Keith's stable.... & making good progress.

I've just been out to Keith this morning to have a look at a large steading, with full planning for conversion into 4 residential units (2-4 beds each).

It's in a superb setting - even the heavy rain couldn't spoil the views. Though wellies and waterproofs were pre-requisites.


Prices start at £60k, or £285k for the whole development - With a conversion cost of around £60k - £80k they don't look bad value, though add to your cost the purchase a 4x4 to get you home in winter.

Worth a look if you are looking for a nice project.

A lovely location in which to get away from it all, though you're only minutes away in your Land Rover from the fabulous Strathisla cafe - Always one of my favourites !

Sellers are Peterkins in Keith - Full details can be found here. (Saving you time trawling through their overly complex website)or that may just be me having the wrong galsses on.....

Until next time,

Mr Jackson.

Calm down, calm down.....!

Brookside Close, the set of Channel 4’s famous and long-running soap opera, has gone under the hammer…

The street, which includes 13 houses, is now the proud possession of a mystery Liverpool buyer who paid £735,000 to acquire what was once the UK’s most famous cul-de-sac.

The trailblazing and often controversial programme, which ran on Channel 4 for more than twenty years, filled our screens with murder, drug abuse, adultery, incest and became the first British TV show to broadcast a lesbian kiss pre-watershed.

All 13 houses were refurbished by developers in 2005 and have been empty ever since. The future of the homes remains unclear, but if you end up buying one then check under the patio…

Until next time,

Mr Jackson.

Kirstie's Makeover For You...?

Stop Press - Get your home on TV and madeover at the same time....

My good friend Phil Spencer, who features regulary in the blog, has just told me of a new series of Kirstie's Homemade being commissioned. Word has it that they require some Scottish properties for the new series - What better than those in Moray.

Of course I know if yours is featured as a result of me letting you in on this 'secret news' you'll be kind enough to buy me lunch at the Captain's Table (Or at least a large slice of that double chocolate cake !).



Here's the blurb from their website.....

Is your home dull? Is it full of flat pack furniture bought from high street stores? Do you want to change it to say something special about you? If so, why not think about enlisting the help of Kirstie Allsopp to turn it into a homemade home?..

We're looking for potential contributors to take part in the next series of Kirstie's Homemade Home.

Kirstie wants to help people create their own dream interiors using reclaimed and restored second hand furniture and handmade objects from fantastic craftsmen and women around the country.

Please and describe your home and why you think it needs Kirstie's help to turn it into a homemade home.

Just visit www.meontv.co.uk/kirstie to apply.

Good luck folks !

Mr Jackson.

A Steal.... In Lossie

Following on from my last post, on the breaking and entering estate agent - I've actually found something that may legally be termed as 'a steal'.

I just popped in to Moray Property in Lossiemouth, to have a chat with them about the local property market (but mainly to be offered a cup of Ringtons and a lovely Blueberry muffin - made by David's wife).

A new for sale instruction on the board grabbed my attention - It is for a first floor apartment in Marine Court, opposite the Stotfield Hotel, it was a former hotel itself, before being transformed into exclusive apartments by Tullochs about 5 years ago.

'The owner is looking for a quick sale', David told me. 'And as instructed it is marketed well under the Home Report valuation'.

It's priced at £210k fixed, for a very large 3 bed apartment, with commanding panoramic sea views from every window, private parking and lift access. An identical apartment above is listed with another agent at offers over £265k.

Well worth a look when it comes on the market at the end of this week. But if you're not yet in a position to buy, they also have a top floor duplex to rent at a very reasonable £650.00 pcm.

I better not try and convince myself, as Mrs Jackson has already had words about me bringing home house brochures from Norway. I need to keep on her good side, as I've seen a new boat for sale too..... I bruise all too easily now....

Until the next time.

Mr Jackson.

Las Vegas Agent Opens Doors......Literally.

