Busy last few weeks in London town, seen some interesting things, few pics of some of the more interesting, ranging form a gold plated (poss gold paint!)  mini in West London, an average penthouse with Amazing views over Limehouse basin and canary Wharf, shame the interior was very average but the views were some of the best I have ever seen in London from a penthouse, another very average penthouse in Notting Hill but with an amazing terrace overlooking Holland Park, a real location, location, location jobbie..close to the great Coronet cinema where on a Tuesday you can see films for £3.50 took the boss to see Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in Larry Crowe, got some massive brownie points for it being a current RomCom…

Ah talking about that film, my trusty old ’round London’ Vespa hit a milestones…well euros version 50,000 km..picture to prove it..still going strong…brilliant round town only gripe the tossers at Westminster bike parking, if they insist on pay by phone parking they need to at least make sure it works EVERY TIME I think you have to confirm your options about 10 times, ie press 1 for yes and 2 for no etc, ten minuets on the line pressing yes and no then the payment fails as you don’t confirm payment as the last option, they must be really think, pay for parking and where do most people call from..on the street.. not the quietest place to hear a computer say no for the 11th time do you really want to pay to park today, they should have a press 1 to cut out all the bullshit and just pay to park….contacts entry on my mobile for these guys is ‘Wankers’ simple to remember..apparently difficult to change…perhaps I should find a shorter term of reference for them..any suggestions???

What will the next few weeks bring..camera at ready..

I see a lot of property so it takes something quite special to get my attention let alone my admiration, so how has the worlds most expensive squat managed to do that?.. It’s not even a permanent building, actually it’s not even a building, it’s a building inside a building, just stick with me it will all be clear in the end, a group of artists have transformed one of the worlds most contemporary art galleries with some of the best volume of space you can find in Central London at 196 Piccadilly in London, otherwise know as the Hauser & Wirth gallery into a real life fully functional 1970/80′s style community centre..bizarre, but is it art?

Gallery before the installation

When we at Home Search London find a gem of a property hidden away in a back street of London there is a real buzz to get the client in there to view it as it’s difficult sometimes to describe the energy a property can have, you have to see and feel it for yourself, the Piccadilly Community Centre is very much like that, where they sourced the materials from is just beyond imagination, the attention to detail is truly staggering, even down to those very thin white plastic cups  used to serve boiling hot tea in,  the ones that are really only for cold drinks at kids birthday parties, and if the scolding hot drink did not manage to melt the cup you hand was the next best thing, you really feel that someone with a clipboard is going to try and sign you up for a computer class using the Sinclair ZX80 computer, and you expect the kid to look like a 16 year old Bill Gates as that’s about the age he would have been judging by the dating of the centre.

It’s like the community centre has been there from the 70′s and somebody have just found the key to the front door, but a generous benefactor in the mean time has been paying for the electricity so it could spring back to life at the flick of a switch, and the location, that really messes with your head, bang in prime Central London on Piccadilly a location where I noted Peter Wetherell Mayfair’s Estate Agent quote in his excellent Mayfair property report for April that two properties recently sold for £3,000 per square foot, for our European makler friends that’s about 40.000,00€ m2

The work of art is spread out over 4 floors, a bar in the basement, a must for most community centres in the UK and probably the thing that keep them running, the next two floors have various rooms you would expect in a community centre, a ballroom or dance studio occupies a space that is simply not there in the original galley, taking a look at the picture of the Hauser & Wirth gallery before the installation gives you some idea of not only the scale of the task facing the artists in the conversion but also how open minded the gallery owners were to allow such a conversion, that truly needs to be applauded, I would have so loved to have been a fly on the wall when the first pitch was put forward to them to convert their beautiful gallery space into a community centre with a squat in the loft cavity…

The squat is a brilliant idea, it almost reminds me of some of the apartments we have in Berlin where tenants have been there 50 years and passed away in the apartments, or where Berlin ‘artisits’ have been living in a commune, so much of the art though is real, it all functions, even the squat I’m told is real, people live there to give it a real feel hence the toilet actually functions, this part was starting to feel more and more like Berlin, up onto the roof terrace where there were more squatters having an evening beer overlooking Piccadilly and Jermyn Street with great views into Mayfair and St James from 4 floors up, a little grin creeps over my face having just come from a penthouse round the corner with one of the best terraces in the whole of London on the 9th floor overlooking Trafalgar Square with breathtaking views over much of Central London that we found for a client some years ago.

Tour done, my tour guide Mary Daniels and I headed down to the basement to see how real the bar was who by that time were dispensing free beers as it was the opening night, flashing disco lights and pop music I only hear on juke boxes in when I’m in our Berlin some of the knipe bars in Neukölln, Berlin, when I visit our Berlin investment property office..So is it art, only one way to find out..

