kerplonk

Interesting. Yes we've thought about visiting these 'units' but decided they are just too badly located and too modern for us. But they've had so much marketing - been in the Sunday Time property section adverts every week since the launch. Must have cost them an arm and a leg, there's been plenty of other marketing too and they still can't shift them. Be interesting to see how long it takes to get rid of all of them

Someone in the flat below us exchanged in Feb this year and it was only added to the www.houseprices.co.uk last week. So that's 9 or 10 months. Won't always be like that - but looks like you could have to wait anything up to a year for them to add it

2 friends in investment banking some divisions have done well but others haven't. some big bonuses were paid last year and the year before - but because the markets that were doing well weren't the FTSE & M&A which are about the only markets most journos understand, this wasn't picked up on by the press. most of the 'big' bonus talk going on at the moment is a load of hot air. bonuses get paid every year to divisions that do well and %s and fixed sums dependent on achieving revenue targets, are written into your contract for top tier players. all the talk in the paper is not being played out by one friend's experience who works for a major american bank. they've doubled revenue on last year, but had a call from their big boss last week saying not to expect very much at all in their bonus letters arriving in december. they're furious and thinking of leaving but it's a small world as you climb up the ladder in banking and not easy to get jobs the higher up you go once you reach a certain level.

Cashking Your anecdotal evidence is also supported by my Mum. She's a dentist - please no jokes! But she also said in the practice where she works it's alarmingly quiet. The phone doesn't ring anymore. Just like you said, she said it's like everyone's gone on holiday and no one is spending any money. And she said before Xmas usually practices are busy because people don't want to have any problems during the holiday season so they come in and sort it out. But she said it's just deathly quiet. She said she's seen this happen before, and it always precedes a big downturn and she said it's always when the phone stops ringing that it means things are serious. This is in outer part of SW London The man that owns the practice is 30 and has debts of somewhere in the region of 600 to 800k. He bought it for 430k and kitted out with computers, new equipment etc which doesn 't come cheap in that industry - costing him a few 100k more. He also has a flat in birmingham - new build in city center which has been on the market for over year and he can't sell and has a mortgage on that of 150k. Poor man - we think he'll be one of the casualties.... Oh and finally, the cleaning service my Mum uses, she said for the last month she can just get them to come round straight away, no need to book. She knows the cleaners well and they said they were very worried and not working one a day week now because the work had dried up, apparently because people just aren't spending money anymore

Yes there's more movement in the market stirring in London, but prices are staying where they are and asking prices are still not being met, read the story below. So for now the market is officially treading water... (as the economy contracts, US interest rates look set to continue upwards, unemployment increases etc....) http://www.findaproperty.com/story.aspx?storyid=8263 Surge Of Sales In London 28 Oct 2005 News Item See also Prices may still be on the slide but the London property market has awoken from its slumbers... Hometrack's October survey of the London housing market reveals a further price fall of -0.1 per cent. House prices now stand at £260,700, down from £274,200 in July 2004, and down by more than four per cent over the past 12 months. Out of the 33 London boroughs, only three have seen price rises, 27 have remained static and three have seen price falls. The best performing areas were Ealing (0.2%), Westminster (0.1%) and Redbridge (0.1%). The worst performing areas were Hounslow (-1.1%), Brent (-0.4%) and Barnet (-0.1%). Surge In Activity There has, however, been a huge surge in transactions in the London market over the past month, with activity increasing by eight per cent (+18.2% over the past three months). This can be directly attributed to an increase of 4.4 per cent in the number of buyers registered, significantly above the 1.2 per cent rise in properties listed. These figures suggest that the supply/demand balance is shifting, though for the moment at least, supply still exceeds demand. Sales price as a percentage of asking price decreased again in October to 93.3 per cent (93.4 per cent last month), meaning buyers are negotiating discounts of 6.7 per cent. Although higher than this year's low in January of 91.8 per cent, when buyers were negotiating discounts of 8.2 per cent, it is still considerably lower than the peak of 95.4 per cent in April 2004, when buyers were negotiating discounts of just 4.5 per cent. The amount of time it takes to sell a property has decreased fractionally to 6.2 weeks, compared with 6.3 weeks in September's survey and six weeks in October 2004. Conversely, the number of viewings per sale has increased slightly to 14.1, compared with 14 in September's survey. "A Significant Improvement" John Wriglesworth, Hometrack's housing economist, comments: "This month the London market has seen a significant improvement in activity, due mainly to an increase in buyers. This suggests that buyer confidence is continuing to improve and this is effectively ruling out any prospects of a housing market crash. "Despite gradual house price falls over the last sixteen months, properties in the capital still remain unaffordable for first-time buyers. A further rate cut is needed to help boost confidence for first-time buyers in London. "While house prices are set to end the year four per cent down on 2004, strongly rising incomes and the expectation of large city bonuses at the end of the year should further boost demand in the capital in 2006."

