It's a 1.5% fall in October, leaving the October-to-October figure down 10.1%... or at summer 2006 levels. London's fall is more moderate, at 8.6%.

Congratulations! You own a new bank... [BBC]
Hey... estate agents have started selling houses again [Telegraph]
King of tenants promises trouble [Times]
New homes for Tower Hamlets [London.gov.uk]
The UK property conundrum [International Herald Tribune]

The Rat and Mouse - it's about your house

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Read it here.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Managing Partners Limited, an investment adviser and fund manager, is in the process of acquiring almost an entire street of houses in Portsmouth at prices as much as 40 per cent below official asking values.

Most of the purchases are repos, none were for more than £100,000. Two years ago, they were changing hands around the £200,000 mark. And we're supposed to believe only fools are buying now? At this kind of discount, and assuming you're in a position to afford the debt and find the tenants, there's surely not much risk. It's all - as it always is - about the deal.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Mr Blatherskite thinks we're near the bottom of the bust [Blatherskite]
Capital Economics disagree [Telegraph]
In depth economics [4homes forum]
Faith in Darling and Brown? Nobody wants to bet on it [Telegraph]
MPC's David Blanchflower: See? I'm not as mad as I look... [Guardian]
The Thames Estuary might be lovely [Times]

The Rat and Mouse - London's property blog, since 2005

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Plans by The Fabulous Candy Boys to convert Chelsea Barracks into a complex of 300 luxury apartments, with a giant underground car park below, have run into trouble thanks to a tiny 19th Century chapel, long ago deconsecrated, but of significant architectural value and sitting right in the middle of the site. Representatives of English Heritage, the V&A, the Victorian Society and the Ancient Monuments Society have joined with the specially formed Chelsea Barracks Action Group to demand a listing for the chapel. More here. And you can see the plans for yourself, here.

Technorati Tags: architecture, development, London, property, real estate

If you phone a branch of Douglas & Gordon and say, in your best Russian accent: "Ya khotel by kupit dom," the estate agent at the end of the phone will know what you mean.

Damn, that's tempting!

Read the piece... it's about London agents learning new tricks, including open houses (I know... we saw a few of those during the boom) and stamp duty incentives. I'm sure there are more, though, and I've heard - on the vine - of one London agent who's turned half his office into a coffee shop. Any interesting examples near you? Drop me a line.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents

That's the way some commentators are reading it. It's the Nationwide survey - which has shown some dramatic falls in recent months - and a 0.4% drop in house prices for November (after 1.3% in October). It brings the annual rate down to -13.9%, from -14.6%. Our reading? Most likely a blip. There's nothing - the economy, lending, number of trades - that points to a sudden change in the wind for house prices.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

So this is the moment a generation of accidental tenants have been waiting for. The lone voices that called unsustainable on a housing market that rose 213% in less than six years, outstripping salaries, outstripping sense, were telling first-time buyers to bide their time.

Our publisher, on why it's worse and worser for first-time buyers, in his weekly guest column for Citywire.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Brown, Darling, Mandelson puff their chests out and talk about forcing the lenders to pass on rate cuts. Northern Rock - now Government owned - raises rates.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

A Government science think tank is "thinking" about home MOTs... regular energy efficiency tests including penalties and incentives linking council taxes to emissions. A report is due shortly.

[via BBC]

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Research by LV= Insurance suggests that, nationally, we each recognise 14 neighbours by sight. The thrust of research is that we're not as neighbourly as we could be; but looking at that figure I'm positive it's much lower in London. Do you know 14 of your neighbours? Some London-specific data: 42% felt there'd been an increase in local street crime; 12% thought that crime had increased twice as much as in other regions of the UK.

Technorati Tags: London

Dollis Hill House back on danger list [Londonist]
US house prices down in September [FT]
Darling's plan fails to impress [Metro]
Paragon's profits: down but not out [BBC]

The Rat and Mouse - London's property blog

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Alistair Darling's panic measures included a few nods to the homeowner... perhaps most notably, an agreement from the biggest lenders to allow homeowners three months in arrears before taking court action. The plan has already attracted criticism for not including the smaller, specialist lenders... the lenders with big books of sub-prime mortgages, the ones most likely to be in arrears. But - more importantly - where's the real the content? Perhaps I'm wrong about this, but can somebody point out the larger UK lender who issues repossession proceedings when a borrower is just one or two months in arrears?

