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Entries in March 2006
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More in this Category - HA9
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 Shortly after the whole Whistleblower furore, we were contacted by a website that promises to pair buyers with sellers in a new way, and cut the agent out of the whole deal from the start. MatchYourProperty is interesting because it's a repository for buyers, not sellers. Buyers register for free - and then wait for suitable sellers (who pay for the privilege of access to the list) to contact them. I know what you're thinking... It must be crawling with estate agents sweatier for the good leads than Shelley Levene. I'm told, however, that they screen hard, and the T&Cs include this:
In the event of the discovery of any unauthorised use of this website resulting in the subscriber obtaining a fee or commission from any party, the subscriber agrees to pay to the operator a sum equivalent to the said fee or commission together with an additional sum of fifty per cent of the said fee or commission agreed as liquidated damages in recompense for the operator's costs of detection and investigation of the said use and receipt.
The advantages are obvious - much lower fees and, for buyers, a chance to check out the good stuff first, before it reaches the market. And - because the site doesn't qualify as an agency - a seller can use it at the same time as an agent without breaking a sole agency agreement. The disadvantages? The responsibility for checking out the financial status of a potential buyer will reside entirely with the vendor - and, trust me on this, sometimes it's difficult to spot the nutters. MatchYourProperty's owner tells us she's received a huge amount of interest since launching at the end of last year, with particular action in the Battersea, Swiss Cottage and Clapham. Let us know what you think.
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FindAProperty reveals the latest snagging figures on UK new builds. Whereas in 2004 you could expect to find 52.7 faults in your brand new home, last year the average buyer found 62.4. The most serious? Er, one bedroom less than the spec. Actually - like taking an inventory before letting - checking a new build for problems requires a system. FindAProperty ends the piece with a helpful checklist.
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The Times reports that well-heeled Londoners are waking up to the fact that, although period features and location are always advisable, nothing feels more like luxury in the Capital than a bit of space. As news of Barratt's first downloadable home, the iPad, reaches the papers, some new Kensington residents have proved that they're prepared to pay up to £12 million for a few thousand square feet more than the average, over at Phillimore Square, a new luxury development in W8. The Times' Anne Ashworth calculates you could fit as many as 23 iPads into the largest of the Phillimore Square apartments.
 Westcity, the developer, says that the homes sold unexpectedly quickly without publicity, despite not being ready for occupancy until mid-summer. This is a further indication of the buoyant state of the City- bonus-driven London property market. What some agents call a "feeding frenzy" among buyers is being exacerbated by a shortage of homes for sale, especially really large ones.
Read it here.
Size matters [March 3]
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UK soft furnishings designer Kate Storer's racy bedroom design - lovely art, lovely linen.
[via design*sponge]
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Kudos to Ross Clark of the Telegraph for this piece of investigative journalism into how the market has treated the riverside's glass palace developments. Focussing on Canary Riverside's Eaton House, St George Wharf's Bridge House and Riverside West's Compass House, the story is something like a complete reverse of the London property story elsewhere. It's not the big, expensive penthouses that have been performing, but the smaller, mid-priced apartments. Using Land Registry figures, the article even points to losses on some million pound-plus penthouses. Somebody lost £60,000 in just 13 months on 141, Eaton House; while 146, Bridge House shed a terrifying £810,000 in three and half years. Clark's advice is sensible - buy small, and try to buy off-plan at a discount, if you're looking at a new London riverside development.
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Nationwide's (seasonally adjusted) figures were released this morning - and it's a 1.1% jump in March, bringing a year-on-year house price increase to an impressive 5.3%. The suggestion (from Nationwide and other analysts), though, remains that a minty cooling effect is likely in the coming months, as a result of higher utility bills, rising unemployment and dashed hopes of interest rate cuts. A bit of commentary, here, courtesy of Reuters. I'll bring you the Nationwide link very shortly - right now I'm getting a message telling me their server's being reset due to heavy traffic - what an obsession this house price business is.
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Personal finance portal Find reports on plans by Barratt Developments to build £120,000 Ipads on the outskirts of London for struggling first-time buyers.
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It's featured in the Independent... a four-storey, four-bedroom, Grade II-listed, 17th Century house in Ormond Road, Richmond, combining the old (original panelling) and the new (ceiling speakers throughout), cleverly. It's with Featherstone Leigh, at £1.675 million. Particulars here.
