Posts filed under ‘Site Features’
Exclusive: Pictures of Duffy’s flat before the fire
One of London’s most expensive penthouse apartments went up in smoke last night after a serious fire gutted the property, which earlier this year was up for sale at £8.75 million.
The apartment, which features a swimming pool, huge fish tank, private parking, four bedrooms, a cinema and two roof terraces, had been rented out to the ‘Rain on my parade’ singer Duffy while she records her new album in London. The Welsh warbler had, last night, been about to vacate the penthouse on the 10th floor of Abbot House off Kensington High Street when the blaze broke out.
Up in smoke: the gorgeous and celebrated interior of Duffy’s penthouse apartment before the blaze.
Duffy, along with around 20 other residents, had to evacuate the building late in the night as some sixty fire fighters tackled the blaze, which ripped through most of the penthouse before being doused in the early hours of the morning.
Two songs of Duffy’s point prophetically to the fire (well sort of) including ‘Smoke without fire’ and ‘Big flame’ but what many will lament are the penthouse’s now lost interiors, created by artist and architect Francis Machin who modelled many of London’s landmarks including Ransomes Dock on Battersea Embankment. His father, a designer, created the current Queen’s heads featured on UK postage stamps.
Lucky escape: singer Duffy had to flee her rented luxury apartment in Kensington, London as a fire ripped through the property.
While the blaze is a blow for design, luckily the apartment’s interiors were preserved within the property history section of Zoopla and after a bit of digging we found these. We can only hope they can be stored to such a wonderfully former glory (pictured above and below).
Take a look around Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s £10m London mansion
Earlier this year we launched an exciting new tool on Zoopla.co.uk - the Zoopla Property Archive – the UK’s first online property archive. We launched with over 2 million historic property listings details and have been adding to this ever since.
This is a totally unique feature to Zoopla that will become another essential research tool for house hunters to help them make smarter property decisions.
What this means is that our users can search homes that at one time were for sale or to rent in the last 10 years and pull up the old listing.
Searching through the archive, we’ve unearthed this property in Winnington Close, London, N2 which is reported to be owned by Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s, Colonel Gaddafi’s son and heir-apparent and former London School of Economics student.
We currently value the property at £9,530,444.
What does the archive tell us about the property?
- Previously listed for sale on 1st Jul 2009 for £12,500,000
- It was then listed for rent on 14th May 2010 £9,500 pw
- It is a 7 bedroom property over 7,500 sq ft
- Features “stunning” entertaining space including a home cinema room, a swimming pool and a sauna
Here is the historic property for sale listing and rental listing.
More about the Zoopla Property Archive
We believe that one of the key benefits of the web is its ability to make useful information free and easily accessible to everyone. Whilst historic house prices paid have been available online for some time (you can find every record since 1995 on Zoopla.co.uk), the ability to match these to photos and descriptions of the property at that time it was for sale or to rent hasn’t been possible…until now.
The unique property archive covers properties that have been on the market for either sale or rent at some point in the 10 years.
What will an archived record show?
- the historic for sale or to rent asking price of a property
- the date it was last listed on the market
- images of the property at the time it was last listed for sale or to rent
- a description of the property at that point in time
- access to the sold prices of the property, if sold
Where can I find an archived listing?
Historic listings can be found in the ‘Current Values’ section of the Zoopla.co.uk website and are clearly marked with an ‘H’ to indicate a historic listing record is available.
As always, please feel free to share and use this information, all we ask is that you credit the source as Zoopla.co.uk and link to Zoopla.co.uk. Thank you.
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Zoopla launch heatmaps of UK property values
Heatmap of UK property values
We’ve just launched a very exciting new and unique way to look at UK property values on Zoopla.co.uk.
Welcome to our property heatmaps which show the average current property value of homes across the UK in a clear and easy to visualise format. The new heatmaps can be found on all maps across the Zoopla website and can be viewed at varying zoom levels down to individual postcodes.
