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Entries in February 2008
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Way back - and I mean way back - in 2005, the Rat and Mouse reported on steel gazillionaire Lakshmi Mittal's ruckus with The Bishop's Avenue neighbour Princess Samerah concerning plans to build a development of 12 apartments with balconies overlooking his Summer Palace. The ruckus has now ended. Because - according to this - Mittal's decided that if you can't beat 'em, clear out. The house is said to be listed at £40m, with local specialist Glentree Estates, although there's no sign of online particulars right now.
Tumbleweed blowing down Millionaires' Row [February 18, 2008]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
More in this Category - N2
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It's a fourth monthly fall, according to Nationwide figures... this time, 0.5% for February, bringing the annual rate of inflation down to 2.7%. The last time Nationwide reported four months of falls was 2000. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - House prices
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And yesterday it was all looking so hopeless. Now there's news of Foxtons, Muswell Hill estate agent, Brian Gradner, stepping into the fray to defend a Supersave shopkeeper from a drunken chav shoplifter who spat in his face and racially abused him. Credit where credit's due... respect, from the Rat and Mouse, Mr Gradner.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, Foxton's, Foxtons, London, real estate agents
More in this Category - Estate agents
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Forty million pounds of it, according to this. The property's in Holland Park, it was once the Burmese Embassy, it's been a home for the blind, by the end of 2008 it's likely to be one of the UK's most talked about trophy homes. Cowell is the latest celeb - after everybody's favourite estate agent - to extend downwards. Plans include an underground swimming pool and car park, and will comprise 21,000 sq ft.
Going underground [September 18, 2007]
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate
More in this Category - Celebrity homes
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This time, Bairstow Eves, who apparently managed to post photocopied images of a client's passport and driver's license on the Internet. They meant to post photographs of the house. A house... a passport... easy mistake to make. More here.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents
More in this Category - Estate agents
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Jeez... one moment it's some Government body, next it's the Commies. What's an honest estate agent to do? According to its blog, Class War is planning an afternoon of disruption for Foxtons, Islington on March 3. Furthermore, they're calling on workers to dismantle agents' boards... except only the illegal ones.
[thanks to FP]
Technorati Tags: estate agents, Foxton's, Foxtons, London, property, real estate, real estate agents
More in this Category - Estate agents
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It's a test case. The complaint is that the Foxtons letting contract with landlords stipulates that it can continue to take commission from a landlord after the first term has ended if a tenant renews, and that it can take commission for the full term even if a landlord decides to end an agreement and sell halfway through a tenancy. It seems to me that Foxtons is taking the heat here for a practise that is not uncommon. One "high-profile" complainant, quoted in the Telegraph, is Blue Peter's Konnie Huq, landlady on two flats in west London:
She said on Tuesday that the OFT's decision to take Foxtons to the High Court was "a victory for landlords for everywhere" [sic].
The expected cheering in the streets didn't follow.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, Foxton's, Foxtons, London, property, real estate, real estate agents
More in this Category - Letting
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2007 saw btl mortgages grow by almost a quarter, to 1,038,000. The growth, however, really reflects the first six months of the year, before landlords began to go blue and sweat. Here, This Is Money catches Birmingham Midshires in a not-the-whole-truth moment claiming that landlords made an average return of 16% in 2007, more than twice what they could have made by tracking the Footsie. But...
... the report excludes the costs of letting fees and mortgage interest costs, both of which would substantially eat into investors' returns.
More interesting are Council of Mortgage Lenders figures showing that arrears in the btl sector are less of a problem than in the general mortgage market.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - Letting
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You know you want to. RottenNeighbor.com is a new public service website with a twist. Use the embedded Google map to tag your irritating neighbours, and explain why you hate them. Join the message board to discuss further. It's being marketed as a real estate site, aimed at helping potential buyers avoid nasty surprises. But surely there's a conflict of interest here. I wouldn't want to advertise my noisy, abusive neighbours to potential buyers... and so risk either driving down the price of my property or discourage nice, new, fragrant people from moving into the area. Or am I being picky? Anyway, it's a US site, and the London map is surprisingly sparse right now. You know what to do.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate, Web, Web2, web2.0
More in this Category - Property online
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More in this Category - Linkage
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The plan was to bring you one of those little jpeg representations of the front page that the Rat and Mouse is so fond of, but the front page repeatedly crashed my capture client. So I saved it as a pdf... a 60 page pdf. It's now clear that I'm not going to be able to bring you an image of the House Prices Will Never Crash front page, because it's just too big and too mad... but what follows are a few highlights.
