market

RICS says be happy [Sunday Times]
Home repos soar [Mail On Sunday]
Property market - busy, busy, busy [Sunday Telegraph]
Activity picks up in City [FindAProperty]

Offset mortgage specialist First Direct have come out top in this year's Guardian/Observer Consumer Finance Awards, despite providing just 55,000 mortgages in a market of 1.2 million. First Direct is praised for superior customer services, aided by hi-tech support (including SMS), and a greater transparency of charges and fees. More, here.

News, here of Peckham's latest blue plaque... awarded to Manze's Pie & Mash, at 105 Peckham High Street. Details of Manze's three shops - an institution in pie & mash - here.

Peckham in the sky with diamonds [September 23]

By Hometrack's reckoning it's the 16th consecutive fall in average prices (-0.1% from mid-September to mid-October), bringing prices down 3.5% on the year, and back to October 2003 levels. What's more, Hometrack predicts further falls in the short term. More, here.

What do you do when the property market's been showing contradictory signs for a year and you just can't call it? You get the experts in for a round-up. The Times' s Catherine Riley does today what the Independent's Graham Norwood did just over a week ago, but she manages to trounce him by a full five experts (not including the newspaper's own Economics Editor Gary Duncan). Knight Frank's never-knowingly-underquoted Liam Bailey appears in both lists, but outside of that each paper fields a unique team, with the Times's heavy hitters Martin Ellis (Halifax), Peter Bolton King (NAEA), David Pretty (Barratt Group) and Milan Khatri (RICS) walking all over the Independent's more media-orientated list. The Rat and Mouse is currently working on a fantasy league housing market expert team that will redefine the game of predictions (your nominations welcome). Oh yeah - they all reckon not much is going to happen... except Primelocation's Ian Springett, who's still not afraid of using the c word:

Prices have waned somewhat in the past year outside the capital, but the real story is the amount of stock that has come on to the market - 50 per cent higher than a year ago and still rising. It's this sector that needs a reality check on prices, and it's likely that there will be a noticeable correction in the coming months.

Experts give the market 5.5 out of 10 [October 12]

Apparently, the streets are dirty, the customer service shabby, the weather rainy... and her survival advice for Americans thinking of visiting is...

... bring a little cashmere sweater or a pashmina...

Gwyneth Paltrow... the Ray Mears of Belsize Park. More comment, here.

... and the contradictory forces currently making life difficult for the Bank of England. It's a useful summation of the current out-of-kilter growth-inflation relationship (even if it's impossible to read it without hearing Davis's voice in 10 O'Clock News segment mode). Find it, here.

"What's the Party Wall Act?", ask American readers. Well, it's a piece of British legislation from 1997 that says that if you're planning anything more than a bit of rewiring or redecoration at all close to a boundary between your place and your neighbours', then you need to inform them and give them a chance to complain. It was intended as a way for people to protect themselves in the case of excavation or major building work next door. But that's not how it's being used. According to this report, based on research by structural engineers Brewster Associates, it's being used as a weapon by hostile British neighbours who've already stored up enough artery-clogging levels of hatred (for late-night noise, barking dogs, assorted subtle social slights) that they're prepared to do whatever's necessary to make sure the people on the other side of the wall don't have a good day. By lodging a complaint needlessly delaying your neighbours' building work you can cost them huge inconvenience and extra financial burdens too. More than half of surveyors polled believed the act had become a hindrance to the process of completing minor alterations or extensions.

There's an interesting piece in the Independent about a new maximum mortgage calculation system developed by the Centre for Economics and Business Research for the Alliance & Leicester. The new system replaces the old multiples-of-salary calculation with a more complex and (seemingly) more sensible system which takes into account UK geography, number of kids and other lifestyle factors.

The action's taking place over at the Channel 4 4homes forum, and was provoked by an alarmed prospective estate agent who posted in panic that she was being called back for maths and English tests:

I have been called back for a second interview - the job is at an Estate Agents as Sales Negotiator. I've been told there will be a grammar test and a maths test!! No probs with the grammar but haven't had the need to do maths (apart from every day normal stuff) in years.

Now... I'm a man and I enjoy posting to forums occasionally, but there are times when I wonder whether men shouldn't be banned from this kind of activity. Because sooner or later you're going to end up with this kind of referred dick-measuring:

Semi-conductors (e.g. transistors) work on the principle of taking a conductor (silicon) and creating an electron deficiency (making a semi-conductor). The Quantum Mechanics framework was key to the invention of the semi conductor.

