The crisis in the property market shows no signs of easing as the latest figures from the online estate agency Rightmove show that home sellers were forced to reduce their asking prices in April.
Britain's increasingly beleaguered property market was hit by further setbacks yesterday with a double whammy of bad news from the residential and commercial real-estate sectors.
While I was at the Merchant House, I lived within the same building as the restaurant. That may sound rather unfortunate but I assure you it wasn't. It was a beautiful place, a 15th-century house, and very spacious. We had three sitting-rooms, a self-contained flat for guests, and all the space we could have wished for.
Forget the North-South divide. The line that separates the winners from the losers in Britain's turbulent housing market splits the country neatly between east and west.
A new angle on the traditional neighbour's-tree dispute has been in the news, with reports of a home owner in California taking his neighbour to court to get them to trim the 60ft redwoods they had planted in their garden 10 years before he installed his 128 solar-electric panels. The trees were overshadowing the panels and slashing the energy they were producing. I can empathise, having spent more than £16,000 on the installation of solar-electric and hot-water panels.
Over the next six days, the movers and shakers of the furniture world will be rubbing shoulders. Interiors trends will be established, the next big names in design will be talent-spotted, and the prosecco will flow. For today the Milan Furniture Fair opens. It is like the fashion weeks of New York, Milan and Paris all rolled in to one. Only with more chairs.
Ayia Napa has a lot to answer for. Like its neighbouring resorts of Paphos and
Limassol, the Ibiza-style party capital may be a major draw for the 2.5
million tourists who visit Cyprus each year, but it doesn't exactly wave the
flag for the quieter charms of the island. For away from the package-tour
crowds, the villages, beaches, lush mountains and historic sites are a very
different proposition for those seeking attractive, affordable homes. And
there's a convincing case for investors, too.
The Duke of Westminster's property group, Grosvenor, warned yesterday that Britain's commercial property market was unlikely to recover this year and that real estate returns were likely to slow globally.
Oak Cottage, a 15th-century detached house, is a 21st-century commuter's dream. Just an hour from several major cities, it has charm, space and tranquillity, and has been renovated tastefully.
I have managed to avoid the home extension craze, involving as it does significant resource consumption and CO2 emissions. Globally, the concrete industry emits about 7 per cent of total CO2 emissions, due to the energy required to turn crushed limestone and clay into concrete.
