Space Race....

More news on the development of RAF Lossiemouth as a 'Spaceport', courtesy of Jenny Davey at The Sunday Times.

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is seeking government support to launch commercial space flights in Britain.

Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, has held talks with Lord Drayson, the science minister, in the past few weeks about establishing an operation at the Lossiemouth RAF airbase.

Virgin wants the government to amend the 1986 Outer Space Act to allow it to launch space flights here. The legislation makes it difficult to run such a service in Britain.

The plan has the support of Andy Green, chief executive of the software giant Logica, who is chairing the Space Innovation and Growth Team, which is due to report to Drayson in January on ways to boost the sector in Britain.

Virgin estimates that bringing Virgin Galactic to Britain could create up to 2,000 jobs in the area. Green believes it would also spur greater interest in the fast-growing space industry, which supports 68,000 jobs in this country.

Scientists have warned that climatic conditions could hamper Virgin’s plans to run its operation from Scotland. RAF Lossiemouth has substantial cloud cover for nearly two-thirds of the time. However, Whitehorn said it would be possible to operate the Virgin Galactic service despite poor weather because the spacecraft is launched from a mothership that carries it up to 50,000 ft.

Virgin Galactic will charge $200,000 (£122,000) a head for a two-hour space flight. The first services will operate from Space- port America in New Mexico and the first flights outside America are likely to be from a base in Sweden.

Virgin’s interest has emerged just days after Logica’s Green wrote to Drayson calling for the creation of a UK space agency and a national space programme.

The space sector has grown 9% a year over the past decade, more than three times faster than the economy as a whole.

Once given the green light, this will see property prices in the area 'rocket' if you pardon the pun ! Certainly worth an investment punt in the area I believe.

Scotty, beam me aboard....

Mr Jackson.

Sugar Coated Profits...

An unusual but comforting blog for a Friday....Thanks to Jocelyn Beattie at Findaproperty.com. Cadbury’s recently bucked the trend of most other businesses when they announced their profits were up by 11 per cent over the last quarter.

There’s got to be a connection between that and the general gloom that’s going around, surely?

We might not be able to heat our homes anymore but goddammit, we can still afford the odd Dairy Milk to cheer ourselves up.

So in honour of Cadbury’s range of feel-good products, I’ve written a few chocolate-coated words on the housing market. My apologies in advance…

This past year has been no Picnic or bed of Roses for anyone affected by the credit Crunch(ie).

But will the recent government cash Boost lead to Gordon Brown & Co. being hailed as the Heroes who saved us from an economic Melt(s) down?

Is there a Wispa of optimism in the air, or will Gordon be accused of Fudge-ing the financial truth, and end up with (Creme) Egg on his face?

Thinking about it too much is sending me into a mental Twirl; I need some Time Out before I turn into a total Flake…

Yours,

Mr Jackson

"I'm in the shed dear...."

I like a nice homely shed, but I'm also partial to a bit of upmarket architectural eye-candy, so imagine my delight when we discovered that some genius has created a super cool, Kevin McCloud approved … shed for living! My thanks go to Michael O'Flynn of Findaproperty.com for this article.

I haven’t been this thrilled by a design ’solution’ since eglu applied a bit of i-Mac styling to the humble chicken coop. Could it really live up to our fevered expectations?

And, more to the point, could it live up to its own billing as “individual low-cost student or key-worker accommodation, or an ideal house for a first-time buyer”?

Said shed, or dwelle, as designers FKDA architects have branded it, is zero carbon, off-grid, and cleverly compact.

It has underfloor heating, a wood-burning fireplace, newspaper insulation (Guardian, I’m guessing!) and a streamlined barn conversion aesthetic. It looks like this:



I think it’s pretty cool, and at £35,000-£50,000 for the largest version, you can’t really quibble about the price - even if, as we all well know, the biggest problem with this will be finding an affordable site to put it on.

Still, hats off to FKDA for an imaginative and good-looking response to the plight of the FTB. And well done to Grand Designs Live for showcasing it this weekend.



If you want to take a closer look, go see dwelle at Grand Designs Live, Birmingham, where it will feature alongside a couple of other very cool eco- and micro-homes in the Grand Village.

I can always be found in my shed, the window of which overlooks Findhorn Bay. Trouble is, it has no heating or water. If I were to buy one of these Mrs Jackson would never see me again !

Yours humbly,

Mr Jackson

Victorian Sea Fort - Up For Auction.

Are you a security obsessed real ale drinker who just wants to be left alone to brew beer in the middle of the sea?

