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Entries in October 2006
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More in this Category - Linkage
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There's a new survey - courtesy of Rated Tradesmen - that suggests a serious priorities imbalance amongst UK homeowners. Apparently, four out of ten men and a third of women would be more concerned about their house cracking up than their relationship. One in five said a good relationship with a tradesman is more important than a good romantic relationship. Even the Rat and Mouse finds that a little depressing.
[via The Move Channel]
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I wish somebody had tipped me off about this yesterday, as I'd have turned up with a camera. Apparently, an entire Cornish village - called Lanreath - relocated to Islington Green yesterday, where they dressed a scarecrow up as John Prestcott, played bowls, morris danced, and one 86-year-old woman told a BBC reporter that the county council had "chosen the wrong muthafuckin village to mess wit'" (okay, I edited that a little bit). They were protesting against the proposed closure of their village school. Any Rat and Mouse readers see this?
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Nationally, prices rose 017% in October, leaving the annual rate of inflation at 8% (down from 8.2% in September). The three-month growth rate is at 2.6% (the fastest since September 2004). At this stage - with an interest rate rise to 5% almost inevitable next week, and further increases more than possible - no sane person wants to see prices rising any faster.
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More in this Category - Estate agents
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The Telegraph takes a look at a handful of the latest and greatest websites offering an opportunity for movers to sell without the estate agency fees. The piece focuses on The Little House Company, HouseNetwork, AcreProperty and PrivateHQ. They're making little impact on Rightmove in terms of visitor stats, but that doesn't mean there aren't dramatic success stories. Read more here.
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A typical Monday morning in the London property market? An over-heated property market blowing off steam? The basis for the next interest rate rise?
Millionaire bidding frenzy [Times]
Homes outpace stocks by factor of three [Reuters]
City bonuses fuel house price madness [Independent]
One in eight can't afford first rung on property ladder [Daily Mail]
Hometrack fears bubble could burst [ViewLondon]
Shabby little home sells for £900,000 [Times]
The Rat and Mouse - watching closely
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On Tuesday, it was the Telegraph; today, the Times... both inspired by the revamped Brunswick Centre, both extolling Bloomsbury as central London's property hotspot du jour. (Rat and Mouse question: when the lawyers and media people and Rupert Everett move in, where do all the low-income earners who lived there before go? Isn't that the mystery of gentrification.)
And speaking of poor people and gentrification and mysteries... what in the name of all that's holy was Kirstie Allsopp's sister, Sofie (like "Sophie", but more expensive) doing co-presenting The Best & Worst Places To Live 2006 on Channel 4 last night? What was the reasoning? Kirstie can't do it, but her sister looks and sounds similar... nobody'll notice. If you missed it, click the above link for a series of short films, including the notorious Hackney episode, which has caused more than a little anger.
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Jeez, that headline's so bad it's made even me feel a bit nauseous. Sorry. The story is... we've just had word that Craig House, that giant former care home in Ham, Richmond, has just been sold to George Wimpey, (not) the beefburger tycoon, for £4.4 million. Which doesn't sound like a whole lot of money to us at the Rat and Mouse, considering we're talking about 1.8 acres of land, planning permission for 34 apartments and five three-bedroom mews houses... 27,726 square feet of accommodation, a walk away from Richmond Park.
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Rat and Mouse readers will already know that in the battle of the property search portals, PrimeMove shares honours as one of our favourites. And the latest from this slick Googlemaps mashup is that they're moving onto the next stage in their development and inviting advertisers to bag space on their maps:
The advertising opportunity will initially attract firms like estate agents, but non-property related firms, including DIY stores, supermarkets, nightclubs and restaurants are also expected to take up the opportunity to put their products and services in front of potential residents.
It sounds as if advertisers will be buying "pins" on maps - flagging themselves up amongst property search results. Ingenious. For more information, visit the site and fill in the "contact us" box. Don't forget to mention The Rat and Mouse sent you.
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And if you're not lucky enough to be an outspoken media socialist (below), living in London's set to get harder. The average London home costs 8.8 times the average salary. In Camden (the most expensive), the figure's 10.7 times salary. According to a survey by the London Housing Federation, we're a ticking timebomb, with typical London home prices set to increase by 34% over the next five years, and wages just 4.1% to 4.4% per year. More here.
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Man of the people, George Galloway.
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... hardliner is selling this five-bedroom detached Streatham home for £825,000? Clues? Note the bust of Lenin overlooking the plush wooden floors and expensive furnishings, the Islamic art scattered throughout the grand and spacious living quarters... Answer revealed later today.
