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Entries in January 2007
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What?!
Holy smokes, BrightSale! Next, you'll be telling us we can view properties via our Wii and work the estate agent with the remote.
The Rat and Mouse - now with added search [January 31, 2007]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate, wii
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Estate agent Knight Frank's central London residential offices are taking delivery of ten new LPG Smart cars. Better for the air we breathe? Sure. Better for their pockets too. When the Congestion Zone extends westward late next month, it will include six Knight Frank offices. LPG Smart cars are exempt.
The Rat and Mouse - now with added search [January 29]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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Dec has bought a £1.9 million house just 150 yards away from Ant in Chiswick. It's a mock-Tudor mansion, which style-icon Dec intends to demolish as soon as possible and replace with a mock-Edwardian mansion, identical in every way to Ant's home. And to achieve this, he will be employing Ant's architect, Stuart Hemingway. It appears the neighbours are less than delighted. Is it me, or has this just crossed the boundary into weird?
Technorati Tags: celebrity, design, London, property, real estate
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 Hamptons estate agents turn publisher with the launch of The Address Book - a new homes and house-ware publication due to be mailed out to 282,000 "targeted addresses". There'll be London, North, South and Central editions, published quarterly. Something makes me feel I won't be a "targeted address".
The Rat and Mouse - now with added search [January 29, 2007]
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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How about a Swedish shop specialising in some of the most interesting modern designers of the 20th Century, and comfortable shipping everywhere? They're called Modernity.
[via design*sponge]
Technorati Tags: interiors, property, design
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... invented by the Evening Standard to describe the rich man's habit of allowing high-end property sit vacant while waiting for a good flip opportunity. The piece names Roman Abramovich, and his six empty Lowndes Square apartments, said to be worth around £21 million now. But he's not alone.
Yolande Barnes, head of research at Savills, said: 'Our latest figures show that in central London one in four of newly built properties is being bought as a pure investment, not to be let out. The buyers are clearly sufficiently confident of the future increase in capital values to make this investment decision.'
Actually, the Rat and Mouse has reported before on how this trend isn't limited to the super-rich. What we want to know, is whether the Government's plan to sieze homes that have been left vacant for more than six months and fill them with council tenants will extend to Lowndes Square apartments, too.
The Rat and Mouse - now with added search [January 29, 2007]
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate
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An all-party Commons trade and industry committee report has expressed concerns that under current rules homeowners who install solar panels or wind turbines may be penalised by an increase in council tax, since they've probably raised the value of their homes. Perhaps this is an instance when a bit of tax-free profiteering should be encouraged? More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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It's a 0.3% rise for January, the smallest monthly gain since May, and down from December's 1.2% figure. Annual inflation rests at 9.3%, again down from 10.5% December-to-December. Nationwide's Fionnuala Earley suggests this may be the start of a gentle slowing of the market, caused by stretched affordability and rising interest rates.
The Rat and Mouse - now with added search [January 29, 2007]
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Well, not really. Writing in the Telegraph, Hannah Nemeth takes the forthcoming Shard as inspiration for a bit of domestic glass wall glamour. She visits a fund manager in Roedean Crescent, Roehampton (what? you like him already?) who bought a plot, knocked down the house and built two: one for him, one for a rich neighbour. Both designs are radically glass-heavy, and - in my opinion, anyway - they seem to work very well (although they look a little close together). Savills are handling the spare one (pictured), and it's priced at £2.9 million, which says to me... fund well-managed.
The Rat and Mouse - now with added search [January 29, 2007]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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Apparently one in ten of us now consider original art a "must-have" feature of a home. Oooh, get us...
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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Remember all the fuss when, last August, Livingstone announced plans to retrofit Will Alsop's Palestra office building on Blackfriars Road with 14 wind turbines (to make it the capital's first combined heat and power plant)? Well, according to an anonymous Rat and Mouse tipster, those said turbines have suddenly, er, vanished. Perhaps they blew away? Anybody know?
