They say she's eyeing up property so she can be close to her new boyfriend, posh-rocker and ex-Kate Moss love interest Jamie Burke. We say - the girl's a sun-worshipper - we seriously doubt it.
Here's a disturbing story about residents of Kidbrooke's condemned Ferrier Estate, many of whom are post-right-to-buy owners who have decided to stay put rather than accept derisory offers from Greenwich Council (£65,000 for a three-bedroom flat anyone?), while the council moves towards demolition and replacement in 2018. There are apparently 23 homeowners and three tenants left, living amongst derelict tower blocks, sheet metal, filth and darkness. It looks suspiciously like the council, who have promised to keep the estate inhabitable until it's finally replaced, is applying its own unorthodox methods to encourage the remaining residents to leave.
(Thanks to Jon Nicholls for the fabulous photographs - go here for more of his work.)
When you read these press releases day in, day out, you get to spot the formula du jour pretty quick. Which is: report a slight increase in house prices, and then provide a little editorial saying increases can't be taken for granted and you expect a slowdown around the corner. Then - six months later - continue to do the same, because nobody can remember what happened six months ago anyway. For May, Nationwide report a modest 0.2% gain (which is almost certain to be reported by some newspapers as an overnight doubling of house price inflation... Nationwide reported 0.1% in April). But (from Reuters)...
Nationwide said cooling demand for housing as well as rising interest rate expectations in financial markets - which drive mortgage costs as do official interest rates - may dampen property price inflation in coming months.
Yep... and rising fuel costs and utility bills and dodgy equity markets and...
Interestingly, the annual figure actually fell. From 4.8% April-to-April, to 4.7% May-to-May. Click this to download a pdf of the report.
There was an interesting piece in the Observer about Macromarkets, Yale economist (and author of Irrational Exuberance) Robert Schiller's futures market for house prices, which launched last week in the States and may arrive in the UK in the next year. The theory is that a housing futures market will help offer the likes of you and me a little more liquidity to balance having our biggest investment tied up in a single building in a single town in a single country. In other words - a hedge. We already have spread betting and covered warrants - do we need this too?
According to Hometrack, London prices have risen 1.2% in the last four weeks, that's twice the national average rate. Hometrack's Richard Donnell points out that this tale of two markets might be flattering the overall UK picture. He says it's not set to last, though, and points to the World Cup, possible interest rate rises and the current stock market volatility as all reasons why some of the wind may leave the housing market's sails this summer.
We've watched our daily visitor numbers hit the thousands and keep on growing. We've also been consistently informed and entertained by the emails sent in each day by readers. So - as you might have noticed - we've decided it's time to tweak the system and place greater emphasis on reader comment and contribution. We want the Rat and Mouse to be a community as well as a blog - a place to argue, discuss and ask and answer questions. So - a few days ago - we switched on the blog's comments facility. Now, we're testing out a forum, and if things take off, we'll import our membership into something a bit neater, and host it with the Rat and Mouse. I really hope you'll join up and make extensive use of the place. The Rat and Mouse has forged some good relationships with professionals right across the property industry, and I'm also hopeful that some of these people will be on hand to offer advice and answer questions. (If you're a property professional - please feel free to drop by and introduce yourself in the plug in section.) I don't - and you shouldn't - expect a busy, thriving community to develop over night. Forums (fora?) have a necessary gestation period. But unless a few of you break the ice... it won't happen. So I'm counting on you.
It's a Bank Holiday here in the UK, and I'll shortly be leaving to do "family stuff". But first I want to draw your attention to this - our brand new forum. I'll be back tomorrow to explain more - the reasoning behind it and what we'd like it to become - but for now I'd just like to say... please visit, please join, please say hello. I don't expect our little Proboards home to become densely populated overnight, but I do feel that London househunters and movers, those involved in the London property business (and beyond) and anybody interested in the vagaries of the housing market (here and abroad) could use a place to argue, share knowledge, ask questions and make friends. More tomorrow.
