It's on Gauden Road... a two-bedroom flat in a large house, with big rooms, a very nice bathroom and (the pièce de résistance) a giant garden and heated swimming pool. It's with Marsh & Parsons. Guide price: £375,000. Particulars here.

Technorati Tags: property, real estate

Hats off to estate agents Marsh & Parsons for this innovative marketing initiative. Downloadable from the M&P website: three walking tours in the SWs (Balham, Clapham and Battersea), PDFs combing a map with interesting historical facts and illustrations, designed to take about an hour each. Drop into a the local branch to pick-up a free frisbee, and into partner cafes for a free cuppa. The tours are designed for potential buyers interested in the area... but probably work best for families looking for something to do at the weekend. Either way, Marsh & Parsons come away looking cool. "Love the area," they say. "We do." Download them here.

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Including buying the land, the house cost us £500,000, but we haven’t compromised on design: it really is a bespoke house. We have no energy bills so it’s very cheap to run and I’m not planning on selling up any time soon.

I can remember when Will Anderson began this remarkable experiment. In fact, wasn't the Independent following the build for some time, in a kind of diary/column format? What happened to that? Anyway, it's finished, it works, it's one hell of an achievement, particularly on that budget. We're pleased.

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Remember The Curved House... on Channel 4's Grand Designs? The story was: David and Anjana needed to expand their tiny Clapham coach house, so they could fit in a family. They hired architect Peter Romaniuk and built a curved wood and glass house around a protected horse chestnut tree. It was, is, lovely. And it's for sale. Guide price: £1.5m, particulars here.

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Over at Rat and Mouse HQ, we can remember when Will Anderson began his ambitious eco-home self-build in the heart of Clapham. In fact, I have a feint recollection of a diary, running in - I think - the Independent. Anyway, it was completed a couple of years ago, and now the Guardian is giving us what we've wanted all along... the house, in pictures.

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On Tuesday, it was listed with Marsh & Parsons at £195,000. Since Wednesday morning - after the Government's Stamp Duty fiddling - it has an asking price of £175,000. And - according to M&P - it's not the only property heading toward the magic one seven five. But wouldn't the vendor have been better off keeping the property where it was and offering to pay the Stamp Duty himself?

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It strikes the Rat and Mouse that now is a particularly good time to be paying close attention to PropertySnake, the place to watch real-life asking price collapses as they happen. Today, we're particularly taken with this rather charming five-bedroom Victorian house in Clapham, down from an original guide price of £1.399m (according to this) to the current £995,000... that's a bargaintastic fall of 28%. Stay tuned for more. And have a great weekend.

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... as far as Clapham. Where Lucy Alexander discovers just how much you can buy for £3.85m. Actually, I'm only being facetious out of duty. It's an interesting story about what began as a small project, turned into a major renovation, and is now one of Clapham's finest... a beautifully spec'd house originally built for the creator of Royal Doulton china. The point being made is... why, these days, would anyone pay Chelsea prices to live in Chelsea? Except... guess where the developer wants to move once she's got her sale?

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Paul Hawkins writes in the Times about the shooting of 15-year-old Billy Fox Cox, no more than a few hundred yards from "speciality bread shops and estate agents advertising million-pound houses". For Christ's sake, stop the madness, she demands:

The Fenwick estate may not be an attractive place to live, but Clapham is no Peckham.

Too right it's not. It has organic food merchants and an independent bookshop. It's young residents shouldn't be shot. The article might not have too many words of comfort if you're reading this from your home in Peckham. But if you're a Clapham resident, the message is clear. Don't panic. The value of your home is unlikely to be affected by a few dead teenagers.

At the corner of Clapham High Street and Lendal Terrace, graffiti reading “RIP Remer”, a reference to Billy, the third South London teenager to be shot and killed in the space of two weeks, remains, but the disturbing violence is unlikely to affect house prices in what remains a sought-after location.

We'd like to have read Hawkins tackle the issue of the graffiti itself... because we all know how graffiti can instantly negate the added value of a well-constructed side return with all relevant planning permission. But unfortunately the rest of the article is devoted to the attractions of living in Clapham if you're young a minted.

Posh Peckham [April 6, 2006]
More for your money in Bellenden Road [March 14, 2006]
Peckham in the sky with diamonds... [September 23, 2005]

Technorati Tags: London, property, real estate

The Daily Mail is reporting on the plight of Edgeley Road resident Mark Vella, who is taking Lambeth Council to the High Court for failing to serve a Noise Abatement Notice to his landlords, London and Quadrant Housing Trust. He claims that noise insulation in his converted one-bedroom flat in Elmshurst Mansions is unsatisfactory. The noise of his neighbours (whom Vella isn't blaming) has driven him out of his home for long periods and affected his health. If he wins, experts warn it could turn out expensive for landlords nationwide.