Monday, 4 April 2016

Revealed: The Zone 3 Homes Hotspots Tipped For Growth

This article was was written in March 2015. Was it a good prediction and how much have the values changed?

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Hoola brings 360 flats to Royal Docks, where a landscaped hill conceals car parking and cycle spaces.

Call 020 7531 2500.

Priced out of Zones 1 and 2, footloose home buyers are searching for areas in Zone 3 where they can get more — sometimes much more — for their money.

London’s population is rising fastest in this zone, with waves of buyers looking for properties in the £250,000 to £750,000 price bracket, which accounts for the bulk of demand in the capital. In particular, Ealing in the west and Leyton in the east are tipped for big changes.

On average, Zone 3 addresses are 41 per cent cheaper than Zone 2 — a whopping £474,569 against £797,410, according to online estate agency eMoov, which reports a ‘spillover’ trend, with more people hunting for less expensive properties a couple of Tube stops down the line. For example, from Balham, a 2014 hotspot where the average price is £576,622, to Colliers Wood, where the average price is £364,949.

Zone 3 is dotted with districts benefiting from new transport links, high street makeovers, newly created parks, opened-up waterfront, and new shopping and business hubs.

Developers are stepping in to build more homes, believing that demand will strengthen during the next decade, because of London’s booming population. Some are using placemaking skills to improve neighbourhoods, even to create an address, as at Brent Cross Cricklewood, where there are plans for 7,500 homes, three new schools and a new Thameslink station that will give locals a 12-minute commute to central London. This week, revised plans were unveiled for a 15,000-home new district at Greenwich Peninsula.

IMAGE GALLERY: PRICED FROM £235,000 - THE LATEST NEW HOMES IN ZONE 3 HOTSPOTS

Up-and-coming areas in Zone 3

South: Ladywell, Hither Green, Streatham, Catford, Colliers Wood, Honor Oak, Sydenham, Crystal Palace, West Norwood.
East: Canning Town, Leytonstone, Forest Gate, Royal Docks, Manor Park, Walthamstow.
North: Cricklewood, Harlesden, Hornsey, Tottenham, Park Royal.
West: White City, Acton, Gunnersbury, Brentford, Ealing.

Appealing Ealing
Certainly, there is more joined-up thinking on the regeneration front, with planners seeking to link these more affordable areas to new transport infrastructure. The Overground is being extended east to Barking, while the proposed Bakerloo line extension through South-East London will reach Beckenham.

Crossrail, on schedule to open in 2018, is already injecting fizz into some Zone 3 districts. Ealing is tipped as a big Crossrail winner, because travelling times to Bond Street, the City and Canary Wharf will be almost halved to 15, 20 and 29 minutes respectively.

While many London areas have seen big demographic changes and swings in fashion and status over recent years, Ealing has remained largely itself, with a middle class old guard, an enviable Common and tree-lined spacious streets that appeal to families.

Hoola, a name that was inspired by the hoop-like architecture of its rippling glass-clad twin towers, brings 360 flats to Royal Docks. The landscaped hill on which the towers are built conceals car parking and cycle spaces. Prices from £423,000. Call Savills on 020 7531 2500.

Leyton: ‘freakishly good-value’
Spillover from Zone 2 East End areas, such as Bethnal Green, where the average price is £528,608, has reached Leyton, average price £321,217. The area has no jazzy new skyscrapers or ritzy shopping centre to match nearby Stratford, but it is basking in post-Olympics sunshine, sharing the legacy benefits of the 2012 Games.

See for yourself by strolling down Leyton High Road, where traditional shopfronts have been revitalised with a colourful facelift. The A12 roars through the area, but Leyton has the Lea Valley for a back garden and also borders Hackney Marshes and Wanstead Flats, among the largest areas of open land in London.

Investment-wise, it looks a good bet. The area is jam-packed with Victorian and Edwardian terraces. Homes are not always beautiful, but according to one local estate agent they are “freakishly good-value”, with lots in the £400,000-£650,000 price bracket.

Developers are targeting the area. The Exchange, on Leyton High Road, is a mix of apartments and houses priced from £249,995. Call Bellway on 01689 886400. Fine Old Leyton Town Hall has been acquired, restored and brought back to life after a period of disuse by “community developer” Lea Valley Estates. The listed building is now a space for local businesses, while its great hall is an events venue. The borough’s former technical institute, part of the building, houses a real ale pub and 32 homes are being created within its walls. Call 020 8808 4070, while The Wharf, on the banks of the River Lea, is a development of 124 flats from £345,000. Call 020 8533 4857.

Good-value options

Saturday, 13 February 2016

İsveç’te Sıradan Bir Evmiş Gibi Görünüyor.

And this is for my Turkish speaking followers.........

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İsveç’te sıradan bir evmiş gibi görünüyor. Ancak içine girene kadar bekleyin. Bunu asla hayal edemezdim.

Kalmar’daki bu satılık eve dışarıdan bakıldığında her şey olağan. Ancak, sadece dışarıdan böyle görünüyor.