In addition to the new heatmaps on the property market overview pages, we have also added a variety of other valuable local property information that provides an essential research tool for potential house hunters. This data is located on the ‘market overview’ pages of Zoopla.co.uk. These newly launched stats include (for any geographic area):
- the number of properties on the market
- average asking prices – property for sale and to rent
- the average size of properties in the area
- the average price per square foot
We feel that the addition of heatmaps to our site allows our users to easily visualise the relative property values in any area of the country. Together with the unique market data we are now making available, this is all part of our mission to empower our users with the information they need to make the right property decisions and to become the most useful property resource in the UK.
So, if you like them why not click the buttons at the bottom of the post or leave a comment and let us know what you think.
How the heatmaps work
To generate our heatmaps, we use our current value estimates to generate a color gradient overlay. In this color overlay, different colors correspond to the different average property values in each geographic area. Higher value areas tend towards red, and lower value areas tend towards blue. The value scale is dynamic and relative: Red in one locality may not have the same value as red in another locality, but on any given map, red is always higher value than blue. By making the scale dynamic, we make it easier to see the variation that exists within any locality. If we didn’t do this, West London would be red, and the rest of the country subtle shades of blue – clearly not very useful! To determine which colours correspond to which values, you can consult the value pin markers displayed on the map. The value pins show the average value for that specific location, and contain links to the market overview pages for those specific localities.
Heatmap of London property values
London Heatmap (click image to zoom)
Heatmap of Glasgow property values
Glasgow Heatmap (click to zoom)
Heatmap of Manchester property values
Manchester Heatmap (click to zoom)
Heatmap of Birmingham property values
Birmingham heatmap (click to zoom)
Heatmap of Bristol property values
Bristol Heatmap (click to zoom)
Heatmap of Nottingham property values
Nottingham Heatmap (click to zoom)
Heatmap of Liverpool property values
Liverpool Heatmap (click to zoom)
Heatmap of Leeds property values
Leeds Heatmap (click to zoom)
Heatmap of Sheffield property values
Sheffield Heatmap (click to zoom)
Heatmap of Edinburgh property values
Edinburgh Heatmap (click to zoom)
Heatmap of Cardiff property values
Cardiff Heatmap (click to zoom)
As always, please feel free to share and use this information, all we ask is that you credit the source as Zoopla.co.uk and link to Zoopla.co.uk. Thank you.
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Tweet, Digg or Facebook your favourite Zoopla properties
We’ve made it even easier for people to share any property listing on Zoopla.co.uk.
Whether you’re just window shopping or want to send a property to friends or family for their input, you can now share property for sale or property to rent via 295 social networking sites including: twitter, Facebook, Digg and hundreds more social networks.
At the top of every property listings page (see below) on Zoopla, just above the photos you’ll now find the email, twitter and Facebook icons and a ‘+’ sign – allowing you to share a particular property through hundreds of other social media sites. Just click your preferred social network icon, connect and start sharing your favourite properties.
Here’s what it looks like on twitter:
…and here’s what it looks like on Facebook:
Happy sharing…why not share this article with the buttons below?
Zoopla.co.uk gives you the bigger picture – view here
We’re constantly listening to your feedback, making changes, adding tools and creating even better functionality where we feel it will create a better experience. Ultimately we’re here to help you make the best possible property related decisions and our latest addition is part of that journey.
When it comes to pictures of property, the old adage “A picture is worth a thousands words” is certainly true. Our research shows that property listings for sale with good quality imagery are more likely to receive an enquiry than those that have drab, dark imagery with low resolution.
So, we’ve now added an even better viewing experience and bring you the bigger picture. You can now view larger property pictures (where available) on the property details pages either individually or via a slide show.
This is the normal view, before we introduced the ‘bigger picture’:
…and here is the bigger picture:
Keep the feedback coming either by leaving a comment below, through Zoopla or come and find us on twitter.