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Alistair Darling's panic measures included a few nods to the homeowner... perhaps most notably, an agreement from the biggest lenders to allow homeowners three months in arrears before taking court action. The plan has already attracted criticism for not including the smaller, specialist lenders... the lenders with big books of sub-prime mortgages, the ones most likely to be in arrears. But - more importantly - where's the real the content? Perhaps I'm wrong about this, but can somebody point out the larger UK lender who issues repossession proceedings when a borrower is just one or two months in arrears?

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Net new mortgage lending is likely to fall to less than zero next year, according to a report commissioned by the Treasury from Sir James Crosby, the former chief executive of HBOS, owner of the Halifax. Sir James is warning that as homeowners are paying off mortgages, banks are putting less money back into the housing market than they are taking out.

That's a first, apparently, in the history of the mortgage, and it doesn't bode well for house prices, employment, the economy.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

100,000 empty homes in London [This Is London]
Why not build a house... somebody's got to [Sunday Mirror]
London's councils need £350m to rescue building plans [This Is London]
Secret diary of an estate agent [Observer]
Can Mark afford to move out of his parents' home? [Independent]
Living in a folly [Sunday Times]
FTBs discover the auctions [Sunday Times]
Should this blogger turn lender? [Patrick.net]

The Rat and Mouse - it's about your house

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

The unfortunately named Mr Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of England, speaking in Istanbul:

Given the potential costs of a bust, it would therefore appear to be wise to use monetary policy to try to prevent the build-up of the imbalances in the first place. Note that this is not going so far as to advocate targeting asset prices. But it does at least justify 'leaning against the wind' during the upswing phase of a credit/asset price boom in order to moderate the boom and thus also the prospective fallout from any subsequent bust.

In other words, we're talking about a redefining of what will be considered "normal" interest rates. Good for savers, perhaps...

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

One high-powered couple, both with senior jobs at one of the biggest and worst-hit banks in Europe, were recently obliged by the credit crunch to abandon a deposit of almost £500,000 on a £3.25m property in prime central London. Having been ready to start a family and move into their new home, they are now being sued by the vendor, a developer who is also strapped for cash as a result of the falling market.

There was a time when it was hard to find an estate agent who'd experienced a deal collapsing between exchange and completion. The rapidly changing economic climate have changed that... and the thrust of this interesting Sunday Times piece is that we're not just talking about off-plan new-builds (we all knew it would happen there), but everyday residential deals too. Looks like the lawyers will be kept busy at least.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Let's play Match The Quotation To The Pundit. They're all quoted late in 2007, talking about their predictions for house prices in 2008.

1 - The effect of the credit crunch will dissipate slowly, meaning that those seeking to obtain finance in the first half of 2008 may struggle. However, the employment picture should remain firm throughout the year, helping to prevent significant numbers of repossessions and the subsequent influx of supply into the market.

2 - I predict the net result is that house prices will fall a little in the first half of the year - by up to 5%. But by June, the fall in bank rate and an easing of the liquidity squeeze will stabilise the market, although it will still be very difficult for sub-prime borrowers. In the second half of the year, transaction levels will improve and prices will partly recover, ending the year down 2%.

3 - As affordability constraints are eased and demand continues to outstrip supply, the long-term future is set to be bright and we expect the housing market to return to its previously higher levels by 2009.

4 - Based on the information currently available, 0pc inflation is our best estimate of the most likely outcome, but there are plausible risks in both directions. The main downside risk is that continued financial unrest or a US recession cause the economy to slow even more sharply than expected, leading to a more significant rise in unemployment, higher levels of forced sales and lower house price expectations.

5 - We expect house prices to fall 5% next year and by a further 8% in 2009, wiping out the gains of the last 18 months. The long overdue housing market correction now appears to be underway.

