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Entries in April 2006
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More in this Category - Linkage
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... The bronze handles on all the major doors were handbeaten in Italy from designs moulded in clay by [Mauro] Perruchetti...
It's not your ordinary Chelsea mansion... this is The Courthouse, an historic 18th Century judicial building and holding tank for prisoners destined for the colonies, recently gutted and refurbished to astonishing levels of detail, and for sale, with Aylesford for £10.6 million. The whole, amazing story is here, courtesy of the Telegraph.
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According to this morning's Sun, Kylie Minogue's chucking £1 million at her three-bedroom Chelsea flat...
And they are now busy transforming it into a palace fit for a pop princess.
 (See? That's how to write for a tabloid.) Apparently, the flat's been stripped to its shell, and brass tiles (£55 each) are going in, along with an Italian stone floor and underfloor heating. In the bathroom: solid silver taps (£1,500), which will run both cold and hot water, plus £10,000 of marble. More of this tackiness (the journalism, not Kylie's flat) here. Meanwhile, out of curiosity, I've been trying to find brass tiles that cost £55 each, and I'm having problems. If anybody knows what a £55 brass tile looks like, I'd love to see one.
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... bookmarked by Valerie, over at Wists. Go here.
[via DavidGalbraith.org]
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 The Mirror has a great scoop this morning... Asda supermarkets (or, if you're reading this from America, Walmart) is apparently about to test the estate agency market, placing properties on in-store computers in the North East (of England, not London), and charging an Asda price commission of 1%. The project's being called Homes@Supermarkets - which is about as hideous a name as we could have come up with given an infinite amount of time, an infinite number of typewriters and an infinite number of Asda staff - but the idea's interesting. If it's successful, the plan is to roll it out nationally. Read the story here. But didn't we hear something similar about Tesco this time last year? That one died a silent death.
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It's a 0.1% gain in April (following 1.1% in March), with the annual rate dropping to 4.8% (from 5.3%). They forecast a further slowdown, based on higher utility bills, petrol prices and rising unemployment. More here. Or press this to download a pdf of the latest report.
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Over at US design blog BehindTheCurtains, they've been looking for a glass bathtub. I'm not entirely sure why, and I wouldn't want to guess. They've found one.
[via BehindTheCurtains]
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... from Manhattan. This is how you write a set of particulars:
Roasted Pheasant lacquered in Port Wine and Blackberry Demi-Glace? Truffled Black Trumpet Mushroom and Sweet Corn Bread Pudding? Or, simply a Double Banana Split festooned with Two Scoops of Homemade Roasted Pear Ice Cream and smothered in a Silky Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce? Let your imagination run amok in simply the largest and most intelligently appointed kitchen we've seen in a one-bedroom this side of Paris or let your caterer go wild for you.
Any Rat and Mouse readers fancy writing the Foxtons equivalent? Send them, please, to the usual place.
[via Curbed]
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Okay, it's 10X9ft, but it's nicely situated in Queensgate Gardens, a couple of minutes from Gloucester Road tube, which makes it an attractive city pad for the odd stay-over. Viewings start tomorrow. It's with Stern Studios.
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The Telegraph brings news that the Bishops Avenue house recently inhabited by the crew of braggers, blaggers, big-heads and bastards that make up this year's The Apprentice has been rented out at £5,750 a week.
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Where's Best To Invest? Okay, there's no doubt that the programme took the Kirstie and Phil identities on a bigger adventure than we've seen before. Phil was beer-swilling, student-nostalgic, tit-aware and driving around in a colossal Range Rover. Kirstie was conservative, student-loathing, motherly and walking around in a colossal hat. It was a little like thinking you know Lennon and McCartney, and then watching the cartoon versions in Yellow Submarine. And the tone of the show - the only way is up, and up is the only good way - is sure to have had the HousePriceCrash gang choking. For me, what stood out were the figures. Who exactly were these independent sources who were constantly being evoked? It was like the producers had been handed house price forecasts on a giant tablet while they stood at the top of Mount Sinai. Independent sources estimate.... prices might rise... And all these five-year estimates of gains of 30%, 40%, 50%, 60%? I'd be more concerned about the neighbourhoods that would have to take the massive hit in order to restore national figures to something most agree is reasonable. Anyway - if you didn't watch it, the top three (national) hotspots were (in reverse order) Edinburgh, Cambridge and Oxford. London - treated as a separate case - gave up Camden, where independent sources forecast prices could rise 63% in five years. Hey, did anybody else stick around long enough for King Of Chavs?
