Category: General

Public loos for sale

There’s been several public loos for sale that we’ve seen over the years – the ones near us on Lightbowne Road are still unchanged from when they sold about 4-5 years ago!
These public loos in Silverhill are for sale next month,

So why do people buy them? Do they think they can make money by keeping them as loos? How much does a public loo need to charge before people will walk away?
Or do the plan on turning them into something else. Local populations will remember for years to come though that they were loos – and if tourist visitor numbers slow because of a lack of public facilities then that could cause hostility perhaps.
I read that the ones on Lightbowne Road had planning permission refused for turning them into a florist – perhaps handy for the nearby cemetary, but not as handy as the sellers already at the gate.

Housing scheme wins award

The mixed-use scheme consists of 25 town houses with four and five bedrooms at Lower Walls Walk, and 41 apartments with one, two and three bedrooms. 22 of the apartments are for shared ownership sale and rent through Hyde Martlet Housing Association

Shared ownership you say? Good! This must mean they’re affordable then!

I’m afraid you’d sadly mistaken there
The article on the Midhurst and Petworth Paper says:

The Square, Eastgate, offers both apartments and townhouses. Gordon House and Richmond House have one, two and three bedroom apartments, most with balconies or Juliet balconies.The development came in response to a public survey in 2005 which revealed residents favoured distinctive developments. Richmond House prices start at £329,950. The townhouses are elegant properties with four or five bedrooms, from £575,000.

You can visit the site website here but there are no pictures of the outside of the houses on it.

I’m not convinced that shared ownership is a good idea at the best of times, but these prices seem outrageous!

For only £550,000 you can have this beautiful house and there are hundreds under £550k in Chichester on rightmove and if you restrict the price to half that approximately – assuming 50% shared ownership schemes then you can indeed buy amazing whole houses for that amount!
visit rightmove Chichester £250k

Geoffrey Smith’s house for sale

Geoffrey Smith houseGeoffrey Smith, the writer and broadcaster, best known for his Mr Smith TV series and as one of the most popular panellists on Gardeners’ Question Time, developed the five acres of gardens and grounds from scratch.
The house is a 4 bedroom detached house for sale for Offers Over £700,000 and it’s called –
Mount Pleasant, and is located in High Birstwith, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, HG3
His daughter has been tending the house and garden since he died in February 2009.

View the house on rightmove
The yorkshire post has an atticle about it

Making house hunting easier?

QR code for housecriticWould a QR code (One of those black and white pixelated squares) help you house hunt?


If a for sale board featured one you could snap it with you phone and have a link directly to the property on the estate agent’s website.

It would of course require the QR code being applied to the board so there might be a delay in the board going up.

What do you think?

Welsh council starts estate agency

Property Bay Wales, which is run from the civic centre in Port Talbot, is the trading name of a company wholly owned by the council


View this story on Wales Online

The website is here

– critics might argue that it’s not the role of the council to be an estate agent, but if it’s making money from other services offered, you can see the point of it perhaps.


They offer a range of services – so one would assume they make money for the council!

Energy Performance Certificates (EPC’s)

Landlord EPC’s

Commercial EPC’s

SAP ratings

On Construction EPC’s

Code for Sustainable Homes Assessments

Party Wall notices and awards

BREEAM Assessments

Air Pressure Testing

Bulk EPC’s e.g. stock transfer

Design service