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Never knowingly beaten to a gloomy headline, Capital Economics chose Nationwide Index day to hammer home a bearish house price forecast with the assertion that we're to lose the equivalent of an average salary off the value of our homes between now and the end of next year. That's a 5% fall this year, and a 10% one in 2011... adding up to £23,000 on a property worth £163,500. Any increase in interest rates, combined with a tightening of credit conditions, will be enough - CE's Ed Stansfield argue - to throw us into an even worse house price crash. He points out, quite rightly, that the recent rebound in property prices lacked a firm foundation. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Student homes specialists Urbanest UK are behind the plans, backed by Kings Cross Central, and if the building goes ahead it will top out at 100m, making it the tallest in the Kings Cross area. Students from Central Saint Martins (due to relocate) who don't mind living at altitude will be the target residents. Designs are by Glenn Howells Architects. More here.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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August showed a 0.9% fall in house prices, according to the Nationwide index, the second monthly fall in a row (and the only time there've been consecutive falls since February 2009). This leaves annual house price inflation down at 3.9%, a considerable easing off from the 10.5% it showed in April. Most interestingly, it brings the three-month average back to zero. Have house prices peaked, at least for the medium term? We believe so.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate
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Two more days of Streatham as a Foxtons-free zone, and then it's F-Day, Saturday, and the High Street's old Jack Stamps pub will open its doors to the joyous, welcoming public. If it helps any, the first 200 locals to market their homes with Foxtons can enjoy 0% commission. In other words, they'll be able to quickly fill up the front window, encouraging other properties onto the books, which Foxtons staff will try much harder to sell.
In other news, the extraordinarily named Sunny Brar has announced she's giving up her job as a Foxtons estate agent to focus on the 2012 Olympics, in which the country's No. 2 in weightlifting (140lb class) intends to go for gold. We wish her luck.
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A "knight" who bought a title online while still a student has been kicked to the curb by Camden Council, after they'd discovered he owned homes in Bromley, Devon and Buckinghamshire, while claiming to be homeless and living - courtesy of the council - in a flat in Primrose Hill. Sir Barry apparently made the mistake of driving Jaguars in silver and gold.
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Some people think so. Owned by a super-wealthy industrialist and rented by Michael Jackson for a reported £60,000 a month leading up to his death, the Los Angeles mansion is apparently on the market for a whisker under £19m. Hypnotist Paul McKenna is celebrating a lucrative US book and TV deal.
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In their latest survey, Hometrack reports a fall in house prices of 0.3%, following July's 0.1% drop. Annually, prices are still up 1.5%, but Hometrack analysts expect the current downward trend to continue for the next six to twelve months. More here.
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"There are no buyers," says the grim-faced estate agent. "Transaction levels are going through the floor." "Well at least you have the lettings side to see you through," I say cheerfully. "Ah yes, lettings", he says. "That's kept us afloat the past few years. But no more, I fear." "But aren't rents going up, and aren't we increasingly becoming a renting society?" I ask. "Hmm, yes… theoretically. I'm advising landlords to raise rents 8%. But I've got nothing to rent out. All the tenants who used to move out to buy, can't, so are staying put. The tenants who moved out to better places are staying put because there's nothing else out there."
"Not only that," he continues, "but over the last few years the market has been replenished by all those amateur buy-to-let landlords. It drove down rents but it kept a constant new stock supply. They've gone." He continues sombrely, "I make my money when tenancies change, be it new stock or old. So things for the business, sales and lettings, are pretty dire. The only real winners in this market are the landlords. They're starting to hit pay dirt." I throw him a sympathetic glance. "Oh don't worry about me," he says. "Got myself a nice little portfolio in 2008… when all those amateur buy-to-let landlords panicked."
Tracy Kellett runs leading buying agents BDI Homefinders. Follow her on Twitter, here.
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The Land Registry's July house price data shows a rise in the monthly index by 0.4%, leaving the annual inflation rate at 6.7%. In London, house prices are up 12.1% on the year, and there's significant geographical variation, from the London gain to an annual loss in the North East (-1.4%) and monthly losses in the North East, East, North West and Wales. Download your copy of the report here.
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The house was valued at £2m, but it was about to sold for just over £1m when the "vendor" tried to withdraw the money using a fake driving license. Turns out the "vendor" was - in fact - the "tenant"... the real owner was ex-Olympic yachtsman Vernon Stratton. Not only that... sounds as if he's done it before.
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You've 15 minutes to stick on the telly and hunker down for Nightmare Tenants (ITV, 7.30pm), Jonathan Maitland telling tales of arrears, evictions and filthy French tenants who let pigeons move in with them. Alternatively, catch it later on ITV Player.
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By Baumraum, Maple tree-top living on the banks of the Hudson River, accessible via a bridge from the rocky cliffs, and featuring it's own decking/garden, too.
[via apartmenttherapy]
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Remember this? Well here he is clutching a letter from Barnet Homes which assures him they won't be seeking to evict. Which is either nice... or soft-headed authority rolling over in the face of sentimental social media bullying. Let's go with "nice".
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Details, in fact, of "10 hectares of new parklands, wetlands, and open space featuring more than 2,000 new trees and over 100,000 wetland and wild flower plants". For a full rundown of parks, wetlands, play areas and planting, go here.
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