[thanks to London SE1 for the photograph]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Which brings the annual rate of inflation up to 7.8%, from 6.8% in November and 6.5% in October. London achieved an increase of 2% in December, leaving annual inflation at 10.4%.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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... says Warren Bright of Propertyfinder. In a new report, he reveals that the number of under-35s who currently own a property has slipped to under 50% (compared to 59% in 2001). What's more, he expects the proportion of homeowners to get smaller and smaller:
"We estimate that around 3.1 million of today's over-30s who had expected to retire in their own homes will live out their golden years in rented accommodation."
More here.
The Rat and Mouse - now with added search [January 29, 2007]
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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The first in a series of new features we're planning for 2007, London's Property Blog now brings you property search, straight from the front page. Over the next few days, we'll be fiddling with the layout a tiny bit, fixing the odd "anomaly", and doing our best to offer Rat and Mouse readers the ultimate property addict experience... news, gossip, property porn and live estate agents' listings, all from a single address. In return, we'd really love some feedback... whether you like the idea, how the search works for you, how it all looks in your browser and what else we should be doing to make the Rat and Mouse the first portal of call in London property. As always, we're here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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Least likeable Welshman. Found! [IC Wales]
Smoke and mirrors: the mortgage racket [This Is Money]
Six year low for mortgage approvals [Times]
Have a great weekend. Don't forget to check back on Monday... and email us with your views, tips, gossip and rants. We want them.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Celebrity homes
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The Financial Services Authority have given lenders until the end of February to sort out mortgage exit fees, which have apparently risen by 33% in the past two years, to an average of £200. Lenders are being given a choice: justify them, or scrap them. According to Which?, customers can challenge fees that date back up to six years. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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You've just been looking at Swan House, down the road at 17 Chelsea Embankment. Sixteen bedrooms, views of the Thames, swimming pool, lift, theatre, plasma TV (just kidding)... it's listed at £32 million and it's one of a handful of London properties in a special Forbes feature about how the fabulously rich are forming fabulously long queues outside fabulously happy London estate agents' offices because multimillion pound superhomes with for sale signs are fabulously rare here right now. Which is, of course, all correct. Except it's interesting that the slide show starts with Updown Court and Toprak Mansion, both of which have been on the market for, well, forever...
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Somebody's done some complex statistical research and come to the conclusion that 2007 will the year when home-renting becomes the preferred option. Apparently:
“There used to be a stigma attached to renting your home. People would see you as a second class citizen who couldn’t afford to buy or didn’t have the ambition to progress in life."
You speak for yourself, mate. I've never thought that. Anyway, rising prices, greater job mobility and improved regulation will mean, apparently, that from now on, it's cooler to rent. And who performed the research? Oh. Belvoir Lettings.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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The Evening Standard commissioned a survey by debt ratings company Fitch into national home repossessions trends, and found that London's high property prices combined with rising interest rates are creating a fertile ground for foreclosure. Apparently, there were 6,282 repossessions in London in the first nine months of 2006, a rise of 30% on 2005. And it's going to get worse.
'If, as expected, London prices continue their relentless upward trend, this coupled with the latest round of interest rate rises should see London retain its dubious crown as king of the repossessions castle.'
... warns Fitch MD Stuart Jennings, retaining his dubious crown as king of the tortured metaphor castle. So who's most at risk? According to the RICS, anyone who bought in the last few years and stretched themselves until they squeaked... More here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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According to New Woman readers, apparently. Let's see if they still think that in a year's time.
Technorati Tags: celebrity
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And by WA Ellis, according to this, in Belgravia. It's a three-bedroom apartment and was sold for almost £12 million to anonymous foreign buyers. It's comical that the release mentions its 52 inch plasma screen - as if that's even vaguely relevant to a purchase like this.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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Did anybody else hear estate agent Ross Porter of Pickering & West on last night's brilliant Radio 4 phone-in, Down The Line? I know... Pickering & West? "I think most people will have seen our cars whizzing about the place. We have these fleets of VW Beetles with the Pickering & West livery on them and people love that, it brings a smile to their faces... " Porter's advice for finding foreign property hotspots? Choose stupid places, where the locals don't know the value of their homes. For buying here? Always visit the property first. It's still available, at the Radio 4 website, to "Listen Again". Highly recommended.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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[with thanks to Ben Scicluna]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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It's a 4.2% rise in the last quarter of 2006 (6.6% in Greater London), leaving the oft re-estimated year-end annual inflation figure on 9.9% (12.2% in Greater London). In London, the average house price reached £287,176, breaking the £285,000 inheritance tax barrier. Interestingly, look at the monthly change and you'll find, nationally, a fall of 1%.
