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...
We moved to a new house in Eaglesham when I was 18 months old. At the time, it
was wonderful and exciting to live in a...
What do you share with your neighbours? A cup of sugar? A dividing wall?
Despair over the way that your recycling...
The solicitor
The mini boom that the housing market has experienced in recent months,
confounding experts and buyers alike, may be...
Special cold-stored, bare-rooted strawberry plants can be put in now to flower
and fruit in 60-90 days’ time. Select a...
Once upon a time, in a tiny cottage far, far away, there lived a poor but
beautiful mother, alone with her young...
I moved to 20 Streatham Common North, in south London, in 1995. I’d gone from
my parents’ house in Wolverhampton to...
Has home ownership lost its allure? Once, just about everybody aspired to own
their own home. Margaret Thatcher...
Government has a critical role in helping us all to do our bit to make our
homes greener — which is important, given...
I picked up my first bit of rough last month. Across a crowded tableware
department, I spotted a stack of crocks in...
Simon and Deb Milner were so determined to ensure the renovation of their
holiday cottage on the isle of Skye matched...
What do you expect when a top-division footballer opens his home to you?
Square yards of gold plating, overblown...
It’s not often that you come across a large country house, straight out of a
Sunday-evening bosom-and-bonnet...
The former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina doesn’t feature on the list
of favourite destinations for British...
Edward Haughey, Baron Ballyedmond, is at pains to put his grand London home
into context. “I live in Ballyedmond...
Shallots are regarded by many foodies as “gourmet onions” and chefs rather
snooty about cooking with anything else. I...
It’s time to have pruned hybrid tea, Floribunda and climbing roses, always cutting back to an outward-pointing bud to...
Q: My garden is very shady so I grow ferns. Some of them are evergreen and
the snow has flattened them. What can I do...
This is the tale of two cities: the first the most high-profile casualty of
the crash, the second the most resilient...
Getting started
Q In 2004 my neighbour built an extension to his house behind a line of
bushes, although we thought he was only doing...
A grumpy German politician, joined by a dozen others who can already smell the
oleander bushes, has launched a...
Houses with low energy efficiency will lose value under government plans to
intervene in the property market to help...
Are we double-dipping? The Nationwide reported on Friday that prices have
fallen by 1% this month (it takes its...
My childhood home, 87 Bayside Walk, in Dublin 13, holds the fondest memories
for me. The house was a regular three-...
Over the years, I have accumulated a rich variety of cloth shopping bags. Some
of them are more than a decade old, but...
There should be a 1970s detective called Elgin Tower. I see him leaping out of
his E-type Jaguar and racing off in...
I was in my early twenties and in my last year at Glasgow School of Art. A
southsider by birth, I had gradually made...
Terry Farrell is not your typical architect, all astringent monochromes and
buttoned-up tastefulness. Rather, his flat...
As the Winter Olympics in Vancouver draw to a close, it’s time to get your
skates on if you’re planning to let out...
The rambler in sturdy boots, binoculars slung rakishly around his neck, paused
for a moment at the gate of the 17th-...
It’s freezing outside, there are at least a couple more months to go before
the weather warms up, and the idea of a...
The pest controller
Martin Coe fell in love with Normans, a grand Tudor mansion in West Sussex,
the moment he drove up its camellia-lined...
Statuary rights
Creative and canny use of water is slowly but surely filtering into our homes.
Even the most die-hard wallowers know...
One whiff, one warm, vanilla-scented waft that makes you stop and say “Where
is that coming from?” and you remember...
Hedges have had a rough time lately. In recent years sales of wooden fences
have rocketed, particularly on newbuild...
If you walk down Oakshaw Street in Paisley today, you’ll find it hard to
picture what it was like little more than a...
Now is the time to plant lingonberrys, which produce tasty red berries —
delicious in jam — from midsummer to early...
Q I own an investment property with a sitting tenant who has lived there
for 22 years. The rent is far below what I...
Like a port in a storm, prices at the very top end of the property market have
performed robustly over the past year...
You may or may not be interested in the size of your neighbour’s energy bill
and the type of extension he can add to...
The actor George Clooney is reported to be selling the villa on Lake Como that
he shares with his Italian girlfriend...
It’s enough to make a horticulturist pray that spring never arrives. One of the most admired gardens in Britain is to...
A buyer who paid £150,000 for a six-bedroom cliff-top house suffered a
property crash six days later: a 5,000-tonne...