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What - we wonder - have they done to deserve this preview of tonight's Where Best To Invest?
There's something very smug about this programme, a companion to last year's similarly pleased-with-itself Best and Worst Places to Live in the UK, which sets out to find the best places in Britain to invest in buy-to-let properties. Maybe it's the usually likeable Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer, who have turned overnight into 1960s children's TV presenters, over-emphasising words and mugging to the camera in arch little asides. Or maybe it's just that I don't really care very much about the programme's narrow target audience. Anyway, if you have a few bob to spare, look for places with a big 20-35 demographic, possibly with a university or lots of hospitals.
It will take more than that to put off the property obsessives. Where Best To Invest is on tonight, C4, at 8pm.
[via FirstRung]
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There's an interesting spat developing between the traditionally bearish economists over at Capital Economics and the traditionally bullshitting estate agents over at Agent HQ. CE are daring to dispute the NAEA's remarkable claim that prices are likely to double by 2016. It appears the NAEA have made their predictions with little regard to the very different underlying economic and market situations (primarily, the direction of interest rates and the current valuation of the market). There's an interesting read here.
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More in this Category - _Other
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Urban living is noisy - we all know that and it's largely a price we're prepared to pay. But during the last summer I spent at my previous house, in W6, one of my neighbours brought home a new girlfriend who'd obviously learnt everything she knew about sex from the entertainment industry. She was a howler. And our neighbour's bedroom was in the loft conversion of their terraced house - across the road. She was a howler in a loft conversion. And it was hot. So they opened the Velux. Which was above the bed. So she was a howler in a loft conversion with her head stuck out the roof. So I'd pull down our rattly sash window, which would cut out a bit of the howling - but it also meant the sound of our nextdoor neighbour, whose lounge was next to our bedroom, somehow seemed amplified. She had one of those strangulated finishing school accents that I can't listen to without getting a sympathetic sore throat... and she used to drink late into the night and bawl down the phone about her latest love lost. It was like living between Bridget Jones and Brittney Skye. So where's this heading? At the time, I looked into sound insulation techniques. But I was always too tired to do a thorough job. Here's ace Manhattan design blog ApartmentTherapy with some up-to-date ideas for muting the sound of outside.
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More in this Category - Linkage
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The burglary of ex-property developer Harry Hyams' Wiltshire home earlier this year is believed to be the biggest in UK burglary history - netting a massive £80 million worth of art. However:
Despite the large number of items still missing, the robbery was said to have made only a small dent in his vast collection.
[via Guardian]
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Thanks to Widowspankie for this link to the Top 10 Strange Home Gadgets, as chosen by TechEBlog. Widowspankie's own favourite? The Pong Clock illustrated below. It features a constant random game of pong, while the score tells you the time. Nice.
The Rat and Mouse fave? The Washing, Drying, Ironing Machine. But how about a mansized one that can give you a shave, too?
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According to a survey by SimplyHip - a company set up to corner some action in the Home Information Pack racket - 84% of estate agents are unaware of the scary penalty rates incurred by marketing a HIPless property (£200 a day, from June 1, 2007). According to SimplyHip director, Ashley King:
"Many agents felt that a fine of only £200 was a scant disincentive to ensure that vendors had a completed HIPs prior to commencing the marketing of their property."
Apparently that was because they didn't realise it was £200 a day. Once that was explained to them, 73% agreed it would be a disincentive, 9% disagreed and 18% didn't know. So, they actually thought it was £200 in total... that the main obstacle to avoiding a £1,000 HIP bill is, er, a £200 fine? More here.