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Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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I've had a handful of emails this morning, asking... "Where are you?" And the honest answer was, I have no idea. But whatever the issue was has been speedily resolved by the Rat and Mouse's friends at Tag4, and we're back up and running. If you emailed... thanks!
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[with thanks to mosmanlibrary]
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Chelsea's juicy, and that Sloane Avenue office wasn't enough, so the word is that Knight Frank will be opening a Kings Road office, headed up by James Pace formerly of Farrar & Co.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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Buyer: Robert and Elena Allbritton
Seller: Herb and Patrice Miller
Price: $20 million-plus.
Details: Developer Miller spent $25 million turning the 1810 Bowie-Sevier house at Georgetown's 31st and Q streets (8 BR, 10 baths, 28,000 square feet) into a state-of-the-art mansion. Months after he put it on the market for $28 mil, a young British political activist was slain during a mugging in the home's driveway. Now it's been purchased -- for what may be a record price for a single-family Washington home -- by the Allbrittons: She's a dermatologist; he was the second-generation chairman of Riggs Bank before it was sold after a money-laundering scandal (
His family was forced in 2005 to pay millions of dollar to victims of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet after they invited him to use their bank to hide the millions he stole from Chile), and now, as a media entrepreneur, he's launching the Web-based Politico journal this week.
Allbritton's been a aspiring media mogul since the 1970s, when he took the reigns of the Washington Star during its wheezing last days. But he's giving it another shot with a little venture called "The Politico," a new media bloggular cross-platform electronic iPhoning news venture whose business plan thus far has been to leech journos from the Post and The Hill with huge checks and promises of magic beans. It'll eventually be another damn newspaper and a website. But The Politico will be the only damn newspaper/website whose owner lives in a lavish mansion-cum-Sunset Boulevard-esque gruesome crime scene.
Not London, I know... but what a story. Nicely done. Thank you.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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 Fulham estate agents Inzo have shoehorned their database into a something more accessible from a mobile phone or PDA browser. You still get floor plans, photos, a map and full descriptions, but you can view them on your mobile. So what? Well, how many times have you spotted a potential home by its billboard when you're out and about, and wondered how much it's listed for? More here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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It's 12ft by 6ft, an unconverted cleaner's cupboard in the basement of 18 Cadogan Place, and it's still, apparently, full of rubble. The property has already received three offers. Interviewed in the Times, a Lane Fox director suggests someone might want to use it as a place to store their housekeeper or au pair.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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According to the notoriously bullish Rightmove the property price party keeps on grooving despite recent interest rate rises. Today's figures include a 13.5% annual inflation rate (January-to-January), up from 13% in December. The average asking price - that's asking price - is £222,859. Annual house price inflation in London? 22.4%
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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 In a dramatic development following Anscombe & Ringland, Highgate's claim to have sold £47 million of property in the three months to Christmas - effectively leaving the agency "sold out" - a group of seven rival Highgate estate agencies have come together to dispute the story. In fact, one estate agent - Chris Underhill of Prickett & Ellis Underhill - has even suggested he might remove his hat if Anscombe can back up their claim. Seemingly alarmed by Underhill's threat, Anscombe's Tim Summerley looks as if he's backing down:
"The £47million figure refers to the Hampstead and the Highgate offices combined. I can understand the position of the other agents but the reality is it is Hampstead and Highgate."