Kensington and Chelsea £1,396
Not all of us have the opportunity or the inclination to invest in our own
green energy systems. However, we can still...
The age of his girlfriends may be fast diminishing, but so is the value of
Ronnie Wood’s property portfolio. The...
Day of the orchids
Ever since Japan opened to the West in the mid-19th century, its gardens have
been a source of inspiration — from...
In the era of the iPad and Kindle, technophiles may be cheerfully
contemplating living in a bookless world. Designers...
My family moved to Brighton in 1974, when I was 2 and my sister, Zoe, was 4.
We had been living in a bedsit in London...
Scotland’s new homes have had a hellish couple of years. The number being
built each year has fallen by a third, and...
Britain needs more people like Brian and Christina Ridsdale. Both in their
early seventies, and keen hill-walkers,...
The downturn in the housing market has brought renewed investor interest in
residential property. This is reflected in...
The last time I strapped on ski boots was on a 1980s school trip. Saggy navy
salopettes and matching anoraks were the...
Just when you’d begun to relax about the state of the property market, it
seems things are going pear-shaped again....
I always say that men, horses and houses choose you, not the other way
around,” says the children’s author and...
Evidence of a slight upturn in Scotland’s property market continues to grow.
Last week Lloyds TSB announced figures...
A techno beat, frothy beer in abundance and dancing on the tables: welcome to
the Austrian après-ski scene. Scantily...
When Charlotte and Stewart Robertson first viewed No 4 Hill Street in
Edinburgh, it had been used as an office for...
For a display of sweetly scented white or pink flowers in the mid- to late
spring, plant lily of the valley now. This...
The phenomenal rise in property values over the past 25 years has benefited
one group of homeowners more than any...
Nick Shaw couldn’t understand why his arm was so sore. He hadn’t left home
all day. He’d been too busy making...
1 Cyclamen coum It may look rather dainty, but this flowering cyclamen
keeps going in the cold, from late winter...
What do I do with it? It’s covering half the patio. Can I cut it hard back?”
So asks my daughter in her first, shared...
Q Beside our garage block is a small piece of land that sits outside our
boundary. I am told that years ago one of the...
Each morning, as the Siberian winter grips Britain, gas supplies are rationed
and heating bills soar, Georgie Ursell...
No fire or cosy stove can win the battle of the elements when faced with
rotting sash windows that let in howling...
Most new parents worry about how to create enough extra space for their
growing family. Sarah Jessica Parker, star of...
Are you area-obsessed or bedroom-centric? No, this is not a pop psychology
quiz but a question to determine what kind...
An ageing population is rapidly altering the balance between the older and
younger ends of society, which is affecting...
The consumer watchdog today recommended relaxing rules for new entrants such
as Google and Tesco to offer rival...
Nearly 500 homes are to be built in the first phase of a programme to
fast-track new housing and drive down costs by...
Once we were a nation of shopkeepers; now we appear to have become a nation of
hoarders.
Urban Scotland has always been a place of flats. From aristocrats to the
urban poor, skilled workers to highly paid...
There was a time was when castles stood at the pinnacle of Scotland’s property
ladder. Lee Castle in Lanarkshire and...
What do the pop stars Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Cliff Richard, the mayor of
London, Boris Johnson, the TV presenter...
With a new house comes new neighbours, which can be awkward unless you live in
London, where it’s a matter of...
We moved around the country when I was small before settling in Blackwood in
South Lanarkshire, which is where I...
The name Sycamore House may conjure pictures of leafy splendour, but for one
couple it symbolises a self-build journey...
Two decades after he laid down the Stetson he wore as the villainous oilman JR
Ewing, Larry Hagman’s greatest fear is...
Different signs of spring are already evident. In Cambridge, chaffinches and
song thrushes are singing, while...
The days are lengthening and there is distinct evidence of new growth in every
garden. At this time of year, a grand...
The estate agent
Clean-limbed, understated, modern and functional, Scandinavian design has been
one of the most influential forces...
A year ago, Endellion King was renting a poky studio in Purley, Surrey. The
living room doubled as his bedroom, and...
Start begonia tubers into growth now. Fill a seed tray with moist,
multipurpose compost and plant them side by side,...
From the age of two months until I was 19, I lived in a big, rattling monster
of a house in Harrogate. It was a...