Or this:

The point remains that Shockley was involved with the vacuum tube and the properties of semiconductors were well known. The principle is quite similar.

And, eventually, this:

The title of my D. Phil was "Studies of Excited Electron Production with the ZEUS Detector at HERA". Put simply, I have a PHD in nuclear physics.

But all the nuclear physics in the world doesn't amount to a hill of atoms when we're talking about the property market. Here's estate agent immy21 weighing in with what we'd call a winner:

stop showing off you two! I'm an EA, consequently not that clever but I will have my mortgage paid off next year and I'm the right side of 35!

Hurrah for immy21. Oh yeah - and how did the interview go? She bolloxed it up, she thinks - but we haven't had a firm answer yet. Stay tuned.

Forbes famously christened us Londongrad, but according to this (which appears to pick up on a story in the Independent), the wealthy Russians currently making the capital their home prefer to call London Moscow2.

According to a report by Coutts & Co (and, let's face it, they should know) simply being a millionaire these days doesn't mean you can afford a millionaire's lifestyle. For a proper millionaire's lifestyle - the cars, the clothes, the drugs - you now need at least £2.6 million. Interestingly, it's largely the property market that's to blame. It's made a lot of us feel wealthy - but with prices rising more than 575% in the last 25 years, it's a lot harder to get off the starting blocks. And if you fancy being a millionaire in London, it's even harder. You'll have to wait until you've banked £3.47 million before you can even think about a visit from Alan Whicker. More, here.

The Rat and Mouse - spiced property news in a wholemeal blog

London more expensive than Marbella, and you're further from a beach, shock! [Easier]
London exiles not enjoying French hospitality - horses gutted [Independent]
700,000 empty homes in the UK [Guardian]
Knocking through... big time [Telegraph]
One in seven mortgages unsupported interest-only [Daily Mail]
Rentals fail to keep up with prices in Olympic region [Times]

Colette Browne, who set up Chiswick estate agency PropertyGarden.com has told the Sunday Telegraph that she believes rival estate agents are targeting her with a dirty tricks campaign. She claims local agents have wasted her time by posing as customers and are stealing her for sale boards. You can read the full story here. You can also earn yourself a £200 reward by photographing the board rustler in action. Make sure you get a clear shot of the vehicle, and its registration number, so Browne can round up a posse and run the varmint out of town.

A brand new Rightmove paints the property market with an optimistic hue this morning, and a rise of 0.5% in house prices last month nationally. Miles Shipton talks of a market "on the turn". The numbers, however, are marginal, and PropertyFinder has been quick to stub out Shipton's cigar, with a statement pointing to a 50% year-on-year increase in the number of properties for sale and a rebuke for vendors holding out for unrealistic prices. Where the figures are clear, though, is the Olympic regeneration region and Tower Hamlets in general. In the Telegraph:

Tower Hamlets, east London, has Britain's most crowded dwellings and 70 per cent of its housing stock is tower blocks. But regeneration associated with the Olympics has put a total of £21,000 on the average asking price in the borough in two months, making it the country's hottest property spot.

... And by an inner city mile, we'd say. More on the Rightmove figures, here. And, for Rightmove's own on the turn pdf, click here.

Liam Bailey's back, this time talking to the Evening Standard, about an influx of wealthy Asian buyers helping to prop up the luxury end of the London market. According to the Standard:

The most robust areas of the capital were the north London corridor from Regent's Park to Hampstead while Notting Hill continued the strong price growth it has shown all year.

Full story, here.

Liam Bailey, of Knight Frank, tells the Times today that a view of the Thames will add 18-to-25% to the value of a London property. He calls London's waterfront homes a "unique London sub-market" and (this is the interesting bit) it's a market that moves separately from the rest. So, between March 2004 and March 2005, waterfront property values grew at 3.8% (against 0.9% "inland"). And if the waterfront location is in an otherwise fairly modest neighbourhood (step forward Vauxhall), the price differential is even greater. Read the full story here.

Visit London has revealed the results of a survey of 1,000 young foreign people who have chosen to work or study in London. The picture painted is very positive, with the majority clearly relishing the experience and gaining socially and culturally. More, here.

