Archive for June, 2009
Zoopla! nominated in The Europas
We’re delighted to have been nominated in The Europas – The TechCrunch Europe Awards for Best Web Application or Service (EMEA).
The TechCrunch Europe Awards 2009 – will honour the best tech companies and startups across the web and mobile scene from across the continent of Europe.
Public voting is now open and ends Wednesday 1st July at 11.59pm.
Ask Me! Questions & Answers is now live
We’ve been busy creating the next stage in our mission to connect sellers, owners and buyers with each other and with professionals and here it is: AskMe! Questions & Answers.
This new Zoopla community feature is the first of its kind in the UK and allows anyone with an interest in property to post and answer any property-related questions about homes or neighbourhoods across the UK.
The idea behind it is that in any local community there is a wealth of untapped information which is vital to any property-related decision. We’re talking about the sort of information you only know if you live or have lived in the area or if you’re an agent who working in that area.
AskMe! Q&A lets anyone tap into this wealth of free information by allowing users to post questions before making any property-related decision. If you’re an agent on AskMe! Q&A, you can get ahead of the competition by answering questions posted by users and thereby demonstrate your expertise and build your profile online with future sellers.
Questions range from straightforward ones about schools in the area, or tax bands, to more detailed questions asking for info on noise in the area, transport links or questions on what house prices are doing in the area.
All the questions are grouped by geographical area and tagged by category such as Home Finance, Home Improvement and Transport making it easy to see what has been asked and answered in your specific area.
For those of you with a little competitive streak, we’ve also incorporated a point scoring system where points are given each time someone answers a question that is rated as helpful by another user. Users with the highest points will be featured as Local Experts on Zoopla.co.uk.
Here’s how Zoopla’s AskMe! Q&A can help you:
Agents – browse user generated questions in your area and share your local knowledge, build your online profile and engage directly with the future sellers and the community by answering questions.
Buyers – ask any relevant questions before you buy and get truly independent advice. You no longer have to rely on one source for information; Ask Me! Q&A offers you an active and responsive audience where information can be sourced that helps make property decisions.
Sellers – check out agents who are active in your area before you decide who to market your house with. Ask local professionals how the local market is performing and whether now is a good time to sell or stay put.
Owners – stay informed and up to date on your local market by having regular dialogue with local property professionals or share your knowledge with potential buyers. Join in the conversation that is taking place about your community.
A link to your profile will be shown next to any questions/answers you post, so please abide by our Good Neighbour Guide and start building your reputation on Zoopla!
Do you live on a musical street?
With Glastonbury Festival fast approaching, we wondered how many streets had a music themed name. All those listed below are real streets, lanes, avenues and closes and to prove it, we’ve inserted the links to the streets on Zoopla.co.uk.
Here are our favourites:
- Tune Street, Barnsley, S70 and Tune Street, Selby, YO8
- French Horn Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 – seriously.
- Drum Avenue, Glastonbury, BA6 – possibly one of the noisiest this week?
- Melody Lane, London, N5 – most expensive musical street – average value £998,851.
- Triangle Lane, Fareham, PO14 – key to any music ensemble.
- Electric Avenue, London, SW9 and Abbey Road, London, NW8 – strictly speaking not musical names, but worthy entrants.
Here are the rest – let us know if we’ve missed any off.
- Bass Lane, Burnley, BL9
- Bass Street, Derby, DE22
- Chime Close, Derby, DE21
- Drum Lane, Warwick, CV35
- Drum Road, Eastleigh, Hampshire SO50
- Harp Close, Farkenham, Norfolk, NR21
- Harp Lane, Telford, TF4
- Lyric Close, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10
- Lyric Drive, Greenford, London, UB6
- Lyric Road, London, SW13
- Lyric Way, Cardiff, CF14
- Melody Close, Gillingham, Kent, ME8
- Melody Way, Gloucester, GL2
- Rock Avenue, Bolton, BL1
- Rock Close, Bristol, BS4
- Rock Drive, Nottingham, NG7
- Rock Hill, Bromsgrove, B61
- Rock Lane, Widnes, WA8
- Rock Road, Peterborough, PE1
- Singer Avenue, Herne Bay, Kent, CT6
- Singer Hill, Droitwich, Worcester, WR9
- Singer Street, Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, G81
- Sound, Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5
- Trumpet, Ledbury, Hereford, HR8
- Triangle Place, London, SW4
- Trill Lane, Axminster, Devon, EX13
- Trumpet Road, Cleator, Cumbria, CA23
Royal hideaway tops seaside property league
Favoured by the likes of Princes William and Harry, Rock in Cornwall has not just topped the Zoopla Seaside Property Hotspot League, but smashed it and probably deserves a league all of its own. With average home values in Rock at a whopping £548,621 – that works out at £370,000 more than average coastal values across the areas we looked at.