The Rat and Mouse will continue to monitor this volatile situation carefully; and we will have a full report, should any head-gear be removed.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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The clearest explanation we've seen, courtesy of This Is London: he exercises his right-to-buy on a council flat in Hammersmith, spending £75,000. After three years, he applies to the Land Registry to have the property transferred into his son's name. The property's sold in September 2004 for £228,000 and, with the assets, his son buys a semi in Greenford for £280,000. Apparently, shortly afterwards, the assets are returned to Hamza.
Hamza's prison property deals [October 12, 2006]
Hammersmith estate agents... own up, which one of you acted for Abu Hamza? [February 10, 2006]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Somehow this one must have passed me by when it happened... because it's all news to me. Apparently, Girls Aloud's Nadine Coyle hired an overzealous estate agent who - ultra-keen to secure a sale - handed her keys to a gang of drug dealers a fortnight before she was due to move out. The first she knew about a viewing was when she unexpectedly met them in her hallway. Fortunately, they "left quickly" after she threatened to sing.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate
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That's the news from Halifax this morning. One hundred thousand pounds for the average house in every UK county. Five years ago, that figure pertained to just a third of counties, and Surrey was the only county with an average house price above £200,000. Now there are nineteen. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Now you can get moving, talking particulars from Jackson Stops & Staff, by subscribing to a feed (defined by area and price band) in a feedreader or iTunes (below). It works fairly smoothly, and I'm all for embracing technology; but with between 40 and 50 seconds each and very little camera movement to give a sense of the space, I'm not sure what these vidcasts give that old-fashioned particulars don't.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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Hello, I am a young professional and have long been a fan of R&M. I am in search of a specific type of property to let and have been unsuccessful so far. I am interested in Commercial/Industrial buildings that have a select few designated living quarters for rent. I am unbothered by sketchy areas or low quality finishes; the type of space is the most important. Do you have any advice as to how I can find this sort of place to let?
That's a good question. This kind of living isn't easy to find in London (once a building gets permission for a residential conversion, the developers move in quickly and turn it into expensive loft apartments...) and often they're passed along by word-of-mouth. I sent a couple of emails earlier today, and Urban Spaces have been touch suggesting you have a look at their site. I think that's a good idea... they specialise in lofts and interesting modern conversions, and represent a good range of prices. You might want to register with them. Meanwhile, if anything else comes in, I'll let you know. And if other readers have any tips... feel free to comment.
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More in this Category - Linkage
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We're impressed with a new Googlemaps mashup aimed at making a little pocket money for people with driveways, easing parking problems for those who need to park up in town, and reducing double-parking and congestion. The concept's so simple I'm furious I didn't think of it. If you've a spare daytime parking place, you can advertise it (with a rental figure) on their map. If you need to park in a particular area, you simply enter the postcode or road into the map's search box, and you'll get any local free parking space flagged up. Click on each one for terms (cost, availability etc). Very nice.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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According to the Islington Gazette, Islington Council is planning to sell off £45 million of commercial properties (and, above them, some residential properties) in the Amwell Street area. Amongst them: a 150-year-old chemist (WCK & King) and the Amwell Book Company independent bookshop. Shopkeepers are wisely concerned that a new owner will push them out with massive rate hikes; local residents aren't happy.
Filthy MacNasty's neighbours [November 2, 2006]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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We knew he was leaving London for Scotland, now here's the Times with details of his new 25-acre Edwardian mansion. Aultmore House was up-until-recently an expensive holiday retreat (and a set for Monarch of the Glen). Apparently, Dylan and his brother bought the pad via Savills for £2.2 million.
Despite his celebrity there is no guarantee that the singer, a keen golfer who recently confessed to having a handicap of 17, will be able to join the local Abernethy club. “Mr Dylan will have to apply in writing just like everyone else and be vetted by the committee,” Jack McCool, the club treasurer, said.
I bet. But - come on - what earthly reason could McCool and the gang find for not letting Mr Zimmerman join their little golf club? Hmmm.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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You could argue, I suppose, that if you choose to take financial advice from a tabloid newspaper you deserve everything you get. But I'm wondering if other Rat and Mouse readers feel at all uncomfortable about this - a feature in the Mirror Money pages about the joys of equity release.
