When I heard that Bournemouth Council was launching a retro-styled ‘beach pod’ development in Boscombe (designed by Wayne Hemingway) I had my doubts.

The beach pods are basically beach huts in Overstrand, a restored 1950s building – and who, in this market (who in their right mind!), would  fork out £65-90,000 for a place with a 25-year lease that they can’t even sleep in?

Surely, I mused, the beach hut boom has gone the way of the housing boom and been washed away in a squall of dire financial weather?

Well, it appears not. Five hundred people registered ahead of the launch on May 15th and a hundred of them turned up on the day, chequebooks at the ready.

“We launched 12 doubles, 20 singles and four end pods on the day and sold all the doubles,” says Glynn Evans of Savill’s Bournemouth office.  “We weren’t sure how it would go, but it was a great success.”

Who bought them? “A real mixture – a local family with kids, celebrities from London, a retired couple, a surfing couple from Sandbanks,” says Glynn.

Could this be another of those green shoots of recovery we keep hearing about? Aren’t beach huts a bellwether for the market as a whole?

“Not really,” says Glynn. “These are not really comparable to residential purchases. They’re a cash buy and are not dependent on mortgage finance.  They don’t really stack up as an investment – they’re more of a luxury purchase.”

Maybe so, but with Boscombe undergoing major regeneration, the current buyers might have a very lucrative last laugh. Consider the downturn officially over when you start reading about Boscombe beach pods being resold for more than £100k.

Fancy one? Contact Glynn Evans, Savills, Bournemouth. Tel: 01202 255552

We’ve just launched a rather cool new feature on FindaProperty.com.

On every ‘property details’ page we have a slideshow of the properties most viewed in the last seven days by visitors who have looked at the property you are on.

Click this screen print of a property ad and scroll to the bottom of the page for an example - nice, no?

Ok, this isn’t the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, but it did raise a smile.

And all credit to the Energy Savings Trust for trying to get beyond eco-worthiness by using comedian Marcus Brigstocke to talk about the eco-renovations he’s made to his London home.

So it’s a normal next step; get married then settle into a new home. Once the stress of organising the big day’s done, it’s the natural expectation that all’s left is post-marital, worry-free bliss in a wonderful new home.

Not a chance! Stress-free house hunting that is (I’m happily married!).

My wife and I have only recently started combing Wimbledon for our first purchase together so it’s no surprise that we share many of the concerns today’s buyers in our position have.

We have between 10-15 per cent  as a deposit for the type of property we’re looking for, in the area we’re looking for. It’s quite realistic.

Although to state the obvious – there’s a sizeable discrepancy between the two figures in terms of property, mortgage options and general piece of mind.

A ten per cent  deposit means we get a slightly bigger home, in a slightly nicer area, with slightly posher neighbours. For the most part, great!

Aside from the rate, I’m feeling a little underwhelmed about the prospect of a variable rate mortgage.

Surely the only direction rates will head is up, and if they do in the short-term, we’ll have to remortgage if our monthly repayments become ridiculously high. We are 18 months too late to profit from a variable rate mortgage - aren’t we?

With only ten per cent equity, if prices fall and rates increase, we will have to find some further equity to remortgage. So I’m leaning towards the security of a 15 per cent deposit.

But I’d prefer to live in the ten percenters – they’re much nicer! I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

In the midst of the whole MPs’ expenses row it seems two particular cases have caught the public imagination (and fired their ire).

First it was the fantastically ‘up-yours-plebs’ moat cleaning claimed by Douglas Hogg and more recently it’s been the Duck Island purchased by Sir Peter Viggers.

The Twittersphere was all over it. First, @CountryLifeProp tweeted one of their archived articles on duck islands:

How to create a duck island a la Sir Peter Viggers post from our archive http://ow.ly/89RI

And then the @guardianeco posted a very cheeky:

Must-have duck houses for every budget http://tinyurl.com/qrzsmv

Well we couldn’t very well just stand by and watch, could we, what with our airborne canards logo and all? So we’ve donned our waders, pulled out the pondweed and proudly present:

5 Houses with Duck Ponds

5 bedroom house for sale: Rural Smarden, Kent

3 bedroom detached house to let: The Stables Tillycorthie Udny, Ellon, Aberdeenshire

4 bedroom house for sale: Killin, Stirling

Country House for sale: Montreuil Sur Mer, Pas-De-Calais, Nord Pas de Calais, France

2 bedroom flat for sale: Byron Close, Leicester, Fleckney, Leicestershire

After my slightly negative post last time around I have more positive news - the vendor has sorted the lease! Hurrah!

The agent just called and said that the lease has now all been agreed, probably another week of paperwork though, but he thinks that early next week he should have a better idea of the progress. (I took that to mean an exchange date, should really have asked that).

A really good friend of mine has whizzed through the process (we had offers accepted around the same time) and has exchanged already so I was getting a little jealous/worried.

Got in the other night and there was a wad of paperwork on my door mat from my solicitor.

I had been for a few wines and tried to work my way through it but probably need to revisit it as can’t remember a thing and probably need to do something. It looked like a draft contract - very exciting.

Not very good with lots of paperwork, get very impatient (and bored) but need to sit down and have a proper read.

This is important and serious stuff and I don’t want to be caught out with anything. But its not as exciting as thinking about kitchens and this really amazing wallpaper I have found!

