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Burglary hotspots that increase the cost of home insurance When accessing your home insurance premiums, insurers will look at the risk involved. This could be anything from living in a flood risk area, an area that is prone to subsidence or and area that has a high crime rate. It is the latter that the most recent home insurance monitor from Money Supermarket.com has focused on. According to their data Stoke Newington in London is the area in which a break-in claim is most likely to... Read Full Story

Estate Agent takes plunge to help boy with cancer An estate agent from York swam ten miles to help raise money for a very ill boy from Selby. Four-year-old Thomas Cammack suffers from neuroblastoma, a cancer which spread from his adrenal gland to his skull, bone marrow, blood and pelvis, and doctors have just found out tumours have returned in his brain despite daily doses of anti-cancer treatment. Neil McGroarty, of St Lukes Grove, York, heard about Thomas’ parents plans to raise £500... Read Full Story

Brazil has long been a favorite tourist destination for travelers around the world but now the country’s bustling economy is also attracting property investors from overseas. International analyst BMI says that the nation is in the middle of ‘an epic real estate boom’ with property prices rising 20 per cent in 2010.  So, if you’re considering a foreign property investment, Brazil sh... Read Full Story

Pisa's Tower Straightened for Real Extensive engineering works on the legendary tower have reducing its tilt from an angle of 5.5 degrees to 3.99 degrees. While the result is that the tower will survive to delight future generations of tourists, the renovation in 2011 ended its status as the farthest leaning tower. Currently the northern German town of Suurhusen holds the Guinness World Record. The church tower slants at an angle of 5.19 degrees, now well ahead of its cousin in Pisa... Read Full Story

Private property value rises £149bn The value of private housing has risen by £149 billion in the last decade, according to research. The Bank of Scotland said the value of private residential housing stock was estimated at £263 billion at the end of 2011, up 131% from £114 billion in 2001. Value has increased at a greater rate than anywhere else in the UK, where the national average was an 84% increase, and at a much faster rate than overall consumer prices. The retail price index... Read Full Story

Repossessions hit lowest level for four years Repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007 last year, according to the latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Some 36,200 properties were repossessed by first-charge mortgage lenders in 2011, marginally down from the 37,100 homes that were seized in the previous year. The CML had forecast that 40,000 homeowners would lose their properties in 2011. Despite the fall, the data means that nearly 100 families are... Read Full Story

Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including moneysupermarket.com and comparethemarket.com. Prior to closing the UK site... Read Full Story

Robotic estate agents being developed for house viewings Boffins at the elite “Personal Robotics Group” at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), are working on developing a “highly expressive humanoid” robot which would guide potential house hunters around a property for sale, pointing out its amenities. The robots would be installed in properties for sale, and then left to interact with - and guide around- visitors, learning from everything that people ask or tell them... Read Full Story

Private landlord fined for allowing tenants to live in 'hell-hole' home A private landlord has been fined for allowing his tenants to live in what Newham Council has described as a 'hell-hole' home. Amar Shazad, from Walthamstow, admitted eight offences of failing to keep the flat he rented out, on Sprowston Mews, Forest Gate, 'in good and clean decorative repair'. Horrified council housing enforcement officers discovered the filthy, mouldy flat, which had a hole from the staircase... Read Full Story

UK Housing Rises 84% In Value Since 2001 U.K. homeowners have seen the value of their property rise 84% on average in the past decade, despite a fall back since 2007, research by U.K. lender Halifax showed Saturday. Halifax said the total value of U.K. residential housing stock held by owner occupiers and buy-to-let investors was GBP3.9 trillion in 2011. That's up from GBP2.1 trillion in 2001, meaning an average gain of GBP68,500 per household. However, on the back of recent falls in... Read Full Story