Hope for some, heartbreak for others as house prices go through the roof

With pent-up demand and the stamp duty holiday sending the cost of homes soaring, we look at the groups and sectors that stand to gain or lose out

UK house prices have hit a record high since the lifting of lockdown, after the fastest monthly growth in property values in August since 2004, fuelled by the release of pent-up demand and the government’s stamp duty cut.

Despite Britain plunging into the deepest recession in modern history in the second quarter, estate agents report a surge in interest from those with the financial security to move, and from those whose priorities have been changed by Covid-19. There are, however, winners and losers in this rapidly moving market, as Covid-19 creates a period of boom and bust.

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Fantastic beasts: an artist's imaginative home makeover in France

Artist Kristjana S Williams has used the walls of her home as another canvas, letting a menagerie run riot

The artwork hanging on the walls of Kristjana S Williams’ house pales beside the walls themselves: there are giant murals featuring tropical birds, oversized leaves, green vistas, and ferns that snake up from floor height to the ceiling. Cocooning one stairwell is a kaleidoscopic wallpaper of thistles, zebras and deer against a striped background; a smaller staircase has an eye-popping geometric pattern, dotted with flowers. And her young children’s bedroom is wrapped in a wooded landscape of fantastical apelike creatures, reminiscent of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. Framed cases of butterflies and mounted animal heads complete the bestial look.

It all sounds rather intense, but high ceilings, pale paintwork and the more traditional elements of this 17th-century stone building – terracotta tiled floors, original panelling – tone down the excess.

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Fantastic beasts: an artist's imaginative home makeover in France

Artist Kristjana S Williams has used the walls of her home as another canvas, letting a menagerie run riot

The artwork hanging on the walls of Kristjana S Williams’ house pales beside the walls themselves: there are giant murals featuring tropical birds, oversized leaves, green vistas, and ferns that snake up from floor height to the ceiling. Cocooning one stairwell is a kaleidoscopic wallpaper of thistles, zebras and deer against a striped background; a smaller staircase has an eye-popping geometric pattern, dotted with flowers. And her young children’s bedroom is wrapped in a wooded landscape of fantastical apelike creatures, reminiscent of Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are. Framed cases of butterflies and mounted animal heads complete the bestial look.

It all sounds rather intense, but high ceilings, pale paintwork and the more traditional elements of this 17th-century stone building – terracotta tiled floors, original panelling – tone down the excess.

Continue reading...

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Thousands of UK flat owners can't sell due to fire safety holdup

After Grenfell, mortgage lenders insist on a specialist EWS1 survey that can take years to provide

Thousands of flat owners face months, possibly years, of being unable to sell or remortgage because they cannot get hold of new fire safety paperwork required by banks and building societies.

Rules brought in after the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in 2017, mean surveyors acting for mortgage lenders are making extra checks to ensure a building’s construction is free of combustible materials.

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What’s the difference between leasehold and freehold? Nottingham Estate Agents

The two most common forms of property ownership in the UK are freehold and leasehold but what do these terms mean in practice? Leasehold With leasehold you are buying for a fixed period, usually 99 years if the home is new though leases can be much shorter. However, you do not own the land the property […]

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Common ground: 'I've discovered my garden has been built up by the love and labour of renters'

Hours tending to vegetables and weeds has become a way of easing anxiety and thinking of myself as part of something bigger

As a renter, I’d always felt too impermanent to cultivate a garden. Recently I moved into a house that already has one, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

Sometimes, to calm myself, I read Brenda Little’s Companion Planting in Australia, cover to cover. Originally published in 1984, it is an alphabetised guide to which plants like to be planted with which.

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Common ground: 'I've discovered my garden has been built up by the love and labour of renters'

Hours tending to vegetables and weeds has become a way of easing anxiety and thinking of myself as part of something bigger

As a renter, I’d always felt too impermanent to cultivate a garden. Recently I moved into a house that already has one, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

Sometimes, to calm myself, I read Brenda Little’s Companion Planting in Australia, cover to cover. Originally published in 1984, it is an alphabetised guide to which plants like to be planted with which.

Continue reading...

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