Now match the quote to the pundit: a) Nationwide's Fionnuala Earley b) RICS's Simon Dubinsohn c) Capital Economics' Roger Bootle d) John Charcol's Ray Boulger e) Spicerhaart Financial Services' Steve Cox

And remember, it's just a bit of fun.

It's also time to thank our sponsor and search partner Primelocation.com - portal for more than 4,000 leading estate agents - for their help bringing you your daily dose of London property news. And to wish our readers a great weekend.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Over at the Telegraph, that's exactly what they're doing. Suggestions range from Simon Cowell to Gordon Ramsay to Montgomery Burns. Somebody nominates George Soros, which appears to make a lot of sense.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

You get the bling address, va-va-voom interiors and service staff for a fifth of the price. The only thing you don't get is a friendly atmosphere, the lack of which is suffocating

What? The Bishops Avenue? Stuffy?

This interesting piece is about the appearance of - cough - apartments, among the £40m mansions. Apparently, it's a credit crunch thing... £2.85m to £10m is much more affordable in the current climate. See here and here. Look, you can even rent.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

New York as bad as London, for volume [The Real Deal]
Family upsizers hit hard by system [Telegraph]
FT blogger: "Hopefully Foxtons will go bust" [Londonist]
The young are downsizing [Times]
130 famiilies losing homes each day [Daily Mail]

The Rat and Mouse - London's property blog

Technorati Tags: Foxton's, Foxtons, London, property, real estate

He's going to:

• spend £5bn over three years
• provide "gap funding" to rescue stalled private developments
• buy up unsold homes (while the market's in the doldrums) and use them as affordable housing
• extend the existing shared ownership schemes to families earning as much as £72,000 (from £60,000)
• bring long-term empty homes into use

So there you go, it's now official. £72,000 a year, and you're officially poor in London. More here.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

It's James Caan. Not that one. This one. And he's chatting with the Telegraph's Zoe Dare Hall. Seven tips, including:

Now he is on another spending spree – a £50million one in Mayfair – as now, he says, is the time to buy property. "I've always worked with the ethos that you should observe the masses and head in the opposite direction, as that's where opportunities lie," says Caan.

I wonder whether taking out an unsecured loan of £30,000 to impress a woman makes it into the list?

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Congratulations to property search engine Nestoria... they've just added the Telegraph to their growing roster of search partners.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate, Web2, web2.0

Rough Luxe - a truly original London hotel [Wallpaper]
Credit crunch forces Wembley back into Olympic venue contention [Guardian]
Sales are up [Telegraph]
The expensive streets of west London [WhatMortgage]

The Rat and Mouse - the best of London property news, since 2005

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Personally, as one of the taxpayers who recently contributed to the banking system, I don’t think there’s much to be said for forcing banks to borrow at the Libor rate and lend at 0%. That feels like bad business and I don’t want to buy a bad business.

Our publisher looks at the relationship between the banks and the Government and asks, which is worse... politician or banker?

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Estate agents are selling more homes: one more a week, in fact, at seven each in October. But they've more unsold properties on their books. More here.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents

No transmission dates, as yet, but we'll keep you informed. We do know, however, that it's to be called Gazumped. Something here and here.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents

Meanwhile Kremer Signs, the market-leading boards manufacturer, has laid off 26 of its 64-strong workforce and says monthly production is down by almost 20,000 boards a month – and by 30,000 from peak.

It's peak? 80,000 boards a month. And just to show how bad things are, those figures include a 100% increase in demand for to let boards. It sounds like a mixture of estate agencies going down, and estate agents choosing to re-use tatty boards rather than order fresh ones. Good news for trees, though, I guess.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents

Looks like there's some mischief going on. Forget whether it's justified to blame a TV presenter for an international property boom, just lament the lack of imagination.