Maybe you’re a patch-eyed, cat stroking genius who’s in the market for a discrete bomb-proof bolt hole? (This place used to have anti-aircraft guns mounted on the roof so a giant molecule-melting laser should be no problem.)

Then again, perhaps you’re a more traditional business type who sees serious commercial potential in turning a vast military installation into a party and leisure venue?



All of these, my friends, are possible future uses for the behemoth that is Spitbank Fort in the Solent. So, according to the planning documents, are a residential school, a recording studio, a water bottling plant, a casino, and (gulp!) … offices.

The fort has 15ft thick granite walls, more than 50 rooms and comes with a dance hall, restaurant, lighthouse, museum and, apparently, its very own ghost.

And no, I don’t know how the milk is delivered (though there is a helipad).

It’s being auctioned by Clive Emson on 4 Nov 2009 at the Rose Bowl, Southampton. Guide: £700,000 - £800,000.

Worth a look perhaps ?



My thanks go to Michael O'Flynn of Findaproperty.com for this article.

Until the next time,

Mr Jackson.

Roll up...Roll up.... For the funhouse !

Remember when you drew houses when you were a child? Was it just me who always put a slide instead of stairs? Of course not! We all did it, because that’s what makes houses fun. Why climb stairs when you can slide down them? (Obviously don’t try that while carrying anything precious like the cat or your LEGO collection).

If you’re looking to live out your childish fantasies then look no further! The Rainbow House in West London will satisfy all of your childhood dreams.

It has an actual slide! Instead of stairs! Of course, if you do need to use stairs, you can use the rainbow spiral staircase (see pic below).



This is the house that dreams are made of (childhood dreams where you happen to have £4500 a week for the rental). And it reminds me of a certain childhood TV show: Funhouse.

I don’t know any kid who didn’t want to live in that house (and I bet that’s where the Rainbow House designers got their ideas from too). But what other TV houses would you have wanted to live in?

Big Brother House: Granted, you might not want to live here with 100s of cameras pointing at you while you go about your business. But after next year, that house is going to be empty (and some might say that’s a good thing).

The TV company are missing a trick if they don’t rent that out for a few weeks. Despite what you think of the show, it would be fun to live there for a while, don’t you think?

Kirstie’s Homemade Home: Who doesn’t want to live at Meadow Gate? I’d move there in a flash if I could, especially if Kirstie was included (Hope Mrs Jackson's not reading this....).

It’s the most beautiful place and Kirstie Allsopp caused lifestyle envy amongst the nation as she did up every room in her latest series. Serious lifestyle envy.

Big Breakfast House: Fried Eggs! On the wallpaper! Of course, I can’t think of anything worse now, but when you were a younger that seemed so much fun.

So much fun that they even gave away a look-a-like house in a competition. I remember being sad for a whole week because I didn’t win.

My thanks go to Sian Meades of Primelocation.com for this article.

Enjoy the weekend - Looks like the weather has finally turned and Moray will get a bit of sun, after a week of rain.

Mr Jackson.

Worst Investments Of The Year....

Homeowners across the land are holding their collective breath as daily reports show the housing market threatens all out collapse. The likelihood, however, is that losses over the next year or two will not nearly be enough to reverse the huge gains of the last ten years.

But not every real estate investor is this fortunate. I've put together a list of some of the worst property investments ever. In the unluckiest or most calamitous of cases, the losses run into the millions...

A place in the sun
The brochures were too good to be true. Buyers gazed in wonder at those shimmering golf courses - yet to be built; the beautiful beaches - only a short two hour drive away; the lively restaurants and bars - now abandoned; and those glorious villas - mostly unsold.

Thousands of British ex-pats, wanting to live the dream of eating a full English on their own patio gazing out over the Mediterranean, are facing up to a Spanish property nightmare. Prices have slumped by up to 65 per cent in the last year according to some websites, as the market is struck by a country-wide collapse in house values and massive overdevelopment on the Costa Del Sol. In the most acute cases, Brits who have bought off plan are now stuck with apartments in uncompleted developments they don’t want but can’t sell.

New build city centre flats
Thousands of newly-built urban apartments have flooded the market in recent years, dominating northern city skylines, but now prices are plummeting by up to 70 per cent. New-build blocks attracted amateur buy-to-letters eager to earn a quick buck from the property boom. But now many fear they paid vastly over the odds. One report cites a three-bedroom apartment in Kelso Heights, a development near the University of Leeds campus in the centre of the town, which was recently sold for £71,000. It was bought in 2006 for £237,999. Flats in certain developments in areas such as Manchester, Newcastle and east London have also fallen in value by 40-50 per cent.