Weird name, isn't it? But we're impressed with this new (motors, jobs and of course, property) search engine's utilisation of certain features... like its very Web.2-ish bookmarkable classified ads, the way you can be emailed new ads that fit your search criteria (in a very Google kind of way) and its (del.icio.us-like) rss capabilities. Looks nice too. Try it here
In London, UCB found that buy-to-let represents up to 75% of some mortgage brokers business.
It's a survey by UCB Home Loans, reported in the FT, and it reveals a booming buy-to-let market. At Rat and Mouse HQ, we're still watching those economic indicators very carefully, and testing the breeze for interest rate hikes...
"We wanted to bring Chelsea south of the river. Our approach here has been no different from what we have done in our developments in Knightsbridge and Kensington," says Julian Mercer, of BMB Property Investment.
The Times looks at an interesting development in Stockwell, that poses all kinds of questions about the old location, location, location truism. With current trends putting interior space at a premium, perhaps it would be a smarter move to take the kind of giant Victorian townhouse you couldn't afford in Chelsea, if you could afford it in Stockwell. And even if it's a new build. What? That's what's interesting about 14-24 Stockwell Park Crescent. They're brand new - but because of strict building regulations - they're (apparently) built to the exact spec as their Victorian neighbours, right down to the iron railings. Inside, they've very Chelsea. Oak and limestone floors, underfloor heating, you get the picture. Plus... lots and lots of space. Read more here. Check out some particulars here.
This isn't the first time we've heard rumours that Michael Jackson might be considering a London move (almost a year to the day, isn't that strange)... now the story comes from a Mirror reporter, who was told (by Jackson himself) that a London home is a likelihood, and a Scottish or Irish Neverland-style ranch a distinct possibility. A good day for the Welsh, then. More here.
Second-home owners are among the most selfish people in Britain. Every purchase of a second house deprives someone else of a first one. The only answer is to tax them prohibitively. I would like to see the ownership of second homes become prohibitively expensive, wherever they might be.
If the Government adopts these proposals, it will be in order further to punish middle-class voters and to benefit from a grievance culture stoked by envy. Second home owners already pay 90 per cent council tax for services they infrequently use, in addition to the money they spend on local shops and services.
Remember, you can now comment at the Rat and Mouse. You views are always welcome.
Londonist points to news that Youngs might be about to sell their famous Ram Brewery in Wandsworth (original story here). It's all a bit of a shame - as we've suggested before - but it's also a prime chunk of south west London, a five-and-a-half-acre site with a book value of £11.3 million. When we brought you rumours of an impending sale just over a year ago, the story was that the brewery was in negotiation with Multiplex. God, tell us this isn't still so! The statement currently mentions advanced negotiations with a developer, but doesn't name them. We still think it's all a shame.
Is it me or is the Independent courting controversy this morning with its online property for the silver surfer feature? The idea is... it's Silver Surfer Week, over-50s represent 24% of the UK's online community (equalling the number of under-20-year-olds), and 80% of potential home-buyers use the internet to start home browsing. So, bring all this together and what have you got? A guide to old peoples' homes online. Call me naively optimistic, but I like to think that some of these over-50s even look at the Rat and Mouse. And they're not particularly looking for information about retirement homes.
That's according to a survey by Paragon Mortgages, quoted here. Not only that... by boosting the economy they've also helped keep interest rates down. The message - that times are good and getting better for landlords - is reiterated by Nationwide, who say the market's also being supported by first-time buyers renting instead of purchasing.
There's a rumour that P Diddy's got his eyes on the above little bolthole next door to Richard Branson in Holland Park. The situation's summed up nicely by a Gawker reader:
That pool should be perfect for moisturizing his situation and maintaining his sexy.
The Telegraph takes a tour of some of the loveliest gardens currently for sale around the country, and one of them is even in London. Middleton Road is a three-bedroom Victorian terrace in London Fields and its 86 foot garden has been featured in the National Garden Scheme's Open Gardens event for the past three years. What's more, at the bottom of said garden, is an office/guesthouse with oak flooring and all the amenities. The agents - Currell - aren't slow to point out the house's proximity to the forthcoming East London Line, either. It's listed at £585,000, and you can download a pdf of the particulars by clicking this. Tell Currell we sent you.