I used to work round the corner from David Cameron at Carlton Communications... He was there for a bit. Don't know much else about his working life, other than that. But at least he's worked in business and understands supply and demand, rather than Bliar and Brown who've only ever known the gravy train of Westminster and spend spend spend.... supply supply supply.... spend spend spend

I know a man trying to sell a flat along Parkside. It's in a development called Chapman Square - bit naff but anyway, it's been on the market for over a year and it just won't budge. He bought it 5 years ago for 625 and wants 795 for it. He was offered 710 for it about 6 months ago and turned it down. Now wishes he'd said yes as there have been no other offers and the one who did offer at 710 is now offering 'a ridiculous price'. Not quite the same as your terraced houses but this adds more to the picture of what is going on in this area. Also another place called Newstead Way - which is Wimbledon Park area - terraced house round there has been on the market for well over a year, also won't budge. They've dropped the asking price by 20k but still no takers at 590k. Chapman Square seller has decided in the last few days to take it off the market and try again in Spring. This also helps add substance to my theory that there is very very little housing stock on estate agents books in the Putney area. All the decent stuff is still way overpriced and sellers are taking their places off the market if they can't get what they want for it. Unless you're a forced seller then people are holding and sitting tight. But for how long can this stalemate go on for?

Varies so much by area and type of building that this is hard to answer. But our own study into this shows: house in reasonable and nice area in Kensington (ie Abingdon Road) is about £10k per square metre. So 100square meters costs 1 millon pounds!!!!! In Putney, nice house in good area is about £5 to 6k per square meter. In Wimbledon it goes down to about 4k per square meter. This is all based on gross internal, doesn't include garden garage etc. Dont' know what the historical average is for these areas. Also, flats in all of these places give better value for money and are cheaper p/m. That's because they're more expensive in the longrun to maintain. But new build flats the story would be different - and they are more expesive p/sq/m than ordinary flats.

Riser do you have their email? I'd like to send them a mail to complain as well. We should bombard them in the way we do with the BBC and force them to reconsider their position thanks

In the end it's what people look like, not what they say that makes people vote. So, thank god the Tories have finally got over their ugly stick phase. Not saying either of these younger ones are particularly pretty, but at least they both have 1) full head of hair 2) no chance of carking it soon 3) no beer gut 4) can do 'compassion' and sound sincere at the same time, code for "good actors" This means they are level pegging with Tony and Gordon. And even make T & G look a bit old and weary...

The moment that wafts of Gordon Brown's killer-hairspray caught Tony Blair in the back of the throat with fatal consequences...

Perfectionist, who started this thread had a crack at this same topic about 2 months ago. Allocating blame for the increase in HPs is like crying over spilt milk. The horse has bolted, stable door crashed down. Looking around for someone to blame won't bring the horse back, nor house prices down. This is just plain silly to go for it again. Avoidance is the best policy on this topic. Final comment: let's look at Camille Paglia's view of the sexes. So - all you strategically shaved apes, masquerading as current-day humans - please do go and read some of her stuff, you'll find it so enlightening! Then we can start to talk about blame.

Yes I've noticed estate agents in SW London area all looking pretty quiet in mid-range houses we were looking at, in certain areas. There was a brief blip of activity around May/June when quite a bit sold but it's been quiet for months now. People who were trying to sell their house/flat seem to have given up because they didn't get the asking price and have taken it off the market. And very few new houses are coming to the market. Decent options seem to be in short supply. Anything that's worth looking at still feels very expensive, and yet very little new stuff is coming on the market and if it does, it's all still ludicrously priced.

it's true ICICI is one of the biggest banks in India. They were on business lunch on BBC 2 yesterday. They said that IT costs in India are 10% of what they are over here and that's why they can afford to offer such a great rate - after all internet banking is really just IT, isn't it? They said, everyone's outsourcing all their IT over here, so why don't we offer you guys the bank account as well... They said yes the website is slow and crappy at the moment but in the next few months they expect it to get a lot better So maybe not worth putting money in just yet, wait till they iron out the glitches for a few months and try then. That's what I'm going to do.

which area is this?