We know the news about house prices going up or down, from month to month. We heard about the slowdown in the growth rhythm from quarter to quarter.
All in all, the specialist now call this phenomena on the UK housing market a period of ‘plateau’. Details and previsions about the future of the market in the article on PropertyWire.
How do you think this will affect you? Any of you already felt the effects of this stagnation?
Tools for the property market are getting more and more interesting!
Photo source: http://bit.ly/2utx87c
For example, Facebook developed a listings tool to take data from the agency websites and promote it on social media (Facebook and Instagram). Integration is needed between the websites and Facebook, but with some optimization, it should work efficiently.
The functionality is now tested in the US, as the article on EstateAgentToday says.
This is just one of the first steps, but, if things go alright, the project is to develop into a good advertising tool.
Subsidence is never a good thing right? Wrong! There is a little public house in Himley, Staffs that over the years has suffered subsidence due to mining since the 1800’s.
The crooked tavern has been named as Britain’s drunkest pub, as even the soberest of visitors will have a wobble once inside the crooked interior. Even before sinking a pint, glasses on seemingly flat surfaces often slide across tables, and coins appear to roll up, rather than down, the bar.
One end of the bar is 4ft lower than the other.
Sonny Mann, property surveyor for owner Marston’s, said: ‘When a ten pence piece rolls up the bar you ask yourself “Do I really need a drink?”.
‘All buildings move, but this one has moved more than any others I know of. The area is known for subsidence – probably because of the old coal mines settling underground and a river that’s close by.
Originally built as a farmhouse in 1765, it later became a public house called the Siden House – Siden is Black Country dialect for crooked.
It then became the Glynne Arms, named after Sir Stephen Glynne, on whose land it stood before being condemned as unsafe in 1940s.
The building was rescued by Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries and reinforced with supporting buttresses and girders to make it safe and stable.
It is now a tourist attraction as visitors from around the world come to see its odd features.
Mr Mann said the level floors combined with the leaning walls can create some very intriguing optical illusions.
‘The pub’s quite safe though and hasn’t moved for ages,’ he said. ‘We carry out an annual inspection and use special ‘glass tails’ over cracks on the walls – if the glass breaks then we know it’s moving again.’
The Empire State Building stands 1,454 feet tall, including the antennae, which is 204 feet.
Located on 5th Avenue, between 33rd and 34th Streets in Manhattan.
Photo source: Wikipedia, labeled for re-use
The building took 1 year and 45 days to complete, which was more than 7 million man hours.
The observations platforms are on the 86th Floor and 102nd floor, and it attracts more than 4 million tourists every year.
On a clear day, it is possible to see 80 miles into New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. On foggy nights, during the spring and autumn, the tower lights are turned off. The reason is so that migrating birds will not be confused and fly directly into the building.
It is the tallest Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) certified building in the United States.
Over 30 people have jumped to their death from the Empire State Building.
William Lamb designed the building.
The building has 24/7 security, and is monitored with CCTV cameras.
The lobby is 47 feet above sea level. There are 103 floors. The weight is 365,000 tons, and there are 6,514 windows. Good news if you are a window cleaner…
There are 5 entrances in total.
Photo source: Property Reporter
Downsizing on the property market is actually the opposite of climbing on the property ladder. Reducing the size of your home should come as a natural resolution when the house you own is too big for your necessities or too expensive for you.
However, the decision of changing homes can come very difficult, especially within people of a certain age. A recent study showed that most retirees that should downsize choose not to because of a series of reason, the most important being the emotional factor.
Reasons why downsizing is a difficult decision to make:
Despite this, advisers and consultants should be prepared and recommend solutions to those who face a hard time choosing to downsize. As the article on Property Reporter mentions, equity release is a solution and should be carefully offered to some of the clients.
Preparing to leave a house can be a bit of a hustle – mentally and practically. Both of these aspects require ahead preparation.
To make things easier, start to plan the moving as soon as possible. Even immediately after you signed the papers for a new house.
Photo source: https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8783/17027548557_253e53a072_c.jpg
Here are some steps that can be made even two months before the actual move.
Keep vs. throw away-s. Decide what you want to take away with you to your new home and put it on a list. Go through every room of the house and put away the things that aren’t helpful for you anymore. Leave them for the future inhabitant of the house – if they agreed to this, or simply throw them away.
Get all the wrapping supplies. Estimate the number of boxes you are going to need and buy them or ask a local shop to keep some of their product boxes for you. You will also need: bubble tape, tape, markers. Think about the special containers for the dishes or your wardrobe.
Early packing. With even a month before the moving you can start to pack some of the items you do not use frequently. Label them clearly and put them aside.