 
 
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The Telegraph carries the heart-warming story of architect Patrick Hodgkinson's final work on the Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury's love-it/hate-it (and we, at the Rat and Mouse, entirely love it) 1950s construction, which was abandoned in the 50s, and became home to anybody who couldn't afford anything better. Until now. The middle classes - hell, gay showbiz couples, no less - are coming, and the Brunswick Centre's looking as spruce as it deserves.
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More in this Category - House prices
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That's, kind of, the message from a Barclays survey of start-ups, which suggests that starting up a business in the property sector offers a flexibility which suits women.
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And the Daily Mail's This Is London preaches to the converted with a scathing attack on Gordon Brown, accusing him of taking attention from his own deficiencies by kicking hard-working middle class families to the curb with punitive stamp duty, inheritance tax, council tax and property prices. Because - let's face it - hard-working middle class families never get a thrill out of rising property prices. Right? Anyway, a new survey, by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, reveals that out property tax levels are way behind any other country's, and Daily Mail readers don't like it. Reading the piece, and then the comments, I was wondering how long it would take before somebody would point out that property taxation is just one part of overall taxation... and overall taxation isn't an easy thing for a lot of Europeans. Finally, here it comes (and very effective, too):
No mention of the often 100% or more higher income taxes we pay in continental Europe then. Or that we pay higher VAT. Or that many more people live in council type housing or rent in most countries so don't have to pay council tax (the owner pays). Our lack of obsession with property ownership is a big part of this.
- Jennifer, Netherlands
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Why? Because of a row that's erupted over the results of a The Best and Worst Places To Live in the UK survey, which will be aired on TV shortly. Hackney didn't do so well. In fact, it came bottom of the UK's 434 local councils, in a survey that took into account crime, education, shopping, the environment, employment and life expectancy. Hackney's mayor has apparently accused the BBC of "middle-class snobbery". More here. By the way, Hackney wasn't the only London council at the very bottom of the list. It was joined by Tower Hamlets, Newham and Islington.
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... From the President of the Jerry Bresser Institute... Jerry and friends teach estate agents how to List More, Sell More, with the Millionaire Maker System - a fast track to success. And - let's face it - there's nothing like a fast track to success. The Rat and Mouse has been made an exclusive offer... register by October 31, 2006 and you can have "the entire system" for just $2,300. If you're interested, form an orderly queue.
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More in this Category - Linkage
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The Rat and Mouse is intrigued by a new business - OneMove - which claims (in a press release I liked so much I read it twice) - to not only be the single largest UK property search portal (incorporating everything on Rightmove, Primelocation, fish4homes, FindaProperty and PropertyFinder) but also:
* to arrange everything, from hand-picked accredited conveyancing professionals, surveyors and removal agents
* to offer users a free consultant who will chase their deals from offer to move, and keep them informed each step of the way by lending them a Blackberry for the duration and providing a colour-coded plan tracking progress
* to offer them insurance against financial loss due to a deal falling through at the last minute
* to even arrange utilities at your new home
Okay - I know - there isn't an estate agent in the land who won't very gladly smile and lead you by the hand into the safe arms of a lender, lawyer or financial advisor... but, still, at least this company looks like it's prepared to offer something in return for the commission. On the one hand, it's intriguing; on the other, it seems so inevitable, the only surprise is that somebody hasn't done it before. Right now, though, I'm a little concerned about their search claims. When I search Nestoria for 4 bedroom houses up to £600,000 in W6, I get this:
OneMove offers this:
Elsewhere, similar results. Perhaps the press release got a bit ahead of the database. If OneMove want to add anything, I'll gladly post their comments. In the meantime, definitely one to watch.
New feature for OnOneMap [August 3]
More property portal optimism [July 27]
Rightmove and PropertFinder - under attack [July 26]
The Rat and Mouse interview - the Power of Search [July 10]
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Actually, I'm not positive they were actually given the £12 million to spend... but they certainly went out on a property shopping fantasy, one to Belgravia, one to Mayfair. In Belgravia, £12 million bought 76 Eaton Square (above) - my own favourite of the two - and a sensibly modern reworking of giant three-bedroom apartment on the right side of the square. In Mayfair, the choice a slightly strange part- reconversion of a series of offices and flats back into a giant home comprising some of 44 and some of 46 next door. 44 Park Street (below) is by Northacre, and - named The Ambassadorial - goes the Ferrero Roche route in terms of ambience. Interestingly, though, there's a "curved first-floor ballroom" where Churchill once held cabinet meetings. Read the full piece here.
And here are a few photos from Northacre's Ambassadorial launch party. Security, it appears, wasn't what it should have been, and a bunch of women managed to sneak in disguised as fixtures and fittings.