I've just read the above Time magazine article about the state of the country's number one casino town. The author meets Brooke Boemio, "a bouncy, sweet, recently remarried 31-year-old mom whom I met years ago when I was on another assignment. Boemio is doing great during this recession. In fact, she's never had a job that paid as well: she made more than $100,000 last year. Even better, she's willing to show me how messed up the real estate scene is."

How messed up? Messed up enough for this:

Basically, she finds clients who owe more on their house than the house is worth (and that's about 60% of homeowners in Las Vegas) and sells them a new house similar to the one they've been living in at half the price they paid for their old house. Then she tells them to stop paying the mortgage on their old place until the bank becomes so fed up that it's willing to let the owner sell the house at a huge loss rather than dragging everyone through foreclosure. Since that takes about nine months, many of the owners even rent out their old house in the interim, pocketing a profit.

Boemio even admits to doing it herself. And, before parting company with the journalist, shows him how to break into a random empty house... a scene which was, apparently, accompanied by a short piece of film (now removed). All-in-all... not, you'd think, a way of ingratiating yourself on your employers. And you'd think right. Boemio is now - according to reports - without a job.

What amazes me, though, is that somebody without the gumption to realise that advertising your breaking-and-entering and fraud skills in Time might get you into at least one kind of trouble still has enough gumption to defraud the US banking system.

No wonder we're all where we are..... Only in America....?

Yee-haw,

Mr Jackson.

Norway out of here.....

With its fjords and glacial scenery, Norway has seen a steady increase in the number of British tourists. It's landscape in the South is stunning and very much like Scotland.



Property prices, which have risen quite steeply over the past few years, have now slowed, and there is a strong rental market in the capital, Oslo, with an average 5% yield; holiday houses and flats are found along the coastline south of Oslo, down to Kristiansand, where small islands are dotted with wooden houses, perfect bases for sailing. You can buy a three-bedroom house there for about £160,000.

I fell for Norway when I ran in the Tromso marathon, several years ago now, here the sun shines for 24/7 for more than two months. If you are looking for a real home from home, with a great quality of life, friendly people and surprisingly warm coastal temperatures (thanks to the Gulf stream)I'd reccommend Norway as a place to visit and even to invest. I think this country will be the 'next big thing'.

Watch this space or ' ur denne mellomrom ' as they say in Norway.

adjø, farvel.

Mr Jackson.

When posh neighbours go mad......

A row with a millionaire property developer ended with a neighbour's hand being sliced open by a samurai sword, it has emerged.

Simon Carson flew into a rage and grabbed the antique weapon - worth thousands of pounds - to confront neighbour Simon Korn.

'Mr Korn complained to the night porter about noise downstairs and this led to Mr Carson coming upstairs armed with a samurai sword,' said prosecutor Tim Clark

'Mr Korn, fearing for his safety, grabbed the sword and received serious lacerations to his hands,' he added.



Carson's wife Freddie Booker-Carson - an award-winning art curator who has displayed collections at the Tate - then slapped Mr Korn's wife and was 'abusive' to police.

The dispute in a block of flats in Mayfair in October emerged only yesterday after Booker-Carson, 57, admitted assault and was given an absolute discharge at Southwark Crown Court.

'I accept that your case is at the very lowest end of this sort of offending and I have regard to the impeccable character which you can proclaim,' judge Gregory Stone told her.

Booker-Carson was accused of assisting an offender after she hid the sword in another of their flats but this was dropped after she said she did so to stop her husband self-harming. Carson, 58, was given a suspended sentence for actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing.

A dispute between the two couples had been simmering for weeks as a result of work being done to the Korns' flat, the court heard earlier.

Estate agent Mr Korn, 58, and his art historian wife, Dr Madeleine Korn, said after the case they were 'disgusted' at the sentences.

Who'd have thought this would go on in Mayfair - Some areas of Buckie maybe...

Just kidding of course - In Buckie they would use giant fish hooks.....

Until the next time.

Mr Jackson.

