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‘Prefabricated’ houses appeared in the Second World War as a necessity. Fast reconstruction was the need then.

These days, prefab houses might be a new trend. The need they should be fulfilling now is the increased demand of homes and the super-fast pace they should be built.

The UK is one of the main countries in which this need can already be seen on the property market. However, prefab homes are going to bring some new problems to the market, starting with viability, and ending with insurance.

A good point of view on the problem of creating new communities based on prefab houses can be found in this article on Property Division:

Are prefabs set to make a comeback?

And if you want a clear image of how how prefab/ fast houses can look like, here are some ideas:

Photo sources: Inhabitat

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Home automation or domotics is building automation for a home, called a smart home or smart house. It involves the control and automation of lighting, heating (such as smart thermostats), ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), and security, as well as home appliances such as washer/dryers, ovens or refrigerators/freezers. Wi-Fi is often used for remote monitoring and control. Home devices, when remotely monitored and controlled via the Internet, are an important constituent of the Internet of Things. Modern systems generally consist of switches and sensors connected to a central hub sometimes called a “gateway” from which the system is controlled with a user interface that is interacted either with a wall-mounted terminal, mobile phone software, tablet computer or a web interface, often but not always via Internet cloud services.

Even from the mere definition on Wikipedia, you know what to expect of a Smart Home. It is the ‘house of the future’ as we have seen it in movies a long time ago.

Complete automation of systems inside a house and the possibility to remote control them became a reality in the last few years. Because of the house’s ability to ‘respond’ to requests and needs of the inhabitants, it was named in the real estate domain a ‘smart home’. But is it smart enough to fascinate an English buyer?

Photo source: Property Reporter http://bit.ly/2x5GpDi

Latest research shows that most Brits are afraid of smart homes because of reasons like:

  • unapproved data collection;
  • hackers;
  • web viruses.

More details in the article on Property Reporter:

Majority of Brits are fearful of ‘Smart Homes’

Distrust in this type of a ‘connected house’ can be caused by lack of knowledge. Maybe testing the house before can prove to be a good way to increase confidence in home systems and technologies.

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Photo source: HouseBeautiful http://bit.ly/2x5uXY3

We all can find very good excuses for not creating out little garden. If you can find a way to grow vegetable and plants even in your balcony, then you can have your garden anywhere.

 

HouseBeautiful.co.uk made a list of top 5 excuses and brought arguments against each and every one of them. We already told you that space is not an issue when it comes to domestic gardening and there are plenty of solutions for this problem. Let’s see the solution to the following problems like “I don’t have enough time” or “The plants aren’t going to get enough sun”.

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Staging (theatre), the process of selecting, designing, adapting to, or modifying the performance space for a play or film. […]

Home staging, preparing a residence for sale in real estate.

If you’re not sure about what to improve to your home before the viewings, just go to the front door or the gate to the yard and start stepping inside like you are a potential buyer.

You will see with a stranger’s eyes the small cracks in the pavement, the old paint, and the untidy bathroom.

Here’s some more ideas of how to quickly ‘beautify’ your house:

Setting to sell: the art of property staging

Photo source: Property Division http://bit.ly/2fBfqMT

Make sure to make a budget before setting to renovate your house. Make it buyer friendly on a low budget, don’t give it a new face or a costly make-over. You might fall in love with the new face and decide not to sell it.

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In 1980 an average property in London cost £24,000. Year by year, the price increased in an average rhythm of 7%. The same type of property now costs £223,257. The price multiplied by almost 9.5 times.

Image source: http://bit.ly/2yLg8fs

How about affordability among people living in the UK? The rise in the property price should have been alright and easy to handle if the earnings rose proportionally. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

In the last decade, median individual annual earnings in Britain rose by 68%, whilst the house prices grew by 259%. The inequity is the real gap between generations.

The complete study and a very efficient analysis you can find on Property Division.

Historic House Prices: Research Shows Your Parents Definitely Had it Easier

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Photo source: Wikimedia http://bit.ly/2xJHXXt

A successful renovation project starts with a good plan. Make a list of all the things you want/ need to replace to make you – as in inhabitant of the place you are renovating – happier.

To make the process more efficient, design in your mind (and maybe on a piece of paper) the entire plan. Here’s how to start a renovation project for a bathroom.

Source of video: ThisOldHouse

Always have a clear image of how you want the end result to look and keep in mind the aim of the entire project: to increase the value of the property. This will keep you on budget and away from any useless features.

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We would have expected that this matter turn into an urgent one for landlords and tenants too. Despite the continuous talks upon the Grenfell fire and measures to be taken to prevent something like that happening ever again, apparently landlords forgot about the subject.

Majority of tenants say landlords have not discussed fire safety after deadly Grenfell disaster

As a tenant you can also take the matter into your hands and ask from your landlord to keep you informed about potential risks in case of any accidents, fire safety, and fire exists.

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The Government announced a support of almost £23 million for communities. This budget is to be used to develop Neighbourhood Plans until 2022.

What should come out of this move after the entire period?! The type of local growth the British Government is encouraging targets new buildings and homes, parks and other type of green spaces, offices, and shops.

Details upon the outcomes in this article below on Property Wire.

£23 million announced to help communities have a say in new housing

The pro-active moves of the Government however do not compensate on the lack of active involvement until now on ‘abusive’ leaseholds. The officials are expected to ‘make a move’ on current leaseholds and ban these types of contracts in the future. Considering the plan to build and develop new homes, the actions taken now should be a ground for more reliable future leaseholds.

Calls for UK Government to urgently sort out ‘abusive’ residential leaseholds on new builds

 

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Finding new places to live and create human-friendly environments is a constant subject of search in the last years. Most specialist find in Mars the most fitted place to create these environments and studies have intensified lately.

For example, to study the forms of life that adapted to the type of environment found on Mars, astrobiologist Armando Azua-Bustos went to the most Martian place on Earth – the Atacama Desert in Chile. Here’s what he found:

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Photo source: ThisOldHouse http://bit.ly/2dgveSH

We already gave you a few tips on how to make this autumn more special for your home. However, some early preparations for the winter can also be done this time of the year.

We searched for a useful guide on how to make your house safer for the cold season and we came across this article on This Old House:

Button Up Your House For Fall

There are six essential tasks that you can complete in the fall:

1. Weatherproof Windows and Doors

2. Check Your Gutters

3. Find and Fix Cracked Concrete

4. Clean Cooling Devices

5. Check for Holes in The Attic

6. Check Your Insulation

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