On average, homes within a mile of a football club are worth 1.8% less than similar properties further away. Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge and Fulham FC's Craven Cottage are both typical examples.

According to a new survey reported here, posh sports equal posh prices. Perhaps tennis and cricket fans are less likely to punch each other unconscious, or chant, or pee in your garden. So you can enjoy a 2.8% premium for living near to Lords. Interestingly, rugby's the posh sports exception, with an insignificant effect either way.

For sale: it just is cricket [August 18]

The Rat and Mouse: getting jiggy wit' London property news.

Hamptons reports London property market resurgence [AboutProperty]
Think you know about houseboats? Zsa Zsa Gabor partied here [Independent]
Property derivatives market nears £1 billion [Times]

Congratulations to ThisIsLocalLondon for this cracking tale of ministerial property intrigue in Southfields. It appears David Blunkett has managed, once again, to ricochet off the boundaries of ministerial propriety by writing a letter, on House of Commons-headed notepaper, to Wandsworth Council registering his disapproval, as "a former resident" of Fulwood Walk, to the council's plan to add some private flats onto neighbouring Clevedon Lodge. His objections appear to be entirely environmental. But what he doesn't mention is that he still owns and currently rents out 7 Fulwood Walk, which backs directly onto Clevedon Lodge. While he gets busy apologising for using Commons notepaper for an entirely private matter, and explaining that he never meant to mislead Wandsworth Council, it turns out that the building work is designed to raise money for the local Linden Lodge School for blind and partially-sighted children:

The council has already released funds from the potential Clevedon Lodge asset for the school, in expectation of being able to recoup it from the sale. The disused Clevedon Lodge was not seen as a fit site for the school to use in the future. Instead, its sale is partially funding a £4million development at the Princes Way school including a 37-bed residential complex, new teaching accommodation, pool facilities and a play area.

Government's freebie housing round-up [May 9]

It's Suburbia Day in the broadsheets, as the Telegraph and the Independent both celebrate the opening of In Search Of Suburbia, an interesting new exhibition at The Museum Of Domestic Design And Architecture (in, wait for it... Barnet). The exhibition - which runs until March 26, 2006 - reminds us of the spirit of Utopianism in which the suburbs were designed. The Telegraph article is the more interesting of the two, and points to a recent report by the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) which is attempting to rekindle that spirit once again:

SEERA suggests that the suburbs of tomorrow could become laboratories for solar and wind power, havens for homeworkers. Residential streets should be designated "home zones" and corrugated with road humps. They could buzz to the tinkle of bicycle bells and delight in foods brought in to farmers' markets. They could create cafes, affordable housing, and, like their rural counterparts, hold local fetes and organise litter-collecting rotas."

More on the exhibition, right here.

A reader wants suggestions for a professional property finder familiar with the Barnes/Putney area, who might be able to find him a place to fix up, for something up to £400,000. Any recommendations or information will be gratefully received and passed on. Please email us here.

The Independent carries a diverting look at the current state of the market, organised into a repeated Q&A with experts such as Fionnuala Earley (who works on the Nationwide index), Miles Shipside of Rightmove and Liam Bailey of Knight Frank's research wing. The interesting bits are the bits they share - 5 or 6 out of ten for the current market, and a sense that sales will rise next year without necessarily dragging house prices with them. Full story, here.

Hometrack reports - down, down, down [October 3]

According to the government (as reported here by the BBC), one-in-three 30-somethings could be shut out of the housing market by 2026, should house prices "soar". The number of 20-somethings with a mortgage has dropped from 46% in 1995 to 36% in 2004, so Prescott and Housing & Planning minister Yvette Cooper say we need to build more houses to take the pressure of rising prices. What? The same house prices that, according to a new NOP survey, only 48% of homeowners think will rise in the next 12 months? When, exactly, are these prices likely to "soar"? Shortly after SIPPs, the government's latest hair-brained pension scheme, enables high-earners to save 40% tax by buying up second, third, fourth homes (all built, no doubt, by Prescott's fat hand) and renting them out to the 30-somethings who can't afford them.

As if the residents of Brixton don't have enough to worry about, what with gentrification and everything... but the Register reports a disturbing trend involving squirrels who are just saying "yes". The story goes... dealers who hide their stash by burying it in people's gardens have found themselves turned over by a ruthless gang of crack-addicted squirrels with bloodshot eyes, some of whom, apparently, will give any passing rodent a blowjob for half a rock and a peanut. Find the full story on the other side of this link.

