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In recent weeks I've been described as a “property porn queen” in the New Statesman, sniped at on the pages of The Guardian and lambasted by Panorama for excessively inflating house prices.

And it's true. Kirstie Allsopp does seem to catch more criticism than her TV partner Phil or just about any other property presenter. Why? Apparently she once said that house prices can't go down... although I'm yet to see the context in which she's supposed to have said that. I think it's more to do with the fact that she's posh. Phil... you can imagine a night down the boozer and onto Spearmint Rhino with Phil. With Kirstie... no way. She was born wealthy. And then she had the temerity to go on and be successful. In the Times, she comes out fighting... and even at this late stage she won't be bullied into agreeing that we're seeing a market correction:

It is much easier to fire off flippant articles blaming property TV shows than properly examining why there has been a fall in transactions and - in some places, though not all - a fall in property prices. Some of the recent gloomy headlines make me suspect that all the journalists in the country have sold up and are doing everything in their power to cause a property house price crash so that they can buy at rock bottom.

Technorati Tags: property TV

That's the question being asked by recent first-time buyers who've seen the value of their new assets fall, recently. The economists' answer - according to a survey by the Society of Business Economists for ITV's Tonight - is that it could take until 2012 for prices to regain 2007 levels. According to 44%, we won't reach the bottom of the slide until 2009. More here. The Tonight show is scheduled for - er - tonight, at 7pm on ITV1. This, from the ITV website:

Technorati Tags: property, property TV, real estate

The BBC is trailing interesting research from its new series of The Truth About Property that suggests that not only are more people "crash-proof" than in the early 1990s (it would take a house price drop of 56% to put the average borrower into negative equity), but that a house price crash would be far from entirely unwelcome, even among the property-owning class. People, apparently, are seeing a fall in values as an opportunity to trade up for less. The last series of this show was excellent, the Rat and Mouse has high hopes for series two, starting tonight, at 8pm, on BBC 2.

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That's according to an international poll of ten million people, reported here. It means she's officially sexier than Kate Moss and Jennifer Lopez. Actress Megan Fox topped the poll. More headline news throughout the day...

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A message from ITV1:

Have you developed with the intention of adding value to your property? This could be from scratch after buying a derelict house, or maybe you’ve added an extension or some other home improvement. Has the recent slow down in the market meant you’ve lost out financially – or even gone bankrupt? Perhaps you’re trying to sell now, but know that you’re likely to make a loss? If you’re interested in taking part in the programme, then please contact me on 084488 16453 / 07786 547227 or email toby.strutt@itv.com.

Technorati Tags: property TV

Grand Designs have a week of live TV planned for May, during which they'll reveal their top 25 houses, picked from all the shows. You can catch up on missed properties, and vote, too, by going here. Vote for this one and you're barred.

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Sofie (no "p", no "h") Allsopp (two "l"s, two "p"s) is apparently doing like big sister Kirstie (no "y") and - after a stint as an estate agent, and a stint alongside Phil (no "f") when Kirstie was pregnant (no alcohol) - enjoying a bit of property TV... in Canada, no less. Any more Allsopp sisters out there? The Rat and Mouse is on the hunt for a guest property blogger, and I know for a fact the Guv'nor would be pretty thrilled if he could bag an Allsopp.

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They're looking for stories of triumph or tragedy in the current property market for The Truth About Property... a property TV highlight of 2007. If it sound like you, contact Gemma Peakhall and tell her the Rat and Mouse sent you.

UPDATE - I'M TOLD THE ABOVE IS A DODGY EMAIL ADDRESS... I'LL LOOK INTO IT, BUT FOR NOW THERE'S A CONTACT PAGE, COURTESY OF THE BBC, HERE.

Got an interesting property? Wanna be on TV? [February 1, 2008]

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Tonight, ITV1, 10.35pm... Repossession, Repossession, Repossession:

Business journalist Jeff Randall investigates how and why the nation got hooked on spending money it doesn't have - and concludes that people are about to wake up to the painful realisation that all debts eventually have to be paid.

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It's Bursting the House Price Bubble...

An exposure of sharp practice in the housing market which has kept house prices artificially high and plunged some homeowners into negative equity. Developers, valuers and solicitors all come under the microscope in Raphael Rowe's report, which reveals some nasty surprises for those who joined the buy-to let-frenzy.

Tonight, BBC 1, 8.30pm.

Technorati Tags: property, property TV, real estate

Channel 4 seeks people with strange buildings - you know the score, water towers, windmills, toilets - to take part in a renovation series. Interested? Contact Emma Martins here. Tell her the Rat and Mouse sent you.

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"By becoming part of FIC's international bouquet of channels, RETV will be able to leverage the company's publishing, online and other channels to further improve our viewers experience while enhancing at the same time the value proposition we can offer to our advertisers."

That's sweet-smelling Real Estate TV's MD Mark Dodd (or just "MD" for short) on Fox's purchase of the satcab channel.

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Tonight's, er, Tonight With Trevor McDonald, is all about the nuclear winter that could follow a housing crash... negative equity, repos, genetic mutation...