Hips not hip, according to Kirstie and Phil [April 18]
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He's going. He's so going he's selling his house. It's Grade II-listed, in the lovely Park Village East near Regent's Park, it has three bedrooms, two reception rooms and two bathrooms, and a very landscaped 120ft garden. And it's yours for just £3.1 million. Eriksson apparently bought the place for £2.55 million back in 2001 - which gives him (allowing for stamp duty) just over 20% in five years. Here's more on the story, courtesy of the BBC. More importantly, here's a link to what I think are the particulars.
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Residents of mouse-infested Croydon are disappointed to learn that, while the local council will dispatch their rats gratis, they'll have to pay £94 each to be rid of their mice. Why?
[via Londonist]
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I have gone property mad. I keep buying places then deciding they are not very nice and then buying other places. I now own about 17 houses in London, all of them horrible and badly decorated.
See, and you think you have problems.
[via Luxist]
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More in this Category - Celebrity homes
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The Woolwich estimates it costs, on average, £17,000 to move into a semi-detached house. It's a combination of estate agents' commission, solicitor's fees and, crucially, stamp duty, and, frankly, it's not that shocking. Semi-detached homes in London are an expensive rarity, and I'd be surprised to find the HousePriceCrash fellas grabbing their violins over this. More interestingly, the report suggests that, nationally, most sales fall within or below the 1% stamp duty band (up to £250,000), and the cost of moving for most people (outside London) has been massively outstripped by the increase in property values. More here.
Jumping rungs [April 3]
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... by the BBC. If you're moving, you think you might have spatial awareness problems (you might not be able to make your belongings fit into your new home; you can't see them fitting into the removal van; you've no idea how many boxes you're going to need...), and you don't the nation witnessing your befuddlement, contact the Beeb now.
[via FindAProperty]
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Thanks to the Rat and Mouse's special correspondent for this link to some hot estate agent video action from down under. He says:
Those go-ahead boys at brokers Ray White have decided to go large with video tours. Since the technology is provided by owners of our own dear old Propertyfinder, can we expect some of their agents like John D Wood to be using this in the near future?
Blimey, hope so!
Rat and Mouse trendspotter - video viewings [April 11]
Play that funky music... [March 14]
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Thirteen per cent more agents reported prices rising than falling (down from 16% in March) and it's the fifth consecutive positive report from RICS. It's partly to be expected, though (this being a traditional boom time of year for the market), and not all analysts believe it means much.
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The Home Information Pack battle continues, the arguments against voiced eloquently by SPLINTA. The Rat and Mouse is currently undecided - although categorically disappointed and suspicious that VAT will be charged on HIPs, and somewhat cynical about the extent to which they'll be trusted by buyers about to make the biggest investment of their lives. Kirstie and Phil aren't undecided though. They've joined the SPLINTA campaign, and have written an open letter to sellers and buyers, which you'll find at the SPLINTA website, or by reading on, here:
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Nick Martin, a construction expert on green building techniques, warns: "This is not the same thing as fitting a satellite dish. The lateral thrust exerted by these turbines on a Victorian chimney stack in a high wind would be more than sufficient to topple it. The same might be true of the gable ends of many older buildings."
Pity, isn't it? But it looks as if wind turbines, in a city at least, don't provide much power, and can even damage your home.
David Cameron and the battle for wind [March 6]
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More in this Category - Linkage
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You see how this happens? You write one lousy story about toilets, and suddenly Googleads covers your entire front page with ads for toilet stores. Including ones with unfortunate domain names:
That's it for us, now, until Tuesday. Have a truly wonderful Easter weekend.
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Broadcaster Jonathan Meades is fleeing London. But first he has to sell his very lovely London Bridge penthouse. You can read Meades' own story of the apartment here, and then head over here for the particulars, and press this for a virtual tour.
