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Liverpool's housing bargains, millionaire buyers, and the rise in service charges: Property news

A rundown of the latest property statistics

Friday 11 March 2016 13:25 GMT

A shedcation at the Pool House in Kirkcaldy, Fife: £100 a night for two

New analysis from Which? Mortgage Advisers shows areas of England and Wales which have seen the largest increase in property prices in the past 12 months, but are still below £200,000. Liverpool's central “L1” is the top area on the up, with a price increase of 41 per cent, to an average of £120,000. Second and third were Conwy's “LL27” in North Wales and Bradford's “BD1”.

Neighbourly duties

Neighbours are more likely to be entrusted with housesitting duties than friends and relatives when people go away on holiday, according to a study from travel website sunshine.co.uk. The majority of those who ask their neighbours said they also trusted them to not snoop through their belongings. The research also revealed that 11 per cent of people don't ask anyone to check up on their home when on holiday.

Spring cleaning duties

Seven in 10 people will have a go at a spring clean this season and will each spend on average 11 hours doing so. The figures from British Gas show the cleanest city is Norwich where residents spend 15 hours on the yearly scrub.

Man cave or She shed?

Two-thirds of homeowners and tenants have a shed in their garden, according to figures from garden retailer Waltons. Of these, half use their sheds as storage but given the choice the most popular change of use would be into a summerhouse, followed by a “man cave/she shed”. Around 44 per cent of people polled also said that one of the features they look for when choosing their new home is a shed in the garden. Meanwhile, the annual search for the nation's finest sheds is now underway. Sponsors Cuprinol are working with Airbnb to encourage people to take holidays in these classics of microarchitecture as 'shedcations'. To enter go to readersheds.co.uk.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

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Outrageous property deals in pictures

The Park Lane townhouse set to become one of the UK's most expensive student flats at £4,000 a week

A town house situated in Park Lane, one of the most affluent places in London, is about to become the capital’s most expensive student residence. Most of London students usually live in halls of residence before moving on to house-share. For this reason it is fair to say few will able to afford the 3,540 square foot three-bedroom flat, which is available for £4,000 a week, £16,000 per month or £192,000 per year.

Wetherell

Outrageous property deals in pictures

London's most expensive flat goes on sale at Buckingham Palace near Buckingham Palace priced at £150m

A luxury flat in London’s historic Admiralty Arch, which overlooks Buckingham Palace, could sell for up to £150 million. If sold for that price, the 15,000 sq ft apartment will become London's most expensive flat, topping One Hyde Park, a flat which sold for £140 million in 2014.The Grade I listed property boasts 12 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms

Outrageous property deals in pictures

‘Little White House’ inside the US embassy complex in London goes on sale for £2.5m

A luxury home inside the US embassy complex has gone on sale for £2.5m. The property is said to be the most “protected home in Britain” and any visitor is asked to carry an identity card at all times. The complex has patrolling US marines, a 24-hour British police presence, checkpoints, anti-tanks blocks and CCTV.But potential buyers looking for a fortress should not get their hopes up as all the security will disappear once the US embassy moves to a new site in Nine Elms in 2017. The home, located at 4 Blackburne’s Mews near Grosvenor Square, dates back to 1732 and owes its nickname to its white façade, grand entrance and sweeping staircase as well as its proximity to the US embassy. It provides nearly 3,000 sq ft of living space and benefits from access to communal gardens.

Wetherell

Outrageous property deals in pictures

First London luxury flats to contain their own private art gallery with prices going from £3.8m up to £7.7m

The first private luxury apartment building in London with its own private art gallery has been unveiled in March. The Chilterns at 24 Paddington Street contains 44 luxury residences, the majority of which were sold in 2013. It contains a signature restaurant, a 24 hour-hotel style concierge service, a gymnasium and sauna and a private cinema. The new art gallery, with original pictures of the area by David Bailey, is part of the lobby of the building and is “one of the most exciting and unique features of the Chilterns”, according to Stephen Conway, CEO of Galliard Homes. With prices going from £3.8 million up to £7.7 million for a three bedroom flat, the residence is located between the local shops of Marylebone High Street and Baker Street.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

Margaret Thatcher's Belgravia home is up for sale for £30m

Margaret Thatcher’s six-floor townhouse in Belgravia is on the market for a cool £30 million. The Grade II listed building on No. 73 Chester Square, one of London’s most prestigious addresses, now boasts a lift, a newly constructed mews house with a roof terrace and a private garage after a three-year refurbishment by Leconfield, a development and construction company. Some features from Thatcher’s time at the property remain. The layout and design of the formal dining room and interlinking study on the ground floor has been reinstated exactly as the Iron Lady had it during her 22 years at the property, from 1991 until her death in 2013.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

Tiny London house that is just 10ft wide goes on market for £800,000

A tiny terraced house that measures no more than 10ft wide has gone on the market in south London for a staggering £800,000. The house, generally labelled "unique" by estate agent Foxtons, looks all the more unusual because it is sandwiched between two regular-sized homes. It doesn't even have a proper back door - images of the interior suggested renovators had sought to maximise the property's space by including a folding aperture to the similarly narrow back garden.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

The Mayfair penthouse that sold for £30 million

A Mayfair penthouse on Albemarle Street, one of Mayfair's oldest roads, sold to a mystery buyer for £30 million in December. The 5,845 sq ft, three-bedroom family home is thought to be one of the most expensive properties sold in the capital this year, and comes with an annual service charge of £61,000.

supplied by Estate agent Peter Wetherell

Outrageous property deals in pictures

The dilapidated pre-fab 'shed' sold for nearly £1 million

A pre-fabricated bungalow in south-east London has sold at auction for just under £1 million. The 1950s property in Peckham comes with 0.6 acres of land, is in need of renovation and has no fitted bathroom, but still sold for £950,000. A guide price of £590,000 was initially set, but increased rapidly during the bidding.

