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Auckland is likely to face a housing shortage when it hosts the America's Cup in 2021, with up to 900 more residential units needed, according to new research.A report by international real estate services company CBRE showed an...
Recent residential sales in New York City and the region.
With Elvis, Del Boy Trotter and Pugin as inspiration, one couple transformed their flat into a cocktail of pattern
F or many couples, moving into a new home means a series of compromises. There comes a point in the process of blending two tastes when most of us end up sulkily settling for off-white paint. “No, that was never going to happen,” fashion historian Amber Butchart says, surveying the Margate flat she’s just finished refurbishing with boyfriend Rob Flowers. It’s an ode to exuberant colour, pattern and texture – and to a marriage of visual minds.
“Basically, Rob and I share the exact same aesthetic,” Butchart explains. “We have the same favourite colours: green, orange and yellow. We’re both hoarders – we actually first met when we were working at Beyond Retro, the vintage clothing store in London. We’re obsessed with charity shops and jumble sales. And we already had incredibly strong ideas about what we were going to do with wherever we bought.”
Packets of seeds from around the world bring Plot 29 to life
It started with seed. I was five, my brother six, our new foster father was ancient. He was a gifted gardener, an obsessive grower. He gave us flower seed. Gaudy nasturtium for me: unruly and feral (I think he was telling me something); and orange marigold for Christopher – he never grew them or much anything else again. But I was hooked.
Now I share an organic allotment in Camden Town, north London, growing mainly vegetable crops which I swap and collect from around the world. Seeds with stories. Cherokee Trail of Tears beans, from when they were marched from their fertile land and many died. They saved some seed. Painted Mountain corn, the most beautiful food I will ever grow, from a brilliant Oregon plant breeder, Tim Peters.
Forget hours of feeding and watering all summer long with traditional bedding and switch to cool, modern outdoor succulents
During these long and dark January days, it’s only natural that our minds start to turn towards brighter months, and to make plans for the coming season. One area of cheer is which bedding plants we are going to choose for our outdoor containers.
It seems that despite the huge amount of effort and expense bedding plants need, their ability to provide a continuous conveyor belt of colour in wall pots and window boxes from April through to October means their enduring appeal shows no signs of waning.
Forget buying a beach. How about five beaches?A rare and significant coastal farm with more coastline than the famed Kauri Cliffs is on the market in Northland — but wannabe landowners will need deep pockets.The 1439ha property...
I've been woken up recently by the sounds of builders and bulldozers - instead of the usual birdsong from the surrounding bush. A new housing development is in full swing on my Auckland street and construction workers (and their...
An Auckland couple who spent years trying to enforce their purchase of an Otahuhu investment property after the vendors changed their minds have finally got keys to the home- but are still trying to recoup costs from a lengthy court...
If the radiator hisses so loudly you can’t sleep, does the landlord have to fix it?
Countdown clocks and phrases such as ‘hurry now’ are used to to panic shoppers into buying
On Monday night I saw that the Boohoo fashion website was having a fantastic sale – “20% off everything”. But I had to act pronto: “Hurry ends 11pm!” it shouted at me, or more accurately, the millions of 16- to 24-year-olds it targets. A countdown clock on screen warned that the sale would be over in just 54 minutes and 59 seconds. “Hurry ends soon!” messages were plastered over the screen. Blimey, I thought, I better get my skates on and buy now.
I’m glad I didn’t. The next morning I opened the Boohoo site again. It did not matter that the sale had ended as promised at 11pm, as it had started again. Once again I was told to hurry – because the exact same 20%-off-everything deal was going to end at midday. It was 9.06am and the website had reset the clock, telling me to “Hurry!” as I only had 2h 53m 14s left.
Auckland's Waterfront Rd residents call noise control nearly every weekend as cars booming with noise riddle its car park.
More council houses have been sold to private landlords in the town than anywhere else – then rented at up to triple the price
The floor in Elina Apse’s house on the Netherfield council estate in Milton Keynes is so cold that when one of her four children spills anything it freezes by the morning. She cannot phone the council to complain because she is renting from one of the town’s many private landlords, who have taken advantage of the right-to-buy policy to hoover up social housing and turn them into highly profitable rental investments.
“I would love a place I could call home – this is just a house to me. When we first moved in we put a lot of effort into making it nice but my landlord could give us a section 21 notice and we would be out in a couple of months,” she says, curled up on a small couch in her sitting room to keep warm.
A small movement with an ungainly name, cohousing, is appealing to more people of retirement age — and younger — who no longer want to be isolated.
Plant an Abeliophyllum distichum, see award-winning hellebores, sort out seed packets
Plant this Find the bright yellow of forsythia flowers a bit too gaudy? Grow white forsythia, Abeliophyllum distichum, instead. This Korean native has scented, starlike flowers that appear in February and March on bare branches; it’s compact, reaching 1.5m x 1.5m. It needs a sheltered, sunny spot, close to the house so you can enjoy the perfume.