Technorati Tags: property TV

If either of you two charlatans had an ounce of decency you would apologise to the millions of people you helped in no small way get into the misery of negative equity. And give all the money you got to charities for the homeless

Oh, for Christ's sake. The programme is what is known in the industry as "a piece of entertainment". K&P aren't IFAs; intelligent viewers take certain things from their programmes and reject others. We're not sheep. And what about the people - the vast majority - who aren't in negative equity and have made a killing? The programme was strange, though. Our friend Henry Pryor was suave; Merryn Somerset Webb eminently sensible. But those K/P chats... I got the impression Kirstie knows she's being blamed by the Internet's hysterical haters for virtually the entire credit crunch, and she's attempting a little damage limitation. Clearly (judging by Mr Angry) it's not working.

Technorati Tags: property TV

Over at Rat and Mouse HQ, we can remember when Will Anderson began his ambitious eco-home self-build in the heart of Clapham. In fact, I have a feint recollection of a diary, running in - I think - the Independent. Anyway, it was completed a couple of years ago, and now the Guardian is giving us what we've wanted all along... the house, in pictures.

Technorati Tags: development, London, property, real estate

Standard variable rates... once the "punishment" rate you paid if you'd been too flakey to sort yourself out a nice fixed rate mortgage or tracker. But not any more:

Francis Ghiloni, marketing and business development director at mform.co.uk, says: “The lowest SVR deals are currently among the better deals on offer with rates as low as 5% so it is disappointing that new borrowers cannot apply.

So that's easy then. Just move to a new lender and go onto their SVR... no fees, no problem. Not necessarily. Lenders are apparently refusing new borrowers access to an SVR loan, or charging, as bank base rates drift down.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Perhaps we were being a little cynical. According to this, the owners have already received a £1m bid from an Australian Beckham fanatic. But really??!!

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

According to the LA Times, it's two miles between the US Embassy's old home and it's new, as the crow flies.

That crow, however, would be flying across the Thames to London's south side, and therein lies the rub. As any resident will tell you, the river is more than just a physical divide between the British capital's upper and lower halves; it's a psychological and social one as well.

You don't see paragraphs like that in the wild too often. The piece goes on to characterise the difference between north of the river, and south of the river, as understood west of the Atlantic... it's a fun read.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

In Glasgow, ftbs queue for one-day-only bargains {Estate Agent Today]
Hamptons pull out of flotation [Estate Agent Today] Kirstie & Phil a hit on R1 [BBC blogs]
Up to 40% of btl-ers face negative equity (... by 2009... maybe) [Telegraph]
Globrix forced to pay for listings [Renthusiast]
Phil Spencer uncovers foxy property twins [Sunday Times]

The Rat and Mouse - it's about your house

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

We're hearing - and from more than one source, now - that a leading UK estate agency is asking its partners to stump up a quarter of a million of personal money to keep things liquid. Big cheque, big problem. The name? We're just waiting for the Rat and Mouse legal department to give us clearance...

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents

The panic has led to some businesses making desperate attempts to secure their survival, with one estate agent even converting part of his office into a café to generate extra income.

This, and a new report from the Centre for Economic and Business Research, that predicts as many as 50,000 estate agents could be without a job in the next nine months.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents

So, this three-bedroom terrace in Leytonstone is under offer, somewhere around its asking price of £204,995. But this three-bedroom terrace in Leytonstone is on Gumtree with an asking price of £850,000. The difference? The second one used to be home to David Beckham. Here's the blurb:

A THREE BEDROOM HOUSE WITH BATHROOM TOILET AND GARDEN IN LEYTONSTONE THIS HOUSE IS FOOTBALLER DAVID BECKHAMS FIRST HOUSE HE LIVED IN BEFORE MOVING TO CHINGFORD THE THROUGH LOUNGE HAS WOOD FLOORING LOOKING ON TO THE FRENCH WINDOWS AND THE GARDEN WITH A FITTED KITCHEN AT THE BACK OF THIS LOVELY TOWN HOUSE IN LEYTONSTONE THE TUBE TAKES 20 MINUTES TO THE WEST END ON THE CENTREAL LINE AND IS IN ZONE 3 LEYTONSTONE AS MANY FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO WERE BORN HERE DAVID BECKHAM SIR ALFRED HITCHCOCK DAVID BAILEY JONATHAN ROSS TO NAME A FEW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A OFFER FOR DAVID BECKHAMS FIRST HOME CONTACT COLIN [telephone number removed]

Potential for a Beckham museum perhaps?