New House Anyone ?

I really like this one - Link to particulars

I'm sure you will too...

Now where did I put that spare £2.75m ...??

Mr Jackson

Cat Among The Pigeons....

It seems the nice chaps at Moray Property really have put the 'cat amongst the pigeons' in the local estate agent market. Similar to they way they did with the rental market last year.

They are offering a fixed price to sell your property of just £1250.00. On average a local estate agent will charge a fee 1.00% of the sale price, so if your house is worth over £125,000, there are some huge savings to be made !



Other agents I have spoken with don't seem to be too happy about this offer - not surprising really when you consider they make £3k+ from the vendor on a sale of a £300,000 property. Perhaps other agents will now have to start shopping at Tesco, rather than Marks & Spencer...

Though un-surprisingly it seems the vendors are extremley happy with the offer. This seems to be translating into new sales instructions, as Moray Property's window fills up every day that I pass.

'We haven't really started advertising the offer yet', David explained to me. 'All the current properties for sale took advantage of this offer just via word of mouth alone'. Always the best recommendation I find.

When their advertising campaign does go live, I envisage them having quite a share of the property market in a short space of time. If they keep up their first rate quality service and their modern and unique approach (which is long overdue in Moray.....) then they'll go far.

Hope this doesn't sound too much like an advert for them - But I know a good deal when I see one and this is too good to miss. If you're contemplating selling your property you could save yourself £000's !

Perhaps I too should become a marketing guru - If only I'd thought of this myself a couple of years ago, become qualified and got a trendy little shop - I could be sat in the Med' now, rather than in the Captains Table at Findhorn....

Though I suppose they wouldn't have the superb double chocolate cake that I've managed to get all over my new netbook.

Until the next time,

Mr Jackson.

Swinging the cat....

The sofa won't fit into the living room. There's not enough room for children to play in the kitchen as you cook. And where's the recycling bin meant to go?

These are some of the complaints from residents of new-build developments surveyed by Cabe, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

The floor area and room sizes are the smallest in Europe - the average room in a newly built dwelling in France is 26.9 square metres, compared with 15.8 square metres in the UK - and, the graph below shows how British new-builds are less than half the size of those in the United States and Australia.



Compact & Bijou, less space to heat and a smaller land footprint, makes for an ideal home, or so the estate agents would have you believe..... I'd personally go with an American home where biggest is always best....

Size does matter - So Mrs Jackson keeps telling me,

Until the next one,

Mr Jackson.

Realise profits - Dont miss the boat.

With the current trends and a flat sales market I thought I would advise on what the smart money is doing at present.

So if you're looking to buy, have some money saved or if you are just searching for a good investment opportunity now could be the time.



Why not consider :

Redevelopment
Put a low offer on a house in need of a lot of work, or buy a down-at-heel place at auction (where prices are often 65% to 75% less than those homes sold through conventional estate agents). Then you can renovate.

Experts forecast that the full housing market recovery will be slow, so consider redeveloping the property to a high standard and renting it out for some years, then selling it when the market is back to strength.

Self Build
Big-name house builders have sold land to release cash in the downturn, so plots of land are now 20% to 50% below their 2007 peak prices. Websites such as buildingplot.org.uk or buildstore.co.uk list available sites and prices. The National Self-Build & Renovation Centre holds five-day courses for those about to self-build for the first time.

This option is not for the fainthearted - self-building is extremely hard work - but most who do it say a completed home is worth 20% to 25% more than its build costs, so you are immediately in profit when you finish.

Holiday Lets
If you have a holiday home in the Highlands, the Grampians or on the coastline, you're in luck.

Year-round walking holidays are in fashion, so you can let out your property to maximum potential. But even in other areas you could expect 16 to 20 weeks' rental per year.

Houses sleeping four to eight people are in high demand and flats are the slowest to let, rental firms advise.

If you have a holiday home overseas, the same could apply, but remember that the market is saturated with homes to rent across Spain, and in Bulgaria and Turkey.