Apparently, you'll be pleased by the "quality of finishing to the general fabric". It's on Raveley Street, it's listed at £950,000, has four bedrooms, a landscaped rear garden and a set of particulars written by somebody struggling with the English language (sounds suspiciously Italian to us). Honestly, the particulars are almost as strange as the house's history.
UPDATE - I've had a number of emails asking why I didn't publish a link to the particulars. The answer is... I forgot. Here you go.
Those of you who have written to us in recent months asking why there isn't a "comment" facility on this blog will know that I eventually admitted the truth... I didn't know how to switch it on. But now - after less than six weeks of fiddling, futzing and whatever else - we've found the button, pressed it, and the Rat and Mouse should accept comments from this moment on. I really hope you'll take advantage of it and that some of the lively and informed arguments and criticism I've had the pleasure of receiving via email will now start to appear publicly and perhaps spark off further debate and comment. And that's not all. There's another exciting Rat and Mouse feature just a day or two away. I don't want to spoil the plot right now... but keep checking back.
There's some interesting research, conducted by Halifax and reported by the BBC here, into how the cities, big and small, are stacking up in the house price department. And the news is that, over the last decade, smaller cities have made the biggest gains, with Truro (Cornwall, just in case you really never leave London) leading with a huge 262% rise since 1996. The calculations are based on average price per square metre - and suggest that the cost of property has tripled in 15 cities and at least doubled in all of the 62 cities surveyed. London, with a 252% gain, came in fourth and still has the highest cost per square metre in the country.
Those Design For Manufacture £60,000 homes look all well and good - but isn't that partly down to the way they've been kitted out? And what if the interior design departments have spent another £100,000 furnishing them? Over at The Move Channel, interior design company Roomservice gets a little well-earned publicity for furnishing a two-bedroom home from the floor up for just £6,000. And the results look great in just the kind of contemporary-inoffensive way that makes me think developers and landlords are going to be paying very close attention.
Nationwide lost mortgage market share in the last financial year. No accident, they say... they had fears about the immediate future of the property market and so took a back seat. But they must be overflowing with property market confidence now, based on some of the measures they're apparently considering in order to take back some ground. The word is that they're considering offering mortgages to people with the kind of credit ratings that would previously have barred them from home loans. And there's talk of them moving the limit on the number of buy-to-let loans a single landlord can take out with them from two to... wait for it... ten. And that's against a background of rising utility bills, council tax bills and a more-than-possible interest rate hike.
The great thing about Mitcham is that you're not far from the Tube but you're not paying Tooting prices.
That's it, Simon Edwards of Toomey Estate Agents, you sell the place. We're sure there are other good things about Mitcham. We'll think of some later. But, in the meantime, here's a piece featuring a few Merton area estate agents denying the recent stats suggesting local house prices have been crashing.
... to rip off the Big Brother decor and sell it on to the public. Apparently he's had a sneak preview, likes what he sees (outdoor furniture inside, indoor furniture outside) and says:
Basically we'll be ripping you off left, right and centre.
And yet Patrick Watson, who designed the Big Brother set, describes his MO thus:
We are trying to make as much space as possible so you get that claustrophobia where there is really nowhere to get away.
Soon, all of England will be within my floppy-cuffed grasp, cackles Laurence.
Whatever it is, little old London, and especially the tiny north London neighbourhood of Hampstead and the verdant west London borough of Richmond upon Thames, is experiencing one... a US view of the market, here.
There's been some confusion about the £60,000 home... with some people believing that the figure represents a magic number for affordable housing. If it costs £60,000... hey, I'll have two. Just a reminder - the £60,000 is how much it costs to build. Which just could end up meaning happier developers, not happier ftbs.
*Construction costs can be tamed without sacrificing quality - developers that closely linked their design, suppliers and delivery teams into a single process found savings. *Although the homes are built for just £60,000 it's not clear what they will be sold for. A government spokesman admitted: "There is no mechanism to regulate the final sale price of these homes." Developer Crest Nicholson said that it would be offering some of its £60,000 homes at near full market prices.
