Latest news
Just over a week ago my wife and I were pacing the bare wooden floor of our
sitting room wearing hats and scarves. It...
When buying a property, you should always take a careful look at the
neighbours. You want to know, after all, that...
The lettings agent
The first house I bought, when I was 24, was a little two-bedroom place called
Hazel Cottage, in Yelverton, on the...
Chinese cabbages, such as ‘Richi’, can be sown now for salads and stir-fries.
Select a sheltered, well-lit spot and a...
I have recently been involved in launching a project that will help people living in period terraced housing to do so...
How can you cover a hideous wall or bring instant age to a spanking new one?
Ivy is the obvious choice, its triffid-...
French leaves
If you’ve ever strolled by the sea and spotted one of those derelict defence
towers that sit squat and defiant on the...
Feminists, look away now. A development above Spearmint Rhino, a lap-dancing
club on Tottenham Court Road, in central...
The garden of the Victorian vicarage near where I live in Cambridge — once home to a gorgeous orchard of mature fruit...
A refreshing dip in an out-door pool, surrounded by the sights and sounds of
nature, is heaven on a warm summer’s day...
We only wanted to build a modest block of flats. Just the nine, although we would have been happy with six; at a pinch...
When you step through the main entrance of Santa Maddalena — from smoky Tuscan
woodland into chiaroscuro Tuscan cool...
Housing represents one of the trickiest areas for George Osborne. He cannot
spare funds for the building of more...
The landlord
My brother Michael went to live in Central Africa 30 years ago. He is an engineer and the collapse of the UK mining...
London agents are understandably nervous at the prospect of a rise in capital gains tax and its effect on investors....
Crowds of protesters swarm about the feet of the Parthenon and clamour for
answers from the debt-ridden Greek...
A spat between two politicians — both with very nice houses and both unlikely
to sell off chunks of their gardens to...
How it rates
Q Buyers for our house withdrew because of a faulty survey. I agreed to pay
£650 for a copy of the report, which was...
I’ve seen the future — and it’s in Birmingham. In the unassuming suburb of
Balsall Heath, the architect John...
The latest Halifax house price index showed UK house prices falling by 0.4 per cent, the second monthly fall in...
The Government is planning an overhaul of the council tax to fund the building
of new homes for first-time buyers and...
Ah, Battersea — home to abandoned dogs and a defunct power station. And also
to some of London’s smartest restaurants...
Ladies who never lunch are the new target market for online homeware
retailers. Working women who are chronically...
The market for new homes is set for huge upheaval over the next six years.
From 2016 all new-build houses will have to...
Minutes after I left Cobden’s Farm, in rather a good mood because it’s a
magnificent spot in the afternoon sunshine,...
I moved to 65 Queensmill Road, in Fulham, west London, in April 1987 — the
year I won Wimbledon. Looking back, it was...
It is sobering to remember that human welfare depends first and foremost not
on technology and machines, but on...
* Remove any suckers at the base of bush roses. If left, they will grow fast
and use up moisture and nutrients. Wear...
Hannah Gardner doesn’t bat an eyelid as a chap in breeches and an 18th-century
wig strides past while she plants up a...
Then the actress Janine Duvitski and her family moved into what would one day
be a glamorous Georgian home in Covent...
Jennifer Aldridge’s fluting tones travel across the kitchen in her six-bedroom
farmhouse as she chats about her family...
If you’re harbouring a desire to build your dream home, you’ve no doubt
clocked up a few hours watching property...
Eastern eden
It is not often you see the London borough of Westminster and the dreary Essex
commuter-belt town of Thurrock on the...
The object: concept furniture Peter Jones, the Sloaney department store sibling of John Lewis, launched a concept...
Does a stunning garden add value to a house? And, when the time comes to sell,
how hard is it to walk away from a work...
Right angles are at the heart of nearly all building design. Abandoning 90 degrees
in favour of 135, then, is pretty...
The key statistics in the housing market right now are these: £400, 9.8 per cent, 75 per cent, 3.2 per cent, 19 per...