  
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More in this Category - Linkage
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According to Bank of England Deputy Governor Rachal Lomax, record-breaking house price escalation doesn't, er, make a boom. More here.
November rate rise "certain" [October 18]
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More in this Category - _Other
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American advertising blogger Copyranter takes exception to this line-up of "twats", advertising a West Chelsea development.
We're reliably informed, there was no irony. Which is a pity, because - seen in a different light - this ad could have been quite cool.
Do we in the UK have anything as bad? Send all tips to the usual address.
[via Curbed]
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For the love of our homes, we agonise over paint and wallpaper choices, furniture, floors and fittings... and the result is never what we plan, but by some accident is - to some kind of degree - what we are. Unless, of course, you just let somebody else do it. Today's Independent looks at the a trend amongst the moneyed, the investors and the frequently absent, for buying off the peg... apartments, furniture, even the artwork.
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Experian have drawn a debt map - showing not just where, but who, the biggest debtors are... those people most likely to go bust in the event of a giant leap in interest rates. And the map's a different shape to the one you might imagine. Apparently, if you live on the M4 corridor, in the commuter-land of Wiltshire, Berkshire or Buckinghamshire, and you're a professional family with a good standard of living, you're a prime candidate for an IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement... a kind of quick hop into bankruptcy without all the shame and publicity). IVAs have jumped from 5,000 in 2002 to 40,000 by the end of this year. More here.
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It's called the Villain Chair, and it's pretty easy to see why. £3,600 of over-stuffed leather squares on a chrome, steel and aluminium swivel base... Persian cat comes extra. It's by Suck UK.
[via Behind the Curtains]
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Thanks to the Rat and Mouse reader who sent me this, from yesterday's Observer, on London's competitive race-hatred marketplace. It seems one minute you're comfortably the scorned minority du jour, the next you're yesterday's media target:
If you have anything to do with property - and among middle-class Britons, the trend of property prices is an obsession, regardless of plans to find a home, buy to let or sell...
Right on...
... you will be in the throes of a new form of xenophobia. It's not the Muslim veil that gets you, or the Polish plumber. No, you are outraged by the Russkis' riches.
Are you allowed to say Russkis in the Observer? Apparently.
It is the Russians' wealth and their ever-growing numbers that inflate house prices beyond our means... Xenophobia is unacceptable, and inexcusable. But Russophobia? Can you blame us, when all we want is a home of our own? Nyet.
Now... I don't want to sound cynical, but I know a bit about journalism and what journalists earn, and in my experience it's not often you get a broadsheet columnist and a Russian plutocrat offering sealed bids for the same Kensington home. Or have I been writing for the wrong newspapers?
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He's been spotted around town recently, and now the rumour reaches us that Liza Minnelli's ex-punchbag, David Gest, is going to buy a London property in the next six months.
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If you're one of those people who are particularly sensitive to interest rate moves at the moment, now might be the time to be afraid... very afraid. Rightmove's latest house price report suggests the latest upward movement wasn't nearly enough to dampen the current surge. This month, the annual inflation rate has reached 11.5%, and prices rose 2% in the month. Rightmove's Miles Shipside comments on an interesting Catch 22:
"Supply of houses coming onto the market is dropping as prices increase, because fewer home owners can afford to trade up."
More here. Meanwhile, other news sources are choosing to focus on one specific area... Kensington & Chelsea, where the Rightmove report suggests an average house price of just under £1 million. £999,087 to be precise. Rightmove claim Chelsea's annual inflation figure has reached 65%, and Westminster's 53%.
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Cover your ears, it's Camilla Cavendish writing in the Times...
... it has become a profanity. "All those bloody people in the City," said a top architect I saw a few weeks ago, "doing jobs that any of us could do."
Not where I thought she was going with this either. Anyway, the piece is about London's poor out-priced and out-paced professionals, suffering from inflationary school fees and house prices. Isn't there a word for this? Oh yeah... POOPs, and last time the Times discussed their plight, they got pretty short shrift.
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New predictions from the Office for National Statistics are putting the wind up the Telegraph. Eighty per cent of the rise (nationally) will be as a result of immigration. Will there be room? asks the accompanying audio file.
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I hadn't. But, according to the Times, it's a bit like Ikea, but without the queues. Or Matalan, but without the tat. Or TKMaxx, but without the chavs.
Set aside an hour for a decent trolley-filling session and you’ll be hooked. The bedding is laid in room sets, so all the colours are co-ordinated and the bed looks like one you could lie down on for a nice kip. And the lamps! Just like the ones in Laura Ashley, but a fifth of the price.
