Prime time: Property prices soar for London’s most expensive homes August 10, 2018 Prices for central London’s most expensive properties have risen at their fastest levels in almost three years, amid signs that confidence is starting to return to the capital’s high-end residential market. Central London’s prime house prices rose 1.2 per cent over the second quarter of the year, marking the highest annualised growth since autumn 2015. [...]
Philip Hammond has failed to improve the Tory party’s chances of electoral survival November 24, 2017 This was an elastoplast Budget. Its purpose was to cover the deepening gash in the Conservative party, give Philip Hammond’s reputation time to heal, and keep out germs hurled by the opposition benches. In this regard, it mostly worked. Read more: The Budget was a valiant attempt at an impossible balancing act The £3bn worth [...]
Let’s embrace No Deal and get planning for life after Brexit November 13, 2018 There is an anecdote doing the rounds at the moment where an acquaintance of a civil servant jests “I suppose you’re doing your best to stop Brexit!”, to which the official, not knowing that his friend voted Leave and was pulling his leg, replies “You bet I am, and every one of us too”. True [...]
Focus On Angel: House prices have almost doubled in this central part of Islington in the last ten years January 4, 2018 Though the name has pious connotations, the Angel is actually named after a pub. Well, the 17th century Angel Inn was a hotel, too, then a restaurant, but is now a Co-Op Bank. Although there is a JD Wetherspoons pub called The Angel next door. As an incredibly central part of the London borough of [...]
Area guide for property in Richmond November 15, 2017 In a list compiled by accountancy firm Grant Thornton last year of the most “vibrant” places in England to live and work, Richmond-upon-Thames was the only place in London to qualify for the list. With more green space than anywhere else in the capital – and its biggest, most deer-stuffed Royal Park – Richmond is [...]
Marc Vlessing, CEO of Pocket Living on his mission to provide affordable compact homes for young Londoners December 8, 2017 Marc Vlessing’s eyes were first opened to millennials’ struggle to get on to the housing ladder when he was working in theatre. As CEO of Crescent Entertainment, which went on to become the largest group of theatres and cinemas in the UK, he was surrounded by passionate, hard-working people in their 20s and 30s, “but [...]
From bottling in Battersea to viniculture in Tooting, you barely have to venture outside your house to find a winemaking scene December 19, 2018 There are many ways people imagine exploring wine country. In a Fiat 500, driving across the hills of Tuscany with sunglasses on noses and Alanis Morissette in ears; touring the Languedoc by train, sipping crisp Saumur from Tours all the way to Paris. And these days, back home in England, where from Kent all the [...]
Autumn Budget: Philip Hammond glosses over gloomy growth November 23, 2017 There’s a wonderful clip doing the rounds of Australian MP Bob Katter answering a question on the country’s new equal marriage law. He’s all in favour of it – “let a thousand blossoms bloom,” he grins and chuckles, before his facial expression changes into one of fury as he quickly adds “but I ain’t spending [...]
6 key Budget 2017 takeaways November 23, 2017 Work in progress and still some way to go – that was my immediate take on the Budget. The good news was that the Chancellor recognised the need to position the UK for the great opportunities and significant challenges ahead. Despite this, far more needs to be done. First, the Chancellor and The Treasury are [...]
House prices in Holland Park: Celebrities flock to the spacious Georgian mansions in the connoisseur’s Notting Hill July 10, 2018 The fact is, the secret’s out about Notting Hill. It’s a Richard Curtis film, it hosts Europe’s biggest street party every August and its doors are painted in bright pastel colours. The connoisseur of the north west London property scene would look slightly southwards to its greener, more understated sibling, Holland Park. “The area has [...]