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Entries in August 2009
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Land Registry data for July shows a monthly rise of 1.7%, the largest single monthly hike since July 2004. Every region of England and Wales was invited to the party, bringing the annual house price fall down from 13.8% to 11.7%.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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According to the Times:
The “Basel II” (pronounced “barl”), an international finance directive introduced in January last year, is the main reason that buyers with small deposits are being turned down for home loans.
(We like the pronunciation guide for cretins.) Basically, it links a bank's cash reserves to its right to lend at a given loan-to-value ratio. Low cash reserves equal demands for high deposits. The piece describes new proposed changes that may push deposit demands towards 60%... for anybody looking for a good deal.
Technorati Tags: mortgages
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So what happens when borrowers who did meet sensible criteria, who were the right people to lend to, start defaulting? A warning from Moodys...
Arrears of more than 90 days on prime residential mortgage-backed securities have doubled from the level recorded by the Moody’s index last year, going from 0.9% in Q2 2008 to 1.8% in Q2 this year.
Rising unemployment and poor re-mortgage deals are a cause for concern into the future, they say.
Technorati Tags: mortgages
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Remember the story of the appearing/disappearing distressed property company that Grant Bovey was/wasn't setting up following the failure of his buy-to-let empire, Imagine Homes? Well... he was, and guess what it was called... Distressed Property Company. (It must have taken Bovey and gang of helpers at least a month to have imaginized that.) Never mind, at least this one was a sure-fire success:
During the launch of the new company Bovey was quoted as saying ‘The only thing I will guarantee you is that this company will never have financial difficulty.’
So there must be another good reason why it's apparently being wound up.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Hunt, who sold his former company for £370 million at the peak of the property market in 2007, is returning to the residential sector with a new serviced apartments business, because he believes that the time is now right to secure cheap property deals.
He's Jon Hunt, and his former company is, of course, Foxtons. He believes property prices in London have bottomed out. He denies speculation that he might be about to buy back Foxtons.
Technorati Tags: Foxton's, Foxtons, London, property, real estate
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A shrinking financial industry, crappy weather, rising taxes and stealth taxes for non-doms, more and more Americans are, according to Bloomberg, heading home, leaving puffy, shiftless Brown's Britain for cool, ambitious Obama's America. At Tibco Software Inc. (no idea), Andrew Wesbecher describes turning off the lights on his way out.
Technorati Tags: London
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For £90,000 you could be living above a sandwich shop in Wakefield. Or you could rent. Full article here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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It all started here... a Time magazine article about the state of the country's number one casino town. The author meets Brooke Boemio, "a bouncy, sweet, recently remarried 31-year-old mom whom I met years ago when I was on another assignment. Boemio is doing great during this recession. In fact, she's never had a job that paid as well: she made more than $100,000 last year. Even better, she's willing to show me how messed up the real estate scene is."
How messed up? Messed up enough for this:
Basically, she finds clients who owe more on their house than the house is worth (and that's about 60% of homeowners in Las Vegas) and sells them a new house similar to the one they've been living in at half the price they paid for their old house. Then she tells them to stop paying the mortgage on their old place until the bank becomes so fed up that it's willing to let the owner sell the house at a huge loss rather than dragging everyone through foreclosure. Since that takes about nine months, many of the owners even rent out their old house in the interim, pocketing a profit.
Boemio even admits to doing it herself. And, before parting company with the journalist, shows him how to break into a random empty house... a scene which was, apparently, accompanied by a short piece of film (now removed). All-in-all... not, you'd think, a way of ingratiating yourself on your employers. And you'd think right. Boemio is now - according to this - without a job. What amazes me, though, is that somebody without the gumption to realise that advertising your breaking-and-entering and fraud skills in Time might get you into at least one kind of trouble still has enough gumption to defraud the US banking system. No wonder we're all where we are.
Here's the final word, from Boemio's previous employers.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents
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 It's not just London that has skinny houses. At 75.5 (no kidding) Bedford Street, in West Village, you have to walk sideways.
[via Luxist]
Technorati Tags: New York, property, real estate
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The fourth monthly rise in house prices, according to the Nationwide index, weighs in at 1.6%, bringing the three month average up 3.3%, the highest rate of growth since February 2007. The annual rate of deflation is - as a result - shrinking fast, down to 2.7% from 6.2%. The Nationwide index peaked in October 2007, 14.4% higher than its current level. Accompanying commentary points to abnormally low interest rates and a shortage of available property to explain the rapid increases. Both of these circumstances could change. And don't forget this.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Forget the indices... they're (literally) history. Anybody with an interest in the future of house prices, these are the figures to watch.