How it rates
The land registry’s statistics, which are based on sales, show an 8.5 per cent average annual price rise. Values rose...
The way we shop for furniture and homeware is undergoing a profound shift. Ten years ago, who would have thought of...
From a distance Hinton House looks like a perfect Elizabethan manor. But, as
you approach on the 600-yard drive,...
Space is not generally something associated with Marrakesh. The narrow streets and alleyways of the medina teem with...
Prospects of a change to capital gains tax (CGT) have certainly got investors talking, with agents reporting huge rises...
I own the lease of a maisonette and pay an annual ground rent of £500 to my landlords. They have a lease of the block...
Halfway between edgy Brixton and elegant Dulwich in southeast London is Herne
Hill, the kind of place you move to when...
Have you ever wondered what experimental art rockers put up on their walls? It’s not what you think, to judge by the...
The skies are tranquil above the village of Sipson, but all is far from well in the area that has become collateral...
Most old houses would tell a story if their bricks and mortar spoke. Few,
though, have a tale quite like that of Park...
In the early 1990s, my husband, Gary, and I rented a tiny one-bedroom flat on
Draycott Avenue, in Chelsea. I worked...
THE SOLICITOR
Has Robbie Williams done Somethin’ Stupid? Just over a year after buying
Compton Bassett House, his mansion in...
Any child will tell you that blue and yellow make green, but in politics it is
not so simple. Both David Cameron and...
Did you know that Acton has its own Poets’ Corner? It seems so unlikely,
somehow. Acton is one of these areas of...
Until quite recently, alfresco eating in Britain meant burnt sausages cooked
on a rusty, charcoal-chugging barbecue....
With this year’s ski season over, and the next one months away, this is hardly
the time to buy a chalet — or is it? It...
People may be wary of trusting their housing needs to estate agents, but, as
the writer Lilian Pizzichini found to her...
What is your dream home? A red-brick villa in the leafy suburbs or an
ultra-modern penthouse in the city? Or would you...
As more and more patients came to her with similar symptoms, Dr Helen Lunan,
a GP, became convinced that buildings...
Few houses in Scotland can have inspired so many heroic efforts to keep it in
the family as Blairquhan. The Ayrshire...
I managed to get onto the property ladder when I was 21. I took out an £11,000
mortgage on a flat in Hillhead, in...
If recessionary penny-pinching has taught us anything, it’s that buying cheap, disposable furniture can be a false...
Hips are dead, but what about the EPC? Homeowners and agents were cock-a-hoop when they heard about the demise of the...
Most people buying a shared-ownership flat would not expect a bronze image of a “Peeler”, a member of the original...
Princes, professors and the letter and leader writers of The Times have been furiously debating the worth of...
As aircraft circle London on their descent to Heathrow, there are certain landmarks that it is always satisfying to...
Our neighbours built an enormous rear roof extension without planning
permission, but they were later granted a...
Is the launch of the latest Candy & Candy-designed homes for key workers destined to be the high point in the...
How it rates
If you’re reading these words on your new iPad, you won’t need me to tell you about all the hype surrounding the sleek...
It’s hard to imagine a more spectacular spot on which to build a house than Ravensdane Wood in Kent. The architect...
Comarques is a dazzlingly pretty village house in almost 48 acres (20ha) of grounds that include 12 acres of gardens...
On its completion in December 2005, Theo and Elaine Leijser’s eco-house in
Balfron, Stirlingshire, was heralded as the...
Savour the flavour
Gooseberry bushes are often attacked by sawflies at this time of year,
reducing the bushes to leafless stalks. Examine...
Earlier this year, Sharon Edgar realised that the music room in her
three-bedroom Victorian home in southwest London...
Take a look at the schoolboy standing in the black-and-white photograph, hands
firmly on his hips as his parents relax...
The lettings agent I own a three-bedroom townhouse that I’ve been
letting for several years to different groups: a...
Thanks to its harbours, cliffs and beaches, and quaint towns such as St
David’s and Newport, the Pembrokeshire coast...
I interviewed a woman advertising herself as “holiday help” a few years back.
