David vs Goliath internet homes row
A DAVID vs Goliath battle has been launched by an independent property sales website against estate agent-owned listings giant Rightmove. Internet-based sales site First4sale.com has reported Rightmove.co.uk to the Office of Fair Trading, accusing it of abusing its dominant position and adopting anti-competitive practices.

HauteLiving: Glass Houses

Manhattan is being seduced by 200 Chambers Street, a 258 condo complex with floor-to-ceiling windows gazing out on the city and Hudson River. Initially envisioned by Lord Norman Foster, the 30 storey tower was ultimately completed by glass guru Kondylis.

Hammerson joins criticism of UK reits

A spokeswoman explained that Hammerson, along with the rest of the property investment industry, was concerned about the level of entry and exit charges for Reits. Reits will be exempt from tax on property income and capital gains but have to pay an entry charge and distribute income through dividends. Hammerson has one third of its French portfolio in a Reit equivalent, called Siic, and benefits from a tax-exempt status there.

Homeless man blogs about his experience

View from the Sidewalk, has become a way for 43 year old Michael Brown to vent, rant and reflect on his problems. He reveals the day-to-day travails, his guilt and anger about the situation, and his depression... A sign of the times?

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Interested in stalking Brad Pitt?

Well, now you can...


Live next door to Brad’s original three house compound in the Hills of Los Feliz. Can’t afford the $1.4 million price tag? No problem, rent it for just $4,500 a month. Fit a month or two on your mastercard, max out then move out.
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D.C. Exhibit to Focus on Green Building

What the housing pessimists are missing

Kudlow: Lower gas prices are increasing the purchasing power of rising consumer incomes from steadily impressive job gains. This is what the housing pessimists are missing. Any cooling of the home real estate market and the cash-out income value from that market is being more than offset by falling unemployment and rising income from the job creation of healthy American businesses.
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What to do with the 50 million quid?

After orchestrating the largest and most successful heist in British history, the issue now for the successful robbers is what to do with the 50 million quid?
The Independent put that question to former gangster turned author Horace Silver. His advice includes hiring a "reliable financial advisor", starting a Dubai company and transfering money to the Caymans. We're not so sure about the reliablity of Mr Silver's advice, given that it's written in a national newspaper. We'll leave that for you to decide . However, we note with interest, that one of Silver's "professional recommendations" is property investment.

Photographs of Hong Kong apartment buildings

The Landlord Law Blog: SIs change HMO laws
Most lawyers think that the 2004 Housing Act is all about HIPS (Home Information Packs), but well informed landlords know different. It is also about the mandatory licensing of and new standards in HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation), and the dreaded tenancy deposit scheme, a monstrous slur on the integrity of honest landlords.

Ryanair now selling Spanish and Portugese property's via their website

Introduction to Home Information Packs

Yesterday, Sava hosted a London briefing on Home Information Packs (HIPs); a program that the UK government intends to introduce next year for residential sale transactions. Speakers included Amy Campbell, policy advisor at the OPDM, Brian Scannell SAVA's MD, Hilary Grayson of SAVA and Ben Elder from the College of Estate Management. The government plans a "dry run" later this year with full implementation June 2007. In order to become a Home Inspector (HI), a new qualification is needed, and it doesn't matter what an individuals current profession or experience is; whether surveyor, estate agent, lawyer, or student; all have to take the new test. A fee-based license will also be required. At this stage, it hasn't been determined, whether it will be on a 12 month or 3 year basis. How much will the license cost is also not known, although Mr Scannell indicated that it may be somewhere in the region of SAVA's current membership fees. There is also a lot of controversy surrounding the government controlled "central database" where HIPs will be archived. Who will have access is an unanswerable question at this stage.
HIPs were apparently designed to alleviate some of the stress of homebuying; the government's research indicating that buying a home is right up there with the stress of divorce and death. If this is truly the case, it may have been more effective for them to start a counseling service or open up a help line in order to help consumers more effectively deal with the stress. It's debatable that HIPs will remove stress to any degree. The government seems to suggest that if the buying process moves quicker, the process will be more stress free. And that HIPs will make the buying process quicker. But this may not necessarily be the case. In the US, Spain and other places, the process tends to move a little quicker, but buying a home is still very stressful, no matter where you're buying it.
The HIP program appears simply to transfer the stress from one party to the next. Whereas currently it is the responsibility of the purchaser and/or their mortgage company to provide valuation reports, which normally would include the condition of the property, that responsibility now shifts to the vendor in the form of the Home Condition Report (HCR), which is required with every HIP document. And From June 1st 2007, it will be illegal to put a residential property on the market without a HIP. Nevertheless, a valuation survey will still be required - in some capacity - because HIPs give no indication as to the current value. So purchasers and their mortgagors will still have to get valuation surveys done. So in effect, what the government is really accomplishing with the HIP program is another layer of bureaucracy. Whether this new layer will actually speed up the home buying process is highly unlikely. Truthfully, it's more likely to slow it down. Nonetheless, companies such as mysalepack.com are developing some innovative products, which may actually help consumers, in spite of the governments best efforts. But generally speaking, judging from yesterday's question and answer session HIPs seem to be causing more stress, than alleviating. Indeed, there were urgent cries amongst many for a radical HIP replacement ...

correction: We've been informed by Amy Campbell that "HIPs themselves won't be stored in a database, it is only the HCRs that will be lodged in a central register, which is something necessary to ensure the authenticity of reports. Access to it and use of the data will be strictly controlled by regulations."

