photo credit: qbirdnumber1

“Once upon a time, a property investor put all his money into buying a beautiful block of flats, which he rented out to young professionals for £1,000 a month and lived happily ever after.”

Not always the case these days I’m afraid, the smart money isn’t on yuppies anymore. It’s on the land of the great unwashed, the tax-dodgers, the cider-swilling, Pot Noodle munching…..okay that’s enough, I obviously mean students.

Long gone are the days when students lived up to the above stereotypes, these days University costs a lot and students are an altogether more discerning breed, which is reflected in their choice of accommodation.

‘Young Ones’ accommodation is out

Bricks & Mortarboard Student Accommodation Review by property gurus Knight Frank has revealed although the residential, commercial and industrial investment markets in the UK may not be as buoyant as we’d like at the moment, investment in student property is thriving and is more profitable than any other.

Rents on the rise

According to the site the report says the average student weekly rent has risen from £67 to £82 between 2003 and 2007 and a similar level of inflation is predicted until at least 2011. While one in ten students live in university accommodation, the others are encamped in private rentals and paying from £40 to £120 a week depending on the city.

Home Move also says Knight Frank has given a helping hand on the hotspots to choose if you’re looking to invest in student property. Edinburgh tops the list, followed by London, Newcastle, Birmingham and Manchester. The moral of this fairytale? Student property is where it’s at.

Technorati Tags: property, property investment, real estate, real estate investing, student accommodation

photo credit: Vertigogen

If you think of property investment and Wales, the words ‘celebrity glamour’ don’t exactly pop into your head, unless you’re a fan of Gavin and Charlotte of course (and then I suspect you’re their one and only).

But according to The Times, if you love a bit of celebspotting then West Wales could be the new place to invest in property. Devon and Cornwall are out and the land of Dylan Thomas is in.

It’s apparently the new hotspot for ‘urbanites’ who are looking for a more countrified life. The ‘urbanite’ in question this time is Sienna Miller, who is the latest to flee the media spotlight for the green hills and daffodils of Wales. She’s house hunting around the sleepy seaside village of New Quay, with a modest £1 million budget.

Boutiques boyo

She’s not the only one to head west for some peace and quiet. Other a-listers are mentioned in The Times…er, that would be Neil Morrissey and Anna Ryder-Richardson then. Okay so maybe it’s not quite the celebrity escape that Bermuda is yet. But with a younger market moving in, quaint West Wales villages could soon find themselves in possession of a Primrose Hill-style atmosphere, with boutique shops and organic grocers popping up overnight.

Enough with the sheep

And sheep-related jokes aside, Wales isn’t all about slate and mines. It has some beautiful seaside villages and period properties with breathtaking views. Inland, you can bury yourself in the romance of the rolling hills and experience all the quality of life you need.

Technorati Tags: property, property investment, real estate, real estate investing, wales

photo credit: tylerdurden1

Anyone that suffers from motion sickness, read on with caution….

Property investors - look out! Reservations have opened for the world’s first revolving skyscraper. The $700 million ‘Dynamic Tower’ is to be built in Dubai (where else?) and, as you know, Dubai doesn’t do things by halves. So it’s not just any old revolving building - each of the 80 floors will rotate separately so the structure is constantly changing shape.

The tower has been designed by Italian architect, David Fisher, whose mantra for the project is “designed by time, shaped by life”. It’s due for completion in 2010 but with the launch of the reservation list, you can now put your name down to invest from $3.6 to $36 million in an apartment which rotates on voice command. That is of course if it’s working and you don’t have to call an engineer every three days…”have you turned it off and on again?”

360 degree living

No really, here’s how it actually works; the apartments vary in size and each spins a full 360 degrees, taking between one and three hours, around a central column which is powered by 79 giant power-generating wind turbines located between the floors. This means the building even generates its own electricity.

The developers have got an eye on their pennies too. It’s going to be made entirely from prefabricated parts made in a workshop, meaning very low construction costs. Amazingly, each apartment will only take seven days to make, which sounds less complicated than Ikea’s flat pack creations.

Moscow and buy an apartment

And if you fancy going round in circles for the rest of your life, but Dubai is just a bit too far away, you’re in luck. Two more towers are planned for Moscow and New York. Don’t know about you but I feel dizzy already.

photo credit: pingnews.com

One day you’re sitting in your lovely rented home, thinking how lucky you are not to have bought before the market when mad, and isn’t it great you’ve got no mortgage to pay? And the next, you’re standing in the front garden with your bags packed.

A stark warning comes from the US today as the foreclosured homes crisis spreads from homeowners to tenants too. They might not have a mortgage to pay, but their landlords sure do. So if they can’t pay, you can take your perfect credit rating and on-time rent payments and shove ‘em where the sun don’t shine - your backpack perhaps.