It's a truly extraordinary creation. It includes dinner party dialogue in screenplay format celebrating house price hikes, predictions of stratospheric rises in property values pegged to the Olympics and lots of pictures of rockets. Most of all, it's about the sell-to-renters. It doesn't like them.
In fact, the website's so crazy...
... that it's tempting to wonder whether it's the work of a HousePriceCrash agent out to discredit the bulls.
But... there are videos, too... 140 in the last three weeks, none of which I feel like embedding in the Rat and Mouse, and some of which are entirely unacceptable. What's going on? I'm scared. Who's Bruno?
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate, Web
More in this Category - House prices
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Good morning, and welcome to a new week. House prices have fallen again. This time... it's a February fall of 0.2%, according to Hometrack, leaving annual inflation at just 1.4%. The worst news is for vendors in a hurry... the average time taken to shift a property is up at 8.5 weeks, the longest since Hometrack began asking. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - House prices
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Supt Wayne Mawson - head of operations for Haringey - has admitted moving out of his Hackney home because of the youths sitting on his wall. They apparently made him nervous when he arrived back from work. That's comforting.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
More in this Category - E8
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It's the continuing battle to save Little Green Street... a Kentish Town cobbled street with 300 years of history, a handful of families and immortality thanks to the Kinks' Dead End Street video (click the link above). According to this, actor Tom Conti led protesters this week as they lay down in the street to block site traffic.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate
More in this Category - NW5
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"I’m still living in an hotel. We have looked at houses and it’s a lot more expensive than it is up north."
Millionaire Spurs star Jonathan Woodgate balks at London property "stupid money". More here.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate
More in this Category - Celebrity homes
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Alliance & Leicester, Coventry Building Society, Abbey National and Godiva Mortgages are all scrapping their 100%+ mortgages this week, leaving just Northern Rock and Birmingham Midshires in the stupid mortgage game. So, if you're shopping for a 125% mortgage, you'd better wind up your hat propeller and move quickly.
HBOS under fire for 125% mortgage [November 7, 2006]
Super-mortgage leads news agenda [November 1, 2006]
Your big fat 100% mortgage [March 6, 2006]
Hollingworth defends the 125% mortgage [February 10, 2006]
Endowment crisis - we're more stupid than anyone thought [February 6, 2006]
Great new crazy mortgage [June 16, 2005]
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - _Other
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According to the new edition of the Lonely Planet Guide to London, the future of fun is to be found east, with Hoxton, Brick Lane, Whitechapel et al officially ending the West End's part time dominance.
[via Guardian]
Technorati Tags: London
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According to figures from Mouseprice, Kensington & Chelsea's glory days are over, and it's Courtenay Avenue, a road running parallel to The Bishop's Avenue, in Highgate that's now paved in the thickest gold and lined with the bushiest money trees. The average property price necessary to achieve this? Just £6.8m. Last year, the winner was Kensington Square, with an average price a whole 23% less than this year's... an example of what's happening in the prime-and-above market. Go here for some interesting analysis from Bloomberg.
Tumbleweed blowing down Millionaires' Row [February 18, 2008]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
More in this Category - N6
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Brent and Harrow Councils are getting tough on residents who park their cars in their front gardens without permission. How tough? This tough. They've taken to putting up bollards in the middle of the night, in some instances actually blocking in cars that have already been parked.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
More in this Category - _Other
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House prices are up 3.2% in February, according to Rightmove, following a reported fall of 0.8% in January. A recovery? Not necessarily, says Miles Shipside. More, courtesy of Citywire, here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - House prices
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This sweet Candy & Candy development has been the subject of a record-breaking level of speculation, but apparently:
Of 80 available units, 40 have exchanged, totaling more than £600m, with average unit prices of over £20m.
Price per square foot is "nudging toward" £6,000.
Volume has been increasing in the last quarter.