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As seen by leading agents, economists and analysts, in an interesting read, over at the Telegraph.
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The great thing about blogs is their ability to react IMMEDIATELY. Like, if somebody sneezes property news, the chances are it's splattered on the Rat and Mouse within minutes. So we were a little surprised when somebody drew our attention to this shock story over at Personal Computer World. Hadn't we heard this before sometime? Er, seven months ago in fact?
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It seems like only a month ago that the latest figures suggested a location close to a good school could add £43,000 to the value of a house in London... but, my friends, those days a long gone. Now - according to a survey by Economic Journal, reported here in the Guardian - be prepared to cough up an extra £61,000.
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Were any Rat and Mouse readers around to witness David Cameron, Kirstie Allsopp and a group of happily-patronised first-time buyer puppies in the Natural Cafe in Chiswick yesterday? Cameron apparently had the bare-faced nerve to suggest he was just another Londoner struggling for extra space... hell, he was even digging out his own basement. After all, you've got to keep your wine somewhere. More here.
David Cameron and the battle for wind [March 6]
David Cameron's tasty property deal [October 31]
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More in this Category - Celebrity homes
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... an homage, over at Trendir.
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That's what they've extrapolated from today's Hometrack figures over at ThisIsMoney.
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Nationwide chief economist Fionnula Earley is suggesting recent rises in house prices are about to end. Blaming rising unemployment and utility bills, poor value in the market and few prospects for further interest rates cuts, she forecasts an end to the winter mini-boom. Meanwhile, however, Hometrack announces a year-on-year property price index rise of 0.1%, March-to-March. Not much is it? But Hometrack has been traditionally bearish on annual figures. This is the first time they've reported an annual gain since January 2005. The monthly rise was 0.5%, or 1.1% in the capital. More here. And, er, here.
Rightmove - average London property exceeds £300,000 [March 20]
House prices - Halifax reports [March 8]
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Imagine a time when UK prefabs look like this:
[via Business2blogs]
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More in this Category - HA9
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More in this Category - Design
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Here's an interesting one courtesy of Stern Studios. It's on West Hill, in Putney, on the third floor of an Edwardian house, with off-street parking, and views (apparently) to Richmond Park in the west and the Sussex Downs, no less, in the east. It's on at £174,950, with viewings scheduled next Tuesday, either at lunchtime or early evening.
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We've been rebuked - and with some justification - by the Property Editor of the Sunday Telegraph for getting a little petty in our interpretation of one of her writers. Regular readers will know that the Sunday Telegraph carries one of our favourite property sections, which is why we're taking this like a rat, not a mouse, and printing her response:
Just a quick comment about the "logic" to the Sunday Telegraph renting story you highlighted recently. I agree it should have been explained better - what a sharp eye the rat has! But can I refer you to this coming Sunday's special spring market watch. London prices ARE enjoying a revival - largely at the top end of the market fuelled by healthy bonuses - but there are already fears in the industry that this is not sustainable. Houses are still very expensive and one must question where the upward pressure on prices is going to come from. Therefore, you may find that a number of canny homeowners are selling now and renting - waiting for things to cool down again before returning to the market.
On renting... therein, thereof... [March 22]
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Two days ago it was kick-an-estate-agent day. Now it's help-your-fellow-mover.
Another tip, this time courtesy of Mark:
When moving or buying a house in london you'll probably be handed a list of local solicitors by estate agents. Although it sounds reassuring to have the legal work carried out by someone you can drop in on or who knows the area this work can be done by any solicitor in the UK. So simply find the cheapest place in the UK and call a few up for a quote. Small village in wales? North-East pit village? They will all be 50% or more cheaper than anyone in London. My sister and I have saved £1000 this way.
Sounds obvious doesn't it? So why don't we do it? Maybe we think London solicitors are more able, or that local knowledge may help them do the job better. Based on my own recent experience, I would like to personally warn anybody off the assumption that a London postcode is enough to guarantee a competent solicitor.
Thanks, Mark.
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The Telegraph looks inside a nice, Terence Conran-designed Maida Vale mews house, currently belonging to Royal Ballet principle ballerina Leanne Benjamin and her husband Tobias Round, manager of the Donmar Warehouse. It's an interesting piece and a lovely house, and it's on the market for £1.35 million. Particulars, here.
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Since it's emerged that all but one of the committee voted to keep rates on hold this month, commentators are speculating... is that is for the year?.