Landlords aren’t obliged

This isn’t just an occasional occurrence either, boiserealestateinfo.net says 40 percent of single family home foreclosures in LA currently involve rented or leased property, and that figure is on the up. Apparently landlords aren’t obliged to let tenants know when the house enters foreclosure, so it’s a lovely surprise for them when they find themselves out on their ear.

And if that’s not doom and gloom enough, the rental shortage in the US means that it’s hard to get back into the same standard of rented property for the same price. From mansion to maisonette it seems.

Tenants - pay the rent and make sure it covers the mortgage

Luckily it doesn’t seem to have spread to the UK yet, although we are well known for following America very closely, so renters keep an eye out - no, not for George Bush - but for signs of the same crisis hitting the UK. My advice? Check if your rent covers the cost of the landlords mortgage, otherwise that great deal you got will bite you, and bite you hard.

photo credit: smellyknee

How’s this for a cool job title? “Well actually I’m on the Eco-towns Challenge Panel.” Definitely sounds to me like a Challenge Anneka-style job, running around in hard hats with walkie talkies and a stopwatch.

Sadly, it’s not quite that exciting. The panel, made up of ‘leading experts from the worlds of design, the environment, transport and sustainability’ are responsible for reviewing potential property developers’ proposals, provide them with expert advice and challenge them to meet the highest standards possible. Not running around building community centres. Shame.

Slap on the wrists

But the almighty panel is not happy (uh-oh) and some property developers have recently been given a slap on the wrists for lacking ambition and innovation in their proposals for the new eco-towns. They’ve been questioned on a range of issues, including their ability to reduce the carbon footprint of residents and their reliance on cars, and the likely “day in the life” of an eco-town resident in 2020. Presumably this should include dressing from head to toe in newspaper and composting everything but the cat.

‘Highest possible standards’

A favourite of this blog, housing minister, Caroline Flint, said:

“I have been clear from the start that only those bids that reach the highest possible standards for sustainability can make it through…..This process was meant to be a challenging ride for the developers, and they need to be open to the creativity of these ideas. Some clearly need to up their game and the ball is now in their court.”

But - serious bit now - these planned eco-towns have come up against enough criticism to end up looking like every other housing estate in the country. It’s an ambitious, innovative plan, so let’s see the same in the design and hope they create of new homes that people actually want to live in.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investment, property, property investing

photo credit: fesek

Imagine you’re playing a word association game and someone says ‘Battersea’ (what? If you have sad friends, they might say it). What would you go for? Dogs home? Power station? Derelict??

Well, pretty soon it might become ‘£4 billion zero-carbon regeneration scheme’, if you’re allowed that many words in a word association game.

Site owners Real Estate Opportunities (REO) are proposing to totally renovate abandoned Battersea Power Station, one of the world’s biggest brick buildings and, at the moment, one of the worlds biggest wastes of space. But with £100 million earmarked by REO to bring the building back to full working order, generating electricity from renewable sources, and then converting it into flats, a hotel, shops, cafes and restaurants. One of London’s most famous icons could be transformed.

Domed to failure?

Up to 3,200 new homes are planned in total, expected to house 7,000 people, and two new London Underground stations are also on the cards. There are plans for a 300 metre-high chimney to reduce carbon emissions and an ‘eco-dome’ (sorry, not really sure what this is for, growing plants maybe?), along with an energy museum to highlight the power saving initiatives on the zero-carbon development.

But poor Battersea Power Station has been blighted by bad luck during the 25 years its been empty, with several owners and a number of schemes being proposed but never seeing the light of day. So will this time be different?

Application absenteeism

Rob Tincknell, managing director of Treasury Holdings, REO’s development management firm, is quoted in the Telegraph as saying:

“We don’t embark on projects that we can’t deliver. We are determined Londoners will not be disappointed and this area will be brought back to life in the most spectacular way. It will be a place to live, work and play.”

Sounds great but there’s just one teeny tiny issue… the planning application hasn’t even been submitted yet. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Technorati Tags: property, property investment, real estate, real estate investing

photo credit: david.nikonvscanon

Long gone are the days of standing out in the rain with a soggy pie and chips to watch your footy team play. Football stadiums are becoming more and more swish by the season - you’ve only got to look at Arsenal’s Emirates creation and the plans for Liverpool’s Stanley Park empire. But now even Portsmouth are at it and have unveiled fancy plans for a new 36,000-seater ground at Portsmouth harbour.

Regenerative spirit

Now you might wonder why I’m rambling on about football grounds on a property blog. Bear with me, I do occasionally have a point to make you know. And here it is….with all these new grounds popping up, the old stadiums are making way for some pretty impressive developments, which are also helping to regenerate football-fan rampaged areas.

Arsenal’s old stomping ground, Highbury, is fast being turned into ‘The Stadium Highbury Square’….ooooh. A development of ‘contemporary’ apartments, with balconies that look out onto landscaped gardens and a fitness suite and swimming pool on site.