A vision in white
A sense of space and a wealth of natural light are not the first things that
come to mind when you think of a mews...
When I write about housing activity and prices picking up, half of those
reading will nod in agreement, while half...
The wealth gap is widening. If you want to sell your detached £200,000
four-bedroom family home in Sedgefield, Co...
What is the pinnacle of your property ambition? Maybe it’s a cottage so cute,
it belongs on a fudge box, or a honey-...
It’s time to be doing proper gardening again, not just winter housekeeping. Start planting or dividing perennials that...
So it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow, and that means champagne, chocolates and, of
course, roses. But stop and think for a...
Who can resist Rosa rugosa, even in the depths of winter? I have three, and as the bad weather set in last month I...
I want a boundary hedge at the bottom of my garden to screen out parked
cars. I don’t want evergreens or conifers, but...
How it rates
Q We are due to exchange contracts to buy a new home. The sale will
not complete until the summer. Our conveyancer...
A restaurant occupies the Grade II-listed Art Deco banking hall of the former
Lloyds Bank HQ at 14 Cornhill, one of...
The north-south divide is growing, according to the Chesterton Humberts/CEBR
January poll. House prices in the UK’s...
A house among the birds’ nests was the Smith family’s answer to the problem of
finding an affordable home in an...
Patrick and Frances Colquhoun are happy pensioners. Since they installed solar
panels on the roof of their five-...
Candy & Candy, developer-designers to the super-wealthy, have defined a
certain style of luxury property since...
In the spring and summer of 1969, I lived on a houseboat on the Thames. I had
just finished a picture in Rome with...
When she lost her job, Katharine Hibbert, 28, decided to lose everything else
too. In one drastic move, a year ago,...
I received a letter a couple of days ago from the daughter of a man whose
house I recently reviewed in this column. I...
One morning last summer, Ian Dollamore popped into his local deli in west
London to pick up some ciabatta and ham. On...
Under a Tuscan sun
The UK is finally getting serious about recycling. Many local authorities are
sending upwards of half our household...
It wasn’t exactly the A list who descended on the Kent village of Ightham for
a party late last year. Among the 200...
When I was born, we lived in a tiny cottage in Lesmahagow, in Lanark. My
father was a shepherd, but when he became a...
Anyone who lets out an overseas holiday home will know the sense of dread that
follows an email from an irked tenant...
Mortgage approvals, as regular readers will know, are the lifeblood of the housing
market. When they collapse, as they...
Okay, so it is not exactly the season for honeysuckle and roses to make your
true love swoon with their scent, but...
Letting a grand house may sound like something from a Jane Austen novel, but
an increasing number of house movers are...
Moving house is stressful enough at the best of times — up there with
divorce and a trip to Ikea — without squatters...
For anyone in search of a relaxing life, a six-bedroom house in a Regency
terrace overlooking the sea, with an...
The architect
I have always been a huge supporter of the National Gardens Scheme (NGS). Its instantly recognisable annual publication...
I was given an azalea in a pot for Christmas. At its peak the flowers
shrivelled, though it looked healthy in every...
Soil that is sodden with meltwater is no place to be putting new pot-grown
plants; wait until the water has had time...
Bargains can still be found — even in London. Brockley, SE4, hidden within the
borough of Lewisham, first attracted...
Should I make the leap onto the property ladder now and ignore advice to wait?
Can I get a good mortgage deal with a...
What your £1.75 million brings in the Western Highlands is almost beyond
belief. Not only does this imposing stone...
We love our aged cottages, Victorian terraces and Tudor manors — but attempts
to stamp a modern lifestyle on to our...
Has your income failed to grow as fast as your clutter, your children and
house prices? If so, your home probably...
Reports of house price falls can provoke disproportionate misery. Equally,
surveys indicating that prices are rising...
How it rates
A very powerful man with very bad dress sense took to a stage in San Francisco
last week to launch the latest must-...
Q I own a leasehold flat that I rent to a tenant who smokes. A neighbour
has got solicitors to write to me demanding...
The talk in coffee shops and conference rooms at the World Economic Forum in
Davos last weekend was of deficits — and...
I moved to Flat 7, 7 Embankment Gardens, in Chelsea, in 1979. There was
something magical about it, not least because...
When Queen Elizabeth I announced in 1591 that she was dropping in on New Place
Manor, the owner built a gateway in her...
