|
Entries in September 2008
|
|
How to get rid of your rent-controlled tenants? Simple... fill a big bag with dead cats and leave it in an empty apartment until nobody can stand the smell. What kind of a mind would even think of something like that?
[More from Curbed... including a photograph of the block, which looks like the set of a horror movie]
Technorati Tags: New York, property, real estate
|
|
|
Where's September's report gone? Last year, the report was ready for 7am, September 27 publication; the year before the embargo date was September 28. Seriously, I can't think of a time when it's been this late in the month.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
According to MoneyFacts.co.uk the number of residential mortgages on offer shrunk from 3,252 to 2,988, while buy-to-let mortgages fell from 662 to 481 in a single day yesterday. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
Incredible figures from the Bank of England, with net lending (new loans) in August dropping by 95% from July. There was just £143m of new business, compared to £3bn the month before. And that was before Broken & Busted was finally laid to rest. What next? Needless to say, after last night's events, we're in uncharted territories. All predictions, welcome.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
... and the Council of Mortgage Lenders wants to dispel a few myths regarding the Bradford & Bingley news, as it's being reported by the mainstream media. They're taking particular umbrage with the idea that B&B's buy-to-let lending is, in particular, what's got it into trouble. No, they say, and have released three-month figures showing a lower level of arrears (1.1%) in btl products than residential (1.33%) ones.
Meanwhile, and also as a response to the B&B news, Mortgage Express (B&B's brokerage arm) have not only removed the express from their offerings, they've also just removed the mortgage.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
And visited by Glenda Jackson. Actually, this is an interesting project, by Genesis Housing Group, and sees the regeneration of some Grade II-listed Victorian tenement blocks in Hampstead Village... flats which have apparently been home to Sid Vicious, Johnny Rotten and Boy George.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
House prices fell 1% in September, according to Hometrack, leaving the average property worth 6.2% less across the year. Interestingly, London is showing a greater-than-average fall... down 7.1% annually.
CML admits prediction needs updating, but won't be drawn on nummbers [September 24, 2008]
Market report - Rightmove [September 22, 2008]
Market report - DCLG, and shock July house price rise [September 16, 2008]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
The days when estate agents told us everything was okay and the house price turn was merely a media invention are long over. You don't need to look far to find our agents telling it like is. In New York, however, it seems they play by more restrictive rules. Check the fall-out when one agent decides to throw a little skepticism at the idea of a $5m Park Avenue apartment achieving their asking price in the current climate.
She was reprimanded via a stinging statement e-mailed to the press by the company saying her comments were "speculative and at times factually incorrect." But other brokers there say they'd be fired for break ing Brown Harris rules against talking to the media without permission and not talking up the "every thing's fine" line.
[via Curbed]
Technorati Tags: estate agents, New York, property, real estate, real estate agents
|
|
|
Why is Reuters doing this today, when they did this on Monday?
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
Catford's post-war, pre-fab Excalibur Estate was built with a ten-year life expectancy. It's still standing and, according to this, it's likely to receive a Grade II listing... good news for the estate's tireless campaigners.
[photograph by Jon's pics]
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
My own deal comes to an end shortly, so I took the opportunity yesterday to reserve a new one before the lenders respond to the interbank lending rate hikes. When it came to organising the valuation, I was told to call back after I'd received the documents and was happy with them. I asked how quickly we could expect to wait before seeing a surveyor. They've not much on at the moment, I was informed. And she told me the story of one customer who phoned in to arrange a survey and - while they were still on the phone to the bank - were called on their mobile by the surveyor and asked if it was okay to drop by. Sign of the times...
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
Twenty reasons why they're a good thing... apparently... including "survival of the nicest estate agents" and "fewer advertisements by Polaris World".
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
Completingchain.com encourages multiple estate agents to bring together buyers and sellers to form links in a chain that will be sustained and nurtured by everybody involved. Assuming (correctly) that it’s often the very bottom of the chain that causes its demise, the system will make life easier for credit-limited first-time buyers by encouraging everybody further up to discount a little to help subsidise that first-rung purchase. The higher up the chain, the less (proportionally) it will cost to keep things moving. The longer the chain, the more the burden’s shared. It’s clever, but it will depend on agents signing up.