Sounds like a great day for the developers, courtesy of the government, doesn't it?
If you're reading this via MyJamFactory (where we're happily syndicated) then you'll already know the value of a great online local community. For those who don't, there's a good read in this morning's Independent, looking at the whole phenomenon, and drawing on Furzedown and the Forest Hill sites as examples. Read it here.
Buying too many properties too close together, apparently. But, then, isn't the cardinal rule... stick to locations you know like the back of your hand?
Another day another index. This time it's the RICS, and it says:
- Price rose in April for the sixth consecutive month.
- The number of enquiries from new buyers rose in April for the eleventh consecutive month.
- Available stock for sale has dropped 10% since this time last year.
It used to be called the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, but the Deputy Prime Minister no longer has an office since it was revealed he couldn't be trusted to keep his pants on in there. Now it's called the Department for Communities and Local Government, but it still produces the same frustratingly late but pleasingly scientific (based on completions) house price statistics. Today, it reveals that the average price for flats rose 7.7% in March, a figure which we'll all see used in the coming day's to back up recent reports from estate agents that first-time buyers are returning to the market. In London, annual house price inflation (March-to-March) was 4%, up from 1.5% in February. Download the official document (as a pdf) by pressing this.
Meanwhile, Rightmove's look at asking prices suggests vendors are getting more ambitious, with a 2% jump from mid-April to early May (setting a new UK record). Interestingly, the Rightmove crew have extrapolated from this that they believe industry analysts will double their official expectations for residential property performance in 2006. Hmm. Download Rightmove's pdf of optimism by clicking here.
Only one in ten home buyers and sellers strongly agree that estate agents can usually be trusted. 70 per cent think that estate agents frequently give misleading information about properties. 70 per cent think that estate agents and property developers frequently work together to line each others' pockets. Over a half think that estate agents frequently invent offers from non-existent buyers. Less than a half think that estate agents generally keep sellers well informed. Less than a half think that estate agents pass on all offers to vendors.
Interestingly, this is all about perception, and we all know the profession's suffereda fewsetbacksrecently. When it comes to people's actual experiences, the results aren't terrible. They're just bad.
There's been a survey which suggests the days of the estate agent are numbered. Apparently 96% (yes 96%) said they'd prefer to sell their homes without the assistance of an estate agent if possible, and a third of those polled believe that estate agents are about to go the way of the dinasaurs. These figures are hardly surprising. The survey's by ClickSell, who obviously have one great giant vested interest, and the latter result could easily be created by loading the question. And the former result? What if you asked, hey, would you prefer to sell your home without paying commission?. Errrr..... But more interesting are the buyers who (one in four of them) said they'd been put off a home by the agent showing them around. More here.
A survey by Savills reveals that 27.2% of UK second homes are in London:
Nearly a third of all rateable dwellings in the City of London are not main residences and the London boroughs of Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea, all feature in the Top 20 second home locations.
Property search portal, Home.co.uk have made a big magilla about the latest results from their shiny new data machine, courtesy of appliance-of-science number crunchers Calnea. Apparently, and against every other conceivable measurement, the UK market's not doing so well. Why's the Home.co.uk index interesting? Because "the new figures are derived from the largest collection of asking prices yet amassed, from across the web, and calculated by the leading house price economists, Calnea Analytics, with unparalleled precision". Right. But they're still just asking prices.
Stephen Carr-Smith - a man paid to punish estate agents - is calling for a mandatory license. That's right, American readers, there's no such thing as a broker's license in the UK. Shocking, right? More here.
...shows that prices stagnated in London in March after leaping by 7 per cent in the previous three months, leaving prices in the capital 6.1 per cent higher than a year earlier.
Ouch. News reaches us that Christopher Taylor and Harunur Rashid of Lawsons & Daughters estate agents in Hammersmith have just been banned from estate agency work by the OFT. They were convicted, at Blackfriars Crown Court last year, of pocketing money from sublets without the official landlord's consent or knowledge, and the OFT have decided they can't be trusted to continue working in the profession. Now, this is a story that happens to be of particular interest to the Rat and Mouse. Why? Because we've had reason to deal closely with Lawsons not too long ago, and... (how best to put this?)... whenever you leave that office you somehow feel like you need to take a shower. More here.