On her CV, which I found on the internet...
Even though the slow, cold start to May has meant that many designers and
nurseries have had to make last-minute...
If you ask most gardeners in this country why they cultivate their tilth, they
will say it is to create somewhere...
Our friends Linda and Paul have recently become electricity-saving paragons —
and one reason is their new energy meter...
Albemarle House looks impossibly large, even from the gates of the grounds, a
mile’s drive away. As you make your way...
It’s a long journey from being an office junior on Eddie Shah’s Today
newspaper, sent on errands to collect the boss’s...
Railways are in my blood. My father was a controller with British Railways, and there was a line at the bottom of our...
I grew up in a three-bedroom terraced house in Westwood, East Kilbride. It was
set in a little triangle of houses with...
An ancient wood in springtime, deep in the Hampshire countryside. There are bluebells and daisies and patches of wild...
Second homes have moved to the heart of the housing debate, with the topics
under discussion including the following:...
I have a telegraph pole in the garden of my Grade II listed house. In 1946
an electricity company secured the right to...
A doll’s house wrapped in red tape was the centrepiece of the Hips abolition announcement. The tiny residence, in need...
Auction catalogues contain a wonderful range of property opportunities, from half-constructed new-builds where the...
If success in the property market is all about timing, buy-to-let investors have reason to feel smug. News that the...
1 Update your wallpaper. Think big, bold patterns, rather than ditsy flowers. Large-scale images are best left to large...
Money — or the lack of it — could be driving Britons to carry out dangerous
DIY jobs in their homes.
How it rates
There is a Scottish proverb — “better a toom house than an ill tenant” — which means that it is better to have an empty...
Southwark is so jam-packed with wine bars and world-famous exhibitions that it
is easy to forget that not long ago it...
Everyone has a sofa at the heart of their house. It’s where you collapse in the evening after work, it’s where you...
As the ferry speeds across the Sound of Mull, a crystal-clear Scottish morning reveals a turreted castle nestled in the...
The planner
I went to Birmingham for the first time last week. I’ve not been avoiding it,
exactly. No. Just that there’s never...
Rural inspiration
Savoy cabbages can be sown now for winter. Fill a modular seed tray with moist
sowing compost and bury a single seed ½...
From the outside, Sandley, set in 178 acres of Dorset countryside near
Gillingham, looks like the quintessential...
For most of us, renting has traditionally been a poor substitute for actually
owning a home. We were happy to share...
For someone keen not only to do their bit for the environment, but to be seen to be doing their bit, there is nothing...
Often seen as small, dark shapes flitting in and out of focus at dusk, bats
are among our most fascinating animals....
* First, fight off the urge of every new occupant to rip out the kitchen and
bathroom — even if the landlord agrees to...
AP McCoy. The man is a bit of a rarity. Not just because, at 36, he is
probably the nation’s finest jump jockey ever,...
Between the ages of six and nine, in the mid-1970s, I lived at 86 Haile Selassie Road in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. My...
From blooms as big and blowsy as a Wag’s corsage on a day at the races, coming
down in size to single glossy, elegant...
‘Bowl of Beauty’ (herbaceous): Perhaps the most famous of all peonies. Large blooms of deep rose pink with an inner...
Our trailer is rattling and our tempers are fraying. We’ve been on the road
for 20 hours and crossed the Irish Sea. We...
Whittinghame House is displayed like a stage set — awaiting the arrival
of a star. The library is nearly large enough...
When I was 23, I landed a job at the Traverse theatre in Edinburgh, and ended
up living in a much more interesting...
Is buy-to-let back? After two years of gloom for landlords, many of whose investments were left in tatters as unlet...
How it rates
Fans of the Channel 4 series Glee will be familiar with the “mash-up”. The members of the high school singing club...
From Glasgow to Gloucestershire, most estate agents are in agreement about one
thing: first-time buyers are likely to...
It is a cruel irony for first-time buyers: lenders remain unflinching in their demands for large deposits, just as high...
The bottom rung of the property ladder is not a place many would expect to
find a dream home. But, as recent awards...
