He's an ad exec living in a converted warehouse in Hackney. Despite all that, we have some sympathy. More here.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Dalston's Kingsland Estate is on borrowed time, and due for demolition this year. Before it goes, Egyptian-born artist Nazir Tanbouli is, with the housing association's blessing, populating it with strange creatures by means of a series of expert murals. He intends to continue right up to demolition. There's an interesting piece by Londonist here, plus the artist's own blog, The King's Land, here.

Drawing: The King's Land trailer 1 from GILLIAN MCIVER on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

That's the message from SkyscraperNews.com's James Newton, writing in the Telegraph, following local opposition to plans to build a 50 metre "eco-tower" (130 apartments, interesting-lookoing hanging gardens) next to Dalston's Kingsland Station. Locals are concerned about living in its shadow, and argue Dalston's not the right place for this type of building.

It's enough to make you wonder why people bother to live in the big smoke of London at all, let alone quite firmly in central London if they are so against urbanity. There are plenty of small-scale, sleepy English hamlets that would welcome them with open arms. They can savour their little shops, china cups, Tudor houses and billiards game while those who remain in the city can embrace what it means to live in an urban environment.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

There's an interesting piece in the Independent today about why it pays dividends to keep a close eye on public transport policy when planning your next London move. It's all about Dalston, Peckham... and there's this interesting snippet:

Some people use analytical research tools such as PTAL (public transport accessibility level), devised by Transport for London, to calculate an address's transport status on a scale of one to six, with A and B subdivisions.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

The epicentre of the violence in Hackney has been around my house. Police in barricades have battled rioters outside the church 50m down my road in sporadic melees. Every local shop for miles has been shuttered. Cars and recycling bins have been set on fire. Helicopters constantly hover above, filming and surveying the unfolding damage. This is not what estate agents were referring to when they described local streets as “cosmopolitan”.

It's a short but interesting piece by the FT's Tony Tassell, and worries about the element of rioting as "spectator sport" he witnessed in Hackney, the cheering (of the rioters) as they attacked the police. Has Hackney, he asks, really changed?

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Madonna plans Wiltshire mansion duplicate in NY... yeah, that'll work [The London News]
The PM's Top Ten Financial Blunders [Times]
Up-and-coming... Dalston [Independent]
Thank God, it's business as usual in Prime London [Forbes]

The Rat and Mouse - it's about your house

Technorati Tags: London, 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

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

Spare a thought for Dalston primary school caretaker Patrick Ryan who's being forced to live among the rubble of the East London line extension. His neighbours have been bulldozed, his house remains, and it's a requirement of his job that he lives in it. The noise is apparently driving him crazy, and it doesn't sound as if he's getting much practical help from the local diocese (he's employed by a church school). Plenty of pastoral care though, which would be comforting if he could hear it.

[via BBC]

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

The Evening Standard reports on falling asking prices here and there across the capital, including many of the top postcodes. According to Rightmove figures:

Average asking prices in Kensington and Chelsea have fallen £33,000 to £1,458,558 - down more than 2.2 per cent between March and April.

Oddly, though, asking prices rose (by 3.8%) in Hackney.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Supt Wayne Mawson - head of operations for Haringey - has admitted moving out of his Hackney home because of the youths sitting on his wall. They apparently made him nervous when he arrived back from work. That's comforting.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

Soap characters, property prices, complete blending of fiction and reality... it's the Sun and the Rat and Mouse loves it. The piece ("an exclusive investigation") looks at Eastenders, Emmerdale and Coronation Street, and asks whether the characters could really afford to live there. Obviously, the Rat and Mouse is interested in Eastenders, here, and that will only change when somebody proves to us that the north really exists. Apparently Albert Square is based on Fassett Square in Dalston:

According to a Foxtons agent interviewed by the Sun, Fassett Square prices have risen by 70% in the last three years, with a three-bedroom house costing around the £800,000 mark... not much more than what Max and Tanya Branning would have had to pay for their Albert Square semi. Max is a dodgy insurance salesman, Tanya's a slutty beautician... even if they'd paid a giant deposit, perhaps negotiated by their agents with the BBC (see how I can do that fiction-reality mix-up thing, too?), they'd still be looking at a 17xsalary mortgage. The Sun suggests they're dealing. Wouldn't put it past them.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

So, drive a Prius and you'll pay £41.50 to park outside your house. Drive a Hummer and you could pay as much as £207.50. "What next?" asks the Daily Mail.

Technorati Tags: London

While I love handbags and shoes, I think it's more important to have a place to call home.

More news and thought, on her blog.

Technorati Tags: celebrity, London, property, real estate

A reader writes:

There is a beautiful remnant of early Georgian architecture in Dalston Lane which the council of Hackney sees as being fit to be demolished, having allowed the area to fall to rack and ruin. Here is a blog for the campaigners who are trying with their local might to save Dalston theatre and a pair of 1820 Georgian Houses (this is being supported by the Georgian Society and SAVE British Heritage). This area of London needs to have sufficient Listing so that future generations will not have to suffer the atrocious mistakes of council plans (like the 60s, it seems that history tends to repeat itself).

And here's a picture (courtesy of above blog) of three unorthodox Dalston Theatre-goers, evicting a group of protesters who have apparently been inside the theatre since February

Things are clearly getting desperate. Visit the blog and look at the very interesting photographs of the potentially very lovely and definitely very important properties concerned... and if they leave you concerned, show your support.

Rat and Mouse readers - we love you [November 2, 2006]

Why? Because of a row that's erupted over the results of a The Best and Worst Places To Live in the UK survey, which will be aired on TV shortly. Hackney didn't do so well. In fact, it came bottom of the UK's 434 local councils, in a survey that took into account crime, education, shopping, the environment, employment and life expectancy. Hackney's mayor has apparently accused the BBC of "middle-class snobbery". More here. By the way, Hackney wasn't the only London council at the very bottom of the list. It was joined by Tower Hamlets, Newham and Islington.

More, here.

News of the battle for Hackney's Francesca's Cafe reaches Korea.

A special Empty Homes Team is about to take lax landlords to task, in a borough late to the housing boom but currently suffering a shortage of available properties:

Hackney Council says some derelict houses, in affluent areas like De Beauvoir Town, can be worth £500,000.

I wonder if they'll still be saying that if they go the compulsory purchase route. According to this, they believe there are as many as 250 empty homes in the area.