In an interesting article for the Telegraph, Rosalind Russell wonders whether online property search engines are putting some properties into a "black hole". The theory is based on banding... that homes priced at the bottom of a price band might get less attention than those at the top. (It's the £9,999.99p syndrome.) We're not sure about this one... but it's an impressive bit of lateral thinking or freakonomics from the Telegraph...
The Standard tests the addictive Neighbourhood Statistics website (a kind of "official" version of UpMyStreet) by comparing Stratford with Ravenscourt Park, Balham and Muswell Hill. Apparently, the average life expectancy of a male born between 2001 and 2003 in Stratford is 73.7 years. In Ravenscourt Park it's just over 75. In Glasgow it's 8.3 years. In Chelsea nobody ever dies. More interesting is that the website carried up-to-date crime figures. This is an area where discrepancies mean a little more, and the results will undoubtedly be reflected in house prices. Read more here.
Your assumption that "the reality is that gold no longer backs paper currency," is not 100% accurate. yes officially, gold is no longer backing the world's paper currencies. Notwithstanding, the investment communities still unofficially look to gold as "official currency". When the "price" of gold "rises"; in effect, what you are witnessing is not an actual rise in the cost of gold, but more a decline in the value of the dollar. This is what the writer is highlighting in his convoluted article.
So to summarise, the argument that "the market in gold" is doing better than "the market in property" is incorrect. There is no "market" in gold, because gold isn't marketed (except maybe as jewelry, but in relative terms this is a small quantity). Most of the world's gold is held/owned by central banks. The US govt also has a large reserve at Fort Knox. Ask yourself the question: why are the banks holding gold, if it's not a currency. The answer simply is that gold is a currency, but it may be that the powers that be simply dont want us to believe that.
It's an argument. But I'm still confused. Why, then, are the world's banks reducing their gold holdings like pimps fallen on hard times? And if there isn't a market in gold, why are more and more stock exchanges facilitating gold trading? Just because they're futures, certificates and shares being traded - it's still trading. If I buy copper, I don't expect to receive anything metalic.
Now a way has emerged for the more humble investor to make a killing on the international markets. Yesterday the price of copper hit an all-time record of 8,000 dollars a tonne, driven by frantic buying and selling by commodity brokers and futures traders. But a little-noticed fact is that every 2p piece made before 1992 is 97% copper - meaning that each coin contains 6.9g of the metal. Collect together 145 of them, and you've got a kilo's worth of copper. Now, just find another 999kg, a total of 145,000 coins, and you've got a tonne.
On their face value, those coins are worth just £2,900. But taking them to a scrap merchant and selling them on the open market for their metal content will make you a cool £1,500 profit, especially if you throw in the 25kg of zinc that are also sitting in your goldmine of loose change. The same trick can be pulled off with pennies, so long as they were circulated before September 1992, when the Royal Mint introduced new 1p and 2p coins made from steel with only a thin copper plating. For a 50% return on an original investment, that's very good even for the likes of George Soros.
A blogger over at HousePriceCrash discovered this opinion piece, claiming to prove house values have already started crashing, by blaming nominal rises on the smoke-and-mirrors of inflation.
If you had decided not to buy the average house in July 2004 and held onto your original 714 Gold coins instead. Today they would be worth 714 X £358 = £255,612 which is a lot more than the average house is worth today.
It's an interesting (if clumsy) read, but what I don't understand is... since the reality is that gold no longer backs paper currency, isn't this just an argument saying the market in gold has done better than the market in property? Or am I being stupid?
The Telegraph celebrates the coming-of-age of the boudoir-style bathroom. Apparently, in posh houses from this side of Belgravia to the other, spare rooms are being turned into giant Parisian brothel-style luxury wash rooms, with long double-ended baths, twin basins and heavy mirrors... places where the well-heeled can kick back naked after a long day at the trading screen, and soak until their skin goes all wrinkly. The macho wet room is so over.