20% of buyers have been British (a large proportion, in the world of super-prime).
The Lancasters - some prices revealed [January 17, 2008]
One Hyde Park: Bank of Scotland out, Eurohypo in [October 26, 2007]
One Hyde Park penthouse - SOLD! TO THE OWNER! [March 29, 2007]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
More in this Category - SW1
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Reports of the return of sell-to-rent began to appear toward the end of 2007, and over the weekend they made front page property news in the Observer. According to Rightmove research, the practice - selling, hopefully, at the top, renting for a while while prices drop, and then either buying back in further up the ladder or taking a profit - is picking up pace. The Rat and Mouse can only applaud bubble-sitters' courage. Few financial decisions are as risky, or real-world calculations as tricky... taking in the cost of storage, rents (which can go up and down), the costs of selling and buying, the value of time, inconvenience and risk, all multiplied by however long it might take for prices to start to drop and then assuming it's possible to buy in just before everybody else does. The chances of getting all this right are low, and the Rat and Mouse has seen shrewd people brought down by this tactic. Exciting, though. Best of luck.
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More in this Category - _Other
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Reports of the return of sell-to-rent began to appear toward the end of 2007, and over the weekend they made front page property news in the Observer. According to Rightmove Findaproperty (apologies, see comments below) research, the practice - selling, hopefully, at the top, renting for a while while prices drop, and then either buying back in further up the ladder or taking a profit - is picking up pace. The Rat and Mouse can only applaud bubble-sitters' courage. Few financial decisions are as risky, or real-world calculations as tricky... taking in the cost of storage, rents (which can go up and down), the costs of selling and buying, the value of time, inconvenience and risk, all multiplied by however long it might take for prices to start to drop and then assuming it's possible to buy in just before everybody else does. The chances of getting all this right are low, and the Rat and Mouse has seen shrewd people brought down by this tactic. Exciting, though. Best of luck.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - _Other
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An interesting interview with Trevor Abrahmsohn, the man who brokered the Toprak Mansion deal and is now selling Lakshmi Mittal's gaff next door, in the Telegraph. He has The Bishop's Avenue sewn up, and he doesn't seem in the least concerned that it's a ghost town. The piece is a good read, and includes a potted history of London's most expensive avenue.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
More in this Category - N2
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The facts appear to be: serving prisoner manages to take out nine buy-to-let mortgages, using the prison as his official address on the forms. The FTAdviser has an unnamed source, who reveals that the lender in question is located in the north east and is currently in crisis. Northern Rock, however, denies it's them. It appears to be a breaking story, scooped from local IFA gossip, and the local police apparently haven't yet received a complaint. In the context of a growing mortgage fraud crisis, this could be interesting.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - _Other
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Breaking story, here.
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My favourite email to the Rat and Mouse so far this year:
Hi There, Just wanted to let you know that your site contains a Googlewhack (i.e. only one web result
returned when you enter the words shambolic degentrification into google).
Thanks, John. You've made me absurdly proud.
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More in this Category - About
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Despite the scare stories circulating at the back end of last year, of residential auction houses deserted but for a couple of spectators and a handful of derelicts who've come in out the cold, the auctioneers kicking the tumbleweed... day one of the Allsop Residential Auction sounded like the old days. We've a report of a thousand people on the day, including first-time buyers, an 86% sale rate, and properties going for way above what must surely have been some conservative guide prices. Big sales included Flat 6, 21 De Vere Gardens (Kensington) which made £1.925m (guide price: £1.25m-£1.5m). Day two... February 18, Cumberland Hotel.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
More in this Category - House prices
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I've scoured the Sotheby's website but to no avail, so if anybody else can lay their mouse on the particulars, I'd be keen to hear from them. The story is that Sotheby's are marketing the Green Street (Mayfair) top floor flat rented for the Beatles by Brian Epstein in the autumn of '63, shortly after She Love You. It's the only property the Beatles stayed in together, and it's featured on the cover of The Beatles Book ('63 edition). Guide price: £1.75m.
UPDATE - THANKS TO MARK IN THE COMMENTS... A LINK.