The store started in the Midlands - from a market stall along from the Lineker family's - and now it's spreading nationwide. (Meanwhile, what have any of the Linekers achieved?) It hasn't spread to London yet, but the website lists Hemel Hempstead, Maidstone and Reading. You can shop online too.
UPDATE - thanks so much to the Rat and Mouse reader (you know who you are) who responded so quickly with this:
There is a Dunhelm Mill on London, in Harrow. Come out of South Harrow tube and go up the hill towards Harrow proper, and it's next to Waitrose 200 yards up on the left. It is listed on their site, but not in the South East section for some reason. (N.B. don't try to drive there right now as they are digging up the road outside the station, and the traffic can back up a long way in either direction).
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Yesterday was a bit of an alternative energy news day, and it continues to day, with this very interesting Telegraph piece about the relationship between developers and green technology. It introduces (to me, anyway) the concept of CHP - Combined Heat and Power. The idea is that a miniature power plant onsite reduces demand, because less energy is lost between plant and end user, and negates the need for each individual home to heat its own water.
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According to this, working class hero John Lennon's London home is on the market for $11.1 million. They say, it's 24 miles south west of town... am I the only person who doesn't know where it is? Apparently, it has six bedrooms, five receptions rooms, a playroom, a sauna and a swimming pool. If anybody can find some particulars...
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Today's RICS report is the kind the media like. Bubbles, gazumpers, runaway house prices... mmmmmmm. The headlines are:
- the 11th monthly rise
- no. of RICS members reporting increase in prices outnumbers those reporting declines by 45%
- buyers increasing
- available homes decreasing
- some estate agents adding 10/15% to asking prices
- London leads the way
Meanwhile, what's the Bank of England to do? I think I know. More here.
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Rat and Mouse readers with long memories might remember our appeal, back in February, for the estate agent who might have acted on behalf of Abu Hamza, regarding the sale of his Hammersmith property. A Mr Justice Hughes was wondering where the money went... looking for funds to offset the massive trial costs. It now appears he's discovered where the money went. On a semi in Greenford, according to the papers. Hamza even managed to buy the property from jail... an achievement which grants the man in my eyes (and I'm sure in the eyes of other Rat and Mouse readers experienced in the tribulations of London property purchases) a whole new level of respect. It doesn't impress the Sun, though.
Bradshaw, Hutton and Hamza - nabes [December 14, 2005]
Hammersmith estate agents... own up, which one of you acted for Abu Hamza? [February 10]
Hamza still terrorizing house prices [March 10]
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And on the subject of alternative energy there's an interesting piece over at TheMoveChannel on the subject of underground heat pumps... a way of channelling a bit of the earth's natural heat up into your house. News is that Linden Homes is experimenting with installing heat pumps in their new builds. Interesting.
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The Sun looks inside (actually, looks over the particulars) Ricky Gervais's new £2.5 million Hampstead home. See the pictures here. And enjoy some classic tabloid writing...
Roomy ... but will the North London pad have space for an Office?
Blimey, more like that and you might get your own prime time comedy drama.
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Reuters' Oliver Bullough visits the first Londoner to win planning permission for a domestic wind turbine and asks, how's he getting on?
"I have exported 20 percent more electricity than I've imported this year... the average carbon footprint is 8.5 tonnes in the EU, whereas mine is less than half a tonne."
That would be well then.
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According to a new report by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, first-time buyers are borrowing a higher multiple of earnings than ever, and the number of ftbs faced with stamp duty rose 8% in the past year. More here.
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Westfield London is the giant "luxury" shopping centre planned to open across from Shepherd Bush's BBC TV Centre in 2008, and the Telegraph's Sonia Purnell quizzes locals, agents and investors about the prospects for property in the area. It's a mixed bag of opinions... some claim that it's just what's needed to lift "bandit country" north of Goldhawk Road (or NoGold as the Rat and Mouse likes to call it) into Brackenbury Village house price territory. Others say, tune in for Multiplex's latest white elephant. We tend to take a slightly bearish view. Discounting the inevitable price rises that hit every west London nabe on rotation, what is whole load more traffic really going to do for the choked roads around Shepherd's Bush Green? Call it a green. Hell, call it a village. But a big roundabout's still a big roundabout.
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"I have sold luxury homes, dream homes, derelict farm buildings, homes in scary areas, homes burnt down, new homes, 400 year old houses and empty land - That's why I have the confidence to really say I do know what I am talking about when it comes to houses!"
Who's that? It's Andrew Winter, and apparently he's on his way to the Costa Blanca, to help people sell their Spanish homes, on the telly.