The Independent's Graham Norwood takes a look at London's currently runaway market, and polls a few other experts. The consensus is good for those of us who believe in keeping one eye on interest rates - don't expect the gains to continue at this rate beyond the summer. Read it here.
First, according to Haarts estate agents, London prices rose 1.5% in April, with south west postcodes getting the best of it... an impressive (and slightly unlikely-sounding) 4.3%. More here. Meanwhile, the Land Registry tells us that the number of sales made in the first quarter of 2006 is up a staggering 37% on the same period in 2005. Year-on-year growth for the period was 5% (6.29% in the capital). Although - very interestingly - prices fell in Merton. Overall, it's a picture few will find entirely unattractive - a busy market, sensible appreciation. More here.
In January, we reported on plans to bring CCTV monitors inside the homes of an estate in Shoreditch. It was an experiment to see if the cable-distributed snoop channel could create a greater sense of community and improve security. Well, it's began - and - according to the Telegraph - locals are finding it addictive. Actually (and I have a theory about this) it would be interesting to learn whether, in the opinion of a psychiatrist, this kind of activity can be literally addictive (see elderly resident pictured below). It certainly sounds creepier than I'd imagined it... cameras pointing down on the entrance of the local pub, residents acting in their own private soap opera...
It's a subject the Rat and Mouse has covered in detail before, but perhaps now's the time to join Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker and call for reform of the current regulations allowing wealthy MPs with bulging property portfolios to claim as much as £50,000 a term in property expenses. Today's Times has the best piece I've read in some time on the subject, including details of Barbara Follett:
£2 million country pile; £350,000 London apartment; £1.5 million holiday home in Antigua; home in Cape Town. Cost to the taxpayer: £76,357, claimed against Soho flat owned outright by her husband. (Total amount of council tax on flat: £10,188. The rest was claimed for food, furnishings and maintenance.)
Or Michael Ancram:
Scottish estate; Wiltshire country house; London apartment... none of which have mortgages. Cost to the taxpayer: £50,000.
Or the aptly-named Douglas Hogg:
Four London properties (three of which are rented out); country house in Lincolnshire. Cost to taxpayer: £76,824.
So why is the government so fond of means testing everybody except MPs? Is the Rat and Mouse over-reacting? We'd love to hear your views on this.
Here she is this morning, calling John Prescott "such a horribly dishevelled man" and cursing him for wanting to build "400,000 toy-boxes on greenfield sites". Fair comment. But here's John Prescott this afternoon, no longer in charge of the ODPM - and campaigners for rural England celebrating the news. Don't cross Cleaver. The Times tells her peculiar rags to riches story - from childhood runaway, Smiths fan, resident of LA, to owner of her current five-storey north London palace. Expect to see Julia Roberts star in the movie.
Much of the nation will be more interested in penalty shoot-outs than the chance to score a new home. And when the tournament ends, humdrum financial concerns will, once more, weigh heavy on our minds.
Yeah, by then it will be cheaper to burn your home than heat it, and unleaded will have past the pound a litre mark.
But the best moment in this very entertaining piece comes in a story that somehow passed the Rat and Mouse by. The Times points out that upwardly mobile recent house price indices are explained partly by a shortage of prime London property and a surplus of money. To illustrate:
Have you heard the one about the buyer who tripled the asking price of a £5 million-plus home — on the condition that the owners moved out within a week?
Oliver Jaques - which is staffed by avid football fans - is offering to refund the residential sales fees on all instructions received before the opening game of the tournament on June 9, if England triumphs in Germany this summer.
Now... I'm no football expert, but I know a thing or two about estate agents. I wouldn't bet on England.
According to the latest Halifax index figures, house prices rose a spectacular 2% in April, making the annual inflation figure an old-school 8%. But, according to Halifax's Martin Ellis, it won't last. Rising utility bills, rising unemployment and houses that are just too expensive will dampen demand before the year's out. Few would argue that's a bad thing. More here.
