Glimpse the Big Five in Zambia’s beautiful (and quiet) savannah November 21, 2010 WE’RE sitting in the back of an open-topped jeep, manoeuvering our way over some rough terrain. The sherbet pink sun set around half an hour ago and already it is dark, the night sky inky black. Fannuel, our guide, has spotted something. He veers off the track and gingerly pulls up to the crest of [...]
SKI NOTES November 21, 2010 Courchevel’s new retreat Courchevel addicts (with extra cash) rejoice: a fabulous new opening in 1850 is setting tongues aflutter. Le Strato has just 25 bedrooms, an 800sq m spa by Nuxe, a gastro restaurant with a famous French starred chef – and, wait for it, a a champagne bar in the ski room. Open from [...]
FOCUS ON: HERTFORD November 18, 2010 VILLIERS STREET Price: £599,995 This four-bedroom townhouse is close to the town centre and it has been refurbished. Period features such as sash windows and fireplaces have been kept. There is a back garden. Contact: Hetheringtons on 01992 440000, hetheringtons.co.uk REVELLS HALL Price: £2.75m This Grade II-listed 16th century house has panoramic views across Ware [...]
SELLING November 18, 2010 MANAGING DIRECTOR, PROPERTY HUNT Q.Dear Russell, what can I do to increase the value of my property? A.There are very simple and obvious things that can be done to improve the value of a property but it is amazing how often people forget them. For example, it will not help the value of your property [...]
PROPERTY NEWS November 18, 2010 RENTS ON THE RISE Rents rose for the ninth consecutive month in October to £691 while tenant arrears fell significantly for the second month in a row, according to the latest buy-to-let index from LSL Property Services. Unpaid rent totalled £221m, down from £229.3m in the previous month. This accounted for just 9.3 per cent [...]
Twenty per cent off property in paradise November 18, 2010 IT FEELS wrong to be delighted by the financial crisis, doesn’t it? But if you were reclining on a sun-lounger in 30°C heat with a sparkling ocean stretching out in front of you, it would be difficult not to. Especially if you had managed to buy a Caribbean dream home on the cheap. The numbers [...]
Investing your love in bricks and mortar November 18, 2010 1 BUDGET Before you start the fun stuff – househunting – make sure you have covered the boring stuff: finances. Work out how much you can afford to put towards mortgage repayments each month, based on your joint net income, and joint outgoings. If, like Kate and William, you are thoroughly modern and are already [...]
Watches ready for action November 18, 2010 BACK in the heady days of what we’re now calling “the bubble” (2006, basically) things in the world of watches had all got a little bit much, frankly. If the thing strapped to your wrist wasn’t big enough to eat your dinner off and full of enough moving parts to dazzle a rocket scientist, it [...]
THE APPS FOR WATCH GEEKS November 18, 2010 FOR an industry that prides itself on being at the cutting edge of technological endeavour, the watch business – or at least, the luxury end of it – can also be rather backward looking. Just take its attitude to online technology – the internet has mostly been treated with the same hostility as digital watches [...]
WATCH NEWS IN BRIEF November 18, 2010 GRAND SEIKO COMES TO THE UK Japan’s Seiko is well known as more than a creator of quartz watches, but its highest-end pieces, the Grand Seiko range, have only ever been sold in Japan. After 50 years, they’re finally hitting the international market, and Mayfair’s Jura watches is selling them in the UK. For collectors, [...]