Google Maps

Outrageous property deals in pictures

The starter home flats that went for a combined £60 million

Some 215 “affordable” starter homes, specifically designed for first time buyers, sold out in just three hours in November, after dozens of aspiring homeowners camped overnight and queued in bad weather to get their hands on the flats. The starter home flats at Trinity Square by Galliard Homes went for a combined £60 million, or an average of £700 per sq ft. Londoners looking for affordable housing did not hesitate to camp out for up to two days to snag a flat, despite the fact that the project will not be complete for another two years.

Galliard

Outrageous property deals in pictures

The longest lateral flat where H.G wells hosted a book club: yours for £3.65m

The 2,200 square foot apartment in Chiltern Court in Marylebone was also home to author Arnold Bennett and political cartoonist David Low. Now on the market for £3.65 million through Rokstone agency, the four-bedroom flat has been refurbished into a luxury apartment, providing an exceptional 40 meter window frontage and depth. It claims to be the longest and most outstanding lateral flat - ones that stretch the full width of a building, or sometimes across two buildings - currently for sale in London’s West End.

Rokstone

Outrageous property deals in pictures

Gatti House: the flats with celebrity links and private "pizza" lift that sold for a collective £16.5 million

Celebrity links, a famous history and a private “pizza lift” has helped set a new record for price per square foot for a block of flats in central London. The four flats have sold for a collective £16.5 million at Gatti House on London’s Strand. Gatti House, a magnificent grade II building built in 1867, was sold as four separate apartments priced from £2.95 million to £5.95 million by CBRE Residential and Beauchamp, which has completed the last remaining sale.

CBRE Residential and Beauchamp

Outrageous property deals in pictures

London’s most expensive office

A newly refurbished office in the heart of Mayfair measuring 6,000 sq ft was unveiled by Enstar Capital in October. At £500 per sq ft, it is set to be the most expensive commercial fit out ever undertaken in the West End, according to the developer. The workspace on 54 Brooks Mews features gold-plated executive washrooms inspired by Armani-hotel in Italy, timber flooring imported from a 16th century monastery in Tuscany and an Art Deco entrance restored with a new “54” entrance logo replicating Steve Rubell’s famous “studio 54” nightclub logo from the seventies. While the director’s floor include a rooftop terrace dressed with loungers and an outside meeting and dining table.

Enstar Capital

Outrageous property deals in pictures

Former garage in Mayfair become world’s most expensive mews house at £24m in Mayfair

In September, the world’s most expensive mews house, in Reevews Mews, sold to a Qatari buyer for an eye-watering £24 million.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

A penthouse where you canoe from your front door, yours for £16.95 million

London luxury dockside complex located on Chelsea creek is due for completion by the end of 2016. But its luxury flats are already on sale including this penthouse yours for £16.95 million. It’s future residents will be able to slip down the river for a work out on the water at anytime of the day.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

The only property in London too expensive for the city’s super-rich property buyers

A 45 bed-room mansion near Hyde Park, previously owned by a Saudi Prince, received a private bid for £280 million. If accepted this would have made the property he most expensive single home ever to be sold in Britain. It was originally listed with an asking price of £300 million –more than double the price of the UK’s second most expensive home.

Cash buyers for £1m-plus homes

More than 7,200 £1m-plus homes are being bought a year without mortgages, says Bower Private Clients, with the average cash buyer spending £1.75m. London heads the locations list, followed by the South-east and South-west.

Home extensions

A third of homeowners have carried out a home extension or significantly improved their home in the past five years. Gocompare.com said that updating kitchens and bathrooms topped the list of improvements, followed by investing in energy efficient measures including new boilers, central heating systems and double glazing. However, only 48 per cent of homeowners informed their home insurer about major work they have carried out on their property.

Financial stress

A report by Sainsbury's Bank looking at the biggest financial challenges facing families indicates that three-quarters of people have some kind of financial stress. Around 5 per cent of those said their biggest concern was the cost of housing, on a par with their children's financial future and interest rate rises.

Home sales on the move

Home sales in February were more than 9 per cent higher in England and Wales compared to the same month last year. The largest jump was in Poole, up 21 per cent with particular demand for flats in Sandbanks. The report from Your Move also indicates that Hull's average house prices were up 0.9 per cent month-on-month to a new high of £111,409, thanks in part to its City of Culture status. In London, house prices leapt £36,903 in the past year.

Rising service charges

Property service charges are rising rapidly with a third of management companies increasing fees in the past two years. The average charge leaseholders pay to cover their share of building maintenance is now £1,863, according to Direct Line. Its figures show charges for newbuild properties are £2,777, 96 per cent higher than the average for an older property.

Next door

Birmingham residents make the most helpful neighbours according to a survey by Anglian Home Improvements while those in Edinburgh claim to know their neighbours the best and those in Leeds the least.

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