Land banking
Investors have lost thousands of pounds to “landbanking” firms in recent years. Dodgy companies buy tracts of greenbelt land, then sell chunks of it to individuals on the promise that when houses need to be built on their acres of countryside, the value of the land will soar. This will happen a couple of years after their purchase, investors are told to convince them to hand over cash. However, it isn't that easy to get rich quick. It emerged that many of the schemes fell within areas that local authorities said would never gain planning permission for new homes, or at least not in the lifetime of the devastated investors.

World's largest shopping centre
Investors in the new shopping malls opening in west London, Liverpool and Bristol over the coming year will hope the centres prove more successful than the world largest and possibly emptiest mall, in Donguan, southern China. The gigantic centre opened in 2005 and is four times the size of Bluewater, in Kent, with 6.5 million sq feet of retail space. However, the owners who sunk millions of dollars into the project have persuaded only a dozen stores to open. Still, shoppers dispirited by the lack of retailers can instead take a trip down a Venetian canal leading onto a replica St Mark’s Square, enjoy a ride on the indoor roller coaster or grab some food under a giant 80ft mock-up of the Arc de Triomphe, all added in the vain attempt to increase foot fall at the mothballed mall.

Hope you've not invested in any of the above !

You are as well investing locally, especially in the smaller Moray towns, like Lossiemouth, where prices are still stable and there's no large developments planned to take down average house costs.

Have a good weekend,

Mr Jackson.

You can't judge a book....but you can a house.

It doesn't work for books, but it does for houses – judging them by their façade I mean. A property's outer appearance, its kerb appeal, is often the deal maker (or breaker) when it comes to buying a home. It takes potential buyers no more than eight seconds to decide whether or not they like a house.

Some houses have natural kerb appeal; the wisteria-clad Queen Anne rectory with a tree-lined drive, for example, will attract potential buyers even if it's a little dilapidated. "For the best country houses, the setting is the kerb appeal," says David of Moray Property.

But on the whole, kerb appeal is more than just a good-looking house – even the ugliest house can have it.

"A house with real kerb appeal lifts your spirit – it's a house where the front garden is well-presented, the railing is in perfect condition, the door immaculately painted, perhaps with roses growing over it," says Paul of Moray Property.

Improving the appearance of a property doesn't necessarily have to be an expensive project, he says – but there are a few rules. "No DIY is better than bad DIY," he says. "Badly painted front doors with drips running down them or dirty looking houses are a no-no. A lack of cleanliness can be very off-putting."

1. Paint your front door. It sounds simple but this is the first thing that people are going to look at. "Go wild with colour, it's the one place you can," says David. Strong, bright colours in full gloss are popular at the moment but if you haven't got the nerve, black is always a safe bet, or a flat, dark plum colour such as "Pelt", by Farrow & Ball, says Tacina Smith of interiors shop Smiths of Kensal Green . For a contemporary look, matt, muted and washed-out colours are favoured in smart Moray streets.

2. Invest in quality door furniture. "Spend an extra £100 to get really good things," David says. "Cheap generally looks cheap." Try to choose furniture in keeping with your property; heavy Victoriana door knockers and letter boxes will look ridiculous unless your home is Victorian. Priors Reclaimation specialises in period door furniture (www.priorsrec.co.uk ), as does Drummonds (www.drummonds-arch.co.uk ) For a more contemporary look go for brushed aluminium or chrome (Knobs & Knockers; www.diytools.co.uk/diy/Main/knobsandknockers.asp ) Avoid tune-playing door bells !

3. Lighting is vital, placed either side of the front door to add symmetry, or a lantern in a portico entrance, says Alex Michelin, of swanky London developers Finchatton. Don't be afraid to try out lights in situ before you commit; if they're too big or too ornate they can look brash. If your property is approached via a garden, light it sensitively. "Good garden lighting is unseen," Hide lights in the trees or conceal them in the garden path or drive. Carolyn Trevor, an interior designer who has a long list of celebrity clients, recommends Charles Edwards for wall lanterns and lights (www.charlesedwards.com ) or Phillips and Wood (www.phillipsandwood.co.uk )

4. The approach to the front door (steps, a path and/or a driveway), should be swept of leaves, and free from rubbish. Cars, bicycles, horse boxes must be neatly parked. Alex Michelin recommends marble, sandstone or Portland stone for steps and paths, and newly painted railings. Porches can give an air of distinction but can become dumping grounds for clutter. "They can be awful if they are stuck on as an afterthought – they must be in proportion,".