My solicitor has been great (touch wood). The agent was unimpressed that I was using an online conveyancing service based in South Wales but they have been really efficient and they have an online system where I can log in and keep up to date with things.

Much better than making lots of phone calls. Just a lucky choice I guess, and hopefully cheaper.

Anyway, it is still happening and I am feeling really excited now.

I went to see the flat last week with the BBC cameras. The vendor had completely cleared the place and it was so nice to be able to see it again and have a good amount of time in there planning what to do with the space.

It was nice to still like it too! Every time I go back I get nervous that I am going to have changed my mind but I hadn’t. Just can’t wait to get in there.

I suppose you do notice more each time and I probably saw more work that needs doing this time round. It is only cosmetic though so not a major problem.

Just think I will take a week off work and try out my non-existent wallpaper stripping/painting skills. Should be interesting ….

Next thing on the list is critical illness cover. It is quite a chunk of money each month and I am not planning on becoming critically ill but it seems the sensible thing to do. Or is there loss of earnings cover? Would that be better?

Probably as expensive.

Think I need to research and shop around. Every penny is going to count.

Here’s a little something that’s bound to upset the folks over at housepricecrash.co.uk.

It’s from the last Land Registry report (actual sold property prices for March) and it may well be a very early sign that the housing market has hit the bottom and is starting to turn upwards.

Although house prices in England and Wales have fallen by 16.2 per cent year-on-year, the downward spiral seems to have halted, and (cover your ears house price crashers), in March prices actually rose in four regions.

London, interestingly, recorded the smallest monthly rise (0.6 per cent, the first such increase since March 2008) with the North East (1.8 per cent), the South West (1.1 per cent), and Wales (1.0 per cent) doing better.

Now it’s too early to say that this is the start of a property market revival … but would you bet against house prices being higher this time next year than they are now?

Here at Winging It we like to know what’s going on in the housing market, so our feathery ears pricked up (no idea if this is ornithologically accurate…) when we heard of an interesting new trend: the rise of the ’secret seller’.

Stacks Property Search tell us that a lot of estate agents are being approached by vendors and told ‘please sell my house, but don’t tell anyone it’s for sale.’

Their explanation for this phenomenon is plausible: good old fashioned social embarrassment.

It seems people don’t want to be seen failing to sell; and neither do they want the neighbours pointing at them on the street and laughing because they know what price they’re selling for, especially if they’re taking a knock on the price they bought at.

There are other reasons too, of course: exclusivity, cost cutting, the avoidance of time-wasters, and testing the price before they go openly onto the market at a reduced price.

That’s the theory, anyway, but I have to admit, this is the first I’ve heard of it. I’d be interested to hear from estate agents on the subject – is it really the case?

And what of vendors? If you’re a secret seller let us know why you’re doing it; and, more to the point, tell us how you’re getting on with the whole selling bit if no-one knows that your property is available.

Charles Taylor Wines – the leading supplier of fine Burgundy wines to the UK – are moving out of the London property they’ve had for the last eleven years.

That means their headquarters – a stunning five-storey, centrally located Georgian house – is on the market.

What with its 3,000-plus square footage, plentiful period features, sundrenched walled garden and private roof terrace, we don’t see them having too many problems selling, even in today’s slightly sober property market.

But as an added incentive, the company is offering £10,000 worth of fine wines to both the introducer and the eventual buyer, as well as an expert cellar consultation for the latter.

Click pic for full details

Personally, I know nothing about fine wines being perfectly content with a Sainsbury’s own-label Chardonnay myself.  And, sadly, I’m not in the market for a £1.4 million property even if it is freehold and in SE1.

But that doesn’t stop me from recognising that this is a jolly good offer indeed, and it takes care of supplies for the house-warming soiree, too.

Further details for purveyors of both fine wines and fine homes are available from the agent, Tim Rogers at Frank Harris & Co.

Browsing through property listings a few weeks ago I came across a picture of a house with a herd (if that’s the correct collective noun) of alpacas in the garden.

Apparently it’s quite the thing for the country set to have a few of these woolly blighters wandering round the paddock.

But the wheels of fashion – and social one-upmanship – are ever turning. Alpacas, it seems, are now oh so last season, and this year people with acres of lawn to keep trim are turning to wallabies as an alternative.

Yes, you read that right: wallabies – the hoppy little marsupials from Down Under.

According to The Times, suppliers are reporting a surge in demand (please note that I resisted the temptation to say jump) from homeowners keen to keep the grass in check.

Back in the day, this was done by a team of gardeners, or a flock of sheep, but in these credit-crunched times gardeners are expensive, and sheep, well, let’s face it, they’re just a little bit common (and dumb with it).

Wallabies, on the other hand, are cheap, amusing and, apparently, very good with children.

They have the added advantage of making you look like a genuine English eccentric - “Old Binky … capital fellow, but absolutely bonkers. Pair of wallabies in his grounds, you know.”

Mind you, if you want to really make a statement, take inspiration from Dante Gabriel Rossetti who back in the day kept quite a menagerie in his garden: monkeys, armadillos, gazelles, peacocks, a kangaroo, a wombat, and a large black bull.

Apparently he yearned for an African elephant to complete the picture. Rossetti, incidentally, lived at Cheyne Walk, London SW3.

Now that wallabies are de rigeur, I’m sure Kensington  & Chelsea council would look sympathetically on a recreation of that particular project.