What it is: A traditional, granite and slate farmhouse with open views
over the Don Valley. Inside there are two...
Remember a time when foreign holidays didn’t begin with humiliation:
confiscation of your Beauty Flash Balm, say,...
The builder
Not everybody would have the courage to invest more than £500,000 in a house
they had never seen and that had yet to...
Onions such as ‘Ailsa Craig’ can be sown now for harvesting in the summer.
Fill a modular seed tray to ½in below the...
The first thing that strikes you about the Lane House is the sheer incongruity
of the curvy white structure, set in a...
"Welcome to our island paradise,” says a local man, dressed in a long
white robe and prayer cap, as he passes the...
A little bit of cosmetic deception is a long-established part of the
housebuying game: the estate agent’s particulars...
Trish Thomson should be an estate agent’s dream: chain-free and with a
prearranged mortgage, she has up to £800,000 to...
One of the most damaging long-term environmental trends worldwide is the
build-up of plant nutrients. Sewage works,...
What it is: This two-bedroom semi with a hexagonal former cheese room
has planning permission to be converted into a...
I grew up in a cottage flat in Carnwadric in the southside of Glasgow. We
lived there from when I was born until I was...
When the plastic surgeon James McDiarmid saw Wood House, near South Tawton,
Devon, in 2007, he knew that a three-year...
A property developer who built a £500,000 home disguised as a barn in the green belt has won his appeal against...
It’s not often you hear a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy
committee give a prediction for the housing...
Highgate Village is perched atop a towering hill like a picture-postcard of
Georgian London. The façade of Highgate...
Q I live in a close where all the houses except mine have security gates.
One of my neighbours with a right of way...
How it rates
Fitzrovia
Mind the Gap, the alert so familiar to Tube passengers is fast becoming the
phrase that sums up the UK property market.
Here is a sobering fact for first-time buyers: you may need a sizeable deposit
to qualify for an affordable home. You...
The tricky business of enfranchisement — the extension of leases or purchase
of freehold — has traditionally been the...
Are first-time buyers doomed to be locked out of the housing-market recovery?
With prices rising in all regions,...
The sale particulars for the villa call it “an important country estate”,
which is estate agent code for “a palatial...
The tricky business of enfranchisement — the extension of leases or purchase
of freehold — has traditionally been the...
The prolonged cold weather could hit the number of small birds such as the
robin recorded this weekend as part of the...
The solicitor
We’ve got into the swing of recycling and sourcing low-air-miles food, and we
almost always take hessian bags when we...
Pyrford Court, two miles north of Ripley, in the flatlands of Surrey, has many
outstanding features. There are lofty...
Until I was 10, I lived at the vicarage on Manchester Road, on the Isle of
Dogs.
Speaking to a Norwegian friend last week, I was reminded how far we have to go
in the UK in improving the efficiency...
Christina Strutt is seated at her battered kitchen table, wearing an
improbable pink floral pinafore and puffing on a...
If you have a warm greenhouse (kept at a minimum temperature of about 12C),
then tomatoes, such as ‘Brandywine’, can...
If this is the year you’re planning the big move out of London to greener
pastures, or at least prettier provinces,...
It was a desire to do something different that took me to Berlin in 2007. It
was a bit of a whim. But I think about...
What it is: Grade II-listed Jasmine Cottage has planning consent for
restoration and extension. As it stands, the 752...
What to do with our gardens in 2010? Certainly, I’ve got practical plans for
my own in west Oxfordshire, and my focus...
John and Ann Roberts’s home, near Jedburgh in the Borders, is a house of two
halves. As you approach it along a long...
Apparently, in France, it’s considered catastrophically rude not to offer a
formal greeting to the sales assistant as...
Spuds you like
The family is growing and you are running out of space. You’ve converted the
loft and extended the kitchen, and...
When Bill and Susan Breckenridge decided to extend their unusual end-terrace
home in Glasgow’s southside, they chose...
My patio made from old bricks is cracking up after the frosts. What can I
do?
Does affordable housing deserve its dreary image? Mention shared ownership and
even the most optimistic buyer conjures...
The January sales may be over, but in Central London bargains remain. Buyers
are still finding ways to purchase...
Balham, in southwest London, has always been Clapham’s poor-ish relation. But
everything is relative. One resident...
The cold weather has extended the seasonal housing market slowdown, with
househunters choosing to browse property...