[via Estate Agent Today]

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

Forbes has a look at London's property winners and losers, ranking boroughs for resilience to the market downturn. The most resilient? Westminster and Hackney share top honours (each with a year-on-year rise of 2.7%), followed by Kensington & Chelsea (up 1.7%). Topping the most ravaged by the bust list are Waltham Forest (an annual fall of 5.8%), leafy Ealing (down 3.6%) and Lambeth (down 3.5%). Read the feature, here.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

It's long been a presupposition that a downturn separates the wheat from the chaff, weeding out the wideboys who know only how to skim from the top when homes are selling themselves to reveal a smarter, more functional world of estate agency when the market recovers. This time will the crisis force more fundamental changes?

Our publisher looks at the future of estate agency, in his weekly guest column for Citywire.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents

Property website Rightmove today reported that up to 300 estate agents were quitting the service each month as they struggled to survive the property downturn.

To put this into some kind of perspective, that's 300 a month from peak membership last year of 12,600, survivable – at that rate – for, realistically, how long? Three out of every four had either gone bust or removed because they hadn't kept up with fees. This suddenly makes a lot sense. And yet it seems like only yesterday.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents, Web

According to Channel 4 news, the UK's new breed of credit crunch battling amateur landlords who have taken in lodgers to pay the mortgage might also represent a new breed of unknowingly uninsured.

The study also revealed up to three million homeowners who currently have a lodger could have an invalid home insurance policy - because they failed to notify their insurer about their housemate.

More here.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

With housing sales down 50 per cent, industry estimates indicate that as many as half the country's 30,000 agents could be looking for work before any sign of an upturn occurs in the housing market.

The Times looks at who might be first in the firing line.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents

House prices still rising in Edinburgh [Scotsman]
In Russia, interest rates reach 12% [Telegraph]
Now Paulson won't buy up the dodgy mortgages [Guardian]
Dubai hit by property price crash [FT]
The latest lottery that's not a lottery: buy a gizmo, win an apartment [Daily Mail]

The Rat and Mouse - it's about your house

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

An interesting piece in the Telegraph.

Flowers, fruit, trees and animals are the next most popular followed by personal names twisted and contorted into all manner of puns and puzzles, many of which will reflect our new economic circumstances.

I've never been happy with the name of my own house - which, of course, I didn't choose. My wife's fixated on "Palookaville", so, for now, we're sticking with what we've got.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

According to someone on the 4homes forum:

Kirsty and Phil are doing a 90 minute L x3 Special for Children in need. I have seen the Pre Runners and it’s hilarious.

Technorati Tags: property TV

Thanos Papalexis is accused of killing Charalambos Christodoulides in his north London apartment in 2000. Christodoulides was apparently refusing to move out, while Papalexis was trying to purchase his home and paying tens of thousands of pounds a week in bridging loan interest while he waited.

According to police evidence, the victim was tied to a chair and beaten, sending blood spattering up the walls, strangled and his body soaked in paint-thinner in an effort to throw police dogs off the scent.

Papalexis isn't accused of carrying out the killing himself, but hiring a couple of heavies. He moved to the States in 2001, where he was arrested, at a pizza restaurant, on Friday. He's now expected to be extradited to the UK.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Mortgage experts say that until a month ago, the best deals allowed borrowers to pay just 0.5 percentage points more than the base rate, the average is now 2.34 percentage points above base rate.

The Telegraph, on how the building societies are insuring themselves against further dramatic interest rate falls. But, given no guarantee that Libor rates are going to move in tandem, and with the eyes of the world on your skills as a business leader, and a responsibility - after receiving billions in public money - to get the bank back on an even keel, what would you do?

Our strange relationship with the banks [November 10, 2008]

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Lloyds trackers hiked [Metro]
Wave of negative equity in US [Channel 4]
Tower Hamlets: "healthy town"? [BBC]
Chic to share [Telegraph]
Crunch hits Mayfair... now's the time to buy that used Ferrari [Wealth Bulletin]

The Rat and Mouse - London's property blog

Technorati Tags: Kathy Sierra, property, real estate

The recession here is a mere mouse-squeak in the roar of fame and infamy that rolls round these megalithic houses.