Our publisher, on some ingenious chain management systems, in his weekly guest column for Citywire.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, property, real estate, real estate agents, theRatandMouse
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
More in this Category - _Other
|
|
|
Doing the rounds, right now, and very funny:
Dear American:
I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.
I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.
I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transaction is 100% safe.
This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.
Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.
Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury
Henry Paulson
[via LA Times blogs]
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
The FT reports some bad news for developers letting out new builds they've been unable to sell. According to the rules, the VAT advantages enjoyed by builders only apply to properties built for sale, rather than for rent. The tax man is wise to the issue, and may be knocking on doors, reclaiming VAT, soon. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
"Futile"... that's how the Council of Mortgage Lenders' Bernard Clarke has described the house price prediction game during the current financial climate, and the Rat and Mouse tends to agree. He does, however, admit that the CML's current prediction of a 7% fall on the year now looks "wide of the mark".
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
This time, Asim Hussain, of Lifestyle Mortgages (Ealing), whom the Financial Services Authority have banned for making fraudulent loan applications on his behalf and on the behalf of clients. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
Did I say open? Yes, I did. We have it on good authority that Humberts franchise Farleys will be opening a second office, at 60 Sloane Avenue, in November.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, London, real estate agents
|
|
|
According to Knight Frank, Monaco's overtaken London and become home to the world's costliest real estate. Square footage in the chicest London postcodes rose 1.8% (in the second quarter, from the same period last year) to £3,291; but in Monaco they rose 30% to £3,762. More here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
This is an extraordinary story in the Times's City Diary. Anybody else would be taking the Savills agents out for a well-earned slap-up lunch after sealing the £2.9m deal. Barry McKay is apparently less than delighted, and accuses Savills of misleading him over the identity of the buyer... a property developer called John Morris, who appears to have some history with Mr McKay.
McKay claims that he explicitly did not want his family home sold to Morris, who now has planning permission to build on it. He says that if he had known the identity of the ultimate owner, he would have demanded a higher price.
The house in question is in Sunningdale... a posh enclave of Berkshire, close to London.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, property, real estate, real estate agents
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
Asking prices are down in September by 1%, leaving them down 3.3% on the year... which seems less of a fall than casual, unscientific observations would suggest.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
It's a big repo-casualty in Holland Park, ex-home of troubled dot com gazillionaire Robert Bonnier (nostalgia here, latest here) and returned to the possession of the bank, after failure to pay the... drum-roll please... £8m of mortgages.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
A Savills estate agent has resigned after being discovered descending the stairs of a west country property in the middle of the night. An enquiry was cut short by his resignation, but there's talk of funny business between him and a female colleague.
One source told ‘The Sun’ newspaper: “They weren’t caught doing anything but had both been to the house and they weren’t going there to show anyone around.”
We say... give him a break. It's not like there's much else to do, and it least it might boost morale.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents
|
|
|
More in this Category - _Other
|
|
|
Rumours of a Paris Hilton London property purchase have been circulating ever since the Rat and Mouse was just a Kitten and a Pup (sounds weird, doesn't it, but it's right). Back in May, she was apparently moving to London because of the men, their "cute little accents and their manners". Now, it's not just the blokes, she's extending her love to every one of us, because we're just, like, so real.
"London is my favourite city in the world. I love their accents, their attitude," the Daily Star quotes her as saying. "They are so real, they are not fake."
You're so right, Paris, and the realness and not fakeness starts right here, baby. She says she's looking in St John's Wood. Who knows, perhaps she'll fall in love with a well-mannered, cute-accented St John's Wood estate agent, like James here, buy a house from him, get married, and scatter a little stardust on this havoc-blasted London property market.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate
|
|
|
More in this Category - _Other
|
|
|
The Council of Mortgage Lenders report a 12% monthly fall, leaving the annual figure down 86%. It's the lowest monthly total of new lending since April 2005.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
The Telegraph takes a moment to remind us... it's not all about the south east. Hazel Davis dons her pith helmet and ventures north, where she finds 75% of sales in the year to June coming in under £175,000. Get out of the south east, and there's a choice of stamp duty-free purchases (including a rather sharp conversion in a former Sheffield cutlery factory, pictured). Few believe the stamp duty fiddling will kick-start the property market, but the point Davis is making is that it will reach people, and a £1,750 saving is something to add to the deposit.
