Could Abramovich be eyeing a Kensington Palace Gardens home?
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
Rumours abound at the moment of a sale on Kensington Palace Gardens, one of London’s most exclusive streets. Dubbed “Billionaires’ Row”, Lakshmi Mittal, the UK’s wealthiest man, owns property on this tree-lined park-side road, as does Foxtons’ founder Jonathan Hunt and the Saudi royal family. So we sent writer Jessie Hewitson to dig a little deeper.
Houses here have very rarely come onto the market – until now. According to sources, Belgian hedge fund manager Pierre LaGrange and his wife Catherine have put their million-pound pad up for sale. LaGrange is co-founder of GLG Partners, one of the most successful hedge funds in the country. This year’s Sunday Times Rich List placed him at #201, with a fortune of £331 million.
The rumoured price tag for the Kensington Palace Gardens property is £30 million, which will boost LaGrange’s personal fortune still further. Its unusually long Land Registry report shows that the 10-bedroom house was bought for £19 million in 2004, and despite being a house it is leasehold, with 118 years left to run. The Crown Estate (i.e. the Queen) owns the freehold and the ground rent is predictably steep: in 2004 it cost £10,000 a year, but according to the Land Registry report this could rise to £160,000.
The house sale coincides with the office-relocation of an even wealthier businessman: Roman Abramovich, who has moved his headquarters from Chelsea to Knightsbridge, close to Kensington Palace Gardens. As a result property industry insiders have been speculating that the Russian oligarch may be aware of the sale and is taking a strong interest.
If he is interested in purchasing the property it is likely to be because he can’t resist snapping up such a rarely available trophy home, or perhaps he is viewing the purchase as an investment or to gift to a family member. It’s unlikely to be for his personal use, as work is currently underway on the mega-home he owns in Knightsbridge, which he plans to share with girlfriend Daria Zhukova and their two-year-old son Aaron. They are knocking together two adjoining townhouses on Lowndes Square, creating one palatial residence. The houses were originally home to a combined nine flats, and when finished will feature eight bedrooms and span a jaw-dropping 30,000 sq ft, five times the area of the average five-bed home.
How to get your rent deposit back
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
Tenant deposits are big news if you’re a renter. The deposit can be anything from six weeks rent to more than two months and that can add up to thousands of pounds. Of course, the idea is, you’re supposed to get that money back when you move out and leave the property in the pristine condition in which you moved in. But things, as they say, don’t always work out the way we plan.
Get busy with the cleaning products and you’ll have a better chance of getting your rent deposit back
So why are some renters not getting all their deposits back?
Some new research from mydeposits – one of the government-sanctioned deposit holding bodies – has revealed that’s mainly down to cleaning costs and unpaid rent. Of those estate agents and landlords who did withold money, 78% said they spent it on tidying up after tenants.
Now, moving out when you owe rent is one thing , but moving out and not cleaning up properly – and then losing money – really shouldn’t be happening to clued-up tenants who value their pounds and pence. It’s that simple really.
Eddie Hooker of Mydeposits wants to help tenants get their cash back and says renters can improve their chances by “ensuring the property is clean, any damage repaired and that the rent is paid up to the day they move out”. He says general wear and tear should be taken into account, too. We couldn’t agree more.
It’s also a good idea to make sure your contact details (including postal address, phone number and email address) are up to date with whichever tenant deposit scheme you’re using. Ahead of vacating your premises, dig out your tenancy paperwork and ensure you know exactly what was included in the inventory so you can be upfront about anything that’s missing, as well as avoiding any accidental omissions.
So tenants: keep the carpets clean and the dosh delivered and, all things being equal, you’ll be in the strongest position possible to get your cash back in a flash. Tidy!
Renting blog: Are you the one who always changes the loo roll?
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
In my experience of living with other people (family and exes included), there’s always one person who ends up taking the rubbish out, changing the loo roll, and in our rented house, making sure our abode stays clean.
While I’m in charge of the house account, I don’t see my role (house “prefect” – as one of my housemates calls me) as being the one to mop the kitchen floor or vacuum the lounge. So after an unsuccessful cleaning rota system, the “prefect” decided to get in a cleaner.
I’ve had a bit of bad luck with cleaners – they disappear to France, get ill, cancel on me (on sunny days, usually), so I thought I’d go through an agency who’d promised reliability.
After an initial meeting, our new cleaner Yordanka arrived on Saturday morning. I was excited that she’d actually pitched up, and leaving her with a bucketful of cleaning materials, I let her get on with the task.
Two hours later Yordanka finds me to say the vacuum cleaner isn’t working. We inspect it, pull out a Christmas ribbon tangled in the brush, a coffee receipt and a mangled hairband. Still no luck. We empty it, clean the filter and still it refuses to come on.