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New figures from the Department for Communities and Local Government (you know, the "late but accurate" ones) are out for August, and the bullet points are:
a 1.6% rise for the month
annual inflation rising to 7.7%
the average UK property reaching £197,631
Click this for a pdf of the report
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Who? She of London Property Search and television's Would You Buy A House With A Stranger? It's worth a read for the insight into the world of the professional property finder. Find it here.
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"It is one of the quirks of history that social housing is generally bigger than private housing, because there are minimum standards for the size of rooms in social housing,"
That's Joe Martin of the RICS, talking to Paula Hawkins of the Times. The reasoning of the piece is that UK developers have a vested interest in squeezing lots of small rooms into a shell, because house values reflect number of bedrooms. The thrust is that there's a lot said for going the US way, and valuing a house per square foot.
Pricing per square foot allows international buyers a clear view of what they can get for their money. For example, while London's average price is £1,200 and New York's is £1,000, Tokyo property costs £900, Hong Kong £700 and Dubai property just £200 a square foot. Maximum super-prime prices are, of course, much higher, with only Monte Carlo, at £2,800 a square foot, coming close to London prices.
One thing, though... isn't this quite similar to a piece the Times ran back in March?
Size matters [March 3]
London properties most expensive in world [September 6]
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Ed, over at property search engine Nestoria, reveals the Top Five Misspelled London Place Names. It follows last week's list of most popular search areas. Inspired, I checked out some Rat and Mouse stats to see what search terms are sending new readers our way - something I ought to do more often. All the obvious ones are there... "rat and mouse", "london property blog", "property porn". I'm not entirely positive how readers found us searching "emma bunton", "freddie ljungberg" or "candy davis pics"... but find us, and in quantities, they did.
The Rat and Mouse interview - the Power of Search [July 10]
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And she's not alone, it seems. According to this in the Times, tenants need to check more carefully than ever their landlords can afford the mortgage. It tells the tale of Melanie, a mother of five, who found herself and her kids out on the street, evicted by Mortgage Express, after her landlord had fallen behind with payments.
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... Has finally been arrested, after a stand-off in which he turned the gas on and threatened to blow his flat sky-high in response to the council's decision to evict him. Sudbury House was evacuated this morning, and the Southside shopping centre closed. More here.
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... Argues Max Davidson, in the Telegraph about government plans to link council tax to energy efficiency:
Call me warped, but I happen to like sleeping with the bedroom window open - all year round. Fresh air and all that. When I wake up on a January morning, I feel like Scott of the Antarctic, icicles forming on my nose. No doubt, if I kept the window tight shut, I would save the nation's energy. But are my bedtime preferences any business of the taxman?
Hmm. Try writing that in the Independent. But, even in the Telegraph, this may well be considered fishing for letters.
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More in this Category - _Other
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More in this Category - Celebrity homes
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It's a 1% increase in September, with some signs that the market might be cooling. BOE figures suggest that loan approvals have reach a plateau in the three months to August. And RICS figures suggest sales might have fallen slightly again in August (after a slight fall in July). Annual inflation, however, remains at a very solid 8% (8.5% in London). More here.
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That's a photograph of representatives of Anscombe and Ringland, proudly displaying their awards for Best UK Estate Agency and Best London Estate Agency, at the Daily Mail UK Property Awards. Congratulations from The Rat and Mouse.
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Congratulations to the Telegraph's Caroline McGhie, not just for one of most entertaining pieces on the ever-so-slow-growing Thames Gateway redevelopment, but also for managing to make a Knight Frank estate agent sound like a character from a Dickens novel.
It isn't homely. If you play hunt-the-corner-shop you might eventually find a small parade with a Costcutter, a chippy, a bookie and a greasy spoon, with a strip club two corners away. "But you can have all your food home-delivered from the giant Tesco," says James Talbot of Knight Frank, who works and lives in Thames Gateway. "Historically this is London's largest sewage factory - the East End has always had the smells. With the westerly wind being dominant, that is why they put the houses for the poor in the East End in the first place."
Mr Talbot's nose twitches and his hands rub together.
Soon, he assures me, the area around here will be covered in homes .
Ingress Park sounds like a triumph, though. Read McGhie's feature, it's great.
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They get a rough ride in an ICWales think piece this morning:
Today's homes bandwagon has become less about day-to-day living and more about preening. Just as your hair must be glossy, highlighted and cut at Toni & Guy, your home must have recessed spotlights, sectional seating and ensuite bathrooms a-plenty.
Recessed spotlights? Ensuite bathrooms? You can tell that piece was made in Wales. Wet rooms, darling. And dishwasher-proof chandeliers.
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More in this Category - Linkage
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