Ricky Gervais splashes out on Upper East Side apartment worth $3.75 million...

Ricky Gervais and and his producer partner Jane Fallon have recently splashed out £2.5million on their luxury home on the 12th floor of the exclusive Barbizon building in the Upper East Side. 

The Barbizon was originally biult as a residential hotel for women in the 1920s but is slowly, but surely, being taken over by Mr Gervais who already owns one apartment in the building.

Liza Minnelli and Joan Crawford reportedly called it home and Grace Kelly is said to have danced down the halls in just her underwear.

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"Google leases London property for start-up launchpad..."

Check out this article that i found at : http://oxfordhomesdirect.blogspot.com

"Web giant joins "Tech City" initiative by leasing seven-storey property "to provide a launchpad for new London-based start-ups and developers"
Web giant Google has announced that it is to lease a seven-storey property in London's Old Street area, in order to house a "launchpad" for technology start-ups.

The company says it will open up the facility "to other organisations that support technology entrepreneurs, working together to provide a launchpad for new London-based start-ups and developers".

Google would not provide any more details on what kind of organisation this refers to, but said that it will "announce more details about the organisations we’ll work with and how they will use the space in the coming months".

The new site will also play host to "speaker series, hackathons, training workshops and product demonstrations for engineers who could benefit from Google’s knowledge of building large scale online services", Google said.

Google plans to open the facility next year, and has signed a lease that lasts until 2022"

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Big deposits mean mortgage products are back-tracking to pre-banking crisis levels!!

Since the recession hit and the loans market was fragmented in 2008, the number of mortgage products available to prime residential borrowers has hit the highest since 2008, to over 3,000.

Research by moneyfacts.co.uk has revealed that there are currently a massive 3,035 mortgages on offer, not far off the 3,250 that were available in February 2008.

At the height of the banking crisis that we experienced in April 2009, the number of mortgage deals had dramatically fallen to just over 1,000 - a catastrophic drop to experience in a relaively short period of time,  only just over 12 months.

However, two years on and the number of mortgages available has over tripled in size.

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First time house buyers are four years younger in the north than those in London...

The growing divide in house prices is seeming to affect the age of first time buyers, demonstrating a dramatic divide between the first time buyers in London, with an average age of 32, which is four years older than those in the north of England, Scotland and Wales.

The report, published on Saturday 24th September by Halifax found that the average age across the UK is 29, revealing wide regional variations. In Selby in Yorkshire, the average age of a first time buyer is just 25 where as in Harrow, in London, the average first-time buyer is 34.

Despite Land Registry figures showing property prices in England and Wales rose by 161% between January 1995 and July 2011, the national average first-time buyer age of 29 has only risen by one year since 1983. Halifax said a dramatic rise in parental support to help young people buy their first home had kept the average age down.

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Purchase of holiday homes on the rise...

Contrary to popular belief regarding the state of the property market overseas, the number of houses abroad being purchased by Britons is on the increase. One of the largest ever surveys of holiday homeowners overseas has showed that despite decreases in house prices ranging from 50% in Spain to 10% in France, the number of Britons buying abroad has in fact increased during the property market crash. 

According to research by lettings website www.homeaway.co.uk and Savills, the figure representing the number of homeowners in Britain who posses holiday homes abroad has leapt to a record high of 430,000 in 2010, where as in 2006, only 385,000 Britons owned holiday homes overseas. 

The author of the report, Rebecca Gill from Savills has said that, “It’s even more surprising because some previous owners will have sold in the interim. The net increase means there has been a sizeable number of Britons buying abroad since 2006.”


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What NOT to do when selling your house...

The draft guidance from the watchdog has revealed that many are risking heavy penalties dues to failing to comply with the consumer protection law. Actions that the OFT have announced warnings against, ranging from the simply "unfair" to the outright banned, include: 

"Giving misleading information to consumers

Estate agents are explicitly told not to boast about a “'secluded garden' when there is a public right of way through the garden, [a] 'peaceful area' when a bypass is planned close to the property, 'nice views of surrounding countryside' when there is a power plant next to the property, [or of] 'off street parking' when the parking is on a public highway”."

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Negative equity to affect 1.7 million homeowners...

The current situation in the property market is seeing 7.3% of all house holds with a mortgage, which is over 800,000 people in the UK, are facing a situation in which the value of their mortgage exceeds the actual value of their property.

However, thanks to the tax lending which occurred during the credit boom, as well as several years of house prices decreasing rapidly, this number could be seen to double if property prices fall even by 10%. This would be the greatest count of negative equity since the property crash of the 1990s.

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