‘Piccadilly Community Centre’

Hauser & Wirth Gallery London

196A Piccadilly

London W1J 9DY

Gallery hours:

Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am – 6 pm

Location map

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13 May – 30 July 2011, Hauser & Wirth London, Piccadilly

Former Midland / HSBC Bank and Hauser & Wirth’s Piccadilly gallery is currently being transformed into a fully functioning Community Centre. The centre will host a wide range of classes, workshops and events. Facilities will include among other things multifunctional spaces, a computer room, a non-denominational prayer room, an activity room, a community canteen, a community bar and club. Outside in the market in front of St James’ Church, the Community Centre will run a stall. There will be a daily schedule of classes and events, which start on Friday 13 May and will run until Saturday 30 July.

The community centre offers free room hire. Interested parties should contact: info@piccadillycommunitycentre.org
020 7255 8955

Further information on Piccadilly Community Centre including an up-to-date schedule will be available closer to the opening at:
www.piccadillycommunitycentre.org

Having spent a great 4 days in Berlin at our office there last month (although I can only remember 1 of them) it’s a bit sad to see what the Berlin Authorities have been up to, cricket may be a minority sport but it’s still a world sport, German authorities appear to have some sort of issues with anything minority ..shades of 1939…..I hope not.

The Hitler Nazi cricket ban in Berlin has apparently been reinstated by the Berlin authorities when some little jobsworth discovered that two car windscreens/windows were apparently damaged by cricket balls, apparently that’s too high a risk in the 60 years or so after Hitler’s cricket ban in Berlin was lifted after the end of world war two, this is somewhat ironic, if you happen to go to see a Bundesliga football match in Berlin with the amount of riot police in attendance you could be forgiven after spending 90 minuets watching football that WW 3 had actually broken out.

The Berlin cricket club formed in 1850 and the oldest club in Germany and the last of 4 clubs in Berlin are in effect without a ground, there is speculation the ground could now be converted to a Polo ground in pace of a cricket pitch, with groundsmen already making preparation with the removal of some of the cricket specific facilities at the ground.

It’s a sad day when a local authority feel they have the power to ban a sport that has a history in a city of some 160 years, white the closure of the Central Berlin airport of Tempelhof there is sufficient space there to host cricket on the huge amount of space that is currently unused, Andre Leslie of the German national side says, “It really shows the contempt they have for the sport. The Germans just do not really get cricket. We have seen an improvement since the last Cricket World Cup and people have actually realised that with two billion people watching the final they better show a passing interest.”

Berlin is a brilliant city, much of it is hidden so have a look on our Hidden Berlin section of our Berlin web site,  come on Berliners, don’t let these petty bureaucrats spoil the English game, we might not be able to beat you at football when it counts….but at least with cricket we have a chance..but not in Berlin of course…

In a very clever move, Starbucks the coffee shop chain now have a special offer of just £1 for a coffee if you use your rewards card, costs 50% more if you use cash…so as a heavy black coffee drinker they have me hooked, a chance to get out the office ignore the phones, clear my head, do some reading as the Internet is a slow as hell in Starbucks not sure if that is designed so you stay or go..last count Starbucks in the Starbucks book I got given about 3 years ago had 13,000 outlets worldwide, so I’m sure they have been able to work out what speed the in store WiFi needs to be set at to get the optimal profit for each store, it’s probably a system like on the M4 corridor with variable speeds limits at different times of the day, some 19 year old LA nerd has probably worked out what speed the WiFi needs to run at every half hour or so throughout the day…

He’s probably Vice President International WiFi division, but having said that you can’t drink too much cofeedadasddeee can you?

Better  heading down to Berwick Street market to get some fresh ginger for ginger tea’s and some fresh mint leaves as well of course, can’t let the LA computer nerds have all the fun..

UK transaction advisory thrives on back of London demand.

LONDON, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Property advisor Savills said on Monday it was on track to deliver more than 40 million pounds ($65 million) of pretax profits in the year to Dec. 31 as trading activity in its key Asian and London markets rallies.

While its European and U.S. business operations continue to face challenging market conditions, the company said its UK and Asian Pacific units were outperforming expectations, with a record year for revenues expected in its Hong Kong operations.

Third quarter revenues from its transaction advisory business in the city have risen more than 65 percent year-on-year on the back of high investment activity.

Its UK commercial transaction advisory business has also seen more than 60 percent growth in third quarter revenues compared with the same period last year, Savills said.

The company said its U.S. and continental European business divisions remained in the red although both regions had seen some improvement in investment market activity.

Read the full article on Reuters web site

An expert from The Property Investor Show & OPP Live has warned that buy-to-let investors have little time left to snap up bargain buy-to-let properties before stock shortages and rental growth begin to drive prices upwards…

click on picture or this link BuyerAgentLondon to read the full story by Catherine Deshames  TheMoveChannel.