5. Numbering or naming a house can easily go wrong. Wonky numerals, badly painted names, or plaques with pictures (such as birds, trees) do no justice to the front of a house. There's a trend in Inverness for shiny oversized chrome numerals or stencilled numbers, which can be ordered from Turnstyle Designs at www.turnstyledesigns.com or www.nu-line.net/nl For houses with fanlights, Carolyn Trevor suggests the number or name is acid-etched into the glass. Or for an affordable alternative, Tacina Smith recommends number stickers from www.simplystick.co.uk Holborow would steer away from putting a name plaque on a country house. "If they don't know where you live you don't want them there," he says. For those who insist, names can be wrought into gateways, or inscribed tastefully on brass or slate, and screwed to the gate post or porch.

6. Windows look sad when they are dirty, so make sure yours are cleaned regularly. Rotten window frames are also unacceptable and if you're putting in new ones, make sure they are appropriate with the design of the rest of the house. "The position of the glazing bars is massively important,". "And don't feel you have to paint them white. They look great in lots of different colours from stone to dark green to black." Bear in mind the colour of the brick/stone work before choosing a colour though. Finally, all curtain linings and blinds should match when seen from the street or driveway (try www.theblindscompany.co.uk or www.eclectic-interiors.com )

7. However small the space is, add some greenery. "You don't need a big garden to plant a creeper, and houses look beautiful with plants trailing up them,". "And you can easily make window boxes yourself. Just paint a plastic planter and plant it with some draping ivy." Landscaped beds with colourful planting and box hedges set off the front of a house; or for smaller spaces, such as either side of the front door, planters with box topiary. Remember though that some creepers are not good for brickwork as they can pull the mortar out of the pointing.

8. An impressive entrance gate is a "must have" for a country house, Holborow says. But entrances should reflect the period of the house; wrought iron electric gates are in keeping with a new-build home, while a white-painted gate with simple stone pillars is better suited to a manor. Carved owls and eagles should really only adorn the entrance pillars to stately homes and castles.

9. Spruce up a tired façade by repainting, re-pointing, or rendering over ugly brickwork. Don't go too crazy: paint colours should be more sensible than on the front door, and in keeping with the period of the house (and the ones either side, if you live on a street). This doesn't mean to say that they have to be the same colour (unless you are in a heritage area).

10. Don't let the house next door ruin your kerb appeal. If your neighbours have rubbish outside their house, suggest you remove it, rather than whinging about it, David says. "And if you're trimming your hedge, ask if you can do theirs while you're at it – 10 minutes mowing, or rubbish collecting is worth the effort." Try to conceal their rubbish bins (and yours) behind a hedge or a small fence. If you have to have them on show, make sure they are clean and the lids are on.

Good tips people - Now there's no reason for your own home not to have 'Kerb Appeal'

Until the next time,

Mr Jackson.

Rabbit Hutch Anyone...?

A house builder has been criticised for building "rabbit hutch" flats and then renting out the ground floor of the new development to a self-storage company.

Homeowners could end up paying £1,400 a year or more to store their wellington boots, sports equipment, children's toys and Christmas decorations.

Barratt Homes has just finished its New South Quarter development in Croydon, a collection of 800 modern flats starting from £180,000.

The smallest of the one-bedroom homes are about 350 square feet in size, with limited space for owners to store their belongings. Barratt has got around that problem, however, by renting the entire basement and ground floor of the major block of flats to Access Self Storage, a company that offers home owners their own lock-up.

This is the first time that a house-builder has teamed up with a self-storage company and comes just a few months after a damning report by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) suggested newbuilds are increasingly cramped "rabbit hutches", with many owners unhappy about the mean dimensions of their homes.

The Cabe report interviewed 2,500 owners of private new homes who had moved into a property build between 2003 and 2007. Of those questioned, 57 per cent said there was not enough storage space, with half saying they did not have enough space for their furniture.

Tom Bolton at Cabe said: "There is clearly an issue here if people need to rent out storage space alongside their new build flats. Housebuilders should listen to their customers and realise their needs are not being provided at the moment."

Nick Fenton, the managing director of Barratt Kent, said he was negotiating with Access to allow residents of the New South Quarter development to receive a discount for their storage units.

And he denied that the flats lacked adequate storage space. "We're designing units which are acceptable to purchasers, otherwise they wouldn't be buying them. We don't get too many complaints about lack of storage," Until now perhaps......

Just don't get a cat, as you'll not have enough room to swing it !

Until the next time,

Mr Jackson.

Bogus Landlords Target Students.

The BBC reported on Saturday about bogus landlords trying to trick students out of money. The scam usually involves bargain ads posted on free listing websites in student cities.

Victims are told that the “landlord” will only let them view the property if they give their bank account details. Their money is then stolen, the BBC reports. “Things to watch out for are adverts where there are no telephone numbers or where the only e-mail address is a free one - a Hotmail or Google e-mail address - where you’re not sure really who you are dealing with,” said Det Sgt Chris Felton.