Blimey. The Telegraph's Caroline McGhie is in Hampstead, visiting a few properties that start at £25m on Courtenay Avenue and The Biships Avenue. Nor - apparently - is it just journalists visiting... the developers say they're getting viewings, and lots of them.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

'The Chancellor must realise that the housing market is not a piggy bank for his personal use. The gravy train is over and stamp duty cannot be used irresponsibly to boost his coffers,' said Chris Wood, President-Elect of the NAEA.

The National Association of Estate Agents is calling on Alistair Darling to announce a complete suspension of stamp duty in his pre-budget report. Will that make more of a difference than cutting the base rate? When people still fear a significant further percentage fall in house prices, will a cut in the cost of moving encourage them to splash out?

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents

London's estate agents are selling just two properties each month, according to the latest report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and nationally volume's at its lowest level since the organisation began keeping records back in 1979. The Telegraph talks to an agent in Norwich:

"We have had no sales in October at all! The market can't get much worse can it?"

Actually, the second sentence is as relevant as the first, because the survey actually showed a slight improvement in the agents' and surveyors' confidence about things getting better, reaching the highest level since March 2007. Some people need to move. There comes a point below which volume just can't drop. There's also a sense that the slow market is creating a lot of pent-up demand. When buyers feel the market's close to the bottom, they may well return in force.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has downgraded Countrywide’s credit rating, saying it could run out of cash in the next 12 months.

Countrywide is a giant estate agency, and owners of London's John D Wood.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents

There's a big bear in the house over at property market derivatives broker TFS. Gamblers Traders there expect the Halifax House Price Index to drop more than 40% of its peak by October 2011.

[via Brickonomics]

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

This morning Gulf Times report that Qatari Diar, Qatar’s sovereign real estate wealth fund has acquired "full ownership in the 12.8-acre (52,000sq m) [Chelsea Barracks] development from partners CPC Group, the Candy brothers’ holding in the venture."

Life not so sweet for the Candys [October 30, 2008]

Technorati Tags: development, London, property, real estate

Once again, we see the arrogance of the banks, we bail them out and they still screw us. What conceit.

That's a comment over at the Daily Mail website, in response to a piece in which it's reported that the lenders (many of which, by the way, have now passed last week's 1.5% interest rate cut) have told Darling they won't be passing on any further cuts, while the Libor rate remains substantially higher than the base rate. Nor is it unusual... it's a response to mortgage interest rates we're hearing over and over again. And it's incredibly, astonishingly shortsighted. Has everybody - already - forgotten how we got into this mess in the first place? Will more cheap credit really get us out? And who, in their right mind, would rather have seen the banks left to fail, taking savers, homeowners and businesses with them? The banks weren't bailed out for the personal benefit of the directors - they were bailed out for the benefit of the economy. Furthermore, who really believes that cutting interest rates is going to prop up the housing market? And - finally - remember that there are still some savers out there, people who didn't take advantage of easy credit but who behaved responsibly in the first place - who'd like to see their savings rewarded with a level of interest that at least keeps up with inflation.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Prescott suffers after buying luxury London flat at market peak [Daily Mail]
Bank of England has "lost its marbles" [Telegraph]
Toprak Mansion "secretly" owned by president of Kazakhstan [Sunday Times]
Chelsea deny new south-of-the-river stadium plans [Sunday Times]
Soho porn'n'property mogul writes son out of inheritance [Mail]

The Rat and Mouse - London's property blog

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed a few changes to our front page. We're thrilled and delighted to welcome leading property portal Primelocation on board, not only as sponsors, but as search partners, too. Primelocation offers buyers and sellers an international reach, and its portal is a mine of useful information, including useful guides for homeowners, landlords and movers. It features property from 4,000 leading estate agency firms, and the voice of Terence Stamp in its ads... which makes me happy. The Rat and Mouse needs the support of forward-looking organisations like Primelocation if it's to continue bringing you your daily dish of property news and gossip, so we hope you'll support them in return, by using the search box in the top right hand corner.