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The Guardian carries news that London Mayor Ken Livingstone - together with Greenpeace and Arup's Peter Head - is hoping to build a UK version of China's (so far, entirely fictional) Dongtan eco-city in London's east end. The project would involve at least 1,000 homes, powered by wind turbines, solar panels and the burning of their own waste. It's a great idea - although, right now, there's no land for the project, so it also remains comfortably fictional.
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There's trouble brewing in the Mill Hill area, where SLLB Architects claim to have finally been given permission to convert a cold war nuclear bunker, situated just off Partingdale Lane, into a luxury home, complete with new glass penthouse.
A council spokesman said: "There are various conditions to be satisfied which involve the use of appropriate materials and the preservation of important historical features such as the plant room and a central map room surrounded by a circulatory corridor."
But local historians aren't happy with the decision, and plan to fight on. More here and here. For some fascination photographs of the inside, I can't recommend this link high enough.
Bomb-proof investment [January 27, 2005]
Duck and cover [September 27, 2004]
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And I remember watching my dad - expertly-chosen tool-belt wrapped around his trim middle - change the oil on the old car with one hand, grind a new sump nut with the other, and tap-dance the tune to Hawaii-Five-O, all at the same time. Actually, I can't. My dad's an academic who still struggles with changing his own socks. But the theory - according to this piece in the Telegraph - is that today's 20-somethings are so lacking in practical skills that they're paying great wads of moolah to other people to do the simplest things. They're just one step away from handing out fivers to the nearest person who can brush their teeth for them. The information comes courtesy of a survey - and then journalist Cassandra Jardine conducts her own research and comes up with some valuable conclusions. It's not haplessness. It's not the fault of the youngsters. It's about a culture in which technology is disposable, or so complex only the workshop that made it can fix it - and one which mollycoddles its citizens with so many safety scares they're frightened - in once instance - of changing a lightbulb because they can't remember which way is "off" on the switch.
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Top food artist Prudence Emma Staite brings a surreal element to The Home Show this year, with a room made completely of chocolate. That's right - walls, furniture, fireplace, paintings... chocolate. I know what you're thinking... it won't last 60 seconds before a herd of women and children charge it to the ground and lay down amongst it, like big cats, licking up its dark, hot entrails. (Or maybe you weren't thinking that.) Anyway, the story goes that the public are being invited to break bits off and eat them... or just lick them in situ (an idea I personally find completely revolting). Staite will replace all missing pieces by the next morning. More here. Amazingly, if you want your own chocolate room all to yourself... it's yours, for £2,500.
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One minute you've got a sticking front door, the next...
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Without the tireless detective work of design*sponge it's unlikely we would have discovered Istanbul-based design house Autoban - and our lives would have been signficantly poorer for two reasons: their architectural wooden chairs that are currently on my desktop longer than my screensaver; their very cool website. Click where it says "link" to find some UK names under their list of exhibitors.
[via design*sponge]
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This one's a surprise. I can remember being put off the Baron's Court area at one time because of the speed at which prices were rising. If you're not confident and able to move quickly a rapidly rising investors' market can translate into a bad deal, the wrong property or occasionally even an inflated value. But now here's the Independent, revealing there are still bargains to be had there. Bargains by west London standards, anyway. Don't be too beguiled by the prospects of living near the Queen's Club, though. Remember to turn right, once in a while, when you come out of the station and check out the roads leading to Fulham Palace Road. Not too far, though. At kicking out time, that sixth form college is noisy.
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Banker bonuses? Chinese money? Russian money? Saudi money? Hype? A combination? Probably. Whatever it is, it's keeping prices booming in south west London, and it's making Liam Bailey, of Knight Frank, a very happy estate agent.
Interest rate fears [April 10]
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A new twist on the treehouse.
[via Gizmodo]
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According to a Hamptons survey, 80% of Bermondsey property is selling within one month. Agents explain it as a kind of overspill or creep from the trendy and expensive Shad Thames developments nearby. More here.