More than one in six UK homes which house at least one person of working age does not have anyone in employment, official statistics show.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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The statistics from Moneyfacts show that the average two-year fixed rate mortgage climbed to 5.18 per cent while swap rates – which lenders use to help price their fixed rate mortgages – stood at 2.04 per cent on Tuesday.
Yeah - with rates of profit on fixed mortgages at a 21-year high, the banks are proving themselves very capable of organising their own bailout. The thrust of the Telegraph piece is about concern that - should base rates return to more typical levels - we may find ourselves paying upwards of 10%, as lenders, under pressure from the FSA to build their balance sheets, try to protect current rates of profit. Would that happen? Would it prove profitable to drive borrowers to default?
Technorati Tags: mortgages, property, real estate
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British Bankers' Association figures show lending for homes up. Mortgages for new homes were up in July, leaving them 76.7% higher than in July 2008. Remortgages were up a little on the month, but down on the 2008 figure by 42%. The value of the total lending for residential bricks and mortar, however, was way up, 79.1% higher than in July 2008.
Technorati Tags: mortgages
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A court in Southwark has been hearing the case of two Mayfair mansion block neighbours at war. Simon Carson - a founder of London & Argyll property group - was so outraged by alleged constant noise and building work from his upstairs neighbour commercial estate agent Simon Korn that he threatened him with an antique Samurai sword. Fearing for his life, Korn grabbed at the blade, cutting himself in the process, and the two fell to the floor in an undignified middle-aged grapple. At which point, the wives got down to a bit of pushing. More here and here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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According to this they're building a giant extension that will give their Belsize Park house a total of 33 rooms. It's about time those ghosts got rooms of their own.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate
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Colonel Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has bought a plush pad in Hampstead. Here's how the Mail on Sunday managed to paint a picture of a venue fit for a Bond villain:
The neo-Georgian eight-bedroom property bought by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi in a secluded road in Hampstead, North London, boasts a swimming pool, sauna room, Jacuzzi and suede-lined cinema room where he will be able to monitor world events.
... while stroking a long-haired white cat. He might choose to watch Laurel & Hardy films while he's in there, too, but they're probably right. He'll mainly use it to monitor world events. What's the country coming to?
Meanwhile, it gets worse. Over at the Telegraph, that final bastion of opera-loving, Jag-driving, University town murder-solving Englishness Inspector Morse has had his elegant home redesigned redneck-style by a bunch of hapless squatters:
Members of the Inspector Morse Appreciation Society regularly travel to see the historic house, which was once worth well over £2 million. But they have been horrified to find that the one-time delightful 19th century mansion now lies derelict with boarded-up windows and doors a far cry in from its TV heyday. The Polish squatters stripped valuable fittings from the house and have left its overgrown gardens strewn with discarded junk furniture and other rubbish.
Interestingly, the house isn't in Oxford, it's in Ealing.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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More in this Category - Linkage
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What happens when you squeeze a middle-class family of five Londoners into a Thames Estuary new build? Click here to for a tale of egg, epees and house builder with a - we're guessing - unhappy PR.
Technorati Tags: development, property, real estate
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Mud's flying over here... a prospective buyer is accusing a Foxtons agent of bullying her by refusing to show her a Richmond property after she apparently refused mortgage advice from sister-company Alexander Hall. Foxtons have responded, claiming a misunderstanding... suggesting the agent was merely trying to ascertain whether the buyer really had finance in place. Obviously, without full details, it's impossible to know what actually happened, but there's clearly room for dysfunction. On the one hand, Foxtons (fairly or unfairly) has a reputation for aggressive tactics, and the aggressive selling of AH services in particular, so it's understandable that someone might become a little defensive when the whole subject comes even before a viewing. On the other, I wish more agents were a little more aggressive about vetting prospective buyers, rather than simply notching up viewings on a quantity, not quality, basis. With loan criteria tougher than ever, this aspect of an agent's job has never been more important.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, Foxton's, Foxtons, London, property, real estate, real estate agents
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August 10 apparently saw the most Rightmove visitor's in the site's nine-year history. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Even the most pessimistic of pundits can no longer ignore the fact that a housing market recovery, of some sort, is underway.
Confidence, up. Prices, up. Sales, up. Stock... what stock? The talk is of gazumping and sealed bids. But what, we wonder, will happen when all those vendors do come blinking into the sunlight, once again?