Giving up, I say I’ll get hold of the letting agent who hopefully will fix it or replace it. Poor Yordanka does her best with a broom and calls it a day.
As I take out the bin bags she’s piled outside the front door and head out to stock up on toilet paper, I muse that it seems there’s always going to be that one person to fix a vacuum cleaner too.
Partners and properties: The perfect couple
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
Love and property. You might not immediately put the two together, but a new show from the folks at Channel 4 are planning a new documentary that does just that.
The BAFTA award-winning team behind One Born Every Minute and 24 Hours in A&E are working on a new seven part show about love and living together.
Details are a bit sparse at the moment, but what we do know is that the doco will delve into the lives of one couple who’re living together and feature a further six couples in love (of all ages): from first kiss to final farewell. No doubt they’ll be laughs, tears and possibly even a few tense moments over some tricky DIY projects!
Best of all, Channel 4 are on the hunt for a couple to feature in the documentary. If you and your partner are on the cusp of moving in together, then it could be you. Email Anna Dangoor at anna.dangoor@thegardenproductions.tv or call 020 3465 9060 to find out more.
Property asking prices reduced to highest level in over a year
Bolton four bedroom family home reduced by 18.7%
Our latest analysis of current asking prices is showing that those selling continue to have to lower prices due to weak buyer demand. We’re also seeing the north-south divide continuing to widen – sellers in the north are being forced to reduce property asking prices by much more than their counterparts in the south. Northern towns and cities dominate the list of places with the highest average price reductions.
Sluggish economic growth has hit buyer confidence and tight-fisted lenders are currently making it impossible for swathes of would-be buyers to benefit from the price reductions.
The good news for those who can get mortgages, is that now is as good a time as there has been in over a year to bag a property bargain.
Key findings:
- 2 in 5 properties on the market today have had price lowered at least once
- Average price reduction by sellers is over £18,500, 7.1% off original price
- North seeing more asking prices reduced and by higher % than in South
More current sellers have reduced the asking price of their home than at any time in the last year. Two in five (38.6%) of all properties currently for sale in Britain have had their asking prices reduced at least once since coming onto the market, up from 37% three months ago, and well ahead of the 32% one year ago.
Even properties over £1 million, where the market has been most resilient, have seen more asking price reductions. Of all £1 million+ properties on the market, 27% have had their price reduced at least once, up from 25% three months ago and significantly higher than the 22% one year ago.
Sellers in Bolton are suffering the most, having been forced to reduce the original asking price by 8.6% on average. Glasgow (8.2%) and Newcastle-upon-Tyne (8.2%) complete the top three, while other major northern cities like Liverpool are also in the top ten. Conversely, prices in the south-east have remained more immune to reductions where properties in Chelmsford (5.5%) have the lowest average discount and the list also includes other prominent south-east areas like London (6.3%) and Croydon (5.6%).
London has the lowest proportion of price-reduced homes in the UK (32.4%), serving to emphasise its detachment from the rest of the market. Meanwhile, in Stockport, nearly half (47.8%) of all properties for sale have been reduced in price since coming onto the market, closely followed by Huddersfield (46.3%) and Chesterfield (45.8%).
So, if you’re currently researching the market and looking to buy, make sure you use our unique feature allowing you to hunt for bargains by sorting properties for sale on Zoopla by those that have been most-reduced in price.
Here’s some more info on our most-reduced in price feature.
Zoopla.co.uk list of 50 key British cities/towns with property price reductions
Areas with Highest Level of Discounted Homes on Market
| Rank | Area | % of Homes on Market Reduced | Av. Price Reduction (%) | Avg. Price Reduction (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Stockport |
47.80% |
-7.33% |
-£15,737 |
|
2 |
Huddersfield |
46.26% |
-7.95% |
-£12,910 |
|
3 |
Chesterfield |
45.83% |
-6.91% |
-£10,657 |
|
4 |
Doncaster |
45.02% |
-7.91% |
-£13,313 |
|
5 |
Wigan |
45.01% |
-7.56% |
-£10,617 |
|
6 |
Norwich |
44.68% |
-6.59% |
-£15,164 |
|
7 |
Derby |
44.67% |
-6.77% |
-£11,643 |
|
8 |
Ipswich |
44.66% |
-6.98% |
-£13,077 |
|
9 |
Bradford |
44.02% |
-7.47% |
-£11,548 |
|
10 |
