Real Estate Wealth of Information http://www.qigongtech.com This is a massive repository of real estate news, stories and updates from around the world. Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:20:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 A new site helps home owners sell a house at auction for free. http://www.qigongtech.com/799/real-estate/a-new-site-helps-home-owners-sell-a-house-at-auction-for-free/ http://www.qigongtech.com/799/real-estate/a-new-site-helps-home-owners-sell-a-house-at-auction-for-free/#comments Fri, 22 Apr 2011 11:20:15 +0000 auhtor name http://www.qigongtech.com/?p=799 We have just noticed a brand new service being launched in the uk. The site selling houses at auction claim to help home owners manage selling their houses at auction. So far, only estate agents were the ones guiding sellers through such a method of selling. We believe this is a very good value for home owners as the company does it for free! They get paid by the auction company for introducing the home owner. hence the seller gets all the help and guidance for free.

]]> http://www.qigongtech.com/799/real-estate/a-new-site-helps-home-owners-sell-a-house-at-auction-for-free/feed/ 0 Is Northern Rock about to re-introduce the 90% loan http://www.qigongtech.com/797/real-estate/is-northern-rock-about-to-re-introduce-the-90-loan/ http://www.qigongtech.com/797/real-estate/is-northern-rock-about-to-re-introduce-the-90-loan/#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 12:40:41 +0000 auhtor name http://www.qigongtech.com/797/real-estate/is-northern-rock-about-to-re-introduce-the-90-loan/ Just three years after becoming credit crunch poster bank and suffering the ignominy of a bank run, the nationalised Northern Rock is apparently about to announce a 90% mortgage. More here.

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]]> http://www.qigongtech.com/797/real-estate/is-northern-rock-about-to-re-introduce-the-90-loan/feed/ 0 Colin Firth’s already won something http://www.qigongtech.com/796/real-estate/colin-firths-already-won-something/ http://www.qigongtech.com/796/real-estate/colin-firths-already-won-something/#comments Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:30:35 +0000 auhtor name http://www.qigongtech.com/796/real-estate/colin-firths-already-won-something/ Colin Firth crowned nation s ideal neighbour according to Zoopla co uk Zoopla co uk Blog

No Oscar in the bag yet, but Colin Firth will I’m sure be delighted that he’s “the nation’s ideal neighbour”. According to data by Zoopla, Firth’s the celebrity neighbour you’d most like to have (with 15% of a very spread vote), soundly beating (something we’d pay to see) Cheryl Cole (with 9%). Firth, incidentally, lives in Chiswick. The least desired celebrity neighbour? That would be Katie Price, who managed to grab almost 30% of the anti-vote. Incidentally. there’s actually the possibility Price might be your neighbour soon. She’s on the move. Particulars here, pic below.

Katie Price

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]]> http://www.qigongtech.com/796/real-estate/colin-firths-already-won-something/feed/ 0 Their basement’s bigger than yours http://www.qigongtech.com/795/real-estate/their-basements-bigger-than-yours/ http://www.qigongtech.com/795/real-estate/their-basements-bigger-than-yours/#comments Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:30:33 +0000 auhtor name http://www.qigongtech.com/795/real-estate/their-basements-bigger-than-yours/ Or it will be, if it gets approval next month. It’s a proposed underground extension to a £9m house on Templewood Avenue, and it will result in a ninefold increase in the property’s underground square footage (not overall square footage, as eye-catchingly suggested here). Still, it’s enough – two years work – to seriously worry the neighbours and a local conservation group, who suggest it will create a substantial flood risk in the area.

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]]> http://www.qigongtech.com/795/real-estate/their-basements-bigger-than-yours/feed/ 0 Friday morning linkage – pockets of value, the fox on the Shard, an austerity timetable http://www.qigongtech.com/794/real-estate/friday-morning-linkage-pockets-of-value-the-fox-on-the-shard-an-austerity-timetable/ http://www.qigongtech.com/794/real-estate/friday-morning-linkage-pockets-of-value-the-fox-on-the-shard-an-austerity-timetable/#comments Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:30:32 +0000 auhtor name http://www.qigongtech.com/794/real-estate/friday-morning-linkage-pockets-of-value-the-fox-on-the-shard-an-austerity-timetable/ The fox on the Shard [The London News]
The mortgage famine [Citywire]
The austerity timetable [FT]
In the US: are buyers really swayed by vendors’ wealth-trappings? [Curbed]
Barratt abandons ftbs [Telegraph]
London’s pockets of value [City AM]

The Rat and Mouse – it’s about your house

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]]> http://www.qigongtech.com/794/real-estate/friday-morning-linkage-pockets-of-value-the-fox-on-the-shard-an-austerity-timetable/feed/ 0 Your tenant and his human rights http://www.qigongtech.com/793/real-estate/your-tenant-and-his-human-rights/ http://www.qigongtech.com/793/real-estate/your-tenant-and-his-human-rights/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:28:06 +0000 auhtor name http://www.qigongtech.com/793/real-estate/your-tenant-and-his-human-rights/ Last November, our publisher wrote about an interesting test case, before the Supreme Court, which demonstrated what could happen when European human rights law was applied to a landlord’s attempt to evict an anti-social or non-paying tenant. (You can catch up, if you like, here.) Today, the Daily Mail – under the slightly more hysterical headline…

Human rights

… picks up on the story, with news of a new ruling as applied to a council tenant in Hounslow. She’s apparently been receiving (the equivalent of) £15,000 a year in housing benefit, but hadn’t been passing the money on in rent (an argument, if ever we’ve heard one, for housing benefit to go directly to landlords). She managed to avoid eviction on human rights grounds, and has agreed to pay the £3,536.39 in arrears at £5 a week… in other words over 13 and a half years. Good lack with that.