A first-time buyer without a City job, wealthy parents or key-worker status is not a first-time buyer. He or she is a...
If you have been turned down by high street mortgage lenders as well as the bank of mum and dad, don’t give up. There...
Reluctance on the part of banks and building societies to lend to first-time buyers has meant that increasing numbers...
Disgruntled party leaders, unseated politicians or even the lobbyists who once cosied up to them now have a place to go...
The Romans first discovered the healing qualities of the spa waters of Buxton. Today anybody who wishes to taste it for...
Cootehall, in Co Roscommon, is an average village in average rural Ireland.
Pub. Church. Pub. A few old stone cottages...
The house next door has been repossessed by my neighbour’s mortgage
company. If I wanted to buy the property, would it...
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reports that house prices
rose, along with buyer demand and sales rates,...
A smart town house in London SW1 or a family home in West London. This was the choice facing the Cameron family this...
1. Floor plans help you (and your mortgage valuer) to compare prices more objectively by highlighting the full size of...
Pinner is not, as you might suppose, tediously suburban. People who live there
praise the historic high street with...
firstrungnow.com A good website when
starting out. It explains everything from shared ownership to first-time
buyer...
The estate agent
Don’t know about you, but I’ve spent a lot of time, over the years,
fantasising about what it would be like to be a...
When Robert Sackville-West became the 7th Baron Sackville in 2004 and
inherited Knole, the whopping country pile in...
Even before its foundations were laid back in 1929, High and Over, an
uncompromisingly modernist house in...
When I started my own fashion label in 2000, I was 24 and living in a
one-bedroom flat on Ledbury Road, in Notting...
When Tim Slade went househunting two years ago, privacy was high on his wish
list. The multimillionaire businessman...
Not all grass is as green as it looks. Some of the most productive farmland in
England, in the Fens near where we live...
The tradition of making decorative furnishings by hand is thriving. More than
a century after the rise of the original...
The tradition of making decorative furnishings by hand is thriving. More than
a century after the rise of the original...
As I dig and weed the garden, I am not the only one to relish the longer hours
of sunlight and (intermittently) warmer...
When Johnnie Martin, a practical, no-nonsense farmer and his wife, Sally,
decided to build a home, they were keen to...
It was once one of the great sporting estates on Speyside, its mansion house
built on the backs of 10,000 slaves in...
It was the late 1970s and I was seven years old when my parents decided to
move from Scotland to live in America for a...
How it rates
The bluest of blood has flowed through St James’s since the 17th century, when King Charles II allowed the 1st Earl of...
The new government, whatever its colour, or colour combination, may think that housing represents a problem too large...
Q I live in a flat on the first floor of a block of flats and have a small
dog. The managing agents say that animals...
No more excuses. The election is over and we now have about 15 hours of daylight each day to get down to some serious...
In my house we’re a bit clueless about paint. My husband, in a brief fit of something-must-be-done, once daubed...
The Richmond family have lived at Stable End in the Norfolk Broads for close
to three decades, and the Grade II listed...
One of the carefully arranged books on the coffee table bears the title Luxury
Toys. But Ron Pratt, of Oakhurst...
A ramshackle terraced house stripped of its walls and electricity, gas and water may not seem much of a home — but...
House prices rose by 1 per cent in April, according to Nationwide,
taking the annual rise to 10.7 per cent — the first...
Somerton Randle surprises and delights at every turn. A pantiled gate lodge
with overhanging eaves marks the entrance...
When I was five, we moved to our third house in a quiet cul-de-sac in Dalmuir,
Clydebank. With barely any traffic on...
Once Jane and Alistair Donald had decided they wantÂed Duchray Castle, nothing was going to stop them. In 2002 the...
Railway lines have shaped where we live since the first steam trains rolled
in. So, when Stewart Stevenson, the...
Time was when a stay in a seaside hotel was the preserve of maiden aunts and
illicit couplings. Most of our old hotels...
Gemma Olivier may be in no hurry to buy at the moment, but it was a different story last year. She and her husband,...
At first glance, it’s hard to imagine Rosie Watson cracking the whip over a
team of more than 40 burly builders and...