Brown's property market rescue package... the media verdict [September 3, 2008]
On today's announcements [September 2, 2008]
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
There's early noise here concerning HBOS and possible merger talks with Lloyds.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
[photo by Matt Brown]
It's this weekend, in London... two days in which you're free to wander around some of the capital's architectural wonders. In the Guardian, Jonathan Glancey provides a useful preview. Our highlight? Erno Goldfinger's Trellick Tower, a modern masterpiece, and an important lesson in protecting architectural assets even especially while they're temporarily out of fashion.
[Open House London]
Technorati Tags: architecture, London, property, real estate
|
|
|
Dean Mill, Dean, nr. Chipping Norton was bought by Ronnie Barker 27 years ago. A six-bedroom country house in about 10 acres, it's seen some parties and played host to visits by the cream of British comedy. Mrs Barker's currently selling the place. It's with Knight Frank, with a guide price of £1.3m. Particulars here.
If these walls could talk... big Tory edition [August 15, 2008]
If these walls could talk... Notting Hill edition [August 12, 2008]
Technorati Tags: celebrity, property, real estate
|
|
|
As of posting, you've 40 mins to bag this mug.
And seven hours if you want this mousepad.
Ebay's currently awash with Lehman Brothers memorabilia, as (presumably) ex-staff set about a little micro-asset stripping. My favourite? This Employee Operating Principles Cube... "Demonstrating smart risk management". So if you want to buy the Rat and Mouse a present... you know where to go....
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
And lives to tell the tale. Actually, this is an interesting piece about perception, reality and depressing territorial violence in the Hackney, Dalston areas; and it's sparked some lively debate in the comments section. Go visit.
Technorati Tags: London
|
|
|
They're the Government figures, based on actual completions in July, and so - arguably - representing deals struck mainly in the April-May-June. The July-to-July annual inflation figure is -0.3%; in the quarter, they're down 0.5%. Interestingly - not, necessarily, significantly - prices within the month rose by 1%, something of a shock, but probably representing the long delay between exchanges and DCLG figures.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
We've heard rumours of this before, never been able to substantiate the story, but here's the Observer talking to RICS spokesman Jeremy Leaf, who tells them he's encouraging some clients to consider offering compensation to buyers if the property's value falls by more than 15%. Jeez, there are so many problems with this kind of deal it's hard to know where to begin. Technically, is there a house price index that's meaningful when volume is at such a low level? The truth is, nobody knows what a house is worth from one week to the next when houses aren't being bought and sold in reasonable quantities. This kind of scenario just exacerbates differences between one location and the next, one price bracket and the next. Practically, should the price drop (and I'm presuming there's a time limit on this kind of agreement) beyond the agreed amount, how worthwhile (expensive) will it be to enforce such an agreement? Philosophically, is this kind of nanny-ing even right? Will this buyer agree to an uplift clause as well, or is it all one-way traffic? Let's hope so. I don't like this at all...
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
Okay, PropertyWeek.com's on the side of the deal, and there's nothing wrong with that, but was Jemima Khan really "robbed" after her buyers pulled out of their deal and cost her £15m of profit? The story concerns this purchase, made a couple of years ago, and her subsequent renovation and extension of the Chelsea Square property. She was about to sell, apparently for £35m, when the buyer developed cold feet.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate
|
|
|
For all intents and purposes, the Lehman news marks unknown territory, and the real test will come after Wall Street opens later today.
Technorati Tags: London
|
|
|
More in this Category - _Other
|
|
|
Head over to the Telegraph for a few pictures illustrating a Slough tenant's offbeat lifestyle. "Britain's dirtiest flat"... reads the headline. What about "Britain's unhealthiest tenant"? When he vacated the flat, the landlord found £5,000-worth of discarded burger cartons, a cigarette butt mountain on the side of the sink and nicotine dripping from the walls. Guess what? Single male.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
And it's a fall in August, of 1.3%... the sixth consecutive move in a downward direction and the biggest single drop since October 1992. It leaves the annual inflation figure at -2.2%. Demonstrating the geographical nature of current house price trends, London remains in the black, Windsor and Maidenhead are still 19.2% up on the year.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
Can anyone explain this?