Bloomberg reports on a survey by Yorkshire Bank suggesting that messy neighbours with unkempt gardens, flaking paintwork and noxious smells emanating from their homes are enough to make a potential buyer walk away. Who'd've thought it? More, here.

If this wasn't enough, there's more estate agent lovin' in the Telegraph today; and, specifically, a big peck on the cheek for "the very wonderful Andrew Gilbert", of Winkworth, Ealing:

My own experience has left me in no doubt that without Andrew Gilbert, of Ealing Winkworth, not only would the chain have dissolved in a mire of mutual resentment long before exchange, but the same chain could never have come together in the first place. I am about to hand over £11,000 to Winkworth, and they richly deserve it.

The piece - a rare defence of the estate agency arts - makes a serious point... you can do the deal privately or online, but unless you're experienced in negotiation, have a lot of time on your hands and keep Covey by your bedside, you're going to either get suckered by a buyer with no money, or let emotion screw the deal. So why did my estate agent decide it was okay to personally vouch for a serial gazunderer? Because - like in any other profession - there are good and bad estate agents. Gilbert's a good 'un. We want to know the names of the others. So how about sending in the names of the London estate agents you've loved, and I'll put together a little Hall of Fame in their honour.

Brand new out-of-date figures for August are out today and, with the emphasis as always on "useful", they tell us that the value of the average house has risen by £1 during the month. More, here.

Halifax: annual house price inflation up [October 8]

The trouble with reading a Rosie Millard property column first thing on a Monday morning is that any slight shortness of temper - entirely unrelated to and undeserved by Millard - can easily explode into a noisy firefight of invective in which the sensible and reasonable subject of the column just gets lost, and eventually smoked and buried faster than a narcoleptic LA gangbanger. So... here we have Millard arguing that news that homeowners in Hackney South and Shoreditch are paying up to a third of their salaries on servicing their mortgages doesn't portend a property crash. They can afford it, she says. They're first-time buyers, they don't have families to support, and living (electrical goods, furnishings, food) has never been cheaper. Good point. So why do I feel a little tight-chested right now? All this:

... those of us who choose to spend the remaining two thirds of our money on shiny apples and alfafa sprouts... As long as you can still afford the Ocado bill and a round of drinks at the Light Bar... everyone is so busy paying their money to the banks that they can't afford to pay the bill at Fresh & Wild...

I know... it's a writerly USP of sorts - but who's it aimed at? Am I meant to think, yep, she's a member of the middle-class, too - I must remember to add her to the Christmas list when I'm buying indie movie DVDs that are a little challenging, but not too challenging? Still. Interesting article, all the same.

The Daily Mail is reporting on the plight of Edgeley Road resident Mark Vella, who is taking Lambeth Council to the High Court for failing to serve a Noise Abatement Notice to his landlords, London and Quadrant Housing Trust. He claims that noise insulation in his converted one-bedroom flat in Elmshurst Mansions is unsatisfactory. The noise of his neighbours (whom Vella isn't blaming) has driven him out of his home for long periods and affected his health. If he wins, experts warn it could turn out expensive for landlords nationwide.

The Rat and Mouse: sucking out all that property news goodness.

Thames Gateway and Kings Cross parental pick for student flats [Telegraph]
Kingsway International Christian Centre pastor spends charity money on flash car and Florida timeshare, now in tussle for Olympics land [Times]
Posh estate agent sets up "affordable housing team" to broker deals between housing associations and private developers [Inside Housing]
Why everybody fancies estate agents... apparently [Observer]
Ham & High campaign to save Hampstead Police Station [Ham&High]

That's according to the Times, and it's very good news for me. The backstory is that I want an aquarium, but Mrs Brandt thinks they're naff. I've tried explaining - you don't have to buy the miniature shipwreck and sailor skeleton, but so far it's been no good. Could the Times help me out?

IN CASE YOU had not realised, fish tanks are no longer naff. Far from it. Nowadays they are deeply stylish. Gone are the aquariums that straddle half your living room, housed in a mahogany cabinet case with neon shades of gravel and a castle-motif ornament inside. These days fish tanks are less about the fish and more about design.