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Murray writes:
We're moving out of London (to Edinburgh as it happens). London removal companies were all quoting us about 1200 plus vat and insurance. So we phoned a few removal companies in Edinburgh. It didn't take long to find one that was coming down to London around the date we wanted to move, so if we were willing to be flexible +/- 3 days on the exact date, the price INCLUDING vat and insurance dropped to just under 700. In other words, half the price. My point: when moving, call the removal companies in the place you are moving TO, not the place you are moving FROM, especially if the from place is London.
Thanks, Murray!
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To Rat and Mouse readers who wrote in asking why no budget references?... my apologies. I was stuck in a radio studio the entire day, and by the time I got out it was all over.
Clearly, there was pressure on Brown to announce some measures to deal with the very real burden of stamp duty... either a dramatic raise in the threshold, or even a measure to exempt first-time buyers from the tax completely. In the event, Brown raised the threshold by £5,000, from an entirely unrealistic £120,000 to an equally entirely unrealistic £125,000. The RICS was looking for something more like a slightly unrealistic £150,000, and were quick to comment. Soon, followed by:
Stamp Duty: Brown boost to homeowners is labeled "disappointing" [Independent]
Property owners' stamp duty hopes dashed [Fair Investment Company]
Dismay at stamp duty announcement [AboutProperty]
Budget 2006 - Stamp duty rise "derisory" [MyFinances]
Stamp duty changes fail to help buyers [Telegraph]
The other concern from homeowners was inheritance tax, which also has an outdated threshold at odds with recent growth in house prices. Any help there?
The threshold was increased from £285,000 to £325,000, but (from FindaProperty):
Recent research calculated that the 2006/07 IHT threshold of £285,000 would now be £425,000 if it had been increased in line with house price inflation over the past ten years.
Impact of inheritance tax threshhold rise seen limited [Reuters]
Inheritance tax limit at odds with a boom [Scotsman]
That's it for now. But if you want to air your grievances or feel like expressing praise for Brown, send us your emails.
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The Telegraph carries an interesting piece about reasons to rent, and why the lettings market is doing well. I'm confused, however, by this logic:
And for London homeowners, who are seeing the early signs of a revival, selling up while the going's good and renting is an increasingly attractive option.
Read it here.
Note - this entry has been updated.
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... I'm never trusting another estate agent...
... wanted to ***-ing punch that twat at Time 2 Move...
... we should all just do the final deal ourselves and cut them out at the last minute...
The responses to yesterday's Whistleblower programme began rolling in shortly after the final credits. The Rat and Mouse gets some fun at the estate agent's expense, but - if you look back over the archives - I think you'll agree that overall we've been fairly objective, and even defended the profession when we've thought it fair. Whistleblower was infuriating, however, in a way a lot of people will find hard to get over. And it's hard to see how certain agency's are going to come away entirely unscathed.
If you want to vent... you know where to find us.
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Young agents exchange high-fives as they swop tales of gazumping and over-valuing.
Whistleblower reporter Anna Adams blows her cover for ThisIsMoney, and reveals all about Foxtons...
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... including a reference to rogue elements. But somebody emailed us just an hour ago to tell us a west London Foxtons branch is implicated in tonight's documentary. Hmm.
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It's entirely unintentional, but it looks like there's a theme developing here. There's some essential Rat and Mouse viewing tonight at 9pm on BBC1, when Whistleblower goes undercover at a number of London estate agencies. Apparently, we'll be able to sit back and enjoy agents artificially boosting prices by lying to surveyors about the actual value of deals; faking signatures; making false low offers to bring down clients' asking prices after winning the very same clients by suggesting they can achieve a much higher price; flyboarding; and - my own favourite because I believe I was once the target for this myself and even the thought of it puts me in a Silence Of The Estate Agents kind of mood - undervaluing a property in order to sell it off cheap to a property developer in return for a backhander. Don't miss it.
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Money hungry, lazy, rude staff. Typical of most real estate agents... If you want to make an enquiry like why am i getting rental arrear letters when i pay my rent through direct debit on time every month then you have to chase them for days on end before you get any sort of response. When I finally got through to someone, it was some snotty accounts girl who was unrepentant...
Ah, nothing like a satisfied customer. The Rat and Mouse has no experience of this particular management service whatsoever - neither good nor bad. So we couldn't possibly comment. But if you want to know who's making no friends over at Blagger...