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 We recently reported on the very fancy videos appearing over at boutique estate agency Cityscope's website. And, since then, we've been alerted to a growing number of companies offering prop videos to help you sell your home. The most interesting is the brand new PropertyClip. Why? Because it's operated by a cameraman/director, who's shot programmes for BBC1, BBC2 and Discovery's Superhomes series. He tells me:
It was working on this last series that gave me the idea for Propertyclip. I was astonished that most of these hugely expensive houses relied on very underwhelming entries in estate agents' websites, which only had a few tiny photos and a couple of floor plans to catch the eye. When you actually visit the houses, they are often stunning but the website, and to a lesser extent the print brochures, do them no justice at all. Whereas when filmed with TV quality cameras and edited into a film with proper story, script and music etc (in effect a mini-documentary) the houses really came alive.
Prices start at £1,000 - but the quality looks good, you get the finished film in a format that's streamable, or you can download onto a Sony PSP or video iPod, and you get a professionally cheesy voiceover. For an example - and some hardcore property porn - press this. The flat's on the top of the old MI5 building on Westminster Bridge Road. It was a Crest Nicholson development that Thorp Design gutted and refitted for a seven figure sum.
Rat and Mouse trendspotter - iBuilders [April 5]
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More in this Category - Linkage
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All the talk might be about the new boom, but today's figures by The Office Of The Deputy Prime Minister - stats which are generally regarded as late but meaningful - show a slowdown. Annual inflation has dropped from 4.3% January-to-January to 3.6% February-to-February. Actual prices fell between January and February (-1.2%). What's particularly interesting is that - despite all these concerns - the annual rate of house price inflation for the three months to February was the same nationally and for London in particular. Press here for a pdf of the report.
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The FT looks at runaway London house prices and asks... could this end badly for interest rates?
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And she's not exactly Linda Barker. Which is not exactly a bad thing.
[via ApartmentTherapy]
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Flop? Whatever. here's a cautionary tale for those laying down deposits on new-builds, and perhaps an example of why some buy-to-let lenders are refusing to make loans on them.
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 And while we're on the subject of HousePriceCrash, well done trashingdays for spotting this bit of Foxtons bullshit:
...offering a sought-after location with a very hard base, superior tarmac-mix and easy access onto and off via the space surrounding it...
It's a parking space in SW7. Oh yeah, and it's listed at £80,000.
[via HousePriceCrash]
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HousePriceCrash - a much-quoted and highly lively website devoted to popping the bubble - has been sold. This, from the Webmaster:
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to www.housepricecrash.co.uk since its inception in October 2003. The site has gone from strength to strength and has been a model success story for internet communities where the collective voice can really make a difference. The time has come to take the site to the next level and Fubra have kindly agreed to do this so I would encourage you all to give your feedback and ideas to them in order to make the site a truly indispensable tool. All the original website members are still here including myself so don't worry, there won't be any negative changes, just positive ones. As well as having an active community we now have the backing of internet experts. I'd encourage you all to pass on any suggestions and ideas to Fubra so that the site can be made even more useful for everyone.
And this - the first forum response:
Well, thats looks like thats it - the war is over and the Bulls have won. The management of HPC have sold out, realising that the HPC isn't going to happen and they had better get out quickly.
We're sure that's a joke, but still... it will be interesting to watch the forums in the coming days...
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What with water being precious and expensive and everything, Londoners might find the toilet lid sink an interesting innovation:
 With each flush of your commode, clean water that would otherwise go straight down the toilet is first routed up through a chrome gooseneck spigot to dispense pure water for hand washing. The Toilet Lid Sink installs easily without tools, is attractive for any bathroom and is a great space saver. Shuts off automatically. Porcelain-like white plastic replaces your existing tank top and adjusts to fit standard toilets up to 8in wide and 18-22in long. Built-in soap dish.
It's American - sold by a very interesting company, called Read Goods, that was formed to meet the needs of the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s. I've dropped them a line to see if they ever ship to the UK and I'll update this post when/if I get a response. But somebody ought to make this innovative catalogue available over here.