It arrived by email. The Rat and Mouse tipster isn't responding to enquiries.
Technorati Tags: Foxton's, Foxtons
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
We're not what you'd call fans of the average British new-build, and we were less than surprised to discover that ours are the most cramped in Europe. Denmark - for instance - has minimum space standards, meaning that the average Danish house is twice as big as the average British mock-19th Century, thrown-together, identikit mini-home, with views over the nearest A-road.
[via PropertyWeek.com]
Technorati Tags: architecture, design
|
|
|
This is a bit of a regular item, with owners of relevant data (property portals, search engines, Land Registry subscribers) extrapolating figures purporting to reveal the catchment area premium paid by desperate London parents. Why's this one different? This one's a YouGov poll, targeting London parents, and it comes at a time of falling house prices and rising private education costs. According to the results, 19% would pay between a premium of between £5,000 and £100,000 for access to a good state school. Two per cent would consider paying more than £100,000.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
More in this Category - About
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
Glen Haysman wasn't expecting destruction, apparently. He rented Rickmansworth four-bedroom home to the production company behind the new Bond caper, who shot a few scenes there. And, he alleges, trashed his driveway and the interior of his property. The film company disputed the extent of the loss. Mr Haysman has taken to using sleeping pills. More here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
There was a time when it wasn't a trivial affair to find the bank repossessed properties at auction. Now, there's MustBeSold, a new repo-only auction house, holding ten auctions a year, and promising to sell around 200 lots on its first auction (September 30, Cafe Royal, Regent Street), some without reserve.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
The headlines:
- a 1.3% fall in August (the fourth consecutive monthly drop)
- annual "growth" now -1.6%, pushing the figure into the red for the first time since 2003
- the cheaper properties are worst hit... with sub-£1m homes down 9.2% on the year
- properties priced between £5m and £10m are still 1.3% up on the year
- everything's fine in Mayfair, where properties are up 10.3% on the year
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
The RICS have spoken, and it's bad. Nationally, estate agents made an average of 12.7 sales each in the three months to August. In London, the figure was worse... 9.4 transactions per agent or less than one a week. On the positive side, it's being reported that estate agents are getting really good at sudoku, and totally dominating a number of Nintendo DS titles. Perhaps cheered by this success, they've become (only) slightly less bearish in house price estimations... 81% more Chartered Surveyors reported a fall in house prices, but that's down from 83.1% in July, and it's the fourth consecutive move in the same direction. If you want to download the actual RICS report (in pdf format) click this.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, property, real estate, real estate agents
|
|
|
More in this Category - House prices
|
|
|
More in this Category - For sale
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
Yesterday, a number of news sources reported that the Halifax House Price Index showed an annual fall of 12.7% to August. The figure was convenient, since it allowed the media to claim it signaled the worst annual fall in a quarter of a century. Today, they're getting their knuckles wrapped by the Halifax, who in fact published a less exciting (although still hardly impressive) figure of 10.9%. Halifax work out their annual figure by compared a 2007 three-month average with the equivalent 2008 three-month average. The 12.7% figure was created by simply compared August with August... a system which - although logical - results in erratic monthly results. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
Here's an interesting new service... moveBROKER helps agents squeeze revenue from every client, whether it ends in a sale or not. Through relationships with leading HIPs providers, solicitors, mortgage brokers, removals companies and utility switching services, it operates as a one-stop shop for agents to earn a range of commissions and rebates. There are two membership levels. One's free, the other costs £499, and includes higher rebates and monthly listings on Nestoria.
Read more here.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, property, real estate, real estate agents
|
|
|
Yeah? So?
Yowza! Don't you estate agents just hate it when the vendor has unrealistic expectations?
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
On Tuesday, it was listed with Marsh & Parsons at £195,000. Since Wednesday morning - after the Government's Stamp Duty fiddling - it has an asking price of £175,000. And - according to M&P - it's not the only property heading toward the magic one seven five. But wouldn't the vendor have been better off keeping the property where it was and offering to pay the Stamp Duty himself?