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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She's Grace Nmadibechi Ada Ukala (leave me alone, spell check), and she's been fined £70,000 for submitting five mortgage applications for herself using false income and employment information, for failing to declare income to the tax man and for misusing company money. Is that all? Apparently. She was an FSA-approved broker, working for Goldsparkle Consulting Services Limited. More here.
Technorati Tags: mortgages
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... Bow, Walthamstow, Clapton, Harringay, Deptford and - that old chestnut again - Tooting... apparently.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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In America, home repossessions are affecting the health of the nation.
Nearly half of people studied while undergoing foreclosure reported depressive symptoms, and 37 percent met screening criteria for major depression.
The study, conducted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, showed further indirect health affects, as a result of skimping on prescription drugs and skipping meals.
Recession digression 24 - Land Registry employees sent to Pret [August 18, 2009]
Technorati Tags: recession
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Congrats to Douglas & Gordon, who apparently has just enjoyed its second most profitable month of business since the market's 2007 peak ("in terms of buyers registering and sales agreed"... we wonder, a little, about the first, but won't argue that it doesn't count for something). D&G (this D&G, not this one) apparently forged 100 deals last month... just 10% off July 2007 levels.
Technorati Tags: estate agents, real estate agents
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According to the Primelocation index for July, Prime London property saw asking prices turn positive, year-on-year, up 1.31% on the month and 0.33% annually. More here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Recession digression
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Property sellers are being urged to shop around after it was revealed home information packs (HIPs) from estate agents can cost almost 50 per cent more than those bought directly from a specialist.
The research is courtesy of Which?, and shows some vendors paying as much as £300 more than necessary for what is an essentially pointless piece of paper anyway. The difference between a cheap-as-cheaps HIP and a platinum-plated fur-lined HIP on a three bedroom semi was the difference between £413 and £189. Either would do the trick (allow you to market your house to a buyer who will ignore the HIP completely). The message? Shop around for the best deal.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Meanwhile, across the border in Essex, classy Jack Tweed has left his landlady seemingly unimpressed by his avant-garde approach to interior design.
Jade Goody’s widower left a hookah pipe on his kitchen table along with air-rifle gas cartridges, which can be inhaled for kicks... women’s underwear littered around. The bathroom basin was spattered with dried blood.
Hasn't she heard of the William Burroughs look? Jeez... some people can be so bourgeois. It's pathetic.
Anyway, unless Tweed manages to blow a hole in his head with an air-rifle gas cartridge first, she's going to kick him out. Apparently.
Technorati Tags: celebrity, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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Asking prices fell 2.2% in August, according to Rightmove, with a particularly large dose of reality taken in London, where they fell 3.8%. A sign we're about to enter another period of rapidly falling house prices? Not according to Rightmove, who point to August 2008's 2.3% decline, and make the claim that August sellers price more competitively to attract attention amongst a smaller pool of buyers.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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A quarter of borrowers are now on standard variable rate mortgages, and "plan" (the keyword, here, since there was a time when a borrower on SVR meant somebody who hadn't got around to negotiating a new deal) on staying that way, according to research by Unbiased.co.uk. When bass rates rise, things will change. but - for now - with many SVR's looking competitive compared to fixed rate mortgages, and no sign that bass rates are about to go anywhere fast, it looks like a decent option.
Technorati Tags: mortgages
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More in this Category - Linkage
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More in this Category - Letting
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As many as one in three mortgagees are unable to move due to a lack of equity in their property or restrictions on access to mortgage finance, says mortgage broker John Charcol.
That's two million "homeowners" either in negative equity or with less than 10% equity in their existing home. Why aren't people moving? That, says Ray Boulger, is the answer.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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SW11 (Battersea), N8 (Hornsey), CR0 (Croydon), E17 (Walthamstow), SW6 (Fulham), and your bonus postcode, SE23 (Forest Hill). More here.
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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A special Swedish edition, and the island estate home of the great Swedish director. The property was designed by architect Kjell Abramson with input by Bergman, and Bergman lived there for almost 40 years. The small island and the estate also provided the backdrop to many key Bergman scenes. Particulars, here.
If these walls could talk... foreign edition [June 23, 2009]
If these walls could talk... Elle Macpherson's £2m price-drop edition [June 10, 2009]
Technorati Tags: celebrity, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Letting
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Down - according to research by MoneyExpert.com - from 137 (long-term fixed deals, 10 years or more) a year ago to 39. Want a mortgage fixed for its entire 25 years? Last year, there was a choice of 18, now... just one (thanks, Kent Reliance Building Society).