At one time the only way for older home owners to cash in on their biggest asset was to sell up and rent or buy a much cheaper place often far away from family and friends. But now it is possible to have your cake and eat it.
The piece follows the fortunes of a pair of pensioners who re-mortgaged for £100,000, and are now in the happy position of having seen their property rise in value so much that it's paid off half the loan amount. The Mirror irresponsibly suggests that the house could rise in value enough in the next ten years to cover not just the rest of the loan but the interest, too. Possible, sure. But highly unlikely.
So why is the Mirror suddenly so bullish about equity release? Ah, read to the end:
Now the Daily Mirror has launched Mirrorsure Equity Release with Key Retirement Solutions. Homeowners aged over 60 can free up money for income or those little extras. This can be spent in any way you wish without having to make a monthly payment.
Classy.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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This time, the RICS, with the news its house price balance fell to its weakest point in four months. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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According to Tracy Kellett, of home finders BDI Property Search:
"Telltale signs include three-quarter size beds and sofas to make rooms look bigger, tables ready laid with wine glasses and serviettes, coffee and bread smells permeating from the kitchen, smelly candles dotted around – especially in the toilet, never-read art books stashed on the coffee table, curtains that don’t close because they’re only there temporarily to dress window; baskets of painstakingly arranged fruit in the kitchen."
She's not impressed. Why? Because, apparently, she's had clients put off homes before because they've been so over-dressed families haven't been able to imagine living there. Interesting.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Always late, but always accurate (they're based on completions rather than fairy dust) the DCLG report for November. Annual inflation was up to 8.9% (from 8.6% in October) nationally. In London, the figure fell a little, to 10.1% (10.6%). The UK average house was left a whisker under £200,000, at £199, 467. For full details, download the report as a pdf by clicking this.
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Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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The LA Times on David and Victoria Beckham's move to LA.
The Beckhams moving here is like Princeton getting Einstein, if Einstein were really attractive and not so good at physics. So really, much better than getting Einstein.
Quote of the day - the value of a man (or woman) [January 15, 2007]
Technorati Tags: celebrity, property, real estate
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More in this Category - _Other
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More in this Category - Linkage
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More in this Category - For sale
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It could turn out to be Quote Of The Week, and it's from the Daily Mail.
For the vast majority of the country's 18 million homeowners, their property is worth more than they are, even after their mortgage is subtracted.
How does one value a man? Simple - according to the Mail - minus your personal debt and you're usually worth less than the £150,000 you have tied up in your home. Not only is that figure worth more than you, but:
The huge sum is enough to educate a child at Eton College or buy two Aston Martin V8 Vantage cars.
More of that, here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Cher, property developer. Bought, 2004, $650,000. Listed, 2007, $2.495 million. [link to particulars]
Jay-Z's Time Warner Building rented apartment now up for sale - Jay-Z, you are evicted, you must now... [New York Post]
American Felt Building - East Village's most rock'n'roll home [New York Observer]
Beckhams house-hunt, LA-style [This Is London]
Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie property shop on Virgin Islands [Post Chronicle]
The Rat and Mouse - because Londoners think about property every three seconds
Technorati Tags: property, celebrity, real estate
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Building Design reports on a campaign to save Inner Court, Old Church Street (Chelsea) from demolition. The proposal, to make way for a luxury residential development by Foster & Partners, has been turned down twice, but was recently resubmitted. Inner Court dates back to the early 1970s, and is an important modernist example of the period. Architect Joseph Rykwert, a Royal Gold Medal nominee who counts Daniel Libeskind among his former students, still lives in London. The Rat and Mouse values London's 20th Century architecture. If you do, too, you can join a campaign to have the building listed by contacting the 20th Century Society, or you can write directly to Nina Wahlberg, South East Team, English Heritage, 1 Waterhouse Square, 138-142 Holborn, London EC1 2ST.
