Clerkenwell: the home of loft living
Clerkenwell has become so achingly cool that the affluent young entrepreneurs who work in its creative businesses are desperate to live there, too.
The best new homes 2012
Here we showcase this year's winners of our London Evening Standard New Homes Awards - the capital's property Oscars.
Spotlight on Camden Town
The shops and markets clustered around the high street and canal make Camden one of the most colourful of London's neighbourhoods. The area's period homes and loft-style apartments attract a mix of homebuyers.
Move to St Albans and you get two cities for the price of one
Moving out of the capital doesn’t have to mean a longer commute or even a change of job.
My design London: Elizabeth Hurley
Elizabeth Hurley reveals her latest design project; discusses friend Damien Hirst's artwork, as well as her favourite restaurants and design shops in London.
Find a rated tradesman
Want to add value to your property, make your house a home, or sell your place fast? With 1,000s of tradesmen nationwide, rated and recommended by previous customers, this is the smart way to find a reputable tradesman.
Buy of the week: high church
This former masonic chapel in Chiswick has been converted into a three-bedroom home (£1.175 million) with a 30-foot open-plan, double-height reception room. The kitchen is a black glossy affair, there’s a study, a cinema room and a decked roof terrace.
Swap of the week: Blackboys, East Sussex
Honeys Green farmhouse is a Grade II-listed pile that sits in a couple of acres and offers versatile living with an annexe and outdoor heated pool. Inside has character galore among four bedrooms and an attic room with pretty views.
Life-changer: South Petherton, Somerset
Willowbrook is a five-bedroom beauty (£1.15 million) with a 52-foot reception room and garages that could become a holiday apartment. Make a B&B business there and your guests could use the indoor pool and gym complex or roam your two-acre garden.
Spotlight on Tunbridge Wells
It may have temporarily lost its iron-rich spring but Tunbridge Wells has buckets of charm to make up for it.-
Buy of the week: high church
This former masonic chapel in Chiswick has been converted into a three-bedroom home (£1.175 million) with a 30-foot open-plan, double-height reception room. The kitchen is a black glossy affair, there’s a study, a cinema room and a decked roof terrace. -
Swap of the week: Blackboys, East Sussex
Honeys Green farmhouse is a Grade II-listed pile that sits in a couple of acres and offers versatile living with an annexe and outdoor heated pool. Inside has character galore among four bedrooms and an attic room with pretty views. -
Life-changer: South Petherton, Somerset
Willowbrook is a five-bedroom beauty (£1.15 million) with a 52-foot reception room and garages that could become a holiday apartment. Make a B&B business there and your guests could use the indoor pool and gym complex or roam your two-acre garden.
Property search
Exposing the 'green con'
So-called green building products that make false claims will be rejected under a new government-backed scheme. By Roger Goode
Hemcrete is much tougher and half the weight of concrete
Two hundred building firms and architects have already signed up to fund the scheme.
One Planet Products, launched by energy minister Malcolm Wicks at Westminster, has already assessed a wide range of environmentally friendly materials used in the construction industry — from hand basins where waste water is recycled to flush the toilet, to triple-glazed wooden windows that are cheaper than their double-glazed plastic rivals.
It has also backed “hempcrete” for use in construction and insulation. Hempcrete is made from hemp fibres but is tougher — and half the weight — of concrete.
One Planet Products has been created by environmental charity BioRegional, which built BedZED, in Sutton, Surrey, the UK’s largest carbon-neutral housing community.
The scheme’s executive director, Mark Watson, said: “There are countless so-called eco products available now but too many are just ‘green-wash’ — with little to offer. These will not get the seal of approval.
“What people want to know is which of these products actually works, how long they will last and how quickly they will pay for themselves. We use experts from the building industry and check that products are genuinely sustainable and made with minimum damage to the environment. We aim to help housebuilders and architects who want to build sustainably.”
The scheme takes no money from product suppliers. Instead, builders and architects pay a fee to access an online service listing approved products and offering price comparisons.
Major housebuilder Crest Nicholson is among those who have signed up. Its chief executive, Stephen Stone, said: “The industry wants sustainable products and needs to be able to identify those that are genuinely innovative and ethically sourced.”
Housing associations London and Quadrant and Town and Country are among the founder members, along with homes builder Rydon Construction.
For more information, call 020 8404 6982, or visit www.oneplanetproducts.com.
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London’s epidemic of discounting
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New Homes Awards 2012: the winners
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Only 639 new homes are for sale in Greater London
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The best new homes 2012
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Can anything be done when a seller puts the price up?
We should have exchanged contracts on our new house last Friday, but the seller upped the price on Thursday by £25,000, so it didn’t happen. Also, his sister is living there and can’t move out until July. Can he do this? Does it matter that’s she’s living there?
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Secret money-saving tips
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Homes that slash your heating bills by 90 per cent
The UK’s first “greenhauses” - highly efficient German-designed homes said to slash utility bills by 90 per cent, have been unveiled in west London.
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