If these walls could talk... Naked Chef edition (February 8, 2008]
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate
More in this Category - For sale
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Government figures reveal two years of falling owner-occupancy, with 2007 representing a particularly dramatic fall (the largest on record) from 70.3% to 69.8%, the lowest rate since 1998. London saw the biggest falls, by 6.3% between 2001 and 2006, and there's absolutely no reason to doubt that trend hasn't continued. More, courtesy of Citwire, here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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That was Mervyn King talking at a press conference for the Inflation Report, yesterday. He pointed to what is surely any intelligent person's preferred option... static house prices gently shifting price to earnings ratios over the next five years. Interestingly, he also tackled the decoupling of lenders' rates and base rates, suggesting surprise only at people's surprise. Naturally, he said, lenders will want to rebuild margins. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - House prices
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An interesting Merryn newsletter, on developer scams, buy-to-let gullibility, the Batoum Gardens house (tasty) heading to auction and what a central London agent let drop recently:
One agent caught off his guard told me a few weeks ago that going on his experience prices are already off 10-15% in some areas.
It's an interesting read. Catch it here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
More in this Category - House prices
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The number of surveyors/agents reporting a fall beat the number reporting a rise by 54.7% You'd need to go back to 1992 to equal that. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - House prices
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Back in August, the Rat and Mouse celebrated the Coin Street Community Builders' plans for a 472ft tower on the South Bank. We warned, however, that English Heritage weren't happy. Here's news of a public enquiry... currently taking place at Lambeth Town Hall.
Technorati Tags: architecture, London, property, real estate
More in this Category - SE1
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After 15 years, according to a judge. Djabar Babal has been awarded squatter's rights to his £200,000 Stockport home, after failing to pay anything on the property since coughing up just £40 sometime in 1993. So is the rule good news for people struggling to pay their mortgages? Not likely... it may mean lenders acting quicker on defaulters, for fear they'll lose everything if they hang around. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - _Other
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They're looking for stories of triumph or tragedy in the current property market for The Truth About Property... a property TV highlight of 2007. If it sound like you, contact Gemma Peakhall and tell her the Rat and Mouse sent you.
UPDATE - I'M TOLD THE ABOVE IS A DODGY EMAIL ADDRESS... I'LL LOOK INTO IT, BUT FOR NOW THERE'S A CONTACT PAGE, COURTESY OF THE BBC, HERE.
Got an interesting property? Wanna be on TV? [February 1, 2008]
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More in this Category - Property TV
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... Pointing out that only 40% of first-time buyers in 2007 managed to escape the tax by buying under the £125,000 limit. More here.
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Buy-to-let's not dead, according to GMTV in association with homebuying and facelift experts BuyAssociation. It's a radio show, but you can download the MP3 by pressing this.
Foxton's podcast dalek [July 13, 2007]
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - Letting
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It's tempting to apply screenwriter William Goldman's first rule of the film industry - "Nobody knows anything" - to the property market. In the red corner... HousePriceCrash and HousingPANIC accusing the mainstream media of talking up the market in order to service vested interests. In the blue corner... this morning's heroes, Assetz, now accusing the FT and the BBC of talking the very same market down. (In the middle, in a freshly starched white shirt, the Rat and Mouse... when I say break, then break...)
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - House prices
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What's all the excitement about? It's the Government's official completion figures for December... the figures that are based on somebody showing somebody else the money, rather than what a vendor dreams about getting or a number pulled out of an estate agent's watch pocket. And December's particularly interesting because - as far as the Rat and Mouse is concerned - it gives us that true 2008 house price inflation figures, which was... 9.1%. (We got there, by the way, after a December rise of 0.4%.) That 9.1% figure is down from a July peak of 12.3% and represent a year low; and the three-month figures (10%, from 10.5% in November) also suggest a softening market. Now, back to the 2007 predictions. The looked something like this:
Which just goes to show what an almost unimagined peak prices are currently teetering on. A couple of Decembers ago, the Rat and Mouse called the above list "a big bunch of bulls", and yet only the very, er, bullishest came close. Well done, Assetz, the entire Rat and Mouse staff will be raising a toast to you tonight, on expenses, at one of London's swankiest champagne bars. (To see what Assetz have predicted for 2008, go here.)
