Real-Estation

Image via Wikipedia Should 1st-time homebuyers run back home? According to todays article in The Telegraph , young people are choosing to live with their families during the recession. The Telegraph in England tells the story of one, Simon Barker, a 37-year-old banker-turned-estate agent, who has fled the recession and moved back to his parents' house. Apparently he decided to rent out his one-bedroom apartment, and save money by living at his family home in Epsom. Full Story & Article by Anna Tyzack here

An interesting concept for a camouflaged hotel on a tree by Swedish architects Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter The concept is to create a shelter up in the trees, a lightweight aluminum structure hung around a tree trunk, boxes clad in mirrored glass, 4×4x4 meters. The exterior reflects the surroundings and the sky, creating a camouflaged refuge. The interior is all made of plywood and the windows give a 360 degree view. The functions provides a living for two people, a double bed, a small kitchen and bathroom, a living room and roof terrace. The access to the cabin is by a rope ladder or a rope bridge. To prevent birds from flying into the windows, transparent stickers, visible for birds, will be added to the facades. Stickers that are Bird Visible, now that's something I haven't heard of before. MORE at Link here Via Archdaily

Property business to be top of list for Chinese delegation to New Zealand Property Wire reports that "China's answer to international property tycoon Donald Trump is heading to New Zealand for talks that may result in major investment in the country's real estate industry." Wang Shi, chairman of Shenzhen-listed Vanke, China's largest residential property developer, is among a number of leading Chinese and Hong Kong business people attending a conference next month in Auckland .......... Full Article over here .

Image via Wikipedia Brits moving to coastal properties New Research out from Halifax would indicate that just like Kiwi's, our UK cousins desire the attraction or enjoy the act of living on the coast. PropertyWire reports..... Home movers in England and Wales are increasingly moving to the coast where property is more popular than ever. Research from Halifax shows that seaside towns and coastal countryside have experienced the highest levels of net internal migration between 1997 and 2007. Some 80% of local authorities experiencing a growth of incomers are located on the coast and it is London that has seen the biggest drop in internal migration. Full article here

It would seem the time has come for the upstart in the UK, zoopla.co.uk to live up to its long-awaited promise and start shaking things up over in blimey with a new pay-for-performance model targeted at estate agents listings in the UK. Emma says "Agents now pay nothing to list properties on zoopla.co.uk and only pay for qualified leads they receive from the website. There are no fixed fees and no minimum commitments. At only £1 per buyer and £5 per vendor lead, the company says the model delivers a highly cost-efficient marketing opportunity to agents and sets the site apart from other leading portals, which continue to charge subscription fees." [.... MORE ] Source: zoopla.co.uk Pay-For-Performance - by Emma Sorensen

Greater Vancover Crimestoppers has launched an interesting campaign with the above pledge. First signs of a change in policy are being seen by some Canadian Police Departments who are encouraging people with information to come forward with the following pledge.... “You remain anonymous, criminals don’t” One of the websites says.... Crime Stoppers guarantees that callers never have to give their name or testify in court. When you call N.B. Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477, our trained operators are interested in only the information you provide, not your identity. Crime Stoppers does not subscribe to call display and conversations are not taped or recorded - that's our promise! Or BC Crimestoppers whose website states similar..... LEAVE A SECURE TIP ONLINE If you have information about a crime you can now provide an anonymous tip online using our secure and encrypted web-tip form. You will never be identified. We don't use call display. We don't want your name,...

In a post over at Neatorama, they talk about this Japanese site that, by running a little Flash game/test, claims it can calculate your real brain age. So, how old is your brain? As the sites in Japanese, Neatorama provides the following instructions/translation. 1. Touch "Start" 2. Wait for 3,2,1 countdown to finish 3. Memorize the numbers’ position on the screen, and then click the circle from the smallest number to the largest. 4. At the end of the game, the age of your brain will be calculated. Hers my chart below as I can't read Japanese, I'm guessing it says my brain looks like it is 25, now if only I did? link to TEST here Via Neatorama

They are a resourceful bunch over in Hartford, Connecticut, if this report is anything to go by.... Under the heading "Let's Make A Deal" The Hartford Courant tells the story of builder Kirk MacNaughton who is offering to buy the home of anyone who wants to buy this new home he built in Suffield. They report he used this same practice of "trading" houses during the housing downturn in the early 1990s and said it worked well. And according to the reporter, Robin Stansbury....Its no joke! Buy his house, and he'll buy yours. They also say Although the practice is fairly rare, trading houses is emerging as the latest selling tactic in Connecticut's depressed housing market, where sales of homes continue to drop by double-digit rates. How does it work - read full article here ....