Renting Schemes
Renting to the social housing sector: this is one that few people think of.

If you have a flat or house you don't want to sell until the market recovers, or if you can't find a tenant, you could lease it to a housing association or local authority.

That body would let it on your behalf and you would have guaranteed rental income for two to five years, depending on the contract.

Rents are usually 15% to 20% below the private lettings norm, but there are no lettings agency fees and the place is restored to its original condition at the end.

Feed 'public sector leasing schemes' into Google to see if there are schemes in your area.

The Moray area does now seem to have reached the bottom of its downward pricing curve and after speaking with David at Moray Property, he has advised that there's more activity in the local sales market than he's seen for the last three months.

He attributed this to demand, due to the lower prices and some lenders once again beginning to offer affordable lower deposit mortgages.

Now could be a good time to invest. Be sure you don't miss the boat !

Until next time - Happy fishing.

Mr Jackson.

Room with a view.....

Almost a million homeowners are now renting a room out to a permanent boarder, according to research by Abbey Mortgages... that's triple the number this time last year.

The average earnings from sharing your roof with a stranger isn't to be sneezed at either, weighing in at £393 a month (slightly above the Government's tax-free threshold). London homeowners are the most likely to take in a lodger (6%).

Choose carefully though... remember the film Shallow Grave.....!

Don't have nightmares,

Mr Jackson.

The landlady doesn't like travellers....

A family of travellers believed to be suspected of a series of “distraction burglaries” are living in a £1 million house at the taxpayers' expense.

John and Serena Connors and their five children share five bedrooms and three bathrooms in the north London property, which is paid for by housing benefit.



Their landlady, businesswoman Sapna Bukhari, is trying to evict them because she claims they have caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage and neighbours have complained about the noise they make and the mounds of rubbish, which includes old food, clothes and cat excrement, left in their back garden.

But Mrs Connors, who is originally from County Wexford in Ireland, said her family were the victims and she was determined to stay. She threatened to take legal action over “racism against travellers” if they were pushed out.

“The landlady doesn't like travellers,” she said. “It's racism, I'm going to get her done for harassment.”

The Metropolitan Police has released a leaflet to residents claiming an unnamed family of travellers are suspects in a series of burglaries.

Mrs Connors said she was making a complaint to the police about the accusation, which she believes is aimed at her family.

“My kids are cheeky but they aren't thieves,” she added. Although it does not name the Connors, the leaflet claims the perpetrators are “from the travelling community”, and describes two teenage girls with Irish accents.

Headed “Warning”, the leaflet was issued by the Totteridge Safer Neighbourhood Team to all houses in the street except the Connors, and claims thieves in the area have approached homeowners asking to use the lavatory and telling general stories of hard luck.

It says: “All will end in them trying to enter your house and steal anything they can get their hands on.”

Today Mrs Bukhari said she hoped the police would support her bid to have the family evicted. She said she and her husband Zulfi, both 38, were approached by Barnet council in February about the Connors.

Council officials told her they were under an obligation to find them a large enough house and said the family would be benefiting from the Local Housing Allowance.

With the rental market falling, Mrs Bukhari agreed to let the house to the Connors for £2,400 a month after being assured they were “good tenants”.

But she said: “Within a few weeks of them moving in, a radiator was pulled off the wall and the water from it made the ceiling collapse. They threatened me, my builder and my plumber.

“They've twice blocked the drains so sewage has flowed on to the pavement, have thrown food, clothes, cat excrement and all manner of rubbish into the gardens, and shout and scream vile obscenities.

“They won't even let the builders come in to carry out repairs. I'm worried the damage will cost tens of thousands.”

And so the "yooman rights" gravy train trundles on...
And the legal profession did flourish and multiply
And all that fed them did wither on the vine.
UK Exodus 1

Here endeth the lesson,

Mr Jackson.

Between Rock & A hard place.