Technorati Tags: mortgages
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Almost a million homeowners are now renting a room out to a permanent boarder, according to research by Abbey Mortgages... that's triple the number this time last year. The average earnings from sharing your roof with a stranger isn't to be sneezed at either, weighing in at £393 a month (slightly above the Government's tax-free threshold). London homeowners are the most likely to take in a lodger (6%).
Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate
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More in this Category - Linkage
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More in this Category - Celebrity homes
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I found this inside the new Vanity Fair... a trailer home that extends, on rails, like a Japanese fan to provide 252 degrees of modern living.
More here and here.
Technorati Tags: design
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More in this Category - Estate agents
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More in this Category - Celebrity homes
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... leaner, fitter, tanner, sadly not richer. This year's interview series experiment was a success, I think. Generally, it all happened smoothly (apart from last Friday's, which appears to be missing, somewhere, in transit, but which we'll bring you shortly). Thanks to everyone who emailed, thanks to those who wished me a happy holiday, and thanks, in particular, to those who agreed to be interviewed and provided such interesting conversations. There'll definitely be more.
I'd intended to drop by once in a while, but Internet access - even BlackBerry access - proved trickier than I'd expected. So what did I miss... apart from a Halifax House Price Index that proved (yeah, right) that the Brits are about to party like it's 2006/2007?
Regular posts will continue throughout the day.
Technorati Tags: theRatandMouse
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More interview fun... this time Ciara and Anouschka from Royals of Rent, a rare and valuable blog aimed at the tenant by two self-confessed tenantistas. Read on...
I believe there are two of you writing Royals of Rent… how did you get together? When was the blog born, and what were your motivations for publishing it?
Anouschka: There are two of us behind the blog, two old friends:) We share a common interest - love for architecture. Property had been a popular subject, since Ciara had been working in a property investment firm. As we were both renting, we would often discuss the related problems.
Ciara: We had our share of problems as tenants but thanks to my job I had met people who's experience couldn't be compared to ours. I'd heard a lot of horror stories from young first-time renters, foreigners, and professionals who were too busy and too trusting. Knowing that so many London renters suffer simply just because they don’t know their rights, the possible threats and opportunities... that's how the idea of Royals of Rent was born. It was in October 2007 when we decided to join forces and start by writing about renting in a less formal way in a bid to help spread information that would be useful for tenants.
Do either of you work in the property business?
C: Neither of us are currently working in the property business but the past professional experience does give me the ability to look at problems from different angles.
A: I’m a designer by profession and have had to work closely with property developers.
Many experts agree that we all need to re-think our attitude if we’re to achieve a healthy UK property market. We need to be more like the rest of Europe and kill the stigma attached to renting, and the assumption that only buying is an investment in the future. Is Royals of Rent part of this? Does it have any political agenda? Are you tenantistas?
Continue reading, after the jump.
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Our interview festival continues. Some of you may be familiar with Property Investment Project... rants, raves and rafts of useful information for landlords. But especially rants. The man himself, a kind of buy-to-let Stig known only as "The Landlord", kindly agreed to answer a few of our questions. "Just... keep it clean," we demanded.
Tell me about the background to the Property Investment Project… am I right it started out as a specific challenge but changed direction to become what it is today?
 Well, it wasn’t so much of a challenge, but more of a shameless cry for help. I had some cash lying around and I knew I wanted to invest in property. Unfortunately, at the time I severely lacked industry knowledge. In retrospect, I’m amazed at how out of my depth I was. I started an online diary, documenting my story, hoping people with experience would find my site and help me along the way.
The site wasn’t built to help others; it was there to help me. It was all about me. Of course, that’s far from the case these days.
So… you’re young and you’ve lots of property. How young? How much property?
Funny, these days I don’t feel young. I’m 25. Is that even considered “young” anymore? I think I started investing when I was 20. Maybe 21. It’s all a blur.
I don’t actually have many properties. I currently only have four in the UK and one in Dubai. I’m not what you’d call a high-rolling landlord. The most I’ve ever had at one point is five. But I’ve learned a lot, especially about being a landlord. The buying/selling process is so mundane to me. I do, however, plan on shopping this Christmas.
So how did you get the finances together to start building a portfolio?
I literally just worked and saved. There was no special formula. I wasn’t being a scrooge or anything; I still maintained a very healthy social life. But, I also saved each month.
I think at the age of 18 no one really thinks about saving for a house, most people just spunk their money up the wall on prostitutes and alcohol.
Continue reading, after the jump.
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