[via ApartmentTherapy]
UPDATE:
Ben, We can ship to the UK, but it is not terribly easy. Due to credit card fraud throughout the world, we will only accept international shipments via payment through wire transfers into our account. Once we verify the funds are there, we will release the goods for shipping. Any customs and duties are to be paid by the customer. There is a 20US dollar charge for the transfer plus shipping costs. Orders must be placed through the retail store only. The catalog and internet divisions do not accept international orders. Hope this helps.
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Design*sponge - a fine American interior design blog - is appealing for Londoners who might be able to recommend the best places to do a bit of interior design shopping while in the city. Head over, and post to comments if you want to help out.
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That's right. In case you weren't looking... just a month ago it was "£6.366 a year, rising to £8,133 for Londoners". Now, according to a study by Sainsbury's Bank, the figure's £10,048. The biggest cause for increased living costs is - they say - larger mortgage repayments. And that's during a period of low interest rates. It's scary to think where this might end if the rates begin creeping up.
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The Telegraph carries a very interesting look at Experian's Mosaic System of social/consumer classification: 61 types, based on spending habits, and now attached to neighbourhoods. I like to think most Rat and Mouse readers are New Urban Colonists, but I'm getting repeated emails from one reader who's without doubt a City Adventurer, largely based on what he has to say about his girlfriend. The piece gives typical names, even typical London roads where they might live, and I recommend you read it. Why does it matter? Because there might come a point in your life when this kind of (alarmingly random) information affects what kind of loan or rate you might be offered.
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More in this Category - House prices
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The Telegraph's Rosalind Russell dons a Barbour gilet and, shotgun broken over her arm, ventures into Peckham. And she finds... upmarket bistros and even an architectural salvage shop. Sure, she focusses on posh Peckham - north of East Dulwich, east of Camberwell - but she finds signs of regeneration elsewhere too. Interestingly, no Peckham estate agent has yet shifted a property for more than the magic million - so there's a challenge.
More for your money in Bellenden Road [March 14]
Pie & Mash plaque [October 24]
Peckham in the sky with diamonds... [September 23]
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And for a single moment the UK press forgets about bird flu and turns its attentions to house prices... because the latest Halifax survey reveals a 0.9% rise for March, pushing the annual house price inflation figure to 6.2% and the average UK property over the £175,000 mark. Remember folks - a boom and a bust are still a worst case scenario, and the NAEA would like to assure you that houses are still safe to buy and live in. Just cook them thoroughly.
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Looks like Google have been caught beta-testing an American property listings system. But no sooner was it there, than it was gone. Read all about it.
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More in this Category - Linkage
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 The Independent basks in the romantic, literary past of north Islington's Canonbury Square neighbourhood - George Orwell (no. 27), Evelyn Waugh (no. 17a, Canonbury Place), Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant all lived there - before getting down to the nitty gritty of the £1.65 million, five-storey, four-bedroom home currently for sale through Currell, Islington. It's being sold by the Dunns - two ad execs with a penchant for Mid-Century Modern. "Regency homes are very forgiving", says Steve. We wish he'd said, "Regency homes are so forgiving" - but you can't have everything. The kitchen's designed by Don Matheson (now with Richard Rogers) and it sounds special. Elsewhere, the couple seem to have modernised without wrecking period features, and I've such confidence in their taste I'm not even going to allow Rat and Mouse readers to vote on it. Maybe next time. Read the whole story here. See the particulars here.
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In America? They'll buy it. Why don't we see this kind of ad in the UK?
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A while ago, I posted a picture of some curtains that caught my eye on an American design blog. I wasn't sure I actually liked them - but they were like nothing I'd ever seen before. Avant-garde? Ironic? Old-fashioned bad taste? Who knew? But they were certainly impressive. My wife didn't see it that way - she read the post and withdrew all decorating decision privileges for the foreseeable future. I've also had the occasional email from Rat and Mouse readers, casting aspersions on my taste. Nobody understood, I wasn't saying: this is cool, buy it. I was saying something more like: Blimey, look at this. So from now, I'm going to be absolutely clear - and I'm going to provide Rat and Mouse readers with the opportunity to express themselves without insulting me. Blimey, look at these Lefroy Brooks taps.