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That loud bang - and the roof dropping down 3 feet - and the three and half thousand workmen evacuated... don't worry just a weld failure. You can look forward to crowding into the stands and relaxing with thousands of others, confident in the safety provided by the cream of Anglo-Australian engineering very shortly. Well, I say "very shortly", but...
[via Londonist]
Multiplex/Wembley - worse to worser [February 23]
What's cheaper than Wembley stadium? [February 16]
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The Telegraph - on your second home, the tax man, and a bit of forward-planning. If we had a tag that said useful, we'd apply it now.
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First of all - we foresee this figure being disputed, but the only London property news being talked about this morning is Rightmove's claim that the price of the average London home has broken through the £300,000 barrier. We suspect the sonic boom will be heard loudest at Housepricecrash, where Rightmove's property price index claims are already under scrutiny. Reuters, here. London's best performer in the February/March period were Hackney (up 5.4%) and Wandsworth (up 5.3%). The worst were Kensington & Chelsea (down 2.4%, presumably after a little too much City bonus hype) and Brent (down 0.5%, presumably because it's crap). Download Rightmove's actual factual (possibly) pdf by pressing this.
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So here's a Finsbury Park estate agent, complaining about his lot in the Observer, trying to suggest that a bit of Islamic fundamentalist chanting and the UK's most notorious mosque is the reason he can't get a proper price for houses on N4's smart St Thomas's Road. Interestingly, though, property speculators have moved in in force, buying up anything within chanting distance in the hope that when the whole spat dies down and we all learn to love each other again they'll be sitting on a goldmine. Which is why I've just put down a deposit on a holiday home in the Gaza Strip.
Hammersmith estate agents... own up, which one of you acted for Abu Hamza? [February 10]
Bradshaw, Hutton and Hamza - nabes [December 14]
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Building Design [free subscription required] praises designers Gustafson Porter for their landscaping vision for Swiss Cottage. And after the Diana Memorial debacle, a bit of a stroke is presumably just what the Anglo-American firm need the most. The plan - announced tomorrow - is said to be an ambitious exercise in planting. Oh yeah - plus a granite water feature.
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At the Rat and Mouse we sure like to fact. So here goes: three million claim to have been gazumped. One in three have had a property purchase fall through, and 37% of those blame gazumping. Which - if my maths is correct - means that 12% of all housebuyers have been gazumped. Thirty-five per cent of buyers offer after just one viewing, 66% spend just 30 minutes before offering, and 20% offer on the first property they see. Figures come courtesy of Scottish Widows. More info, here.
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That's the message from the Times. The house (on Earls Court Square) is valued at £2.85 million. It's reached that value after 17 years under the current ownership (a period in which the owners have apparently worked hard to improve the community aspect of the square and make it what it is today). Now they want to dispose of it, downsize, and split some of the proceeds between their children before Gordon Brown sticks his beak in there for 40%. It's a story the Rat and Mouse is hearing more and more. The Times explains why.
The amount of wealth inherited directly from property is set to double over the next 15 years, according to Halifax Financial Services. Children of baby-boomers born between the Second World War and the Sixties are collectively set to inherit £360 billion worth of property.
And the children born to parents at the Sixties end of that spectrum are among the current crop of struggling first-time buyers. Brown's counting on that cash. The FTBs are counting on that cash for deposits. And the baby-boomers themselves are counting on that cash to ease them through retirement after being robbed of their pensions thanks to financial incompetence on the part of those who should know better. It's not a happy situation, and it won't be solved by a house price crash.
Meanwhile, it's hard to feel too sorry for a family burdened by a £2.85 million property, but the sentiments over at the Times are still valid. Go on. Do your bit. Dig into those pockets deep. Check down the back of the sofa. And if you can scrape up enough for a lovely seven-bedroom red-brick townhouse on the west side of Earl's Court Road, you'll find particulars here. Read the Times article here.
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House prices and new buyer enquiries both rose in February, according to the RICS. More interesting though is that surveyors and agents report the practice of "sealed bids" taking place in London, with one particular agent reporting 33 on a single property. Short supply of family homes has apparently put the wind up buyers... more here.
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Local police warn landlords - if a gang of Vietnamese men get in touch with you and offer you six or 12 months rent upfront in exchange for the keys to your property and no identity checks, be suspicious. Unless you don't particularly mind them knocking down internal walls to facilitate giant cannabis farms with fire-starting hydroponics. More here.
