Interiors: We ask the experts how to snazz up your dinner table before the Christmas hordes arrive November 11, 2016 Staying in is the new going out; we want to bring friends home to warmth and hospitality. Being able to light intimate candles for dinner is one of the overlooked joys of shorter days. However, with the trend for simplicity, and sharing, we need to be careful not to make boring choices when it comes [...]
Focus On Rotherhithe: A £34m investment has brought a new town square, library and cultural centre to the Docks November 11, 2016 Rotherhithe, a conservation area in the Docklands in south east London, is one of the prettiest and most rapidly gentrifying places in the capital. With a long and proud history as a major trade port, it was a working dock right up until the 1970s. It was also home to the first under-river tunnel in [...]
There’s been a huge spike in Americans searching for London property since the US election November 11, 2016 Remember when searches for Irish passports broke the Irish embassy website after Brexit? Well, it seems anti-Trump Americans have set their sights rather further – after property portal Zoopla reported a 45 per cent spike in traffic to its website from the US in the hours after the Presidential election result was announced. According to [...]
The housing minister just admitted the government will miss its housebuilding targets November 11, 2016 The UK's housebuilding sector is "absolutely… not at the rate we need to be" in order to meet government targets, the housing minister has admitted. In an interview with Sky News, Gavin Barwell said although the UK is currently building 170,000 new homes a year, we're on course to miss a target of one million [...]
Rental prices in London have fallen – except in these postcodes November 10, 2016 London rental price growth slowed down in the third quarter, new research has suggested – unless you live in the likes of St Paul's and Clapham, where things are getting a whole lot more expensive…. Research by SpareRoom found London's rental growth rose two per cent in the third quarter, compared with seven per cent last [...]
Bovis Homes on track to deliver record revenues despite Brexit blip November 10, 2016 Housebuilder Bovis Homes said today that it's on track to meet expectations of revenue and profit growth for the year, despite uncertainty in the market following the EU referendum. The group said that aside from the weeks immediately after the UK's vote to leave the EU, sales during the year to date have followed a normal [...]
Savile Row, Harley Street, Mayfair, St James’ and Portland Place safeguarded by new Westminster council policy November 10, 2016 Five renowned areas of the capital have been safeguarded by a new policy introduced by Westminster council. The policy will allow it to reject planning proposals that threaten the character of the city's well-known areas. The Special Policy Areas come into force today to protect Savile Row, Mayfair, Harley Street, St James's and Portland Place. The policy regulations won't dictate [...]
Interiors: Don’t own any art? Make your own. We explore a growing trend for framing beloved objects November 9, 2016 Bringing our homes alive with personality and creativity isn’t just about hanging pictures on walls, especially if we don’t own a Warhol or a Hirst. It’s now de rigeur to think inside the box and display meaningful physical objects in box-frames, or mount prized items, such as decorative scarfs, LP covers or birthday cards, so [...]
Donald Trump’s Presidential election victory could be good for London house prices November 9, 2016 Donald Trump may be about to take the White House, but here in Blighty we're more concerned about one thing: house prices. Thankfully, analyst Anthony Codling has already answered the question everyone was asking: what does a Trump win mean for London house prices? In the short term, he suggests, the London market may get a [...]
How to put your children onto the property ladder (without acrimony) November 9, 2016 With rising house prices and tighter lending criteria, it is increasingly difficult for young people to get onto the housing ladder. In most cases, they will need to call on the Bank of Mum and Dad. Parents who want to help their children are often uncertain about the best way to provide the funds, the [...]