Thank you. The piece goes on to single out Designer Aquariums - a business run by forward-looking fishist Matthew Bubear, whose personal bubear is what he calls the "fish anorak" (insert your own joke about tiny stitching here). Designer Aquariums has apparently installed high-end design tanks in the homes of JK, Branson, Hirst and McQueen. Giant fish tank room dividers are the height of fashion, and there are even tanks with plasma screens behind them, so you can tune into When Sharks Attack and watch the little fellas stroke.

... unchanged at 4.50%. No surprises there.

Their latest report puts the figure at 3%, rising from 2.5% in August. In the context of rising new loans and buyer enquiries, it's promising. But before we throw our hats in the air, let's look at a chart (below) which the BBC is no doubt about to sue me for using and remind ourselves what house price inflation once meant.

Hometrack reports - down, down, down [October 3]

Things are hotting up in the east, where the proposed compulsory purchases (to make way for the Olympic village) are being met with fierce resistance. A few months ago, we reported on the case of salmon smoker Lance Forman, whose business was established in the East End exactly one hundred years ago... the work of Jewish immigrants who brought the curing tradition to London from Eastern Europe. Since then - as every other smokery has relocated to Scotland - H Forman & Son has stayed put (in Marshgate Lane) and flourished, surviving both fire and flood, to become one of the world's leading exponents of a subtle culinary art, and providing food to Fortnum & Mason and some of the country's top restaurants. Lance Forman complains that the forced move will cripple his business - the land has been (it is suggested) undervalued, it takes time and money to build a site capable of his very specialised business, and the area the London Development Agency intend to shift him to will leave the company with an insurmountable traffic burden (effectively stopping him makin deliveries to London restaurants within the necessary time). According to the Independent, here, angry victims of the proposed compulsory purchases clashed with Livingstone at a London Assembly meeting, and compared his behaviour to Mugabe's. As we said back in July, this is just one of hundreds of East London businesses facing compulsory purchase. They'll lose, the big building firms will win... good for Londoners?

In one night, 20-year-old Jessica Royston has consumed more alcohol than is safe for women to drink over two weeks.

But even after 40 shots of vodka - and vomiting - the fashion student isn't finished yet.

"Party at my house," she says.

Go girl! Jessica - who featured in a BBC documentary I didn't see - is quoted on the BBC website, in an article that suggests one of the causes of chronic binge drinking is high house prices. Homes have got more expensive, lager has got cheaper, and people in their 20s can't see the point of saving for a house they'll never afford. It's an interesting article, and the responses from readers are even more interesting... from multiple complaints about the four-pint definition of binge-drinking ("Four pints is a good lunch") to some interesting complaints about a society lacking a coherent moral framework. Our favourite, though, is the following, from a philosopher in Japan, which attempts to suggest an alternative moral framework:

"Priced out of the market with a large disposable income" has been the definition of life in Japan for decades. Now, while the Japanese DO enjoy a drink, a lot more of that disposable income makes its way into electronics, cars, and designer bags. Maybe we British need to think "Gucci" rather than "Guinness?"

Amazing how the shriek of a consumer monkey can carry all the way from Japan.

Congratulations to London property developer Mark Teltsher who picked up £280,000 at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino on Sunday night, for winning the EPT London Grosvenor Poker Masters, a no-limit hold'em contest with a £3,000 buy-in - which translates as tough. But then you've got to be tough to be a London property developer. More, here.

"They won't come in popping Champagne corks, but they will ring us up and say 'last week I was looking for a £5 million house, and now I'm looking for an £8 million one'."

That's Lane Fox, Chelsea's Lulu Egerton talking to the Telegraph about last week's good news for the City elite... and upmarket estate agents. More, here.

That's right, a study by insurance providers Zurich Professional suggests that it's the gay community propping up property prices. With the Civil Partnerships Act (CPA) just two months away from becoming law, gay couples are the fastest growing homeowning group, outstripping (and this is the interesting bit) the singleton revolution we've read so much about in recent years. And what about the old-fashioned marrieds? Seventy-six per cent of conveyancers reported numbers of married clients either at a standstill or falling. More, here.

And for the 15th consecutive month - that's the headline. There's a drop of 0.1% reported for September, leaving a fall of 3.7% for the last 12 months. The report does contain, however, the suggestion that activity is increasing, and the outlook is promising. We'll come back and post the link to the actual Hometrack pdf just as soon as it appears on their website.

Nationwide figures... property adds to Brown's woes [September 29]