Format: News

North London agency Aston Chase has added a new face to its highly successful St John's Wood outfit.

At 16,000 square foot, it's being billed as "the largest and most opulent basement extension ever seen in Central London", but will it get through planning? Holland Park, London

The availability of £1m+ mortgages is on the up as high street lenders get back on the big spenders' scene, according to broker Springtide Capital.

The total value of the UK's housing stock rose by £186bn in 2013 to hit £5.2tr, according to some (big) number crunching by Savills, and by £1.6tr over the last decade from £3.6tr in 2003.

Challenger property portal Agents’ Mutual has just confirmed that it has already “moved to implementation” after raising over £6m from over 500 Gold Member estate and lettings agencies.

British Land has been updating the world on its Q3 2013/14 activity, and things look to be going well for the giant developer. The Clarges Estate It's currently progressing £1.

Another new online estate agency has launched, but with a slight twist. Sellmyhome.co.uk, created by Knight Frank and Banda alumnus Will Clark, offers vendors the chance to write their own property descriptions.

Fair Edinburgh has seen a return to "normal, healthy transaction levels", according to the Knight Frank team after they recorded a whopping increase in Q4 deals.

Robert Bailey's buying agency has recruited Will Hollest to give "a developer's eye" to the outfit.

It sounds like Zoopla is gearing up for its blockbusting floatation, which could value the purple portal somewhere north of the £1bn mark.

Grenville Turner, the Group CEO of Countrywide plc, has joined the Department for Communities and Local Government as a Non-Executive Director to the Department’s Board.

An independent inquiry, commissioned by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, has suggested that Home Reports - which sound rather similar to the much-maligned Home Information Packs that were ditched…