A call to Newham residents - please sniff your neighbours [August 10]
Clarke Hillyer's Leytonstone Vice [April 26]
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Because, let's face it, nothing feels better than a little unbridled snobbery.
No sooner had we expressed surprise that the Starbucks effect was something to still be taken seriously, than the Telegraph leaps in with a fascinating piece suggesting different ways in which lifestyle and consumer culture mirrors house prices. Examples? A high quotient of iPod owners (Bryanston Square, Marylebone) = rising house prices. A high quotient of games consoles (Judd Street, King's Cross) = stagnation. The piece also looks at gym membership, eating habits, floor coverings and it's an entertaining read. Is it useful? Not really. Remember, these are after-the-fact judgements, Judd Street values are on the rise, and - given enough time - I could find a convincing link between house prices and the tides.
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 I was only recently talking to a London estate agent about exactly which local businesses are most likely to add value to a home. Waitrose? Check. Holmes Place? Check. Starbucks? What! Oh, yes, she said, Starbucks. So, let's get this straight: We'd pay more for a property, so that it's more convenient when we want to go and queue to pay more for a watery coffee with more foam? Yes. As it happens, today is Starbucks National Coffee Break day in the States. Which means Americans can get a free Starbucks and be grateful. Or not, if The Kid From Brooklyn has anything to do with it. Check out his latest message - Stick It Up Your Ass, Fuckin' Starbucks [video, sound, definitely not office safe].
[via Gawker]
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There are two interesting new survey results over at First Rung today. First, according to the Prudential, almost 13 million homeowners are planning to grow old at least partly on the fruits of their property investment. Elsewhere, research by the House Builders Federation (sniff, sniff, is that a rat?) suggests that buyers could save as much £25,000 by buying a new build, which is interesting, and begs the question - if new-builds are such great value, why is it that they make lenders nervous? They might involve less upkeep, but their market value is often less proven than long-standing bricks-and-mortar.
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According to the Association Of Residential Letting Agents, average prime central London weekly rents have reached £602 (house) and £405 (flat). And 48% of landlords have reported more tenants than properties during the first quarter of 2006 (a figure that dropped as low as 5% in 2002). More here. Meanwhile, the Knight Frank Prime Central London Residential Index reports a 2.2% increase in February, bringing the quarterly figure to 4.7%. More here.
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D&G Asset Management have announced an interesting opportunity for some prime central London property investment exposure. Pointing out that top properties in Belgravia and Kensington tend to rise quickly and dramatically in value within 24 months of a good City performance (yes, it's the bonus effect), they're to launch a Guernsey-based fund next month, with a minimum investment of £25,000. More, courtesy of the Telegraph, here.
Those City bonuses - again [January 12]
Kensington & Chelsea - where greed isn't good [January 11]
Rich to get richer than Richie [November 8]
City bonuses eyed by estate agents [October 4]
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Where? Peckham, innit, and in particular an area which, despite the unprepossessing start to its name, has been - according to the Independent - revivified. The Victorian and Georgian properties cost 60% less than nearby Clapham, and the area benefits from the sense of communal pride you get when a nabe is rescued from the dirt-heap and polished until it hurts.
Nunhead - it's not Peckham [October 26]
Peckham in the sky with diamonds [September 23]
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Long-standing Rat and Mouse readers will know we've a soft spot for Cityscope - the boutique London estate agency with the far too flashy website and a mission to market the "special" properties - the designer pads the Rat and Mouse loves most. We were contacted by them a few days ago with the message - check out our new video presentations... so we did. We're impressed. Cityscope is loading its website with cool little films with funky soundtracks and impressionistic editing, aimed at giving the viewer a better impression of the properties than they could get with merely stills and a floorplan. The production value's high... this isn't the equivalent of a Foxton's agent and his mobile phone-cam. Go and check them out. Try Grand Union Walk, NW1 (£590,000); Kings Ave, SW4 (£1.25 million); The Meridian, SE10 (£1.285 million).
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More in this Category - Linkage
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 The local councillor Richard Heseltine is petitioning for a statue of the Prime Minister to be put up in Islington High Street. "He's Islington's most famous son," explains Heseltine. "Next year, he'll have been PM for 10 years, so I think that deserves some sort of record. Besides, everyone round here should be grateful to the Prime Minister for what he's done for property prices in the area, even if he didn't get to reap the rewards himself."