Evin içine girdiğinizde karşılaştığınız manzara…

Bu şekilde yaşamak ister misiniz?

Bu ev, komisyoncunun web sitesinde büyük bir reklam unsuru haline gelmiştir.

Komisyoncu firma Pontuz Lofgren AB’den Alex Sundstedt “şimdiye kadar web sitesinde 60,000’den fazla tıklandı, bu bir tür rekor” demiştir.

Emlak ofisinin bu türde bir mülkle karşılaşması her gün yaşanan bir durum değil.

Alex şu ifadeleri dile getirmiştir: “Bu kesinlikle benzersiz ve tamamen satıcının filmlere karşı olan ilgisiyle alakalı. Pek çok etkileyici öğe mevcut”.

Evin arka kısmından bakıldığında da içeride nelerin olabileceğine dair bir ipucu mevcut değil.

Source:- http://www.newsner.com/tr/2014/11/isvecte-siradan-bir-evmis-gibi-gorunuyor-ancak-icine-girene-kadar-bekleyin-bunu-asla-hayal-edemezdim/

Friday, 12 February 2016

Running A Car As A Young Driver

After housing costs, a car is probably one of the most expensive things that you’ll pay for as a young adult. We look at the key costs involved in running a car and give some useful tips on how to try to keep them down.

What you must have by law

There are a few things you must have by law before you begin to drive your car on the road:

Insurance – see our guide Car insurance for young drivers for more details.
Car tax (commonly known as road tax) – the amount of car tax you pay depends on either your engine size (older cars) or the emissions of your car (newer cars). The lower the engine size or emissions, the lower the car tax. car tax can be paid for either six or 12 months. Although the yearly option costs more upfront, it’s cheaper than buying two six-month options.

Use the GOV.UK car tax calculator to work out how much you might need to pay

MOT – this stands for Ministry of Transport, and is a yearly test for all cars over three years old to make sure the car is safe and roadworthy. The standard cost set by the government is £54.85 for a car. This means that garages can’t charge more than this to carry out the test, but you may find that some garages offer MOTs for less, so it’s worth looking around.

Compare the costs of different MOT centres near you on the MoneySavingExpert website

Other big car costs

Petrol or diesel

Top tips on reducing your fuel costs include:

Consumption – consider the fuel consumption of any car you’re looking to buy. The bigger the engine, the more fuel it will use in general.
Careful driving – being a little more gentle in accelerating and not driving quite as fast can reduce the amount of fuel you use significantly.
Heavy items – don’t leave heavy things in the car if you don’t need them to be there, and take off roof racks if you’re not using them. The heavier the car, the more fuel it will use.
Shopping – supermarkets often have very competitive fuel prices, and you can sometimes build up reward points to spend on other shopping

Compare the cost of fuel in your area on PetrolPrices.com

Servicing and maintenance

Motor company the RAC says that it costs around £472 to maintain a used car over the course of a year. This includes getting the MOT, and any servicing and repairs required. For a monthly fee, a used car warranty will cover certain repairs on your car, and may even include a service and MOT once a year. If you decide to take out a warranty, make sure you’re clear on what it covers and what it doesn’t.

Breakdown cover

The chances are that most drivers have experienced at least one breakdown. Breakdown cover ranges from simply having an engineer take a look at your car at the roadside, to having the car picked up anywhere in Europe with a courtesy car to continue you on your journey. Naturally, the higher the level of cover, the more it costs. Make sure you check what’s included in each level of cover and choose the one that best meets your needs.

Depreciation

One of the biggest costs when owning a car is the loss of value of the car over time – this is called depreciation. Brand new cars lose their value faster than used cars as they are more expensive to begin with. When you buy a car, think about what it might be worth in a few years’ time – you might be able to see the price of older cars the same make as yours on a car sales website.

Source:- https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/running-a-car-as-a-young-driver

Thursday, 11 February 2016

How To Run A Car For £100 A Month All In

This article was written in 2012 but has a lot of valid ideas in it. I have just estimated that I spend about £90pm on motoring.
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An early Mazda MX-5 makes for a perfect budget car

The RAC is refusing to budge on the pessimistic claim in its recently published Report on Motoring that it costs "an average of £6,689" per annum – or £557 per month, if you prefer – to own and run a car in Britain today.

However, it is possible for the penny-pinching motorist to spend only about £1,200 per year/£100 per month buying, owning and running a motor.

There are, however, some conditions. Such a driver will need to be in the middle or later half of his/her life (when car insurance tends to be much cheaper), live in a low-crime region and have many years of experience and no-claims bonuses.

Another prerequisite of squeezing total motoring costs to less than £25 a week is to buy bruised and battered cars that are a decade or more old and therefore priced to sell at the cheapest sources – usually auctions, classified ads or, best of all, relatives who like to see their old cars going to good homes.

By the time mainstream cars have reached their 10th birthday they have suffered most, if not all, of the major expense of depreciation, so into their second decade they are often worth so little they cannot devalue any further. The lack of depreciation is crucially important for the car owner who, out of necessity or sheer tight-fistedness, puts frugality at the top of his priorities.