One of my friend's grandchildren was looking for somewhere to rent about a year ago and came across a similar thing. He found a beautiful two bedroom apartment overlooking the river. After seeing the pictures and the price, he couldn’t believe his luck. After emailing the landlord, he was told the landlord was disabled and blind and had to travel from London which was very difficult for him.

In order to make the journey of benefit to him, could he pay him a deposit. Obviously, at this point alarm bells rang and he didn’t pursue the flat.

So, I think the general warning to students is if you're not too drunk or partying -to keep your wits about you !

You've been warned !

Mr Jackson.

Phillip attacks second home owners....

Prince Philip has taken a pot shot at supermarkets and second-home owners who he says are threatening the traditional village, in remarks published Wednesday.

In an interview with Shooting Times magazine, the notoriously straight-talking Duke of Edinburgh also blasted industrial farming methods, which produced cows with horns like a "hat-rack with an udder attached."

They also created the "bizarre" situation in which a bottle of milk costs less than a bottle of water, he said.

The 88-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth II -- who has official residences in London, Windsor and Scotland as well as a vast portfolio of property -- lamented the demise of the quintessential English village.

"Villages used to have to be more or less self sufficient: they had a butcher, a baker, a shoemaker," he said. "Now that has all gone because of the way retailing is concentrated in big centres and multi-stores."

He complained that the huge increase in holiday home ownership, fuelled by a decade-long property and economic boom, at least until last year's global financial crisis, had changed the make-up of communities around the country.

"There has been a complete change in the population of the countryside," he added, quoted by the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

"The country villages have changed from the sense of being places where people who were associated with the countryside were living and now most of them are second homes occupied by commuters," he added.

Lamenting industrial agricultural methods, notably in dairy farming, he said: "They are constantly trying to produce cattle that will produce more milk and less cow -- like a hat-rack with an udder attached."

"They can?t really go on making such a travesty of an animal, there must be a limit to this. Even more ridiculous is the fact that milk is actually cheaper than bottled water. It seems quite bizarre to me."

Wading into the highly contentious issue of climate change, he stressed the impact of population increase on the production of greenhouse gases.

"People go on about this carbon footprint, but they fail to realise that the amount of carbon going into the atmosphere is entirely dependent on the number of people living on the earth," he said.

"There are now 60 million people living in this country and we are about the same land size as New Zealand -- this country had three million people in Elizabeth I's day" back in the 16th century, he added.

Once again, breathtaking insensitivity and hypocrisy by the man who would never be King.

Have a good weekend everyone,

Mr Jackson

What colour is your house.... ?

Because, apparently, it matters. A survey of 3,000 homeowners by Sandtex paints suggests that owners of blues houses are likely to be the most economically successful, earning, on average, £38,000 and taking at least two foreign holidays a year. If your house is green, you might want to consider a change. You're likely to be earning £13,100 a year.

For more of this nonsense, and a rundown of the full rainbow of earning potential, click this.

Yours,

Mr Jackson

Exceptional Cottage For Sale !

It's a property that has everything: a fisherman's cottage a mere five minutes from the sea, with a private driveway, half an acre of garden and sweeping views across some of the most beautiful coastal landscape England has to offer. Oh.... and a gigantic nuclear power station only yards away.....

The three-bedroom "not to be missed" bungalow at Romney Marsh, Dungeness, is being sold for £247,000.

Estate agent Geering & Colyer points out its proximity to a nature reserve and photos show it in rural isolation.

But New Romney Town Council said it was "disingenuous" not to mention its neighbours, Dungeness A and B.


There are also plans to build a new nuclear reactor, Dungeness C, nearby.

Valerie Tully, clerk of New Romney Town Council, said: "There's really not a lot of point in not being honest because, once you arrive at the place, you can't help but notice the power plants there.

"I suppose they felt people would be put off, but they should also know that the late film producer Derek Jarman lived in the area for many years and we get a lot of visitors.

"Even if the power plants were not included in the pictures, mention should have been made about them being nearby."

The Dungeness A site, which started generating electricity into the National Grid in 1965, was decommissioned in 2006.

Nearby Dungeness B site will stay open until 2018.

A spokesman for Geering and Colyer, of New Romney, said: "I've got no comment to make on it."

Visitors have long been attracted to the area's nature reserve, RSPB Dungeness, and the bleak beauty of the nearby shingle bank.

Another case of always ensuring you do your homework on the area, before even considering making an appointment to view.

Let's be careful out there....

Mr Jackson.