Not all locals agree. "Boris Johnson thinks the idea would encourage graffitism," he adds.
... that was from the Independent. Does Islington deserve a Tony statue? Is graffitism a word? Let us know your thoughts.
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How much is a pasture in Hertfordshire worth? A lot more, if it borders on Beckhingham Palace.
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Did you see the Lowndes Square apartment on the Candy website?
Guide Price:
£6,800,000 (unfurnished)
£7,300,000 (to include curtains, blinds, audio-visual equipment, furniture and soft furnishings)
Is it just me or does it sound fairly steep to charge £500,000 for curtains, blinds, audio-visual equipment, furniture and soft furnishings?
He's talking about this listing. Well, it doesn't look as if the "hand painted platinum leaf on silk wallpaper" is going anywhere, whether the (very lovely) penthouse is bought furnished or unfurnished... which leaves some "bespoke furniture" and remote electronic comfort and security gadgetry by Crestron. We've dropped Candy And Candy a line and asked for a comment.
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A new report, courtesy of Portman Building Society, out at the weekend, revealed that the average homebuyer is currently paying an extra 9% since the government's stamp duty reform. The problem was a combination of the unrealistic threshold and the failure to implement an income tax-style stepped method of calculation. More here.
London's first-time buyers unmoved by budget [March 17, 2005]
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More in this Category - Celebrity homes
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Naturally, with our own stock flotation just around the corner, all eyes were on Rightmove today. We set up a speaker system so that Rat and Mouse staff on all floors could be kept abreast of developments. News is that shares soared almost 20% as the market opened, giving (at their peak) a capitalisation of more than £500 million - which, in turn, must have given our friends at HousePriceCrash a stroke. I ordered all Rat and Mouse staff to throw their hats in the air. Comparisons have already been made to the IPO of LastMinute.com six years ago, which probably didn't totally delight the Rightmove management team. Rightmove shares closed at 392.25. Here are some details.
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Tory MP Philip Davies has tabled a question asking exactly when tax-payers can expect ex-minister David Blunkett to leave his rent-free £3 million South Eaton Place home. It's four months since the Independent began questioning Blunkett's unusual domestic arrangements. The MP has since been the subject of widespread criticism, but he's clung on to the Belgravia pad tenaciously (although rumours that he'd had the locks changed in the dead of night turned out to be entirely false). More here. Perhaps Blunkett should contemplate moving into the Fulwood Walk residence (Southfields), which he's currently renting out for (apparently) in excess of £1,000 a month.
Blunkett: the blind misleading the blind? [October 12]
Government's freebie housing round-up [May 9]
Blunkett - man of means [January 24, 2005]
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From ShareCast:
Shares in Rightmove, the UK's biggest property website, have been priced at 335p, valuing the group at £425m. The price is at the top of the range of 275-335p.
HousePriceCrash - causing trouble again [February 28]
Rightmove to float [February 15]
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"One colleague travelled 100 miles to a deserted sales office on a quiet Sunday morning, and the four sales advisers said she should make an appointment as they were too busy to deal with her. When pressed, they suggested she peer through the show home windows."
Now I'm not an expert but...
This tale of woe comes from an entertaining chapter in the Telegraph about the mystery shoppers paid to shop shoddy estate agents. Apparently, sales staff find themselves taped... even filmed with tiny secret cameras. "It is an intrusion," says one, who clearly resents being tested after spending entire days of her life training for the job.
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 Rumour has it that Mick Jagger and girlfriend L'Wren Scott are househunting in Barnes... specifically on Castelnau, a road containing some fairly grand residences leading south from Hammersmith Bridge.
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... No change (from 4.5%), for the seventh month running.
House prices - Halifax reports [March 8]
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... asks ThisIsMoney's most overpaid journalist Simon Lambert. Ooh, it's time for more Candy and a return to Bowater House.
Out: Bowater House, In: Crib Candy [February 27]
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Those fuel bills are beginning to bite. A new survey reveals that the combined cost of fuel, council tax and mortgage repayments rose by 7% in the 2004/2005 financial year, three times the rate of inflation. Running a home costs an average of £6.366 a year, rising to £8,133 for Londoners. More here.