New build bargains are already in short supply and expected to remain so for at least a decade, dispelling claims that major UK cities have thousands of undersold developer stock sitting empty.

Property Investor Show investment expert Stuart Law, chief executive of Assetz, believes that the return of buy-to-let and the limited supply of product is no longer just a prediction but a cold hard fact and that investors have the potential to make the most of a ten year rental boom.

King Sturge has reported that 92 per cent of rental property in Leeds is occupied at any given time. Similarly, a recent report by Winkworth has tenant registration up by 47 per cent in the last three months with the number of rental properties on the market down more than 50 per cent from last year.

Mr Law says: “The number of available rental properties are quickly drying up as ‘would be’ first-time homebuyer who cannot raise the deposit for a new home are flooding the rental market.

“This demand is further exacerbated by almost no new housing stock entering the market as a direct result of banks no longer willing to fund city developments. This is likely to remain the status-quo for at least the next ten years when banks may begin to re-consider lending on these types of projects again.

“The direct consequence of this is that investors are forecast to see up to 10 per cent rental growth a year for the next three years or so as rental demand outstrips the availability of property, with continued growth at well above inflation for the rest of the decade. Currently, investors can expect to see yields of around seven to eight per cent. For example, a two bedroom property in Manchester that is currently being rented out at £700 per month is forecast to be up to £950 in as little as three years.”

As there is only a limited amount of stock available in the next decade, investors only have a small window of opportunity to take advantage of the market.

Mr Law continues: “Prices are still within reach, for example a two bedroom apartment in central Manchester can still be purchased for around £90,000 however, these properties cannot be found at these prices in estate agency windows.”

Read full story click this link BuyersAgentLondon

Desperate housewife Eve Longoria drinks strawberry cream martinis with Victoria Beckham at Maze and stocks up at Topshop…

click on the picture or here BuyersAgentLondon to read the full interview in the Evening Standard online.

Home is…
Where my heart is: San Antonio, Texas.

Where do you stay in London?
I usually stay at Claridge’s, but this time I’m staying at The Soho Hotel where my new perfume is being launched.

What advice would you give a tourist coming to London?
Bring a lot of money to shop! I love the shopping here, especially for clothes.

What’s the best meal you’ve had in London?
I ate last night at Maze with Victoria [Beckham] as well as Gordon and Tana Ramsay. I had the best cocktails: we had this raspberry champagne and a strawberry cream martini. I’m not a big drinker but it was really good there. Soho House has great food as well.

Click the picture or here BuyersAgentLondon to read the full interview in the London Evening Standard.

A little over a month after One Hyde Park in London sold for £140 million ($220 million), two property owners closed the deal on another property that shattered that record.

Christian Candy, 36, and his brother Nick, 37, sold the famous La Belle Epoque in Monaco for the low price of £199 million ($308 million) making it the world’s most expensive penthouse.

The two-floor property in the French Riviera features a double-height library with several roof terraces, a pool and 15-foot trees.

To make home sweet home a home secure home, the penthouse is fitted with a secure panic room with reinforced glass and surveillance cameras if things start to hit the fan.

Other amenities of the flat include cinema screens that come out of the walls when you press a button as well as plenty of room for that classy and expensive clothing collection with tons of space with walk-in wardrobes and dressing rooms.

If you want to relax and kick your feet up after a hard day of work, there’s a media room with plush chairs that convert into beds. A leisure room with billiard tables and arcade games help keeps your mind off the next long day, and of course, what luxury property is complete without a Jacuzzi and spa.

The Candy Brothers originally bought the property from Lily Safra early in the 2000s after her husband died in a mysterious fire. The brothers sold the property to an unnamed investor from the Middle East who is believed to be an Arab sheikh.

With a price tag that high, there’s no doubt that home is definitely where the heart is – not to mention a large chunk of cash.

Click picture or here to read original story in ExecDigital.com

Click here to read the full story from the FT

Before soaring house prices ran into the recession, it was financially prudent for parents to buy property for college-bound offspring. In 2002 famously canny money-makers Tony and Cherie Blair bought a flat in Bristol for their student son, Euan, although he never moved in.

“You used to be pretty much certain of a profit after a couple of years,” says Mary Ryan of Property Vision. Reflecting the buoyant property investment market, the number of UK buy-to-let mortgages rose from 75,000 in 2000 to 1.2m in 2009.

Now, however, house-price uncertainty, new landlord-unfriendly legislation and rises in stamp duty and capital gains tax mean that gaining from student property is no longer such a certainty. People are still doing it, though. Earlier this year the most expensive one-bedroom flat ever sold in Cambridge went to parents buying for a student for £305,000