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
|
|
|
The MPC stick, at 5% for the fifth consecutive month. Meanwhile, lenders continue to drop rates on fixed-rate mortgages. According to MoneyFacts.co.uk, the average interest rate is now back at pre-crunch 2007 levels.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
Energy Performance Certificates were due to be made compulsory on all marketed properties - including those that went on the market before the original HIPs introduction - from the start of October. Some estate agents have been predicting chaos... a swathe of homes without EPCs being withdrawn from the market at the last minute. Here's a Telegraph piece, dated last Saturday, claiming...
Since HIPs were introduced last December it has been a legal requirement for all sellers to obtain one, but the requirement did not apply to sellers whose homes were already on the market. Now the Department for Communities and Local Government has warned that homes already on the market must be withdrawn from sale in October unless their sellers obtain EPCs.
And yet - according to online magazine EstateAgentToday, in a piece dated the very next day - the Government's about to arrange a swift U-turn:
Government minister behind last week’s fiasco on Energy Performance Certificates are expected to perform a U-turn on one of their own pieces of legislation.
Hmm... if you read the piece carefully it's not at all clear that this is the case. It reads more like wishful-thinking combined with pressure on the part of EAT. The Department of Communities and Local Government's website is, as usual, clear, helpful and incisively written:
If you are buying or selling a home it is now law to have an Energy Performance Certificate.
But what about... what if... but you said... oh forget it.
We'll be watching developments closely.
[Thanks, Jim]
Technorati Tags: estate agents, property, real estate, real estate agents
|
|
|
So all is good in real estate’s Second Life at least? Not necessarily. In an eerie anticipation of offline troubles, Second Life began 2008 with a bank run. Enterprising individuals had established banks in Second Life, luring players to deposit money in virtual accounts in exchange for promises of rates to beat those in the real world. When many failed to make good, Linden Labs responded to complaints by shutting the entire banking sector down. Virtual queues formed outside virtual banks, virtual 'no-withdrawal' notices were posted on virtual ATMs. Real money – and nobody seems at all sure as yet how much – has really been lost.
Our publishers looks at property in Second Life, in his weekly guest column for Citywire.
Technorati Tags: theRatandMouse
|
|
|
More in this Category - Linkage
|
|
|
Now that the dust's settling... it's a strange collection of measures, isn't it? The Stamp Duty suspension's been getting all the coverage, but it's virtually meaningless, and particularly for the south east of England. A maximum of £1,750 barely covers the cost of the paperwork on many of the mortgages currently available. Expect a flurry of activity in August 2009. Also expect a flurry of gazundering on properties in the £175,000 to £200,000 region, right away. Despite the headlines, this was really about the Government doing something, no matter how meaningless, in order to quell rumours of a more significant tax break that have been circulating and killing sales ever since they irresponsibly allowed the story to circulate earlier in the summer. Meanwhile, I can't see any circumstance in which Home Buy Direct isn't an encouragement to risk negative equity.
Stamp duty axed below £175,000
How the Govt intent do save the property market, their skin
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
Over at Brand Republic, a "mystery caller" from the marketing department calls Foxtons and asks... do you think it's a good time to buy right now? To be fair, in the transcription, the Foxtons agent sounds pretty reasonable. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't want to put a potential buyer off, but he's not making grand claims or being particularly pushy, either. Ultimately, BR give him a five out of ten, not because he tries to mislead them, but because he sounds too cheery and optimistic. What do they want? Tears?
Technorati Tags: estate agents, Foxton's, Foxtons, real estate agents
|
|
|
From Wednesday, the 1% band threshold will rise from £125,000 to £175,000, offering (clearly) a maximum saving of £1,750. As more details of the Governments plans (below) emerge, we also know that first-time buyers in households earning less than £60,000 will be offered "free" five-year loans of up to 30%. What happens after the five years are up remains unclear, although Hazel Blears used the word "fee" when talking to the BBC this morning. She didn't, however, elaborate.
UPDATE - THIS IS A TEMPORARY, 12 MONTH REPRIEVE
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
|
|
|
It's scheduled for an official announcement later today, but the details appear to be out there:
- Home Buy Direct... a shared-equity scheme for ftbs, with loans of up to 30% offered by the Government and new-build developers.
- Mortgage rescue packages for families
| |