Pies are off the menu

Anfield will become ‘Anfield Plaza’ (no scouse jokes please) with a hotel, bars, restaurants, open spaces, shops and residential and office developments. No pie and pea stands here then.

Back to Pompey, and 750 new homes are expected to be built on the current Fratton Park and even the new pad will be a mixed-use development with residential and business opportunities. Not if you’re a Southampton fan though.

Technorati Tags: real etate, real estate investing, property, property investment, football

photo credit: Felipe Skroski

To write this blog, I do spend a considerable amount of time surfing the web to keep up to date on all the latest property and real estate news. So I do come across the same developers and companies quite a bit. But lately it has come to my attention that the whole world is being developed on/around by one firm in particular.

No, don’t worry, it’s not Tesco. Although it is, in fact, taking over the world. 

Is there no limit to limitlessness?

Oh no, the developer in question is Dubai-based Limitless. Limitless by name, Limitless by nature. Not only is it building urban communities across the globe; Russia, Malaysia, India and Saudi Arabia to name a few, its latest venture is to solve Turkey’s looming housing shortage - a small predicted number of 5.5 million new homes - with a series of mixed-use developments (which I’m sure every soon-to-be homeless person in Turkey will be able to afford to live in. Not.).

Ambitious canal project

But the most ambitious development by far has to be the Arabian Canal. I’m serious, a canal, but not just any canal - an £11 billion, 75km, rivalling the Panama Canal, canal. This is, to quote their website,

‘the biggest and most complex civil engineering project ever undertaken in the Middle East.’

It is, frankly, a ridiculously epic project. Encircling downtown Dubai, it will be lined with marinas, residential and business developments and entertainment facilities. I have a canal outside my house and it definitely isn’t as exciting as that.

Glass bottom

If that’s not enough and you prefer something a bit more daring (are you mad?) it’s also developing Limitless Towers, soon to be Jordan’s tallest towers and boast the world’s highest suspended, glass-bottomed swimming pool at 125m. These people are crazy. Or genius. You decide.

And UK developers watch out, Limitless is bidding for UK real estate company, Minerva, so we could be seeing the same scale of project over here. Although I suspect it would take more than £11 billion to transform England’s waterways into something so glamorous.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment, surfing

photo credit: creativebloke

Have you ever been to Brighton and thought, ‘blimey, this place is so amazing and I love it so much, I wish there were two of them.’? Well, if you have, your luck is in. Sort of.

‘Brighton of the North’

Just over 632 miles away from Brighton, a Scottish Earl has put in a planning application for a ‘Brighton of the North’ in Nairn, near the Highlands. That’s right, just like Brighton…restaurants, bars, boutique shops, a thriving gay nightlife, £4 pints and all that Highland sun sun sun. Oh. Well there will be an ecological centre and community woodland. I can sense the Brighton set packing their bags right now.

Actually it’s pretty impressive

Actually, Brighton comparisons aside, the £70 million plans for the Victorian seaside town are pretty impressive. They include 300 new homes and tourist attractions such as an 18-hole golf course, an equestrian centre and hotel, spa and conference facilities. Developers are focusing on the 525 or more leisure and construction jobs that will be created and the boost to the area as a whole, which was once a popular destination for tourists.

Fat Boy Slim and Zoe Ball too…

No-one was available to confirm or deny whether developers will be holding casting sessions for Fat Boy Slim and Zoe Ball lookalikes. So perhaps not the place to soak up the southern sun, but a pretty worthwhile development in itself.

Technorati Tags: property, property investment, real estate investing, real estate, gay, fetish

photo credit: thomasrdotorg

If you’re looking to buy a new home but can’t quite make that final, all important, life-changing decision without several hours/days/weeks of dithering, then the latest offering from some property developers might just solve your problem.

Gone in 17 minutes

Apparently the decision to buy a house is usually made in 17 minutes, personally it can take me that long to choose which type of cheese I want in the weekly shop. So if you’re like me, ‘try before you buy’ schemes should give you plenty of time to make a decision. Or it might not. No, it will. Definitely.

Cider-drinking, hoody-wearing, Neil Diamond

For example, Gleeson Homes are offering prospective buyers in Manchester the chance to rent a home for six months and if they decide to buy they refund the rent. So essentially you can live rent free for six months while you give the house a trial run. A great idea if you’re paranoid about hordes of cider-drinking, hoody-wearing, scallies appearing outside your door every night after dark, or the neighbour from hell who plays Neil Diamond until three am every morning. Both unlikely but if you’re going to commit to a property which will cost you a pretty penny (or, more likely, over 100,000 pretty pounds), you’ll want to cover every possibility.

Nice place to crash

Also sounds like a great idea if you’re ‘between homes’ and need a fancy place to crash for a while and with several property developers introducing the same sort of thing, you could do a nice tour of the UK and several places abroad. As long as you don’t mind lugging your stuff around and having your friends hum ‘The Littlest Hobo’ at you in the pub.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment, homes