[via Building Design]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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Norwich Union announced yesterday that, despite strong growth in their investment funds last year, 89.5% of their 750,000 mortgage endowment policy holders could now consider themselves "in the red zone" (up from 72% last year). Apparently, policy holders should consider this a wake-up call:
"This is a way to get people to at least sit up and take notice."
... Says Norwich Union senior actuary David Riddington, here. Perhaps customers were lulled into a false sense of security by the news that NU Senior Executive Richard Harvey paid himself £1.9 million last year, before deciding to retire on a pension of more than half a million pounds a year. More here.
Technorati Tags: mortgages, business
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 Enough of a brand, apparently, to create a new role - Marketing Manager - to, er, manage it. She's called Siobhan, she's out of the travel and leisure industry, and she's excited about jumping into property. Welcome, Siobhan.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Up a quarter of a per cent to 5.25%, despite a general consensus it wasn't going to happen this month. Rates are now at their highest level since May 2001. There's media coverage everywhere, but the best is coming from the Telegraph, including reaction, advice and an audio interview. For the official Bank of England statement, go here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Actually, the links between Vlad the Impaler - the former Prince of Wallachia (pictured below and inspiration for Dracula) who found a method for extracting hours of entertainment from just a sharpened stick and an enemy - and Bran Castle are pretty tenuous. He might have spent a few months there, impaling, and he's also thought to have been imprisoned there, later. But the creepy castle - only relatively recently returned to the family of its original owners, after confiscation by the Communists - is up for sale. Dominic Habsburg, a New York architect, wants to sell it to the local city council for $78 million. Romania's Culture Minister, however, claims the castle's worth just a quarter of that.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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You might have heard of Sealand - twin towers and a platform perched above the North Sea, built during the Second World War to guard the entrance to the Thames Estuary. Ever since a crazy retired soldier restored the structure in 1967 and declared it a principality (he's now Prince Roy), it's been a favourite of quiz bores and the not-a-lot-of-people-know-that brigade. Now, it's for sale.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Intercontinental chef Theo Randall takes the Independent around his Chalk Farm Victorian and they end up, inevitably, in the kitchen... where stainless steel (good for wiping) and Smeg (good for crackling) come out of it well. Randall likes to cook in his garden too. In fact, in the summer months, there's nothing he likes more than to pop outside and spit roast a chicken.
Technorati Tags: property, London, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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New indices calculated from tradable house price derivatives (based on the Halifax index) were launched yesterday by Tradition Financial Services. According to this, the idea is to turn a complex financial market into something cuddlier, by making it more understandable to the lay person. So... house prices to double by 2030... is that cuddly enough for you?
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Congratulations to the Highgate branch of Anscombe and Ringland, which sold an astonishing 63 properties totaling £47 million in the three months to Christmas (up from 23 properties and £15 million the previous year). In fact, the branch apparently "sold out", and were left without a single property on their books.
[via This Is London]
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More in this Category - Linkage
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 This week, the Rat and Mouse brings you exclusive news of a brand new website aimed at helping separate the pros from the, er, cons in UK estate agency. On the ground level, The Register of Estate Agents (ROEA) is another professional body with optional membership... four more letters for participating estate agents to add to their business cards. But it differs from the disappointingly toothless NAEA and Ombudsmen schemes in one very important way. It allows participating buyers and vendors (who can register for free) to comment on their actual real-life moving experience and leave ebay-style feedback for agents. So far, there are 7,000 pre-registered estate agents and 1,000 offices on the site. Presumably, ROEA will be working toward that tipping point after which it becomes noticeable if an agent is not a member.
So will the ROEA succeed? As the comments on the ROEA blog suggest, there's a need for this kind of thing, and the good estate agents (of which there are many, many thousand) will stand to benefit from such a scheme. As will potential vendors at the stage of choosing an agent... the site includes a nifty searchable Googlemaps mashup marked up with participating agents. Click the agents for a CV and (soon) comments. There's even talk of compensation for disgrunted movers... up to £5,000 if a ROEA-accredited agent fails in their duty (in the opinion of an independent regulatory body).