The house might well have been in Surrey. The bricks were a bright baked red,
the window frames were painted white and...
The architect Douglas Forrest describes himself as living his dream. He and
wife Carol have bought an Aberdeenshire...
I grew up in Hadleigh, a little market town in Suffolk. My sister, Ann, and
brother, Roger, are 9 and 11 years older,...
The Salone Internazionale del Mobile is the biggest event on the interiors
world calendar — companies from all over...
Admittedly, it sounded a bit far-fetched. Rebuilding your house with
British-based Polish builders is one thing. But...
How is the housing market in your neighbourhood? There is much debate about
the national need for homes, as we report...
After the housebuilding drought of recent years, it suddenly seems as if
everybody wants to build new homes. Hugh...
As surely as night follows day, where a tax springs up, a loophole will
follow. And the buyers of prime property in...
Leafy and ideally suited to family life — these may be the only features that Hampstead Garden Suburb shares with the...
Stratford is at the heart of the regeneration of the East End. The new
Westfield shopping centre, part of the...
Barratt, Bovis, Taylor Wimpey ... and Tesco? The supermarket’s recent push to become a leading housing developer in the...
Flamboyant businessmen with lavish wealth, colourful private lives and a talent for ruthless political annihilation are...
Up and down Britain, fine town mansions that were once divided into separate
flats are being pieced together as grand...
The “mansion tax” proposed by the Liberal Democrats certainly has a ring to it, but will it have the turbulent effect...
The secret to writing a convincing party manifesto is to make it look as if you have left no stone unturned in making...
Home is traditionally linked to food. But the move of a supermarket into housebuilding has provoked a mostly...
Last year David and Sara Bailey bought themselves the perfect seaside getaway, a three-bedroom house on a hillside...
How it rates
We would like to buy a house next to a dual carriageway. Obviously, because
of the location, we get a much bigger...
I’m in a very confined space with two men in black, a photographer and a
cameraman, who are all watching as I attempt...
Is a trip to Ikea your idea of hell? Do you hate the thought of shopping away
your weekend? Are you chained to your...
Tesco already provides everything you need to stock a home, from groceries to garden furniture. Now it is going to...
What will the election mean for housing? Inevitably, the big picture matters
most: whether we get a hung parliament...
During late April and early May, many of us will again see the familiar dark
shapes of swifts, but are our loft...
Mick and Alison Stott live close to the shores of Little Loch Broom, near
Dundonnell in Wester Ross, so they expected...
Farming is an amazing but incredibly hard job. It’s not all Darling Buds of
May, but it is immensely rewarding. The...
When Paul Logan was caught in an interminable transaction trying to sell his
loft-style Glasgow city-centre flat in...
When my parents were first married, they lived in a draughty old flat in
Partick, in Glasgow’s west end. They were a...
This summer will be the 45th time I’ll be bubble-wrapping and packing up my
most important possessions. Moving house...
When I was five, we moved to 45 Avondale Court, a two-bedroom flat on a
council estate in Canning Town, in the East...
Do you have a strange Mr Blobby-shaped lawn? Perhaps with annoying wiggly bits, making it difficult to maintain? Has it...
Ever walked into a home for sale and noted a bathroom fitted with a lavish
walk-in shower rather than a bath? Or been...
How it rates
We live in one of two semi-detached houses created by the division of a single original house. Both are served by a...
In the space of one 90-minute television debate, Nick Clegg went from a likely
also-ran to a driving force in the...
How many times have you wished for more space, more light and more storage, only to shelve the idea in the face of the...
None of the parties has made housing affordability a manifesto priority. This
is bad news for the millions of young...
More homes for sale and plenty of buyers to snap them up — that’s the current
assessment of the housing market. But...
Anyone who read of the bespoke Scandinavian-style duck house belonging to Sir Peter Viggers, MP, (cost to the taxpayer...
Greenwich, by the Thames, is one of South London’s most pleasant spots. World
famous for lending its name to the...
Lest we forget, life has also been hard for politicians during the property
crisis. After all, many of them have...
