In the 19th and early 20th centuries, keyboards were big business in Kentish Town, London – so much so, that in 1901 The Piano Journal described the area as “that healthful suburb dear to the heart of the piano maker.”
This amazing loft apartment can be found on the first floor of the former Alison Piano [...]

Time was when a person had a bathtub in the living room because they didn’t have a bathroom in the house – who, after all, wants to sit shivering in a tub in the yard when there’s plenty of room for it in front of the fireplace?
(Click on pics for full details)
These days, however, a [...]

January 4th already?! Yikes, where does the time go?
To mark the passing of the year, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at the property market’s winners and losers in 2009.
And this being January, we’re serving up two graphs for the price of one … the regional risers and fallers and the [...]

I’m not quite sure what to make of the latest pundit on Cantos TV – the site usually interviews chaps from the City who talk tediously about interest rates, currency exchange, patterns of supply and demand … yadda, yadda.
But now they have a new analyst to provide a larger view of the financial universe: Christeen [...]

This week’s graph comes from our research team, whose MyHomeLife survey regularly polls our visitors to find out how they see the housing market.
Back in May – just as prices were beginning to pick up again – they were pretty downbeat. Only 11 per cent thought prices were recovering while 23 per cent expected them [...]

When Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett moved to Brighton a few years ago, she had to close off a whole street in order to have her enormous stone bath winched into the house.
Blanchett later sold the Grade I Listed Regency townhouse to songwriter Richard Stannard, who has worked with U2, Kylie Minogue, Will Young and Little [...]

The Property: A detached barn for conversion
The Place: Gimingham, Norwich
The Price: £80,000

The Pain: The main issues here are that this is quite a small building – 700 square feet – and that the planning consent is for a holiday residence only. Aside from that, it looks like a relatively straightforward conversion.
The Gain: It’s in pretty [...]

You know you’re proper posh, and rich with it, when you need to construct a 2,500 sq ft building to house your prized collection of vintage motor cars.
This building, formerly the Bayham Estate Garage and Workshop, was used for just such a purpose by the Marquis of Camden.
It’s not the most beautiful of buildings to [...]

This graph probably doesn’t look very exciting, but bear with me.
It comes from our latest House Prices & Affordability Index and shows an interesting shift in a recent trend.
Prices started to firm up last May and have been on the rise since then, but as our analysis of different market segments (first-time buyers and home [...]

I didn’t think the MPs’ expenses scandal could get any better (or worse) than Douglas Hogg’s moat and Sir Peter Viggers’ ornamental duck house.

But the latest noses-in-the-trough revelation – a £20,700 claim by Quentin Davies for repairs to the bell tower on his stately home – makes Hogg and Viggers look like dabbling amateurs. [...]