At the held recently Loyality 2009 Awards in Vienna, Austria, Air New Zealand was selected by by the 250 delegates at the event as the most outstanding loyalty programme. This year's Loyalty Awards went to Air New Zealand, Corsairfly and Emirates. The outright winner of the 2009 Loyalty Awards was named as Air New Zealand at the Loyalty 2009 event gala dinner. As an airline Air New Zealand must surely cross more ocean that any other long haul airline, so it comes as testimony to the efforts of all involved that our loyalty system, Air NZ Airpoints, was selected as the supreme winner. Launched at the inaugural Loyalty conference (www.loyalty09.com), organised by Airline Business and Global Flight and held in Austrian capital Vienna, the awards recognise the airline industry's best frequent flier programmes. .... MORE HERE

Here in New Zealand we an issue with a number of homes built over the last 10 or so years, built using sub-standard building practices, which have led to water egress / containment on certain parts of homes, generally discussed as " Leaky Homes ". Another construction practice the Herald reports as attributing was.... Far from being built with a cavity lining to drain away water, the cladding was backed with wood-fibre panels that soaked up water . NZ Consumer Magazines website said in September 2008 Time is running out for making a claim to the Weathertight Homes Resolution Service. Since the early 1990s thousands of houses have been built using modern plaster systems and flush-jointed, rigid-sheet materials. Many of these houses leak because of problems with the building design and installing the claddings. In other cases materials have been used inappropriately. Homeowners whose houses or multi-unit dwellings are less than 10 years old and are leaking and damaged can mak...

The Guardian report that even the utlra rich are re-evaluating their purchase / futures in these current times, and it appears that a world record deposit, 10% is typically required by French law (reported at 39m Euros) may not be returned to the buyer too. Sale of £440m (NZD$1.22B) house falls through from The Guardian, Thursday 19 February 2009 Russian billionaire withdraws from buying the £440m house, La Léopolda. It was to be the most expensive home in the world - a luxurious belle époque villa on the French Riviera carrying the eyewatering price tag of €500m (£440m). But the sale of La Léopolda has fallen through after its Russian billionaire buyer saw his fortune slump in the economic crisis......MORE via LINK...... Link via The Guardian Photo Credit - PMO - flickr

Ooppphs wrong movie......Still same actor...Kevin Coster's words from Field of Dreams are better suited to a "Waterworld" occassion as is evidenced by this grand plan to utilize some of the 4000 odd oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico Waterworld Dreams Realized: Oil Rigs Become Luxury Hotels Morris Architects , a worldwide architectural firm with offices in Los Angeles (Morris is behind the under-construction Anaheim GardenWalk Hotel ) recently won the top prize in a hospitality design design contest for their award-winning "Oil Rig Resort, Spa, and Aquatic Adventure," a design concept that transforms your standard Gulf Coast oil rig into an sustainable resort. Link Via la.curbed.com

Image by ttstam via Flickr Under the heading "Uncorking Opportunities" Scoop reports that the Hong Kong Trade Development Council is seeking expressions of interest to showcase a stand at their upcoming November 2009 Trade Fair. Re past trade they say..... In 2007, Hong Kong imported 20 million litres of wine from around the world, a 28% increase on the previous year (excluding sparkling wine). New Zealand wine exports to Hong Kong in the same period equated to HK$28.2million (NZ$4 million), a staggering 48% increase on the preceding year MORE HERE VIA SCOOP

Image via Wikipedia Grape harvest 2009 kicks off for Montana Press Release: Montana New Zealand’s 2009 grape harvest kicks off in all earnest this Thursday, when grapes for the country’s most popular sparkling wine, Lindauer, will be picked in Gisborne. Gisborne, being warmer than more southerly wine regions, is traditionally the first of New Zealand’s major wine regions to begin harvest. I was particularly interested to see them comment "Pinot Gris in particular had a good set" .....can't wait. .....[MORE via link] Link via Scoop

Image via Wikipedia Finadaproperty.com reports that latest House Price Index from Primelocation.com reveals that the month of January 2009 marked the third consecutive month that asking prices have increased. They report ....Prices rose in all five Prime London regions, resulting in a monthly upturn of 1.2 per cent (£16,106). West / South West London recorded the highest increase of 2.29 per cent, followed by North West London (2.08 per cent). MORE HERE @ Findaproperty.com

Lockheed Burbank - Bet you don't guess what Suburb this is? Well they were a resourceful lot weren't they..... [see full story here ]

Kiwi flies first A380 - New Zealand's source for travel news on Stuff.co.nz NZ joins a few select countries to celebrate the new A380 on its first scheduled visit to our shores..... The first A380 airplane to go into service in New Zealand has been landed by a Kiwi. Carrying almost 500 passengers, the Emirates A380-800 left Sydney about 9.30am yesterday on its first scheduled passenger flight to Auckland, and arrived just after 2pm. At the controls was New Zealander Wayne Taylor, who learned to fly in Rotorua. Several other Kiwis were on the flight decks. Among them was barman Troy Whittle, of Mt Albert, Auckland. Having worked for Emirates for about five years, Mr Whittle now mans the upstairs lounge bar, serving up cocktails and canapes to business class passengers. "At night time we drop the curtains down and make it a little bit darker," he said. ...more from The Dominion Post here