How it rates
Is London’s reputation as the world’s financial capital in danger? With a
dreaded supertax of 50 per cent and punitive...
Ashdown House, as good an untouched example of Charles II style as can be
found, stands in a breathtaking setting high...
The key facts about
rental returns for buy-to-let landlords PDF
Q I live in a block of flats built in 1979. The leases state that all
floors other than kitchens and bathrooms must be...
Television bosses believe that the British still love nothing more than a
property show, albeit one with a dose of...
Bankers were more known for wearing bowler hats than their bonuses and Peter
Rachman, the owner of slum properties in...
The turning you choose as you drive out of Malaga airport says a lot about the kind of Spain you’re looking for.
The turning you choose as you drive out of Malaga airport says a lot about the
kind of Spain you’re looking for.
THE Chinese are on their way. A Hong Kong billionaire has followed the waves
of Russian oligarchs, Indians and Arab...
Looking out of the window at the scruffy grass and shrubs emerging from under
the snow, and wishing you knew what to...
THE ESTATE AGENT
- Despite the cold weather, you can get going with chitting first early
potatoes such as ‘Rocket’ and ‘Swift’ over the...
A new decade prompts dreams of fresh starts, and if the economic gloom and the
coming election aren’t enough to make...
When Sandy’s Mill last came on the market seven years ago, the open-viewing
day nearly ended in a riot. There were so...
What it is: The Granary is a Grade II-listed barn in the south
Shropshire hills, with planning permission to be...
When should I plant Chinese artichokes?
For the next few weeks, a simple question will dominate in the housing market
— is it the beginning of a new slowdown...
Two years ago, Dick Beijen was enjoying the corporate high life as the
co-owner of a property investment company. He...
While most people’s thoughts have been confined to fulfilling the most basic
obligations in the big freeze, Suzanne...
I hear there’s a revolution brewing in the coffee shops of Great Britain.
Proprietors are fed up with the laptop...
Given their recently acquired status as the people we most like to hate, how
do Britain’s bankers sleep at night?...
Every year I bring my geraniums indoors and put them on the kitchen
windowsill, and every year they make nasty, long,...
Do you have an inner dilemma?
Boris Johnson declared this week that he remains “on track” to deliver 50,000
more affordable homes in London. But...
How it rates
As the Bentley convertible with the personalised number plates reversed belligerently towards us, the estate agent...
Q Between our neighbour and us there is a mature holly boundary hedge 100m
long and 1.3m to 1.5m high. We own the...
Bow, London E3, has been “the next big thing” for several years, and has
attracted its share of eminent residents,...
Sixties?
Government-funded affordable housing schemes are regarded by many first-time
buyers as their only hope for getting a...
It sounds too good to be true — planning permission for a handsome new
Classical house overlooking a large lake,...
The cold spell is keeping the nation indoors, marooned in their sitting rooms.
In some cases, this prolonged exposure...
A ramshackle beach hut in the Suffolk coastal town of Southwold is being offered for sale at £40,000, despite its lack...
The producers of Gardeners’ World have admitted that its gimmicky new image alienated viewers and are to revert to...
The assassins strike by night. Their weapons are hatchets, handsaws, drain
cleaner and rock salt. Their victims are...
My wife and I moved to Moon Hill Road, in Lexington, Massachusetts, in 1981. I
was teaching at Harvard and my wife,...
What it is: Thomas Becket House has a Grade II-listed former bell tower
and planning permission to be extended into a...
Baby, it’s cold outside,” Cerys Matthews once sang to Tom Jones. For many of
us, it’s cold inside, too. Britain’s 26m...
With his house amassing accolades for its eco-credentials, owner and
architect Don McLean is phlegmatic about his new...
The blanket of snow that has fallen over many of our gardens in the past week
has turned them into a winter wonderland...
As an expression of freedom and beauty, Yves Saint Laurent’s designs were
rarely surpassed. He took women out of their...
Vicky Richardson’s home in the Brunswick Centre, central London, is in a dream
location — a stone’s throw from the...
What do tens of thousands of households, the cabinet, Royal Mail, Manchester
city council, British Gas, Tottenham...
My father has a plumbing and gas fitting business, and I was 16 when he
decided he needed a bit more space. I didn’t...
Nobody can have failed to spot that 2010 will be election year. With the
political parties already campaigning hard (...
The public-relations man who showed me round this week’s property tells me
there’s a theory gathering momentum about...