Despite seeing values drop 12.9 per cent over the past year, Britain’s answer to St Tropez was the clear leader, ahead of scenic Milford on Sea in Hampshire (average £335,030) and golfing hotspot North Berwick in East Lothian (average £293,598).
Woolacombe in Devon was fourth in the league with values of £286,730 whilst the top five was rounded off by Southwold in Suffolk where a working lighthouse, beach huts and an award-winning pier helped the seaside retreat to a current average property value of £285,468.
Seaside havens in the southwest counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Hampshire dominated the top ten, although properties in Pembrokeshire and Gwynedd in Wales also scored highly in the league.
Over the past 12 months, the biggest seaside value drops were seen by properties in Kent, where house prices have fallen 20.1 per cent in Ramsgate and 18.7 per cent in Broadstairs. Burnham on Sea in Somerset was the third worst performer over the past year with a drop of 18.6 per cent.
Coastal resorts where property prices have held up best in the market downturn, were led by some of Wales’s largest coastal resorts after average property values in Llandudno dropped by just 4.3 per cent and Llangrannog by just 4.7%, followed by popular Cornish family resort Looe where values dropped by only 5.9%.
With house values over £330,000 higher than the Cornish average, residents of Rock also pay the biggest premium in the UK to live in the exclusive village. Popular Abersoch in Wales is next with a premium of £131,000, followed by the harbour village of Porthgain in Pembrokeshire where values were £113,000 over the average for the county.
The figures also revealed that North Berwick is home to the most expensive seaside properties, with the average detached property setting you back a cool £504,261, semi-detached £283,589, flats coming in at £245,530 and the average terraced house a hefty £279,606. Properties in Milford-on-Sea and Sidmouth also scored highly in the value stakes across all property types.
The Zoopla.co.uk Seaside Property Hotspot League was compiled by comparing average home values and property price changes for 120 UK coastal resorts from 1st June 2008 to 1st June 2009.
For more results, click here
Guest Blog: Property Snakes & Ladders
There’s a rich seam of property shows on Channel 4 at the moment, commissioned as a result of the current housing market conditions. Following on the heels of Kirstie’s Homemade Home which tracked a thrifty Kirstie Allsopp as she did up her home in Devon with finds from junk and reclamation yards, antiques’ shops and boot fairs, Property Ladder has an altogether different tone for its current series.
Renamed Property Snakes & Ladders – although if the first episode is anything to go by, Property Snakes might have been a better name for it – each episode follows two different developers as they try to make a profit in a falling market. Filming started some time ago and, inevitably, they bought at the top of the market, so their stories are much more nail-biting – and therefore fascinating – than in the past when developers could just sit on a property and do nothing to make a profit. Now, it’s more important than ever to heed the advice of the unfailingly wise Sarah Beeny. But, true to form, not all of them do. and the results are enough to make anyone think twice about property development. And that’s assuming they could get a mortgage deal to do so in the first place.
Meanwhile, in The Home Show, the lovely George Clarke moves in with homeowners who’ve decided it’s far more sensible to stay put and improve what they’ve got. The results are always impressive – for not much more than it would cost in fees to move house (in some cases), he transforms neglected, unimaginative spaces into dream homes with an ease that makes me wonder why anyone would keep their savings in a bank with interest rates as they are, when they could spend the money far more profitably on improving their home’s appearance and long-term value.
So, what next for the housing market and how will this continue to affect what’s on tv? Property forecasts alternate daily between news of green shoots and continuing signs of doom and gloom. At 4Homes, we steer clear of scary headlines and take a realistic view on current housing market conditions, and I think the property tv shows we’ll be sitting down to enjoy over the rest of the summer will continue to reflect that. Then, in the autumn, maybe we’ll all be in the mood for something a little more fanciful.
Lucy Searle is the editor of the Channel 4 property website, 4Homes