If you are even more into detailed planning you can use this timeline on RealSimple.com. Try to stick to it as closely as possible because delays mean rescheduling and takes even more of your precious time.
The UK property market does not seem to have a clear path for its development and will be easily influenced by a lot of factors (stamp duty, Brexit). It is hard for anyone trying to draw conclusions and anticipate the future of the sales and lettings market in England.
However, this week we found a couple of information that can form a image of how the United Kingdom’s property market looks now and a bit about how it will look in the future.
Photo source: http://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/property/what-if-the-population-of-the-uk-lived-on-one-street.html
First of all, we have the current image of the typical English street. It is formed mainly of semi-detached houses (32%), detached houses (25%), terraces (26%), and flats (14%). We can anticipate that these structures of houses will be those used for future developments.
Secondly, we know that England tops as one of the most peaceful country around the globe. This should be an important criteria for students, investors and anybody else looking to relocate.
Photo source: http://www.propertywire.com/news/uk/biggest-build-rent-development-uk-gets-65-million-government-boost
When it comes to how the country will look in a couple of years, we now have some idea of the projects that will change the entire property market. One example are the recently financed by the Government Build-to-Rent developments that are supposed to create over one million new homes in the future years.
These are some main factors to influence the future of the UK. Keep them in mind when making any decisions in the real estate field.
England ranks ‘high’ on the peace map of the world.
Vision of Humanity released the new map of the most dangerous countries in the world. Luckily, the UK is at the other end, being ranked as one of the most peaceful in the world.
The entire map is based on three main criteria:
United Kingdom is on the 122 spot, from 163 countries in the analysis, far away from the top 20 most dangerous. More details in the article on Atlas and Boots.
Source of photo: Vision of Humanity.
Sources:
If you are fortunate enough to have a front garden as well as a rear garden, then you have probably considered paving it for easy maintenance… don’t! The front garden is more important than the rear garden. They are for show and not for relaxation and for curb appeal, not for parties and play.
Start with these seven golden rules and your front garden will impress every passer-by:
Blend in with the street. Every road has a ‘look’ and if you take your front garden too far away from what’s normal for your street, you will create a ‘wow’ but not in a good way. You can still raise the tone, if other front gardens in your street are neglected you can go for quietly smart. And if every other garden has been made over like a daytime TV programme, you might have to work a bit harder and invest some more time in your project.
Symmetry and structure will give a great aspect. Look for well defined flower beds, straight lines and solid planting. The hardest look to pull off in a front garden is a wildflower meadow with plants flowing everywhere – go for the opposite of this and you’ll be on the right tracks.
Structure will maintain the aspect of the garden even if it’s wintertime. And winter is a key period for the front garden! It will likely be your one glimpse of greenery on your way from the house to the car, so getting the winter look right is crucial. The shapes of the flower beds will be seen, and is therefore crucial to get this right.
The layout – the bones of the garden – needs to signal where people should go. It’s an obvious point but one that’s often forgotten. When folks walk to your house the front garden needs to show them the way to the front door. It’s purpose, if you like, is to direct. The easiest way to do this is with a clear path and a big signal to mark the front door. Big pots either side of the front door will do the job. They say ‘Hey look over here, this is where you need to go!’.
When you’re putting in the structure, work with the house and the windows. Planting should be high between the windows, low in front of them. Accentuate the patterns of house, don’t work against them. This will often give you a good pattern to copy around the rest of the front garden. The pace of the lower and higher planting can be used at the sides and alongside the road. Use the same spacing and the whole thing will come together like a symphony.
You may not think about selling right now, but it’s likely to happen at some point, so if you’re putting money and effort into your front garden think about kerb appeal to buyers. What would you like to see if you were thinking about buying this house? It’s another really good reason to avoid anything whacky at the front. Kerb appeal is about looking neat and well maintained, cared about and sensible.
Finally, watch out for planning rules. These are often specific to front gardens and can cover anything from the height of your front fence to the colour of your house. To find out what applies in your area the planning department of your local council will be a good place to start. If in doubt – check it out.
Purplebricks is the main subject of today with allegation on making ‘exaggerated’ claims about vendors saving up to £4,158 if they used Purplebricks as opposed to a high street agent. Unhappy customers were those who drew the attention of Watchdog presenter Steph McGovern who then decided to investigate the subject.
More details about Purplebricks’ boss opinion upon the subject and how the entire story was detailed in the BBC programmes ‘You and Yours’ and ‘Watchdog’ in the article below.
Source of photo: BBC Watchdog.
 https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3437/3215255351_5decb2d20c_b.jpg){kind=link}