Number-crunching boffin turned tabloid sexpot Carol Vorderman's in trouble with debt advice charities for promoting high cost loans, in which debtors shift their nagging, individual debts into one giant, crippling, long-term debt secured against their homes. The issue is one of loan duration. Carol claims that, by switching to one of the loans she's currently promoting, debtors enjoy lower monthly repayments and a lower interest rate. She's right. But, by switching to a longer term of repayment, their eventual interest payments often double. That, she doesn't mention. More here.
Today's Telegraph talks to estate agents to find out what, exactly, about an area really appeals to snobby buyers. It's a great read. And if you live near any of the following, you'll leave smiling:
Footballers
Waitrose
M&S
renowned butcher/deli
Italian/Portuguese coffee shop
gastropub
gastromilkman
independent chemist
British Heart Foundation/Cancer Research charity shop
church
If you live close to any of these, you might want to give the piece a miss:
Tesco
Ann Summers
Starbucks
Indian takeaway
Burger King/McDonald's
Fried chicken outlet
Sue Ryder/Salvation Army charity shop
Charity shop snobbery - I knew it existed but I didn't think I'd ever hear anybody dare say it.
I met a movie star, married him and I sold him a house, sold him another house, had a baby with him, sold him another house, divorced him, sold him two houses, one for him, one for me... so I made five commissions... tell me a better a career you can have... it's fabulous...
Three out of five surveyed said they would lie about a postcode if it meant people thought they lived in a nicer area.
It's a survey, conducted by a psychologist, looking at how Brits relate to their postcodes and are aware of what their postcodes say about them. The interesting bit is that Londoners are most likely to lie about their postcodes (the Welsh, the least). It's being reported over here by Sky News online, one of whose readers wins a special Rat and Mouse award for posting the most pointless comment ever.
I live in Sandhurst, Berkshire and I have never lied about where I live.
According to figures released by the Halifax, and celebrated in the Newham Recorder, Newham house prices have risen 281% in the last ten years, outstripping every other area in London. Amazingly, even after these gains, the average house price in the borough is "just" £189,660, making it the second cheapest London borough (after Barking & Dagenham). With the Olympics affecting prices in the area, it suggests there's still plenty more room for growth in Newham.
It was only a few days ago that Hugh Grant was complaining he had London properties coming out of his ears, and now a City financier tells the Evening Standard that he's just sold his Chelsea home to Grant and Jemima Khan for a reported £18 million - making the property the most expensive per square foot in London. We don't have an address (which makes sending our moving in card difficult). But apparently it's in a square off the King's Road, has three garages and nine bedrooms, and a quarter of an acre of garden. Oh yeah, and it looks like this.
Londonist reports on rumours that Richard Rogers' much-discussed Cheesegrater skyscraper at 122, Leadenhall Street could see construction start early next year. More here.
Weird name, isn't it? But we're impressed with this new (motors, jobs and of course, property) search engine's utilisation of certain features... like its very Web.2-ish bookmarkable classified ads, the way you can be emailed new ads that fit your search criteria (in a very Google kind of way) and its (del.icio.us-like) rss capabilities. Looks nice too. Try it 
Those of you who have written to us in recent months asking why there isn't a "comment" facility on this blog will know that I eventually admitted the truth... I didn't know how to switch it on. But now - after less than six weeks of fiddling, futzing and whatever else - we've found the button, pressed it, and the Rat and Mouse should accept comments from this moment on. I really hope you'll take advantage of it and that some of the lively and informed arguments and criticism I've had the pleasure of receiving via email will now start to appear publicly and perhaps spark off further debate and comment. And that's not all. There's another exciting Rat and Mouse feature just a day or two away. I don't want to spoil the plot right now... but keep checking back.
There's some interesting research, conducted by Halifax and reported by the BBC 
... to rip off the 
There's been a survey which suggests the days of the estate agent are numbered. Apparently 96% (yes 96%) said they'd prefer to sell their homes without the assistance of an estate agent if possible, and a third of those polled believe that estate agents are about to go the way of the dinasaurs. These figures are hardly surprising. The survey's by 
A blogger over at 