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It was pretty inevitable. Kirstie Allsopp was always very vocal about the shortcomings of HIPs, and now she's an adviser to the Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps (whose name I love saying). But - wait for this - they intend to keep the Energy Performance Certificate. Now, the Rat and Mouse is as green as (probably greener than) the next property blogger, but aren't EPCs a) a significant part of what we call a HIP? b) an utterly pointless waste of time benefitting nobody except the clipboard monkeys? So what are the Tory plans? Proposals being considered include offers being made legally binding (to put an end to gasumping/gazundering)... and, as far as I can see, that's it. Although there is the remote prospect of nudity. This, from the BBC:

"If everyone says they like HIPs I will walk naked across College Green," [Kirstie Allsopp] added.

Technorati Tags: property, property TV, real estate

Take a photograph of one of your grotty rooms, then go here to find out how to send it to the suspiciously immaculate Naomi for close scrutiny. Five photographs will be selected (randomly, so don't trash your house in order to get attention), and the lucky winners will be shown the secrets of good taste.

Technorati Tags: design, interiors, property TV

I appear to have missed a corking Property Ladder. It sounds as if Sarah Beeny suffered another hour of frustration as her clients blew sacks of cash on an ill-advised (and in this case possible dangerous) project, involving supporting a Chiswick home on stilts while the basement was dug out to make more room. Over at the 4homes forum, there's s a little investigation taking place - aided by 4homes editor Lucy Searle - into whether the developer has had any offers. The house is here.

And a hearty welcome to Housing Rubble, a brand new blog about the vagaries and illogicalities of the UK housing market. No shortage of material there.

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Dispatches examines the house price boom and what it means for the future of home-owning. It's tonight, at 8pm.

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New apartment prices go under the microscope in tonight's The Truth About Property.

In one apartment block called Aspect 14, on the edge of Leeds city centre, one owner has lost as much as £85,000 on a flat in 18 months.

Last week's programme was excellent. Catch tonight's at 8pm on BBC 2. In the meantime, for more, read this.

Technorati Tags: property, property TV, 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.

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At 8pm, on BBC 2.

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We've been asked to put the word out on the street and - like Huggy - we're happy to co-operate. Unlike Huggy, we don't see any greenbacks... we're doing it because we care.

Channel 4 are looking for somebody selling a family-sized London home for their well-regarded Cutting Edge documentary strand. They want to hear from vendors and/or estate agents. The idea is that - in a single, one-hour documentary - they'll follow the process from marketing to completion, and offer a "360 degree view" of the transaction. The person who contacted me seems aware that readers might be a little wary... that - on one or two occasions in the past - honest, hard-working folk have been made to look like chumps by documentary film-makers whose smiles hide fork-tongues. This - we're assured - will be different... and the director certainly has an impressive track-record for sensitive, grown-up documentaries.

So, there you have it. If you're a vendor or an estate agent and want to talk (in confidence)... email Nonie Creagh-Brown or call 020 7907 0894.

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

A big thanks to the Rat and Mouse reader who alerted me to today's Working Lunch property special. In answer to your question... no I hadn't seen it, and I'm looking forward to settling down in front my laptop and enjoying it shortly. Thought I'd post the link right way, though, so that other Rat and Mouse readers could take advantage of the BBC's streaming generosity.

Technorati Tags: property, property TV, real estate

It's Dispatches: Britain's Bad Housing, on Channel 4 at 8pm. Andrew Gilligan - yes, that Andrew Gilligan - apparently demonstrates why the private sector doesn't have the answer to the country's so-called housing shortage. (A trip up the M5 will demonstrate something similar.) But there's more... have a look at this piece by Gilligan himself. The programme promises to reveal some very interesting evidence that lobby group PPS have been forging signatures, bugging council officials, bribing, bullying, writing fictitious letters from fictitious residents in support of planning applications... while working for high-profile builders including Berkeley Homes, Barratt, Taylor Woodrow and others. Interestingly, there appears to be a whiff of unpleasantness surrounding Fulham's Imperial Wharf.

Technorati Tags: architecture, design, London, property, property TV, real estate

The Rat and Mouse continues to enjoy the BBC series The Tower - which, as far as we're concerned - is a very moving and sympathetic view of the life on the Pepys Estate, and an effective indictment of the insanity of the London housing market... the very insanity the Rat and Mouse is here to document. Apparently, though, not everyone's delighted with the series:

What's been going on in this programme is not really good enough. They have turned some of these drug addicts into film stars but they should have been looking at the pensioners round here instead. We're not the best in the world around here but we're not as bad as all that.

... the words of the leader of the local pensioners' group. He's retired, himself. Apparently he used to be a gangster. But he wasn't a drug addict.

[via This Is Local London]

Meet you new landlord, excuse the drooling and the nappies [July 17, 2007]

Technorati Tags: London, property, property TV, real estate

Let's start Friday with something scurrilous. News from the counties is that Nick Page - presenter of BBC's Escape to the Country - might need to escape the country altogether if he's to avoid a prison sentence. He's been found guilty by a Gloucestershire court of... drumroll please... forging a cheque to extract £500 from the IR, fraudulently obtaining £30,700 via a fake loan application, fiddling a £7,000 Tesco loan application by suggesting it was taken out by his wife... four further fraud allegations relating to at least £35,000 were "allowed to lie on file". He'll be sentenced July 23.

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