If your firm is interested in advertising on the Rat and Mouse (stop press: 200,000 page impressions in October), contact me here for more information.

Technorati Tags: theRatandMouse

Lenders cut rates, but not before pulling trackers [Metro]
Buy property... now [Evening Standard]
HousingPANIC blog says goodbye [HousingPANIC]
Mail wins trust of south London estate agents, then calls them smug, pushy in headline [Daily Mail]
The five craziest mortgage deals [Times]
Learning from the past [BBC]
Is a 0% bass rate a possibility? [Money Week]

The Rat and Mouse - it's about your house

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Here's a strange one... the tale of a Duke of Westminster-owned £6m Mayfair property - just down the road from the US Embassy - taken over by squatters with double-barrel names in a coup that saw them dressed as painters and decorators. Not even the Daily Mail seems convinced by the story ("Members of the group don't appear to be typical squatters, one appears to be wearing designer glasses and another has expensive looking headphones"), although temporarily distracted by an imperfect shave:

One - who said he was a college student on a gap year - wheeled a bicycle out through the imposing front door and said he was setting off to scavenge food from supermarket waste. Another pulled a hood over his stubble-covered face and strummed a guitar on the doorstep.

Yeah, right... the Rat and Mouse can tell a toff from a hundred paces. Our own theory... these kids will turn out to be related to the Duke. The Daily Mail will probably like them, then.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Property search company Garrington is closing its recently-opened Knutsford (leafy Cheshire) office, and downscaling (with, apparently, other closures likely). Before all the cries of schadenfraude, it's worth noting that the north west operation will now be run out of the Altrincham office, which is little more than a D&G handbag's glint from Knutsford. Crisis? Not exactly.

Technorati Tags: property, property TV, real estate

It's an online agent known as TheDiscountPropertyShop and according to EstateAgentToday it's shifting properties at four times the national rate, by knocking 10% off the asking price and advertising super-wide.

Sellers are required to have their properties valued by an RICS surveyor and then to reduce their prices by a minimum of 10%. They must also purchase a HIP, which the site can arrange. Once the properties are on the market, they receive some of the widest online advertising coverage in the industry, and are listed on all the main property portals.

The agency will deal with serious enquiries only... in other words: no mortgage, no solicitor, no conversation. So what does this mean? Are we 10% off a functioning property market? Or does a functioning estate agent need to be selling 10% below everybody else? It's certainly another win for the online model.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents, Web, Web2, web2.0

I've just had a call from an astonished individual who has several hundred million pounds that he puts on deposit in various banks. As of 10 minutes ago, a leading British bank was offering to pay him almost 7% interest for his cash.

And if they're going to pay depositors this kind of interest, they're in no hurry to reduce rates for borrowers, whether individual or business... is the reasoning. (Got to say, though, I'm a bit annoyed with Robert for relaying what was supposed to be a private conversation.)

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Innovative property search engine Zoomf have been picked up by Trinity Mirror... to complement a growing collection of online property sites, including SmartNewHomes.com, email4property.co.uk and Fish4Homes.co.uk. After the rumours, it's official.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate, Web2, web2.0

We expected a cut, but not like this. Interest rates: down 1.5%, in what looks like a sign of just how perilous the Bank of England considers the economy. All eyes, now, are on the lenders...

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

The Halifax House Price Index shows a 2.2% fall in October, leaving the index 14.9% down on the year... the biggest annual fall since the index began in 1983. It puts prices 15.7% off their peak.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Yes, we're going to get a rate cut today. No, we probably shouldn't get too excited. The response, yesterday, from Woolwich, Lloyds TSB and Northern Rock was pretty unambiguous.