[via Trendir]
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If Barratt had called their new affordable home project The New Affordable Home Project or Mini Home or Mini Pad - what are the chances that they'd have received the acres of property section column space they've enjoyed in the last ten days? The iPad (above) - cool name, contains a joke which the target consumers of first-time buyers will appreciate, a marketing dream. But it's taken until now for a property journalist to be invited to visit one. The Telegraph's David Hoppit likes what he sees. And it turns out Barratt aren't the only iBuilders on the block. Here's James Wilson, of David Wilson Homes, and his own snug, design-heavy New Affordable Home Project. David Hoppit visits that, too... and likes what he sees. Has James Wilson also been so canny with the marketing? Possible first mistake:
James and a team of designers that included the Changing Rooms presenter Lawrence[sic] Llewelyn-Bowen, spent months agonising over every square inch of their new range of low-cost, starter homes.
You see the difference. Made by Jonathan Ive out of ultratough polycarbonate plastic... cool. Made by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen out of old woman's curtains and an '80s Athena print... not cool. See how that happens? But what about the name? Has James Wilson also bagged some of that Apple brand goodness? Well, his New Affordable Home Project is called the i-Life. And the problem with that is that Apple already own something called the iLife. Okay, there's no dash connecting i to life in Apple's (groundbreaking) collection of everyday software... but I'm not so sure the Apple lawyers - who aren't exactly celebrated for their hands-off approach - are going to let that wash.
 
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... for (big) Baby Shard. Planning permission has been granted for the Renzo Piano-designed shorter (but still 600,000 square feet) neighbour to the Shard. It will replace a 20-storey tower block between Borough High Street and London Bridge Station.
[via London SE1 Community Website]
Big Shard, Little Shard [December 20]
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There was a time four or five years ago when we'd lose 100 of our boards every night. A sub-contractor for one of our rivals - we'd successfully taken a lot of their business - used to go round with a van at between three and five in the morning.
The Telegraph's Andrew Eames tells tales of estate agency chicanery, in particular the board wars fought on the London streets.
Chard are caught flyboarding [November 16]
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It's a report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, it's entitled "Housing Futures 2024", and it assumes expanding population and economic growth to forecast that, by 2024, the London family home will cost £1 million, the average home will cost £650,000, and young Londoners will be flatsharing like a '70s sitcom. More here.
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 And it was all going so well for Foxtons. Then, the BBC aired Whistleblower, and things went from bad to worse. Now, according to the Mail, things have just gotten what you might call worser. The story is that the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance is investigating Foxtons Financial Inc for failing to disclose mortgage fees. If Foxtons are found guilty, fines will run into the millions and licenses may be revoked. If you'd like to express your support for Foxtons, email us, and we'll pass on your best wishes.
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 ... in the property ladder, that is. Stamp Duty's the reason, according to the Telegraph, why increasing numbers of young people are stretching themselves to snapping point in the quest for the family home that might come in useful in perhaps 15 years time. Let's face it, moving home is stupidly expensive. If a young couple is lucky enough to be able to afford £1,700 in monthly mortgage repayments right now - then it makes perfect sense to take advantage of a period of low-cost debts, buy the big house immediately and avoid repeatedly dumping £20,000 in taxes and fees with every rung in between. Make no mistake, though - it's a choice for the privileged few. And I fear for some of them when the family comes along, half the earnings (at least temporarily) vanish and interest rates head up to more usual levels.
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Even with the usual caveat about taking one month's data at face value, it is clear there is something going on. The two indices from Nationwide and its rival Halifax, for example, show that prices have risen in the past three months together at an annualised pace of about 10%, enough to alarm the most relaxed of central banks.
The Guardian's Ashley Seager looks at the market, and wonders - where's the bubble? Oxford academics Gavin Cameron, John Muellbauer and Anthony Murphy reply, in the doomsdayers' imagination.
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