Archive for April, 2009
Top 5 homes for sale with sea views
With a hot and dry summer predicted, we’ve been wondering which of the homes listed for sale on Zoopla! would we most like to spend it at. With prices falling 18.4% in the last 12 months, now could be a great time to snap up that dream home by the sea if you have the financial wherewithal. Here’s our top 5:
A fantastic 6 bedroom Art Deco home, perched high about Falmouth Estuary with stunning views, charming grounds and for entertainment-nirvana, a 16-setting, circular, glass-walled dining room with sea views. Yours for a tidy £2.75m.
Spectacular house for sale near Falmouth
More Cornwall property for sale
With the exception only of prime central London, New York and Moscow property, Sandbanks, a small peninsula jutting out into Poole Harbour, boasts the world’s most expensive real estate, with an average price per sq ft of £850. Aside from the wonderful views this property affords of Poole Harbour, we can imagine throwing some impressive parties in its landscaped garden which leads right up to the waters edge.
Sandbanks home for sale with sea view
More property for sale in Dorset
Salcombe, on Devon’s south coast is one of Britain’s most beautiful tourist spots. Its natural harbour features sheltered beaches, perfect anchor for yachtsmen, varied fish and birdlife and a town that offers great dining opportunities. The vantage point from which this 4 bedroom flat looks out over the harbour is what sets it apart.
4 bed flat for sale in Salcombe, Devon
More flats for sale in Salcombe
If you’re attracted by miles of golden sand and surf breaks, then this modern house for sale in Perranporth might well appeal to you. For the asking price of £900k, you’ll be able to watch the sun set over the Atlantic from this spectacular terrace.
Modern beach front house for sale in Perranporth, Cornwall
More Cornwall property for sale
Finally, if you’re in the market for a white-washed, castellated, beach front property, complete with turrets, a huge terrace, conservatory and four bedrooms, then this might just be the home for you. You just need to be able to afford the £2.25m price tag.
Beach front house for sale in Brighton
Britain’s Property Rich List 2009
The Property Rich List, Zoopla’s definitive guide to Britain’s most expensive places to live, was published this week.
Kensington Palace Gardens in London W8 is still by far the most exclusive address in the country with an average home value of £22 million, although prices there have fallen byover £4M in the last 12 months. The most expensive areas are led by Kensington, Chelsea and Knightsbridge – and outside London it’s leafy Virginia Water, Beaconsfield and Cobham leading the pack.
It’s not just about London and the South East though. We’ve had some great coverage, nationally and regionally – especially in Scotland and Wales – for this story, and it is well worth checking out the Rich List for your area.
Visit our press section for the full press release and a selection of coverage. And please comment below if you’ve spotted any interesting golden nuggets in your neighbourhood.
Five homeowner tips to beat a recession
Our top tips on how to manage your finances to survive and thrive, even in a property market downturn.
1. Get on top of your mortgage payments
- With interest rates at historical lows, check that you are on the best deal.
- If your current deal is up, remortgage at a good rate. Get a free mortgage quote.
- If you get behind with payments, speak to your bank immediately.
2. Review your monthly expenses
- Do you really need that 3 pound gourmet coffee every morning?
- Eat in more often – and have fun and get healthy from cooking from scratch.
- Get a better deal on your home insurance by shopping around? Get quote.
- Reduce monthly electricity and gas bills by switching providers. Save money.
3. Consolidate or sort out your debts
- Try to create and stick to a schedule so you can pay debts off little and often.
- Avoid credit card – it’s usually very expensive compared with a bank loan.
- Consider an IVA or Debt management solution. Get free, no obligation advice.
4. Consider downsizing or equity release
- You could reduce your mortgage by selling and moving to a smaller home.
- Relocate to a great value area like Shropshire, Dorset or Norfolk.
- Consider releasing equity in your home through a secured loan. Get loan quote.
5. Be smart about renting or buying
- Rental activity has grown recently as people fear losing capital as prices fall.
- However, buying at the bottom, if you can time it right, can make you money.
- If buying in a down market, look for price reductions and don’t overpay.
- Search thousands of Zoopla homes to rent in England, Scotland or Wales.
How to make Zoopla! estimates more accurate
How can you make Zoopla! estimates more accurate? Simple: give us more details about any UK home – like the number of bedrooms or bathrooms it has, or if it has a garden or patio.
The Zoopla! algorithm has been engineered to work well even when there’s a shortage of facts and figures, to learn and adapt quickly when new information becomes available, and to use that new information to offer increasingly accurate value estimates. So the more information we have, the better it works – the algorithm thrives on rich data.
Adding property data on Zoopla!
While we already have great information about many millions of properties, we also lack data on millions more.
For example, the Registers of Scotland doesn’t record the property type with the transaction records. So Zoopla! may know that the property two doors down from your terraced home just sold, but we don’t know that it’s a carbon copy of your place, because we don’t know that it’s terraced and has the same number of beds and baths. Until users edit the data to tell us that all the other houses on the street are terraced, Zoopla! can’t use the information it does know to the fullest extent possible to value this and all the other properties more accurately.
Filling in all the details on your street won’t affect estimates immediately. But as that information percolates through the system, you can expect to see changes in a few days. Try it out, and see what happens.
So please tell us if all the houses on your street are semi-detached. Tell us your mum’s place has 4 beds; tell us the flat upstairs has 2 baths. Every piece of information users like yourselves provide enhances the accuracy and quality of information for the entire Zoopla! community.
Three Ways To Add Property Data
1) Use our quick Edit feature in either the Home Values or Sold Prices channels
2) Refine an existing estimate for a property
3) Use the Get Estimate feature for properties with no current published estimate
And last but not least, spread the word. If you know people that would benefit from this service, get them to find out what their place is worth and contribute to the model. From small acorns…
Google Street View live on Zoopla!
In case you missed it, Zoopla! announced last week that only days after the launch of Google’s UK Street View we have integrated it into our mapping. Street View is currently only available in 25 UK cities, covering just under 10% of the 233k miles of road in the country but a far greater proportion of UK population and therefore property.
Street view image in Nottingham
In the context of property search and market information, it’s certainly a great addition to the site experience. Street View supplements the bird’s eye and aerial property views already available, giving users the ultimate tool to research an area for buying, renting or understanding property values.
How to use Street View on Zoopla!
1. You’ve found a 3 bedroom house in Oxford that matches your criteria.
2. Scroll down the listing page, where the default Map view is shown, and select Street View at the top right of the image.
Selecting Street View on Zoopla!
3. You’re now taking a virtual tour of the street where this property is for sale. You can either get a full 360 degrees view, or take a stroll up and down.
Street View of Henley Street, Oxford, OX4
4. To get a 360 degree perspective of a street or change the directional view, drag the ‘N’ around the dial in the top left or click on the arrows, to move down the street click the white arrows on the line pointing down the centre. To zoom in or out click the + or – to the left.
NB – due to Google not being able to pinpoint the exact position of an individual property, Street View images are likely to be several metres away from the property in question or facing the opposite way.
Street View can be found on all Zoopla!’s maps. If you’re researching current home values in Oxford and wonder why a particular area is more valuable than another, Street View allows you to compare streets by selecting Map View for that search result. When selecting Street View you’ll notice that areas covered by Google are outlined in blue.
Areas covered by Street View are outlined in blue
As you zoom in further you’ll see individual streets outlined in blue and a simple click will allow you to take a virtual tour of that area.
Zoopla! are big fans of Street View and think it will add a huge deal of value to people researching property online which is what we’re all about. We hope you agree but feel free to let us know what you think.