Oil money is once again flowing through the arteries of Central London. This week it was revealed that a Middle Eastern...
The exuberant start to the year has left many of us convinced that the housing
market recovery has truly set in....
Rock House took 13 years to plan yet only two weeks to build. Seeking the
perfect location and a like-minded architect...
A surge in the number of properties for sale last month has provided fresh evidence of a spring revival in the housing...
The appeal of Central London as a home from home for the world’s very rich is about to be subjected to its toughest...
Estate agents are trying to talk up the market, as you might expect, but their
true pain is evident. Prices might be...
My house is ridiculously full. As I write, there are four toddlers, one of
whom (not mine) is crying about a ball...
For a tour of 900-year-old Horton Priory, it is advisable to take along a few
good reference books. A history of the...
Babette and Robert Pereno’s home in London is one of the more glamorous in the
capital: a “Wren flat” — the great man...
The pest controller
Politicians have a lot to answer for — rightly in most cases. Now they’re
being blamed for distorting the housing...
The small north Devon town of Lynmouth is the kind of place where everyone
knows everyone else’s business. So it’s no...
Limefield House comes as a surprise. One moment you are driving through post-industrial
West Lothian, an unbeguiling...
My family moved back to Scotland, from Ilkley, near Leeds, in 1984, when I was 20.
We looked at a number of properties...
To say there is something of the night about Willa Keswick is not to make a value judgment. As the host of Willa’s, a...
Finding the right tradesmen for home improvement projects and those niggling
maintenance jobs can be a hit and miss...
On offer for £3.9 million, Worlingham Hall is a house of captivating quality
inside and out. Framed by an avenue of...
Nothing screams romance like a 100-page love-letter to the electorate, which
is what the public got this week as the...
Do you speak bedding? You may be au fait with threadcount, Egyptian cotton and hypoallergenic, but how about percale,...
Fear and loathing? Or an expression of confidence? The news that more
properties are becoming available for sale has...
The “staycation” trend and collapsed pound kept us all at home last year.
According to figures from Visit Britain, the...
My neighbour has embarked on a series of refurbishments. Two weeks after
this started I received a letter asking for...
How it rates
The announcement of the stamp duty holiday for properties below £250,000 might have been expected to result in a drop...
Labour’s decision to freeze the threshold at which inheritance tax is payable
at £325,000 may encourage many elderly...
In 1855 Mary Ann Evans — later to become known to the world as George Eliot —
wrote to her great friend Charles Bray...
Combined heat and power systems (CHP) can dramatically increase the efficient
use of energy. As the name suggests,...
Perennial vegetables, including asparagus and globe artichokes, should be
planted now. Choose a sunny spot with a well...
So, how was it for you? Last weekend, I mean. Easter. Or, as certain sectors
of the retail trade like to term it, the...
We now know March was a good month for house prices, with the Halifax and
Acadametrics both reporting 1.1% rises,...
As with all things very expensive, if you have to ask the price, then you
can’t afford it. That, at least, appears to...
When I was a teenager, our family moved into our grandparents’ house, which
was about a mile up the road. I was...
Diane Young loves the way that her home sparkles. “One of the things I
didn’t like about the old house was that it...
Whether organising balls at Blenheim Palace or throwing fundraisers for
hundreds of people, Serena Balfour has had a...
Philip Pantelouris is facing a dilemma — and he would be delighted if a reader
could provide a solution. Two years ago...
Burleigh Hall is a Cotswolds classic. It’s built of nice old stone. There’s a
tree-lined drive and a frontage to...
People who let out holiday homes have been given an unexpected present by the
taxman — courtesy of the general-...
We moved to Muswell Hill [in northwest London] because we’d started having a
family and we couldn’t afford to buy a...
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children she
didn’t know what to do. But the schools in...
Interior design is fashion with a slow metabolism. Our homes undergo far
fewer makeovers than our wardrobes, but they...
The Spanish property doctor
Fair play
Brassicas, commonly known as the cabbage family, include favourites such as
Brussels sprouts, cauliflowers and...
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