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
More in this Category - House prices
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Returning to the Times, briefly... The Bricks Chicks. Love it. A kind of Charlie's Angels... with interest rates. Although I thought there were laws about this kind of sexual discrimination.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate, Web2, web2.0
More in this Category - Property online
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It's the Chequer Street house made famous by Jamie Oliver in his very first TV series. It's over three floors and has been expensively modernised with five plasmas and fibre optics, and comes with a garage. The famous spiral staircase remains, but my memory of The Naked Chef isn't good enough for me to be able to tell whether the kitchen's changed. It's with Stirling Ackroyd and it's POA (of course, if somebody would like to apply and let us know, we'd be all ears). Particulars here.
If these walls could talk... George Bernard Shaw edition [January 30, 2008]
If these walls could talk... Peter Pan edition [January 15, 2008]
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate
More in this Category - For sale
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They don't get a link, but it's pretty clear whom Anne Ashworth is talking about here.
This pro-crash lobby accuses the economists at Nationwide and Halifax of publishing figures that give a falsely optimistic view. Journalists who report these numbers are deemed to be either mouthpieces for lenders or determined to support the value of their own property investments. The motives of this online fraternity that longs for the human misery produced by a market collapse are a mystery. Perhaps they hope that if they spread sufficient gloom, their rantings will become a self-fulfilling prophecy?
The Rat and Mouse believes the motives are a mystery because they're a complete mixture. At the more noble end... a mixture of old-fashioned Marxism and a genuine desire to address some of the iniquities of the system. Less noble... envy and a desire to punish (although these motives haven't been thought through, because it won't be the rich who'll be punished by rising interest rates and lower house prices, it will be anybody who just managed to get a hand on the bottom rung of the property ladder). Furthermore... a few instances of a need - at any cost - to be proved right. Clearly, though, after a certain amount of time, all bets are off. You can't predict something, wait indefinitely for it to happen, and then claim a victory. And finally - of course - there are the nutters, who just like attacking people on the Internet. Luckily, the site has enough of the former to make it an interesting read. If that's your thing, don't miss out on HousingPANIC either.
Meanwhile, if you want to know who the nutters are, it might be worth watching the comments section below Anne Ashworth's article for the next few days.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate, Web
More in this Category - Property online
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The Telegraph takes a tour of celebrity cake meister Eric Lanlard's modern Battersea home. Lanlard's the man behind Madonna's wedding cake and Brooklyn Beckham's first birthday cake. The apartment, all glass and steel and timber, packs a white grand piano, a specially made deep purple carpet and a hot tub. Go here, for the details, and pictures.
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More in this Category - Celebrity homes
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From 5.5% to 5.25%. More here.
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Tonight, ITV1, 10.35pm... Repossession, Repossession, Repossession:
Business journalist Jeff Randall investigates how and why the nation got hooked on spending money it doesn't have - and concludes that people are about to wake up to the painful realisation that all debts eventually have to be paid.
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More in this Category - Property TV
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Islington Green Party have named and shamed Foxtons for leaving the lights on. The estate agents and Borders book shop were condemned as Upper Street's worst polluters a few months ago. Borders have since been praised for changing policy, Foxtons is - apparently - still lit up like a casino. More here.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, Foxton's, Foxtons, real estate agents
More in this Category - Estate agents
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Apparently, the light's "special". It's the George Tavern on Commercial Road. Plans to knock down next door's Stepney's nightclub (mmm, sounds nice) and replace it with affordable housing has left the George's landlady concerned about the future of her pub. Moss and a band of east London fashionistas are also concerned... the pub's also used as an impromptu venue for fashion shoots. Go here for a picture of Moss in a campaigning t-shirt.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate
More in this Category - E1
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According to new research by the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit buy-to-let investment has had only a 7% effect on house prices in the last five years, throwing into doubt the assumption that the availability of buy-to-let mortgages has been an important factor in first-time buyer misery. The major causes of rising house prices and unaffordability have, the report suggests, been rising interest rates and higher numbers of households. The research follows similar finding by Capital Economics. Furthermore, both CE and NHPAU (NUPOW!!) believe that buy-to-let has had a positive effect on the quality and quantity of available rented accommodation. You might not like it, but that's what they're saying. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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London's £2.5m plus property sector has clearly been too busy test driving Astons and lighting Cohibas to hear the news about the housing slowdown. According to Knight Frank, it saw a rise of 1.1% in January, with the market being led from the top... at £10m or more. Read more, here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
More in this Category - House prices
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Thanks to the Rat and Mouse reader who alerted me to this cracking tale of right honourable greed. Tory man-and-wife MPs Sir Nicholas Winterton and Ann Winterton have managed to get their trotters on £165,000 of Commons expenses for a £700,000 second home with zero mortgage. How've they managed that? They've taken the home out of their own name and into a "family trust", benefiting twice... avoiding any future inheritance tax when the property would have been left to their kids, and claiming £30,000 a year in "rental", tax money paid into the family trust to benefit their kids. Clearly, there's nothing illegal about this. But is it right? Sir Nicholas - challenged by the Standard - can't see why not:
He said: "I am not dishonest. We don't own the flat, because once it is handed over, it becomes the property of the beneficiaries of the trust [his children].