Eleanor Campbell recently did up the kitchen of her nice-but-normal family
home in Hammersmith, west London. What a...
As old and new as class war, familiar, practical painted wood furniture is
about to find itself in the unusual...
The desire to be different leads many a celebrity to choose a vintage gown for
a red-carpet occasion. By wearing...
Whether a garden is large or small, contemporary or traditional, it will
usually benefit from the space being broken...
Did you wrap the crown of your tree fern before the snow, at the top of the
trunk where the fronds begin? More than a...
The ballroom has been graced by aristocrats, intellectuals, artists and millionaires. The beams on the ceiling date...
How it rates
Sometimes the thrill of a statement home is in the difficulty of its finding. Home Counties buyers locked in...
Q My nextdoor neighbour has made no repairs for several years and
damp has come through the wall into our house. Last...
Have the experts made a new year’s resolution to be more optimistic about the
housing market at the start of a new...
What a difference a year makes. By the end of 2008, property prices had plunged by more than 14 per cent in 12 months....
The future looks, well, cosy. It also looks a little bit 1970s. Look out for
the return of terracotta serving dishes,...
When Sian Berry needs her dishwasher fixing or a plug rewiring, she doesn’t have to rely on someone else. She is proud...
Homeowners have been warned that mortgage rates will increase in the next 12 months, adding thousands to the cost of...
Daniel Barbanel, 34, and his wife, Rachel, are hoping to take advantage of lower property prices and reasonable...
So will 2010 see a continuation of the rally that took us all by surprise in
the second half of last year, or will...
Time and home furnishing trends wait for no man — and what better time to do
up your home than the start of a new...
Never mind black: green is set to be the colour of 2010 — especially when it
comes to the home. New building...
The world has suddenly shrunk for holiday-home buyers. Gone are our ambitious
and sometimes foolish forays into...
If you associate leather sofas with the taste-free bachelor pad, the fusty
gentlemen’s club or a suburban branch of...
It’s 1am on a Sunday morning, and I’m standing in Crystals, a nightclub in
Newtown, Powys, Wales, watching 20-odd...
A hundred years ago you could buy a different garden tool for every job that
you could imagine, and some of them were...
In the run-up to Christmas you will invariably find me out in the garden,
testing the limits of the garden calendar as...
Two years ago we bought two each of damson, Victoria plums and quince, all planted in a row to produce a fruit walk....
A leading law firm has been closed by regulators and five solicitors have been suspended after allegations of...
A house says a lot about its owner. A Georgian rectory signifies someone of
substance and taste; a Miami-style piece...
I was born in England but my family moved to Scotland when I was a baby. We
briefly lived in East Kilbride and...
Back when Fanny Cradock reigned supreme, a galley kitchen — that functional
cooking den usually cut off from the rest...
Perhaps because, like all novelists, I crave distraction, I have always liked
gardening challenges. About 10 years ago...
This time last year, the headlines were full of doom for the housing market.
Prices had already dropped sharply...
After 18 months of turmoil, this year deserves to be viewed as a decent one in
the annals of Scotland’s housing market...
IN - PENTHOUSE IN LONDON
Forget the grandeur of ballrooms and vast halls, the pleasure of the best
homes is in more modest details. Don't miss...
1. Striped sofa from Sweetpea and Willow
Many people feel panicked by the thought of a packed shop floor - what's
your advice?
Slowly but surely, the charms of the London townhouse are coaxing the rich and
famous out from behind the walls of...
With its white stucco and brick facade, high ceilings and one of London’s most
prestigious addresses, 105 Eaton Square...
"You clearly lack intellect as well as common sense and integrity. Good luck
in your fatuous world, and good riddance.”
When Richard Stannard went to view the classic five-storey Regency townhouse
in Brighton that has been his home for...
So why exactly did the late King Hassan II of Morocco give Alfried Krupp a
house in Marrakesh? “I don’t know,” says...
Q&A with Nina Campbell
The number of buyers purchasing properties with cash is falling, according to
LSL Property Services, the owners of the...
IN - A RED-BRICK HOUSE IN LONDON
Festive cheer is coming from unlikely sources to help Shelter, the
homelessness charity, this Christmas.
Rodent season is upon us. As temperatures drop, rats and mice are more likely
to take refuge in your home in search of...
What is the best song about a house? It is a question that all music-loving
property enthusiasts have asked themselves...