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And it's a 1.4% increase for February, leaving the three month figure up by 5.5% (despite January's 0.4% decline). What does the data mean? Not very much. Except that it shows there's enough heat somewhere in the market for the Bank Of England to want to keep interest rates where they are when they meet today and tomorrow. Click this to download the report as a pdf file.
Mildly pessimistic start to the year from Halifax [February 9]
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More in this Category - _Other
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Before you go condemning the Siemens liftMatic as the Stannah stairlift of cooking - a contraption for people too idle to extract their own pizzas from their own ovens... it's about conservation. What does heat do? It rises. So, open the door and it escapes. But what if you were to gently lower the food from the bottom? Ahh...
[via Trendir]
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They're by Beearo and they're just about the first stick-on wall decorations I've ever found tempting. They come courtesy of a young American design team made up of two brothers. You can buy online - or else you can just fiddle around for hours with the entertaining website.
[via design*sponge]
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So, Rosie Millard's moving into the financial advice racket, and has written a guide to property hotspots for the Sunday Times... Be careful. Be very very careful.
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Has anybody else come away a little sickened after this morning's Yesterday In Parliament? How can they line up to pat Jowell on the back - with so many questions still unanswered - and then act surprised when the public assume the Commons is a den of thieves? Since when did evading fair questions become a good thing?
Tessagate - funnier and funnier [March 3]
They're calling them Mr & Mrs Mortgage [March 2]
Jowell/Mills mortgage behaviour "unusual" [March 1]
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Buyers are paying an average of £127,922 for their first home, according to Halifax. Assuming the lender will accept four times a single income and three times joint incomes, someone buying on their own would need to earn almost £32,000 to borrow all the property's value. A couple would need a joint salary of about £42,500. In London, first-time buyers pay an average of £208,969 for a home, so a single borrower would need to earn £52,250 and a couple £69,650.
And yet a recent report claims that demand for 100% mortgages has risen by 50%. They're useful, say some experts, if you're a bigger earner than you are a saver. They're uncompetitive and a fast-track to negative equity, say others. And the Rat and Mouse - hardly a bear on the subject of the housing market - can't help but feel a little more sympathy with the latter position. Yesterday's Sunday Times, carried this useful guide to a few current deals - not just 100%, but 102%, 110% and 125% too. Will the madness never end?
Hollingworth defends the 125% mortgage [February 10]
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 I'm not finding it hard to take sides on this one. How can David Cameron's new Notting Hill neighbours really call his proposed wind turbine a "blight" on the locale? I look at these things, compare them to the stained brickwork surrounding people's gas boiler outlets and the car smog hanging in the early morning air, and - although they might seem a bit out of place now - wind turbines and solar panels just look like a better future. They cheer me up. Why not attack Cameron for a proper reason... like the cynical song and dance he's making about his green credentials? Or the way everything he says seems designed by focus group? Or the way he looks a bit like a second hand car dealer in Acton who once tried to sell me a dodgy Astra?
David Cameron's tasty property deal [October 31]
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It all started yesterday with Paragon mortgages' suspiciously upbeat assessment of the buy-to-let market. Everything was, apparently, up. Capital gains - up. Yields - up. Rents - up. Our friends at FirstRung (okay, I say friends, but...) were the first to point out some possible inconsistencies at the heart of the Paragon release. Like... were Paragon really saying that buy-to-let house prices had risen a whole 3.65% in the last quarter - a wildly optimistic view of the housing market? And if prices had risen 3.65%, and rental income had grown a mere 3.33%, how could this mean that yields were also up, or that buy-to-let was a more attractive prospect now than three months ago? All good points, although we suspect that Paragon would counter by saying this merely proves rents are due to rise. All this came in the wake of CML figures reporting a record number of buy-to-let loans in the second half of 2005... a 39% increase on the previous six months. Today, ThisIsMoney weighed in with a piece counting the pitfalls (lots) of getting involved in buy-to-let right now... you might choose the wrong location, you might over-stretch, you might get a bad tenant. Yeah - and you might catch bird flu. In most of these instances you're factoring in either bad luck or avoidable human error. Finally, FindAProperty joined in with a piece about letting to students. Apparently, the halcyon days of squeezing a few cardboard partition walls into a studio flat and advertising it as a six-bedroom shared house are long gone. Students demand penthouses - and the new investment is in purpose-built blocks. FindAProperty lists some ways of getting into the modern student letting racket. Over the coming months we'll be keeping a close eye on the buy-to-let market, so stay tuned.