Rightmove update: Founders to get £1.5m bonus from next month's flotation

Las Vegas projects ...

"We did $15 billion in the last 15 years, now we're going to do in the next five what we did in the last 15." Link

Russell Simmons Manhattan condo back on market - price reduced for quick sale!

7,000 sqft interior + 4,000 sqft terrace, in the heart of the financial district. Once featured on MTV Cribs, the property suffered extensive damage during 9/11 and has been vacant for a few years. The Observer reports that it was first listed last summer for $11 million, then it dropped to $10 million, followed by another decrease to $8.2 million in October. Now Mr. Simmons is once again hoping to attract high-end buyers by offering the apartment at $7.2 million. (It’s getting closer and closer to the price that Diddy almost snatched it up for in 2001).

Father of two commits suicide after Halifax pushes for repossession

The dead man's relatives say he was the victim of a new tactic by home loan firms of getting tough with those who fall behind on repayments. Mr Beech left a note saying that the Halifax's decision to repossess his home because of mortgage arrears of just £4,714.66 was 'the last straw'. The note asked his relatives to publicise his death and the way he had been treated. Yesterday, the family accused Halifax of being 'wicked' in the way it put pressure on Mr Beech.
He was in the process of remortgaging the £180,000 family home which would have allowed him to clear all his debts. But rather than allow him time to complete the process, Halifax went to court to press for Mr Beech, his wife, his 15-year-old daughter and 18 year old son to be evicted.
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Related Posts : Britons debt £1.13 trillion, repossessions up 66%

KATRINA WATCH

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan stages protests at New Orleans homeless shelter

Rapper Juvenile's claim: Donald Trump allowed free access into New Orleans, and is quickly buying up property.

FINALLY ...

a UK real estate search engine, that really works!
Needles to say, we've been waiting for this for a mighty long time. Zillow, Truila and others have justifiably created serious hype in the US, with recent beta releases. Now UK based Extate.com launches their beta and the site looks extremely promising. With a simple Googlesque interface, plus search tags, Extate makes real estate searching easier, more interactive and more fun! So far, we only found Hamptons listings on the site, but we're anticipating that this will change soon. Nevertheless, Extate.com is highly recommended . Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think!

Protecting internet free-speech is essential to the real estate industry

Last week, AOL, Yahoo and a new service called Goodmail proposed a system to charge senders for email guaranteed delivery.
AOL defended the proposal in the New York Times by drawing similarities to the postal service's "similar system to provide different options"; drawing refernce to certified mail as an example. Free-speech litigator Cindy Cohn has written an inciteful article on why such a system would more than likely fail:
"Even email senders who just want to reach Dad@aol.com may eventually be in trouble. Once a pay-to-speak system like this gets going, it will be increasingly difficult for people who don't pay to get their mail through. The system has no way to distinguish between ordinary mail and bulk mail, spam and non-spam, personal and commercial mail. It just gives preference to people who pay."
A recent Gallop poll indicated that nearly 90% of internet users list e-mail as their number one on-line activity. Given that most real-estate marketing is now done via e-mail , the industry needs more vigilance in supporting organizations such as EFF, who are at the vanguard in protecting and preserving internet rights. If not, the proposed internet takeover will no doubt affect us where it ultimately matters most ... that's our bottom line.

Rebecca MacKinnon: Why Microsoft censorship in China matters to everybody

The "Pune Boom"

According to reports, the most vibrant retail real estate market in western India in the last 2-3 years is the city of Pune. Experiencing a economic revival due to the increasing inflow of IT / ITEs companies, Pune's growth has given an added boost to the city's commercial real estate market.
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set speed: As news trickles in about the shooting of Busta's security guard during a video shoot, it's time to revive that age-old story about how he purchased three condos at the Gretsch in Williamsburg. Whether he lived in one of them or purchased them to flip is subject to anyone's opinion, but one thing is true-- he may have had to suck up some losses on this real-estate-deal-gone-bad. According to city records, he sold two of his units in December, 2005 for $635K and $515K. We're not sure how much these units sold for originally, but at these prices, it doesn't seem likely that it worth the trouble for Busta financially.
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UK Govt Plan to class property websites as estate agents

"James Bond Island" for sale

The private and exclusive Goat Island, longtime retreat of late James Bond author Ian Fleming, is now on the market for $8 million. The 10-acre island sits in warm Caribbean waters about a mile from the shores of Tobago. and comes equipped with a two-story, West Indian-style villa done in cheerful yellow and blue. Perched next to a pocket-sized beach, it includes three bedroom suites, a large kitchen and a reception area. For guests, there are two one-bedroom guest apartments on a small hill.
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Introducing Trulia, the real estate search engine

Features include:
Simple Search Interface - just enter city name or zip code
Filtering - Bedrooms, Bathrooms and Price
Listing details - including price per square foot, the days on the market, sales comparables, neighborhood facts
RSS feeds - zip code subscriptions and updates each time a new listing comes on the market.

Currently only available in New York and California, with aggressive plans for coverage expansion