Visit this If you have a hankering for hellebores, award-winning hellebore breeders Ashwood Nurseries in the West Midlands is your best bet. Head there on 27 January or 17 February for one of their behind-the-scenes tours and a chance to buy hellebores you won’t see anywhere else. Go to ashwoodnurseries.com for details.
Ticketmaster’s new software will trawl Facebook and Twitter to check if you’re a ‘genuine’ fan
You might think you’re a real fan of an artist or show, but how far would you be prepared to go to get your hands on tickets to see them?
Would you be willing to hand over your personal information – name, phone number, email address and so on – to a faceless third party, and let someone nose around your Facebook page and Twitter feed, so they can try to establish whether you are a “genuine” fan? Would you be prepared to boost your chances of getting a good spot in the queue for tickets by splashing out on pricey merchandise – or even providing a sample of your DNA?
Where’s the best place to live in the UK if you want to be well? (Hint: it has green hills, decent house prices and lots of sheep)
I’d like to be well, wouldn’t you? Well, well-er. I’m OK. Midlife dampens expectations, and I’m easy to please. But where could I be well-er?
Quality of life indices boomed in late-70s America, as a way of charting – and promoting – places after the urban crisis when New York nearly went bust. They arrived in the UK during David Cameron’s drive for More National Happiness, when everyone became briefly obsessed with Scandi noir and why the Danes are so bloody cheery when it never stops raining. Each year the Office for National Statistics asks questions such as, “Overall, how satisfied are you with your life?” Now every district’s mood is mapped, we know precisely where to move to feel more Danish (or Norwegian, as last year Norway snatched Denmark’s happiest nation crown).
First, develop an unwavering self-belief, says Sharmadean Reid. Then swot up - you need to know your stuff
Sometimes the hardest part is getting everyone else on board with the idea that you want something new. It’s not an intrinsically British thing to encourage people who want to do something different; there’s a reason we have the phrase “above your station”.
First, you need to develop an unwavering self-belief. You’re going to smash it – and you should say that to yourself every day. But don’t imagine that you can just stroll into your new life. Give the transition a year. That’s what it takes to swot up in your chosen field, feel confident in your skills and start to change people’s perceptions.
I’ve got years of old paperwork – I’m not sure how to dispose of it or not
Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.
This week’s question:
Aaron Callaway is 24 and works four nights a week alongside robots in the retailer’s warehouse
If I’ve learned anything from doing this job, it’s that money can’t replace time. I work four nights a week in an Amazon warehouse near my home in Southend-on-Sea. It’s quite a cold place to work and, apart from two half-hour meal breaks, I’m on my feet for 10 and a half hours. I scan the items the trucks bring in from distributors and place them into the right cart for the robots to take to the correct place in the warehouse.
I have to put away each item in 15 seconds or less, and get through 250 in an hour, or I’ll be given a warning by a manager. Stepping away from my station to, say, get a drink of water can have a big impact on my performance.
Thomas Tull — founder and former chief executive of Legendary Entertainment — and wife Alba Tull have listed their 33-plus-acre compound in Thousand Oaks for sale at $85 million.
At that price, the private and gated estate in the North Ranch area is rubbing elbows with the high-priced mansions...
Meant to evoke a quiet country lifestyle and the picturesque cottages of old England, Tudor Revival architecture — after coming to the U.S. more than a century ago — somehow also came to embody wealth and Hollywood fantasy.
The style arose in England in the late 1800s, as part of the Arts and Crafts...
Entered through a walled meditation garden, this hillside residence in Beverly Crest presents itself as a perfect marriage of European influence and modern technique.
Steel and metal panels and sculptural screens line the exterior, giving the multilevel home a shell-like appearance that is both...
The developers of the new Trump Towers outside New Delhi promise the first group of buyers a meeting with Donald Trump Jr., according to Indian news reports.
In the not too distant past, the real estate market experienced an annual seasonal chill from the holidays until Super Bowl Sunday. How times have changed.
This week’s roundup finds homes pouring into the market weeks ahead of kickoff time. Some are retreads. A Fleetwood Mac member is among those...
Veteran television director-producer Noel Nosseck is listing his estate in Beverly Hills for sale at $3.895 million.
The Spanish-style villa, built in 1934, has been restored and renovated to its original vintage while incorporating a host of modern updates. Among the interior details are artisan...
He: After my 12-year relationship ended in divorce, I thought I’d never find another long-term romance. I didn’t have a clue how to meet women in the 21st century. When a friend suggested online dating, I was highly skeptical, but I took right to it — and almost overdosed. Match. OkCupid. Tinder....
Gladys Knight, the Grammy-winning gospel and soul singer, and her husband, William McDowell, have sold their Las Vegas home for $720,000.
The Mediterranean-style home, built in 1971, sits off a privately gated street on half an acre. The grounds include a large motor court, lawn and a swimming...
With its ritzy Westside homes and exclusive country clubs, Brentwood has always been a suburb dedicated to luxury. Today, new Hamptons-style mansions are replacing original developments, but its focus on upscale living remains unchanged.
In 2017, Brentwood recorded a little over 200 single-family...