Lincoln |
43.98% |
-6.59% |
-£12,836 |
Source: Zoopla.co.uk (August 2011)
Areas with Highest Average Asking Price Reductions
| Rank | Area | % of Homes on Market Reduced | Av. Price Reduction (%) | Avg. Price Reduction (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Bolton |
-8.59% |
-£12,418 |
35.21% |
|
2 |
Glasgow |
-8.24% |
-£11,255 |
39.11% |
|
3 |
Newcastle |
-8.18% |
-£21,090 |
39.56% |
|
4 |
Liverpool |
-8.12% |
-£13,285 |
39.45% |
|
5 |
Rotherham |
-8.11% |
-£12,002 |
43.79% |
|
6 |
Huddersfield |
-7.95% |
-£12,910 |
46.26% |
|
7 |
Doncaster |
-7.91% |
-£13,313 |
45.02% |
|
8 |
Ashford |
-7.85% |
-£19,381 |
41.27% |
|
9 |
Maidstone |
-7.84% |
-£17,960 |
42.62% |
|
10 |
Warrington |
-7.75% |
-£15,671 |
41.57% |
Source: Zoopla.co.uk (August 2011)
Areas with Lowest Level of Discounted Homes on Market
| Rank | Area | % of Homes on Market Reduced | Av. Price Reduction (%) | Avg. Price Reduction (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
London |
32.39% |
-6.29% |
-£37,159 |
|
2 |
Bolton |
35.21% |
-8.59% |
-£12,418 |
|
3 |
York |
35.71% |
-5.92% |
-£16,505 |
|
4 |
Peterborough |
35.96% |
-6.95% |
-£12,359 |
|
5 |
Bristol |
35.99% |
-6.32% |
-£14,570 |
|
6 |
Milton Keynes |
36.04% |
-7.33% |
-£14,840 |
|
7 |
Hull |
37.20% |
-7.50% |
-£8,642 |
|
8 |
Croydon |
37.21% |
-5.58% |
-£13,496 |
|
9 |
Bedford |
37.74% |
-5.89% |
-£15,151 |
|
10 |
Manchester |
38.07% |
-7.74% |
-£12,543 |
Source: Zoopla.co.uk (August 2011)
Areas with Lowest Average Asking Price Reductions
| Rank | Area | % of Homes on Market Reduced | Av. Price Reduction (%) | Avg. Price Reduction (£) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Chelmsford |
-5.55% |
-£17,754 |
41.60% |
|
2 |
Croydon |
-5.58% |
-£13,496 |
37.21% |
|
3 |
Swindon |
-5.72% |
-£11,547 |
40.36% |
|
4 |
Bedford |
-5.89% |
-£15,151 |
37.74% |
|
5 |
York |
-5.92% |
-£16,505 |
35.71% |
|
6 |
Luton |
-5.92% |
-£11,894 |
40.81% |
|
7 |
Northampton |
-6.09% |
-£11,547 |
41.91% |
|
8 |
Cardiff |
-6.13% |
-£16,208 |
39.57% |
|
9 |
Plymouth |
-6.20% |
-£11,068 |
42.99% |
|
10 |
London |
-6.29% |
-£37,159 |
32.39% |
Source: Zoopla.co.uk (August 2011)
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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How much is a bathroom really worth?
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
You’ve tried everything: renovating the kitchen, re-inventing the living room and re-organising the bedrooms, but nothing seems to give your home that extra value it deserves. Never fear, a survey by a UK bathroom retailer has discovered that renovating your bathroom may be the best investment you ever make when it comes to selling your property.
According to the survey of 2,000 people by Bathstore, a £1,560 bathroom added £8,010 to the price someone would be willing to pay for a home. This delivers over five times return on investment – which, if our maths is correct, would be £5.10 for every £1 spent.
Despite our reservations about this figure – there’s no doubt that improving your property can make it more desirable to potential buyers. And while Bathstore might be ever-so-slightly simplifying the way improvements interact with pricing, they are making a valid point.
The survey also found that 35% of homeowners said they had put off doing home improvement in the past year, with nearly half of them worried about the costs involved. And maybe that’s not such bad news as the survey also found that 21% of spousal-spats were caused by DIY.
The bathroom might add value to your home, but will it help your relationship?
Sell my home blog: The clear out declutter phase is crucial, says Hannah
This is a legacy post from the findaproperty.com blog which is now maintained as an archive within the Zoopla blog. Links have been preserved.
We are edging ever closer to getting the flat ready for sale.
When we bought the flat and started taking down walls, one of my jobs “because I was small” was to get covered in soot and clear the loft of debris. While I didn’t leave any soot up there, I did find myself saving pieces of the original wallpaper and rusty nails (by “hiding” them between floor boards and behind the new shelves we built). I’m hoping for a less emotional journey as we declutter this time.
My husband and I are both obsessed with storage. Last week he started to build a cupboard to hide everything under the stairs – the latest of our storage solutions aimed at packing more and more into smaller and smaller spaces.
Even though we’re lucky enough to have this extra space now the cupboard is built, last weekend we acquired a 50’s French refrigerating cupboard, a 60’s Ercol chair and a nut cracker similar to the below.
What I’ve found is that owning our own home has given us licence to buy tat and hoard rubbish. One thing I know for sure is that charity shops near us are going to have a field day when we finally move!
