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!