"I see nothing unethical or wrong in it. It was agreed by the Commons Fees office – I happen to rent a property that I bought outright."
Let's hear that again, Sir Nicholas:
"I happen to rent a property that I bought outright."
One of two things is happening here. He's either being disingenuous. He can see the problem, but chooses to pursue self-interest at the expense of ethics. Or, he really can't see why buying a house and paying his own family rent from the public purse is a problem. Either way, is this a man suited to making law?
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No shift at all in January, according to the Halifax, leaving the annual rate of house price inflation at 4.5%. More here.
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More in this Category - House prices
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It's Bursting the House Price Bubble...
An exposure of sharp practice in the housing market which has kept house prices artificially high and plunged some homeowners into negative equity. Developers, valuers and solicitors all come under the microscope in Raphael Rowe's report, which reveals some nasty surprises for those who joined the buy-to let-frenzy.
Tonight, BBC 1, 8.30pm.
Technorati Tags: property, property TV, real estate
More in this Category - Property TV
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The rumours were that Prince Andrew had been forced to give Sunninghill Park in Ascot away at a bargain price of under £6m. But the Sunday Times have had a look at newly released Land Registry figures and discovered that the Prince somehow managed to secure no less than £15m, in a sale to a Kazakhstani business man. The property was a present from his mum on the occasion of his wedding. Beats a toaster. Since then he's managed to see his ex-wife off for just £300,000 and lives rent-free in Royal Lodge in the Windsor Great Park. Which all just goes to show... not so useless after all.
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More in this Category - Celebrity homes
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"Sod London house prices" and "Screw working in Staines, hello Adelaide" are among a number of new South Australian Government slogans, designed to attract Brits who might be considering a move to Australia, and to further enforce national stereotypes that portray Australians as crude. The campaign - which starts today - will claim a four-bedroom detached house on the beach will cost as little as £195,000. According to this Australian news source, the campaign will be aimed at chefs, butchers, physiotherapists, dentists and dermatologists.
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An interesting piece in the Independent on Sunday about Tesco's imminent plans - after the failure of its private sales initiative in 2007 - to become a fully-fledged estate agency. According to the piece, we should expect to see estate agency offices and dedicated staff in Tesco supermarkets across the country by Spring. The agents will not only undercut traditional high street services - charging, the rumour goes, as little as 1% commission - but will also be able to use competition laws to force Rightmove to list their properties.
Tesco launches Rightmove complaint [December 11, 2007]
Tesco sounds retreat [October 4, 2007]
Estate agents grab whatever's to hand, prepare to fight Tesco [July 30, 2007]
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It's a paper by The Centre for Policy Studies and it suggests that a UK household pays, on average, £7,800 more in tax each year than in 1997. Disposable income is down from 71% of gross income to 67%. That's of gross income, which, frankly, surprises me. If I'd had to stick the disposable income tail on the donkey of gross income I'd have put it somewhere lower. The report - by the way - is called Why Do We Feel So Broke? And the CPS is chaired by the ex-Head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit 1995-1997. So, an academic, neutral piece of research it isn't. If you want to read it for yourself, you can either feel even more broke by ordering a paper copy for £2.50, or you can download a pdf by pointing your mouse here and clicking one of its buttons.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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