The Rat and Mouse applauds the ROEA's courage if it's really going to allow users to say what they wish. Home-moving is a high-tension, high-pressure area in which movers can be prone to misinterpretation and unrealistic expectation. I'm not sure I'd relish being held legally responsible for this kind of chatter... making it legal, keeping it fair, checking out attribution (after all, if estate agents can steal each others' listings...) could be a full time job if the website turns out to be as successful as it deserves. However, the Rat and Mouse also happens to know that the force behind ROEA is a highly experienced ex-agent himself, who has seen in other successful and interesting homesale and property search innovations since hanging up his car keys. Presumably, he knows what he's doing.
In the meantime, we will watch with interest, and bring you the very best of the ROEA's reader comments as they come in.
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In an extraordinary turn of events, it's being reported that, in a period of record property value rises, the Blairs have managed to not lose money on a house. With assistance from a frenzied central London market, the Blairs' big fat Connaught Square mansion might have gained as much as £1 million in book value by the time the Prime Minister retires to consider a job well done. You see? It's that kind of foresight and astute financial management that makes him Prime Minister, and us, well, not.
The Blairs' property portfolio - like government policy... [January 11, 2006]
Blairs' house - all round bad weekend [June 27, 2005]
Blairs savaged in buy-to-let market [March 7, 2005]
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According to the Sunday Times, the Emir of Qatar is selling Beechwood, his 11-acre estate off Hampstead Heath. However, there's no website, no particulars, few details... although the articles mentions £65 million as a likely guide price. And apparently, it's a little bit 1980s inside. Interestingly, the Emir isn't leaving London, he's just moving more central, and has paid £37.5 million for an office building, which he will convert into a colossal family home.
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Hi As a developer/investor in Central / SW London, I spend a lot of money on agents fees. I don't begrudge it if they add value but it seems that most of my purchasers are coming to them through Primelocation so I am paying 2-3% for a referral and viewing service. That's an unacceptably large share of my margin. There is little use these days for or value added by boards, shop fronts, printed details - I can do these myself. Likewise the viewings. Generally, I shouldn't need their market knowledge or I shouldn't be in the business. I and, I feel sure, many other professionals would welcome paying a fixed or low %age fee solely for access to referrals from the websites. For Primelocation to object to this would, surely, be anti-competitive and grounds for referral to the OFT? I wonder whether any of your agent readers would consider this a reasonable model for extra business?
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Regular Rat and Mouse readers... we don't ask much (anything) of you, usually, but just this once... if you like what we do... why not consider heading over to the Bloggies page, where you have until the end of Wednesday, January 10, to nominate your favourite London property weblog in the UK category?
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Halifax reports a small fall for December, of 1%, leaving the annual rate of inflation at 9.9%. The figure flies in the face of Nationwide's reported 1.2% December increase, and just provides further evidence for the Rat and Mouse's belief that only the boringly late DCLG's figures mean anything at all. More here.
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According to Magnet, it's "Who built and designed the kitchen?". The answer, according to Magnet, is Magnet. The press release I received this morning makes a big fuss about another question, too... "What happens in your kitchen?". It's apparently the question first asked Magnet clients. What happens in the Rat and Mouse kitchen? I can exclusively reveal the answer right now. I cook food and I make coffee.
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It starts with a little innocent promotion... an investment opportunity in Canary Wharf offering, says the Cluttons agent, a two-year 7.5% rental guarantee. She sends it to her email list of (it looks to me, like roughly 600, although I don't have time to count) email addresses (mostly names in finance and property development, including one called - alarmingly - swastika), but makes the mistake of leaving the list readable by all. First, it's a solicitor from Golders Green who takes offense (not with swastika, but with the "spamming") suggesting the Cluttons email is "illegal" as well as bad practice, and demanding his name is removed from the list. Unfortunately, he sends the email to all 600. Next, a London architect mirrors the solicitor's objection, also sending his complaint to the entire mailing list of 600. Things are hotting up for the poor Cluttons agent. The next email comes from the managing director of a risk management consultancy, and it's directed to the gang of 600 rather than the Cluttons agent. For this poor man, the fallout has been more damaging than a little bit of extra spam:
Having successfully avoided my ex girlfriend you have given her my email address. Boiling Bunnies everywhere! I insist Cluttons afford me a free apartment as an apology !!