Another essential in the quest to keep car ownership costs down is to drive less than the typical annual mileage of about 12,000. Depending on how fuel-efficient their cars are and how they drive them, people who cover this many miles tend to spend at least £1,000, sometimes several thousand, pounds a year on fuel.

So my suggestion to skinflints is to try to limit themselves to buying only about 100 gallons a year. If they buy supermarket fuel that quantity will, at today's prices, cost about £600 annually. With many gently driven cars capable of returning 50mpg on a run, that £600 could buy 5,000 miles of motoring per year, which is more than adequate for millions of drivers in Britain, especially those who do not need to drive to work.

Still not convinced? For the past few years, I've been proving that running a car for £100 a month all-in is possible. I bought a 118,000-mile 1999 VW Polo for £300, shockingly scratched and faded paintwork included. I shopped around to secure a £230 insurance policy for 2012-13. The 4,000 miles I drive it each year costs me less than £500 a year in fuel. Basic annual safety checks and oil changes/mini services work out at about £60. A combination of tax disc (£130), half-price MoT tests (never failed one yet), minimal depreciation (because the car's almost worthless), used parts, minor repairs and incidentals brings the total ownership and running cost to between £1,000 and £1,200 a year.

A friend, Steve Crispe, sets an even finer example. He picked up a used and abused 1995 Ford Mondeo diesel estate for £150 before driving 74,000 almost trouble-free miles at home and abroad. His annual insurance bill is £300, and the Mondeo's diesel engine still returns 50mpg. Apart from a new radiator (£90 supplied and fitted), alternator (£90), second-hand driving seat (£30), timing belt (£120) plus occasional oil changes, replacement tyres and new brake pads, he's spent next to nothing. The large, extremely practical Mondeo estate is a £1,500-per-year car.

Another friend, Nigel Garrett, prefers Mazda MX-5s, which he buys from about £500. He's owned and run several for less than £2,000 a year and confirms that parts for the little Japanese sports car, whether approved or unapproved, are surprisingly inexpensive.

* Despite the penny-pinching enjoyment of "bangernomics", I realise that being a motoring miser is not for everyone. However, running a new family car need not be anything like as expensive as some would have you believe, helped in the main by terrific deals in which factory-fresh motors are offered at half price or thereabouts.

The Vauxhall Zafira 1.6i Exclusiv five-door is being reduced by Pentagon, an official Vauxhall retailer, by 46 per cent. That brings the asking price down to just £9,995.

It is not the spanking-new Zafira Tourer, unfortunately, but the last of the previous generation Zafira. Never mind, a proven, seven-seater family car in this class for under £10,000 is astonishing value for money. Bought today at that price and run for a decade, the cost of depreciation would be under £1,000 a year. Factor in insurance, fuel, servicing, repairs, tax and MoT tests, and over the decade the total cost of buying/owning/running such a car should be, at today's prices, about £3,000 per annum (or nearer £2,000 if the owner has a good insurance record and does less than average mileage).

Paying £40-£60 a week for a 24-hour-a-day personal mobility machine capable of carrying at least five people seems a bargain to me.

* Citroën has just made its C4 £1,500 cheaper. VW has done the same with the Golf. So what are rival manufacturers of mid-size hatchbacks waiting for?

It seems to me that if they want any chance of selling any this summer, they need to reduce them by as much – or more.

Source:- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/columnists/mike-rutherford/9447128/How-to-run-a-car-for-100-a-month-all-in.html

Wednesday, 10 February 2016

It’s A State Agent

Grotty flat sells for over asking price despite brutally honest ad

Agent warned mouldy, trash-filled home was ‘not for the faint hearted’

Main Image — The property was listed for £125,000 and sold for £147,000 Eastnews Press Agency

THIS mouldy, litter-strewn flat sold for more than the asking price after the estate agent placed a brutally honest advert.

Rob Kahl, 42, told prospective buyers it was “not for the faint-hearted” and warned them: “Wipe your feet on the way out.”

The ad read 'I can't flower this one up or use my normal real estate jargon to make this sound any better' Eastnews Press Agency

The estate agent warned of rubbish, mould and potentially fleas Eastnews Press Agency

His Rightmove ad said: “I can’t flower this one up or use normal estate agent jargon to make this sound any better.

“The property is full of rubbish, there is mould on the walls and I think there may even be some fleas.”

The flat's vendors had recently evicted some not-so-charming tenants and couldn't face setting foot inside Eastnews Press Agency

Aside from the trash and mould the place was 'actually OK' the agent said Eastnews Press Agency

But he added the two-bed flat underneath the trash in Westcliff, Essex, was “actually OK”.

The ad made no secret of the fact the flat needed work Eastnews Press Agency

It went on sale last month for £125,000 and sold after only three days for £147,500.

Rob said: “I get bored writing the same adverts. It was obvious it needed a lot of work so I tried something different.”

Tiny Garages Are Not Cool