Yes, according overseas property portal HomesGoFast's director Nick Marr, who points to rapid rises in property prices in California's Silicon Valley and draws comparisons with the London Tech City initiative, occupying...

... the area of East End between Old Street and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. Companies that are committed to investing into the area include Cisco Systems, Facebook, Google, Intel Corporation, McKinsey & Company and Vodafone.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Seven days to remove all Let By, Managed By and Sold By signs... that's the message in Tower Hamlets Council's latest missive to estate agents. Over at Estate Agent Today, Jamie Blake of the council is quoted thus:

Tower Hamlets will soon be welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors as part of London 2012, and we want to ensure that the borough looks its best.

So covering it where possible isn't an option?

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Regeneration of Stepney's crumbling Ocean Estate has been discussed, put out to tender, promised, fudged, kicked under the carpet time and time again during the New Labour years. Now, Tower Hamlets Council is said to be going straight to the Homes & Communities Agency to seek the £160plusm shortfall needed to make the housing civilised. And they're hopeful? Why? What's changed?

The council is keen to get the project done and dusted before the 2012 Olympics, when marathon stars including Britain’s Paula Radcliffe pass along the Mile End Road on the way to the Games at Stratford.

Some "previous" on the estate, from the BBC and the Independent, here and here.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

And that somebody is Stephen Lakey, an IT manager who, until now, has been living in a council flat supporting his unemployed parents, but now holds the keys to a one-bedroom Whitechapel party palace with Jacuzzi and steam room. Goodbye oldies, hello dancing girls. He paid £50 for a ticket, attracted by the fact that money was being donated to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity. These property raffles have something of a checkered history. The usual scam involves some small print stating that if the value of the property isn't made up in ticket sales, a cash prize minus expenses is awarded instead. Recently, there's been some question about the legality of the process, since non-charity private lotteries are forbidden. In this case, it appears the question was hard enough to make the prize draw qualify as a game of skill. If you like the sound of this, there are nine further apartments up for grabs.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Thanks to the Rat and Mouse reader who drew my attention to this. Keira Knightley has apparently spent £2.3m on a Shoreditch townhouse.

“Keira was fed-up of West London. She wanted to move somewhere more bohemian and arty."

Really? Is Shoreditch still bohemian?

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

... 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

Murdoch bought it for £10m, Marcus Cooper's paying £200m for it, but plans to build houses worth £500m on it. It's Wapping, and it's about to enter its next phase of development. More here.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Apparently, the light's "special". It's the George Tavern on Commercial Road. Plans to knock down next door's Stepney's nightclub (mmm, sounds nice) and replace it with affordable housing has left the George's landlady concerned about the future of her pub. Moss and a band of east London fashionistas are also concerned... the pub's also used as an impromptu venue for fashion shoots. Go here for a picture of Moss in a campaigning t-shirt.

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

Forget about Celebrity Big Brother, reality TV is about to get interesting in Shoreditch, where the Shoreditch Trust is considering a plan to link up the borough's huge network of CCTV cameras into a giant broadband-linked security channel residents of the borough's housing estates will be able to watch on their tellies. Called Shoreditch Digital Bridge, it will offer viewers a Community Safety Channel, plus a "Usual Suspects" ASBO line-up... a kind of Shoreditch's Most Wanted. Experts foresee problems with privacy rules, but if the plan goes ahead, the Rat and Mouse predicts demand from boroughs right across London, where snooping on the neighbours from the comfort of one's own sofa will surely prove the hit of 2006. More, here.

A good school could not only get your children into university, but help pay their way too according to this new piece of research from Hometrack. Improving schools (as judged by the DfES) improve the value of the properties in their catchment areas - radically! London's most improved is in Stepney Way, E1, and here property prices have increased since 2001 by 56% within the catchment area as opposed to 13% outside. The next best is in St Pauls Way, E3, where the differential is 35% to 13%. (its all happening out East these days). I guess it pays to get involved in the PTA.