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]]> http://www.qigongtech.com/793/real-estate/your-tenant-and-his-human-rights/feed/ 0 On the fight to save historic Fitzrovia poor house http://www.qigongtech.com/792/real-estate/on-the-fight-to-save-historic-fitzrovia-poor-house/ http://www.qigongtech.com/792/real-estate/on-the-fight-to-save-historic-fitzrovia-poor-house/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:28:05 +0000 auhtor name http://www.qigongtech.com/792/real-estate/on-the-fight-to-save-historic-fitzrovia-poor-house/ Strand union workhouse

According to the BBC, the Cleveland Street Workhouse Group (of campaigners fighting to save the 18th Century former Strand Union Workshouse from demolition to make way for a residential development) are claiming a move in the right direction after an English Heritage report appears to acknowledge it’s historic importance and promise a decision shortly. Expect celebrations outside the property tomorrow night (premature? perhaps, but possibly adding pressure on the authorities to give it its listing). The building is situated nine doors from Dickens’ childhood home on Norfolk Street (now Cleveland Street), and it’s said to have been the model for the Oliver Twist workhouse. It’s also apparently the best  preserved Georgian workhouse in London. For more information, head here. Finally, go here for an interesting Hansard fragment from 1866, in which conditions inside the workhouse are discussed in the Lords.

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]]> http://www.qigongtech.com/792/real-estate/on-the-fight-to-save-historic-fitzrovia-poor-house/feed/ 0 Rankdesk rates properties on investment potential http://www.qigongtech.com/791/real-estate/rankdesk-rates-properties-on-investment-potential/ http://www.qigongtech.com/791/real-estate/rankdesk-rates-properties-on-investment-potential/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:28:04 +0000 auhtor name http://www.qigongtech.com/791/real-estate/rankdesk-rates-properties-on-investment-potential/ Rankdesk2 4An interesting start-up by LSE fellow Savvas Verdis, Rankdesk ranks London’s top ten properties submitted by agents for investment potential (based on its own “RQI Method” parameters – proximity to transport, parking, outdoor space, facilities etc for “Q”uality; price, yield, appreciations etc for “I”nvestment). You can access the top ten for free here, sign up (for free) to access a further 90, and a couple of sample full-length reviews. Paid services include on-demand reviews of properties submitted by you but not yet on the site. Interesting? Definitely… although the RQI methodology looks very like common sense and if you’re not asking these questions of properties already you probably shouldn’t be thinking about investment. It looks like some investors are already paying attention though, the number one property – a three bedroom place in SW7 – has gone under offer. What’s next on the list? This five-bedroom £2.95m terraced house in Holland Park.

Rankdesk2

It’s a good idea, and pretty addictive. As someone who doesn’t find it easy pronouncing my “r”s, though, I’m worried about that name.

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]]> http://www.qigongtech.com/791/real-estate/rankdesk-rates-properties-on-investment-potential/feed/ 0 The day of the interest rate increase… it’s coming http://www.qigongtech.com/790/real-estate/the-day-of-the-interest-rate-increase-its-coming/ http://www.qigongtech.com/790/real-estate/the-day-of-the-interest-rate-increase-its-coming/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:28:03 +0000 auhtor name http://www.qigongtech.com/790/real-estate/the-day-of-the-interest-rate-increase-its-coming/ Who’d have thought the minutes of a meeting by a bunch of inflation/interest rate geeks would ever be so interesting, but today’s publication of the previous MPC meeting has been awaited with some palm-rubbing. And it turns out the hawks (Andrew Sentance and Martin Weale) have recruited another… Spencer Dale. Dale joined Weale in voting for a 0.25% increase; Sentance gunned for 0.5%. There was also evidence that their numbers might swell if Friday’s GDP figures show an improving economic outlook. Only a fool would bet against an interest rate rise this year. The Rat and Mouse’s best guess? Rates at 2% by Christmas.

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]]> http://www.qigongtech.com/790/real-estate/the-day-of-the-interest-rate-increase-its-coming/feed/ 0 "Scraping" fraud hits UK tenants http://www.qigongtech.com/789/real-estate/scraping-fraud-hits-uk-tenants/ http://www.qigongtech.com/789/real-estate/scraping-fraud-hits-uk-tenants/#comments Wed, 23 Feb 2011 12:26:42 +0000 auhtor name http://www.qigongtech.com/789/real-estate/scraping-fraud-hits-uk-tenants/ Fake lettings sites, automatically “scraping” genuine websites for data, are responsible for illegally separating would-be tenants from their deposits, according to this. Overseas clients are particularly at risk. ARLA advice tenants to to demand safety certificates and other address-related documents and send a friend to actually visit the bricks-and-mortar with the landlord before entering into any kind of arrangement.

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