I first came to Burano 25 years ago. When I arrived, it was a shock. I felt
like I was in the middle of western...
What it is: An old workshop in Lydd, 14 miles from Rye, which was once
used as a courtroom for trying smugglers;...
The housing market was not expecting much from Alistair Darling’s pre-budget
report (PBR), which was just as well. It...
It’s morning. The alarm clock goes off, the dog pulls a lever, a trap door
opens in the bedroom floor and — hey presto...
After three years at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California,
Matthew Trewhella returned home to Cornwall in...
Food security is set to become a big issue at a time when the population is
rising fast, oil and gas prices are...
Just as the Slow Food movement extols the virtues of artisanal, local,
sustainably grown produce over fast food, so...
What happens when neighbours become such good friends, they can’t bear the
idea of anyone else moving in next door?...
I might have an English accent, but I’m semi-Jock. I was born in Ardrossan in
the late 1960s and lived there until I...
By this time of year, most of us are tangling with tinsel, preparing to take
delivery of oversized poultry and...
When thoughts turn to tinsel and Christmas shopping, only the desperate, the
contrary or the extremely confident will...
Barbara and Robin Bonner-Morgan have been trying to sell their seven-bedroom,
Grade II-listed home in Suffolk for more...
Walled gardens have a magical allure. Marshall Milne saw photographs of
Alderston and came under its spell — without...
THE SOLICITOR
Poets always claim to love the changing seasons. I suppose they have to, poor
things. Otherwise, what are they going...
Many of my childhood family holidays were spent in France, where not just the
foodstuffs but the bathrooms were...
The object: Make Mugs
For a period in the Seventies, German designer and illustrator Graziela
Preiser hit the big time with her quirky...
They hang around beneath a sign saying “antisocial behaviour will be reported
to the police”. I’d been wary of...
Despite money pledged in the Pre-Budget Report to improve energy efficiency
and replace wasteful boilers in British...
How it rates
Nicky Haslam’s place among the glitterati of the interior design world was
forged from a series of high-profile...
It would be wrong to expect a continuation of the current rapid recovery in
the housing market, as the economy is not...
A quick-fire guide to the top interiors trends of the Noughties, and the hot tips for 2010.
The newest penthouses in Mayfair sit on the eighth floor of Avenfield House
above Park Lane, with views in one...
This year, exceptional houses continued to sell for well over their asking
prices. This in the teeth of a recession...
Andy Coyle will remember this year with fondness. After years spent working in
banking, the 35-year-old decided to...
With some people arguing that we have not yet got through the bust, thoughts
are already turning to how to stop the...
During the many years that I worked at Friends of the Earth, one of the most
frequently asked questions from...
You want to put your house on the market, but can’t stand the idea of a
drip, drip, drip of viewings over the next...
The overseas adviser
How are you feeling this Christmas? A combination of twitchy and hopeful about
covers it for us. We know from Mervyn...
Men might like to know right away that this week’s property is an abnormally
superior one, that it has recently had...
Zara Phillips is standing on a damp Portuguese hillside, calf-high in bracken,
clover and outsize fungi, surveying a...
If you like flowers to pick in winter, look out for the dark form of the
Algerian Iris unguicularis called ‘Mary...
When is a hedge not a hedge? Probably when it’s a screen, a looser, less
geometric affair that can wave in the wind,...
For years, Sarah Piper had to bulk-buy Christmas trees. With four holiday lets
on the go, by early December the...
Click
here to view annual house price growth during the Noughties PDF
Click
here to view national house price growth over the last 50 years
RICS Lettings Survey
The merits of the Buff Orpington or Light Sussex are as likely these days to
be discussed over garden fences in...
Savills, the estate agent, apologised in court yesterday to a businessman who
accused it of tricking him into selling...
Sitting in his smart Chelsea office, Robert Bailey puts down the phone and
stares intently at the unpronounceable...
In the words of Michael Corleone: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me
back in.” While the Godfather wasn’t...
I first got to know one of my closest friends while we were both working on a
half-baked weekly newspaper for children...
THE ESTATE AGENT
When I first set eyes on Bridge House, it was a semi-derelict building on the
esplanade of South Queensferry, looking...
What it is: The Dower House is part of the Coombe estate, in Llangynog,
a village six miles southwest of Carmarthen....
Heard the one about the homeowner who liked their estate agent? No, thought
not. Or how about the estate agent who...