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According to ThisIsMoney, there's a growing optimism about London's mid-term prospects, with Cantor's December spread suggesting a rise of 5%.
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 The Times's Anne Ashworth reports on the Stateside trend of attaching the square footage of the floor area to the description of a property (the real estate equivalent of prefixing a car make/model with its year... a 98 Ford Focus) and suggests it's heading here.
In a new piece of subtle middle-class one-upmanship, families who want a four to five-bedroom home say: "We, like, need a place with 2,800-3,500 square feet."
It's apparently just one of a number of American speech mannerisms creeping into London estate agent speak. Apparently, they're also saying, I'm, like, cool about that... an expression I really wouldn't have been cool about during a stressful pre-exchange period. What sparked Ashworth's interest in square footage?
This week, Glentree, the estate agency, claimed a record with the sale of an opulent Knightsbridge flat. The 6,500 sq ft five-bedroom property changed hands at £15 million, or £2,300 per square foot. The going rate in the area is about £1,500-£2,000.
Hey, Glentree, you da man!
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First: a categorical statement should my wife ever read this. If I receive a gift of more than a third of a million pounds... I'll mention it. Not that there's anything whatsoever unusual about receiving a gift of more than a third of a million pounds, using it to pay off a joint mortgage which you took out just a few weeks earlier, and not telling your partner named on the mortgage. Nothing wrong with that. Nor is it in anyway unusual. Unfortunately, the papers don't seem to agree. Do you get the impression there might be questions to answer?
Fifteen questions Jowell must answer [Daily Mail]
The unanswered questions [Telegraph]
Key questions that still need to be answered [Guardian]
Could she really have known so little about her own finances? [Telegraph]
They're calling them Mr & Mrs Mortgage [March 2]
Jowell/Mills mortgage behaviour "unusual" [March 1]
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Straight men, even. That's News International's target, when they launch Inside Out, a new monthly supplement with the Sunday Times. The magazine will apparently feature design and DIY (sorry, renovation), and address the fact that men are obsessed with property, too. It should go without saying that this is a development the Rat and Mouse will be following closely. More here.
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That's over at the Mirror, where you'll also find a nice frenetic schedule of mortgage activity, including mortgages paid off with "gifts", and then houses quickly remortgaged. Of course there's nothing "unusual" about that. It's a good read, and it's here.
Jowell/Mills mortgage behaviour "unusual" [March 1]
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Hidden Wires, the online magazine for the terminally tedious, posts this story of a total hi-tech refit, by TechniQuest, of a Grade II-listed, four-storey Victorian home. If you like your security high, your sound surround and your wires hidden, you might want to read the article. If you're just interested in how much a young family's willing to spend on this kind of thing, skip to the end and check out the spec. Send us your guestimates for the total and we'll forward them to TechniQuest and try to come up with a winner. The Rat and Mouse reader who comes closest will receive a special congratulations post featuring their photograph, and the perverse excitement of knowing they'll be looked at first thing in the morning by a big bunch of Egg McMuffin-eating London estate agents.
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The Telegraph carries a useful guide - by dishy designer Paula and agent orange Phil Robinson - to making the most of your loft conversion. Since the loft conversion must be up there competing with the side return for the title of most popular London extension (if anybody happens to actually know which is more popular...), I'd class this as a must read. In fact - I had the loft converted in my previous house in Hammersmith, and the Robinsons have made me realise how unimaginative I'd been in terms of design. Read it here.
Sidelong [February 9]
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What is it? It's a dumbbell, dummy, and it appears to be aimed at design-conscious fitness fans more interested in aerobics than body-building. In other words, it's light. Looks cool though. It's by Menu, who have a list of UK outlets here.
[via design*sponge]
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"It is unusual for someone to take out a mortgage of that size [£400,000], secured against their home, and to pay it off within a matter of weeks," said Nick Gardner, a director of London-based Chase De Vere Mortgage Management.
... and a major contender now in the understatement-for-2006 competition. Certainly, the couple are entitled to do this if they wish, but we all know the kind of giant expenses associated with remortgaging... it's a sensible move only if you're in for the long haul. For the sake of a few weeks cash flow there are a whole slew of bridging loan options. When two intelligent people behave with such willful financial stupidity, it's only right that they face detailed questions. And the longer it takes for them to answer those questions, the harder we all need to think about why that might be the case. Gardner is quoted here, in the Guardian.
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