Woolwich, Lloyds TSB and Northern Rock yesterday all removed tracker mortgages, which follow the movements of the Bank of England base rate, ahead of today’s expected interest rate cut. The moves followed Abbey’s decision on Tuesday to pre-empt a half-point cut in interest rates by increasing its margin on tracker mortgages by 0.5 percentage points.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate agents

... makes me reflect on research that came out several years ago about the young professional classes being attracted to more culturally mixed areas, attracted by their ethnic diversity and vibrancy... A visit to London's Hoxton and Shoreditch over the weekend confirmed this view. The run down streets were full of 20 somethings seeking pleasure and experiences all attracted by the places slightly edgy feel... These areas can often provide landlords with some great letting opportunities as properties tend to be cheaper than in more established areas but rents are strong and there is always the potential for more rapid capital appreciation as a result of gentrification.

Something tells me PropertyHawk's not from 'round here... but if he can find some of those cheap Hoxton or Shoreditch properties, I'm all-ears. (Not literally, obviously.)

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Urban Spaces' Jacqui Daley tells Zoomf about their new YouTube campaign.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, Foxton's, Foxtons, property TV, real estate agents, Web2, web2.0

Captain Clive Kelling is in court, making the case that his West Kensington home was sold by one man and bought by another, without his knowledge, while he was in the Amazon rainforest. Nor has he seen any of the money.

'I found I was homeless,' said Capt Kelly, who stood barefoot with his face tattooed in native designs, occasionally pulling a pencil from a hole in his ear to take notes.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

His victims included his former mother-in-law, a woman with cancer and a man with lung disease. He also used an elderly couple’s details to get a mortgage with Northern Rock on their home, without their knowledge.

He's said to have nicked more than a million from people in Yorkshire, proving that people in Yorkshire had more than a million and Northern Rock had some serious data processing issues.

Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents

Tonight, at 8pm, Channel 4 answers the question, how do you make a programme about property when prices are falling and nobody's buying or selling, by launching The Home Show, in which architect George Clarke (photographed in Jill Greenberg style here) tackles renovating and redesigning.

Technorati Tags: architecture, property TV

Affordable housing wait... up [Channel 4]
Chesterton heads for Lake Como [The Move Channel]
Blow the expense... the £100,000 kitchen [Telegraph]
Second homeowners remain a blight on seaside towns [Telegraph]

The Rat and Mouse - London's property blog

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

According to X-Factor winner Leona Lewis, not only can you not take Hackney out of the girl, you can't take the girl out of Hackney. According to Virgin music news, she's in the process of buying the flat she's been renting.

Leona said: "We were renting it but the landlord was like, 'You have to get out now.' I talked him into selling it to me. When you're settled it's hard to move."

But why was her landlord about to kick her out? What kind of landlord wants to kick a tenant out when they clearly have the funds to pay the rent? Was this a buy-to-letter in trouble?

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

... but we can already tell you, it won't be passed on.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Their posh London property index is showing a 3.9% fall in October, the fastest decline since they began keeping these figures. Here's Knight Frank's Liam Bailey, via PropertyWeek.com:

A 4% fall in price in a month is suddenly very noticeable – equating to £160,000 on a £4m house (or more than £5,000 a day).

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

I like this one. According to this, the unused wasted space on London's flat roofs - the equivalent of Richmond Park, apparently - will be put to work as a giant market garden, producing fresh fruit and veg for the 2012 Olympic athletes. This has an attractive sci-fi-meets-1940s-austerity feel that really captures the current mood. Great. It's all part of this; expect some kind of announcement tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: London, Olympics

London lettings market "fragile" in 2009 [Property Wire]
At home with Cath Kidston [Sunday Times]
Estate agents falling like leaves [Estate Agent Today]
250,000 empty homes [Introducer Today]

The Rat and Mouse - it's about your house

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

It's all about the private sellers. Over at Rightmove, the traditional bastion of estate agency exclusivity, the news is that its overseas division will be accepting listings from private sellers... for two hundred and fifty pounds a month, the same fee it charges agents and developers. Meanwhile, timely part exchange site PartExMyHome is going in the opposite direction... and is moving agent-only. More here.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate, Web, Web2, web2.0

The first spasms of a market in recovery? Or just a property market Braxton Hicks? Who knows? But it’s probably fair to say that the US property market might have moved into a new phase.

Our publisher looks to the States for the first signs of property market recovery, in his weekly column for Citywire.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate, theRatandMouse