At Manse & Garret Property Search we are almost on first name terms with a number of council planning offices across London and Kent. With three clients currently on our books looking to build their dream properties, a lot of time is inevitably spent on the telephone and in meetings with duty planners and building control.

I must admit that I do have my favourite planning departments: Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster provide the least painful experiences! Equally, I also have a few that I dread dealing with (although I won’t name any for fear of reprisals!)

From the midst of the planning process, preserving the character and appearance of our streets can seem like a bit of a hassle, yet you need only look at a beautiful streetscape in Hampstead Village to know that it is worth it. This is why I am still in a state of disbelief over the report of a developer in Twickenham who bulldozed a semi-detached Regency house, without permission in January of this year.

I may perhaps be slightly biased, as in terms of architecture I happen to be very fond of the housing stock which has survived from the 1820s, but even without my personal aesthetic preferences, I cannot believe that anyone could demolish a house that was attached to another without permission, in order to cut their own developer costs.

The developer was fined £80,000 by Richmond Council, and also had to pay Richmond councils £42,500 legal bill to cover the cost of taking legal action. I imagine that this will serve as a warning to other developers who may be tempted to subvert, or indeed, simply ignore planning regulations in future.

Technorati Tags: Buyers agents, London Buyer's Agents, London Property Buyers Agents, Planning, Planning Permission

Tags: Buyers agents, London Buyer's Agents, London Property Buyers Agents, Planning, Planning Permission

Musings of the London Property Buyers Agents

We’re no experts on the American property market – actually, we know nothing about the American property market but for us in London, a 36% drop sounds like very bad news – normally reserved for the repossessions market.

So has Hef been foreclosed?  Apparently not, but according to the Wall Street Journal, he and Mrs Hef (they split in 1998) have apparently accepted an offer of $18 million, $10 million less than the asking price from 25 year old Daren Metropoulos, the son of C. Dean Metropoulos, a super-successful private equity investor.

The house in question is not Playboy Mansion, where Hugh Hefner still lives with the ‘playmates’ but the smaller version next door where his wife had been living.

So was it just grossly over-priced to begin with or has Hugh taken a hit where it hurts?  There are a few top end drops in London at the moment, but they are almost exclusively the reserve of the handful of people like us in the know.  If you need London Property Buyers Agents who might just be able to secure a similar gem, in London, you can contact us here.

Technorati Tags: Buyers agents, Hugh Hefner's house, Hugh Hefner's house for sale, London Property Buyers Agents, property buyers agents

Tags: Buyers agents, Hugh Hefner's house, Hugh Hefner's house for sale, London Property Buyers Agents, property buyers agents

Musings of the best London Property Buyers Agents

According to Estate Agent Today, Miles Shipside the Commercial Director at Rightmove has announced that they have had their biggest ever day – which is newsworthy, because it comes in the middle of the summer holiday and in the middle of a recession.

Already feeling suspicious, it turns out their second best day was last March, when very little was happening in the property market.  So are people just window-shopping?  We know from anecdotal evidence that people are buying again.  More people seem to be buying this year than last year and there is definitely little stock in many areas in many several price ranges, although we are starting to see an increase in properties coming to the market.

Equally you could argue that everyone is checking up on their house price by browsing house prices for other homes in the neighbourhood.  As for us, Manse and Garret Property Buyers Agents are still forcasting a few bargains before Christmas, and we’re not convinced there will be a genuine surge in house prices in most parts of London, any time soon.

Estate Agent Today

Technorati Tags: House Prices, London Property Buyers Agents, Rightmove

Tags: House Prices, London Property Buyers Agents, Rightmove