Sounds reasonable. Nor is he particularly impressed with the investment opportunity.
Guys, Invest in Russia or Eastern Europe at least a 30% return. 7.5% return is very poor really. You can get at least 15% in London anyway. In Moscow 30%!
Right, if you don't mind taking a few Land Registry risks. But it seems others agree with him. This, from an investment manager:
I agree on the 7.5% hence the need for 'spamming'. We could set up a whole networking group as a result of this !! Now where's my visa for Moscow !!
Right on, brother. It's a revolution. In the meantime... the Rat and Mouse offers sympathies to the estate agent at the heart of the affair because, let's face it, the whole thing's a little embarrassing. And we watch with interest to see whether any positive networking comes out of this unhappy accident.
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Ed, over at property search portal Nestoria, has crunched some data to discover their top ten London searches of 2006:
Interestingly:
We see no evidence of a boost in property interest for East London in anticipation of the 2012 Olympics.
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More in this Category - Linkage
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We're informed that John D Wood, estate agents, had 545 visitors to their website on Christmas Day, doubling their 2005 traffic. Obviously, that's good. Just not quite as good as the 1,756 Christmas Day visits to the Rat and Mouse. Which is why some Rat and Mouse readers should seriously consider advertising on the site. Currently, I'm putting together a small (four, maybe less) syndicate of non-competing sponsors who can benefit from a presence on the front page. Since the blog is read by both property vendors and movers and media shakers, there will be a modest monthly fee for the privilege, which will be re-invested in the website, so I can put in place some of the new and interesting changes and features I have planned for 2007. If you're interested, email me here.
Meanwhile, to read why advertising on niche websites is more effective, go here.
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The Rat and Mouse is delighted with the news that the parliamentary commissioner for standards has been casting an eye over grace-and-favour property abuses, and has recommended that MPs no longer be able to claim the "additional cost allowances" (otherwise known as licenses to print money) supposedly spent on maintaining London flats. As if there weren't enough examples of abuse, it's apparently the revelation that the Prime Minister and six other senior colleagues all with grace-and-favour homes still managed to claim a total of £115,593 between them in accommodation expenses in a single financial year that caught the commissioner's notice. But is changing the rules enough? Or should these claims be investigated properly... the receipts and invoices demanded?
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According, to Haart's, the area's of London likely to benefit most from the plundering bonus-happy bankers of 2007:
Chiswick's Bedford Park:
The garden suburb, packed with grand family homes.
Fulham's Peterborough Estate:
Five minutes from the river, plus good schools.
Clapham, between the Commons:
Good schools, big houses.
Canary Wharf:
For it's lucrative rental opportunities.
The Olympic Village
No surprises, there.
[via FindAProperty]
Bedford Park - sanitary [March 24, 2005]
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More in this Category - Linkage
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And it's a drop in the annual rate of inflation for November, from 7% to 6.8%, apparently, with the London market down to 7.8% from 9.6%. Of course, the property media - all jealous because they don't have a hanging to report - will make a big deal out of this, but the figure's still 6.8%. More here.
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... and seen that it's good:
"Over the last twelve months we have been closely monitoring the property portal market and coupled with this, we have conducted our own market research. 60 per cent of our buyers and 50 per cent of our tenants will look at a property portal before any other activity when looking for a new home and overall, 83 per cent of our buyers use a portal as part of their search. We have taken a very measured approach to online marketing and through our analysis it is an undeniably powerful tool in today's market place."
No shit. And it's for this reason that all KFH's London listings are now available on both Rightmove and Primelocation. We're just surprised it's taken so long.
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... to all Rat and Mouse readers. Expect a few changes to London's property blog during 2007... more details to follow in the coming weeks. In the meantime, thanks for your continuing support.
Rat and Mouse readers - we love you [November 2, 2006]
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More in this Category -
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