Welcome to Tranquility - Greg Norman's Florida home torn up in divorce, yours for $65m [ link to particulars]
Dan Ackroyd's Upper East Side penthouse on the market for $7 [link to particulars]
Spielberg goes on an East Hampton spending spree [New York Post]
Palm Springs home - leased by Bette Davis in the 50s/60s - five beds, seven baths, 5.195m dollars [link to particulars]
Debbie Harry's new Chelsea (Manhatton, not London) apartment [Berg's Big Time Listings]
Ricky Martin's Florida oceanfront estate - $22.5m [link to particulars, via the Real Estalker]
Madonna and New York co-op board exchange first blows [New York Post]

The Rat and Mouse - because Londoners think about property every three seconds

Technorati Tags: celebrity, New York, property, real estate

Thanks to a Rat and Mouse reader for this comment on the story of the breeze block landlord, which appeared in yesterday's links. This is the tale of a man fined "a record" £20,000 for renting breeze block bedsits in Hanworth Road, Hounslow, after six years of dodging council requests to serve notice on tenants and remove the extension.

Over to Jim:

I just did a quick calculation - This has been going on since 2001, therefore 6 years= 312 weeks.

5 bedsits at, say £100pw gives gross takings of £156,000.

Subtract building cost of a cheap single-storey breezeblock extension (probably done by mates, cash in hand because no reputable builder would do it without planning permission!) say @30K. Subtract Fines + costs @ £22.5K. That makes a profit of about £100K!

Looks like a profitable business all round. Council sounds chuffed at getting a £20K fine but the owner nets £100K. Is this how the London market works? ;)

Get me the name of that builder immediately...

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

I realise it's a long shot, but as a previous reader tipper and fan of the site... any sister sites in Edinburgh? ... any hot tips for north of the border? I mean - we're doing our best to catch up with the London crazyness ;)

Murray - I remember you well. Hmm, a Rat and Moose? I don't know, but I'm always interested in special reports...

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Hi As a developer/investor in Central / SW London, I spend a lot of money on agents fees. I don't begrudge it if they add value but it seems that most of my purchasers are coming to them through Primelocation so I am paying 2-3% for a referral and viewing service. That's an unacceptably large share of my margin. There is little use these days for or value added by boards, shop fronts, printed details - I can do these myself. Likewise the viewings. Generally, I shouldn't need their market knowledge or I shouldn't be in the business. I and, I feel sure, many other professionals would welcome paying a fixed or low %age fee solely for access to referrals from the websites. For Primelocation to object to this would, surely, be anti-competitive and grounds for referral to the OFT? I wonder whether any of your agent readers would consider this a reasonable model for extra business?

As you know, we switched on the Comments facility a few weeks ago and I'm delighted that readers are starting to make use of it. Oddly, though, you're making use of it at the weirdest times, with old posts, which have dropped off the front page, suddenly attracting interesting and intelligent postscripts. It would be a shame if nobody saw them, so I thought I'd provide a little Friday round-up, with links. Who knows... it could become a weekly feature.

Back in May, I reported on a slightly dubious-sounding report by private sales site ClickSell, which suggested that the days of the estate agent are numbered, and linked to an article on Lifestyle Extra, which didn't impress David Cooper:

This article is a typical example of a badly informed journo' jumping on the bandwagon, in an effort to reinforce the level of public misinformation concerning Estate Agents... The journalist, whose industry is, anyway, far from lily white, should try to take an unbiased view and not merely echo the misguided comments of his fellows and those with a vested interest in alternative sales methods.

Likewise, Martin Charlick knows how to spot a press release masquerading as news when he sees one:

This of course was a very well crafted PRESS RELEASE advertising the launch of a new property website, masquerading as a 'survey'. The reality is that estate agents themselves are putting agents out of business - there are simply too many of them fighting over not enough properties and only those that are prepared to raise their game and offer genuinely good professional service and consider their customer's interests over their own, will prosper in the long term.

To read both comments in full - and perhaps add to the debate - go here.

Martin also debunks some statistical anomalies from a recent Guardian piece, here. It's another comment well worth reading.

But the most vital comment so far comes from Dennis Eve, who - at the age of 69 - finds himself being strong-armed out of his ex-council home by Greenwich officials who still manage to sleep at night:

My neighbours eitherside have been rehoused as they were council tenants therefore leaving me isolated. The Greenwich council has offered me £94,000.00 if I take this offer I would be unable to buy a property in this area and as I am 70 in July my chances of getting a mortgage is nil.

That's £94,000 for a four-bedroom home in London, folks. Read the full story here - and if anybody has any suggestions about how the Rat and Mouse might help Mr Eve publicise his plight, please drop me a line or drop a comment below.