In a field above Daymer Bay, near Rock, north Cornwall, eight houses are being built. As summer addresses go, the site takes some beating. No surprise, then, that one of the properties has just been sold for £1.15m to a television executive from London. Another, though, has gone to Emma Russell, a waitress at the nearby Roserrow Golf and Country Club — and she paid a mere £165,000.



Okay, so the media big shot’s newly built home is bigger, and comes with a prized view of the Camel estuary, but Russell’s three-bedroom house enjoys the same location and far-reaching glimpses of its own, at least from upstairs. Both properties, like the others on the estate, come with ground-source heat pumps, triple-glazed Swedish windows and classy slate roofs.

The government’s affordable housing scheme is the key. Of the eight properties at the Ham Field estate, four “fabulous new contemporary eco-homes” are featured in the glossy sales brochure. The other four are classified “affordable”, their very existence a condition imposed by the planning department when it granted permission for the development. Of these four, three have been sold to Guinness Hermitage, a housing association that provides homes for rent and shared ownership in the south and southwest.

More than anything, though, this tiny Cornish development is typical of the way that even the big boys are starting to take affordable homes more seriously. Each local authority is different, but typically a site of 100 units would have to have 30 “affordable” properties. In the past, these would probably have been constructed on the cheap, but now most aim for a higher standard — and in today’s economic climate, more are being offered as “affordable” to encourage a sale.

If this is of interest to you - There's lots in the pipeline locally - Local house builder Springfield has recently offered some superb examples at Imlach Way, Lossiemouth - I wouldn't mind living in these myself.

Plus with new affordable housing sites underway in both Buckie & Forres, these are well worth a look for those people on lower incomes.

Until the next time,

Mr Jackson.

Pyramid Selling.....

If you took a dollop of 2001: A Space Odyssey, whisked in a hefty glug of Blade Runner and added a dash of The Mummy you’d end up with something like Makoto Tanijiri’s sleekly beautiful Pyramid house in Saijo, Hiroshima, Japan.



Not only is it a stunningly futuristic statement, but it also apparently echoes the earliest form of Japanese architecture: the pit dwelling, or “tateana jukyo“; where a pit was dug out and then covered by a thatched roof.

This modern version of the traditional form was completed in 2007, but I’ve only just come across it and I like it. A lot.




A full article on the whys, hows and whos can be found over at yatzer.com

And if that’s whetted your appetite for living in a conic solid with a polygonal base, then check out the contemporary pyramids blog for more pointy buildings.

You know where he should have built it ? The Faroe Islands ! I'll get my coat.....

Have a good weekend everyone.

Mr Jackson.

Rental Of The Week .......How much.......!

I was in London over the weekend, taking advantage of a low-cost flight from Inverness to Gatwick with Mrs Jackson.

Whilst waiting to pick up Mrs J from the hairdressers in Brompton Road, I was browsing in the window of Harrods Estates and came across this beauty (at first I thought they had put the comma in the wrong place, as I read on I found out they hadn't !

Description
A quite exceptional property very rarely seen on the rental market. Accommodation comprises six bedroom suites, two receptions, a library, a screening room, gym, hydrotherapy spa, two kitchens and numerous terraces. Available for long term let at £25,000pw and for short let at £40,000pw.

Read the full description and see the property here.

Ideal for the Sultan of Brunei or a Premiership footballer perhaps ?

As I think I may be too old to play for Manchester United I had to console myself with a meal at The Box Wood cafe in Kensington, which is owned by Gordon Ramsay.

After paying an exhorbitant amount for Aberdeen Angus Rib eye steak, I was glad to be headed home to Moray, where you don't need to be related to Royalty to rent a nice property or pay a Kings Ransom for your dinner.

Sometimes we don't know when we have it good !

Mrs Jackson's hair did look nice though, (at least until the next day when we got caught in a severe downpour on Culbin beach).

Stay 'Up North' people - It's not so grim....

Until the next one,

Mr Jackson.