It was when my lodger, James, stormed into the flat, swearing loudly and
demanding the reintroduction of the death...
I moved about far too much as a child to ever think of anywhere as “home” —
but my first real memories are of the...
In the darkest days of the credit crunch, one claim was made so regularly, you might have believed it. This was that...
Winter warmer
Creating a wildlife pond in your garden will attract insects, birds and
amphibians — a handy way to deal with many...
- Many herbaceous perennials, including Acanthus mollis and Papaver orientale,
can be propagated now by root cuttings...
Cards on the table: decorating in monochrome is not in my comfort zone. When
it comes to interiors, I’m all for colour...
It was a grey afternoon in the late 1970s and a young Jamie Theakston was
sitting perched on a kerb in the village of...
A peek into one of the many spacious built-in cupboards in the
architectdesigned house belonging to Mark and Debra...
House sellers are changing their estate agents in record numbers. According to new research from Savills, the trend has...
With a fortune estimated at £8 billion and his own Airbus A380 on order,
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is the richest man...
The first decade of the new millennium is not coming to a particularly
cheerful end: the boom of the early years has...
At 6pm in the woods of southern Finland, the scene looks like something
Hallmark might have conjured up for Christmas...
TRADE SECRET: Click For Art
Now that you’ve realised how easy it is to plant your garden over the winter,
you might be wondering what to plant....
Pruning is a term that can fill a nervous amateur gardener with fear. I have seen people tremble, secateurs in hand,...
We own the leases of two flats of a block of four. We would like to buy the
freehold, but the freeholder has died. The...
Click
here to view our graphic on regional prime property price rises PDF
The behaviour of the banks lay behind the boom and bust in buy-to-let. Now the
new strategies at these institutions...
The future of the Chelsea Flower Show has been secured by a leading asset-fund
manager, M&G. The company, part of...
I was a year old when we moved to 34 Nelson Road in Ilkley. It was a classic
Yorkshire house, with sandstone walls and...
Of late, the fashion world has been taken over by celebrities better known for
other things: the supermodel Kate Moss...
Like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, you may soon be able to
disappear down a hole in the garden and find...
What it is: Fancy a home in the Peak District? Lane Side Barn is a
single room, with a wooden ladder leading up to an...
Frond memories
* Once the leaves have faded, established clumps of rhubarb can be split to
make more plants. Use a spade to divide a...
With the sun hanging low and the days ever shorter, it is all too easy to
retreat indoors and forget about what is...
Memories of the times I spent at my grandparents’ house in Aberdeen are
remarkably strong and wonderfully vivid. I was...
Extending and remodelling a listed house in a north Edinburgh conservation
area is bound to create planning problems....
UP TO a third of large country houses sold in the past four years have been bought by foreign buyers, according to new...
Remember the fable of Chicken Licken? Not quite, perhaps. For the benefit of
all the other readers who, like me, could...
We British may like to be beside the seaside, but when it comes to property
investment, we just love to be beside a...
The Queen’s Speech, published last Wednesday, sets out the areas the
government considers important in the year ahead...
High in the hills of Cumbria is a place called Alston Moor. It’s remote, hilly
and, until 2002, didn’t have much to...
With Christmas looming, it might seem odd to add “selling a house” to your
to-do list — especially if you have two...
THE BUILDER
Tartan and tweed have ensured that “Scottish” looks have had a place in
interior design for decades. But now a new...
When Jessica Hynes lost her job with a major bank in Canary Wharf last year,
she decided it was time for a change of...
The knitting club
When stylist, writer and shop-owner Abigail Ahern gets her home ready for
entertaining, she has plenty of help at hand...
Ignored for many years by traditionalists, ornamental grasses have finally
become more than merely fashionable....
For years a forgotten industrial backwater known more for its red-light
district than its properties, Paddington is in...
Downsizing once meant dropping out. Their working years almost done, older
householders were expected to trade in...
How it rates
For would-be buyers who have spent 2009 saving for a deposit, next year may
seem the perfect time to buy. As well as...
Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales, known for its Victorian spa and its lush
surrounding countryside, has a new claim to...
James Caan is about to undergo a dramatic image transformation. The private equity investor and television celebrity,...
There can be no home improvement project more controversial right now than a
basement extension, scores of which are...
Does the Teflon town exist? A place where the ravages of recession have not hit jobs and house prices, where affluence...
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