London property prices achieving 100% of asking price - 24dash.com
Published by Max Salsbury for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Finance
Residential property in Greater London is achieving 100% of the asking price compared to only 94% a year ago, according to statistics from Move with Us.
The data, collected in the quarter one Residential Property Market Review, also shows a slight increase in asking prices, with buyers paying on average £20,000 more than in March 2011.
The figures suggest that London is still outperforming other areas, and that things will continue to improve in the next quarter.
Robin King, director at Move with Us, said: “Greater London is a robust market and these positive signs of improving sentiment in the area give homeowners hope that quarter two may bring further quantifiable improvements in the housing market.
“It is one of the few regions in the UK to experience declining days to sell compared to March 2011. Coupled with significantly reduced discount levels at sale and increases in asking prices the market in this region is much stronger than most.”
London 2012: Heathrow Airport in numbers - BBC News
Heathrow in numbers - how the UK's biggest airport is getting ready for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Some 500,000 people will be flying into London for the Olympics and Paralympics this summer.
That includes 100,000 athletes, 20,000 members of the media and 150 heads of state. Most of them will arrive via Heathrow.
It will be the start and finish line for the bulk of visitors, giving the country's biggest airport its busiest day ever.
That day will be Monday 13 August, the day after the closing ceremony and the day 65% of visitors are planning to leave.
Some 203,000 bags will be squeezed on to the baggage system - that's 35% more than on a normal day and about 13,000 more than it is designed to handle.
Of those bags, 15,000 will be oversized - full of canoes, javelins, bikes and poles for the pole vault. There will also be more than 980 firearms to check, plus ammunition.
'Heavily-congested skies'A special temporary terminal is being built just for the "Games family" - athletes and coaches to you and me.
It will be open for three days, snuggled between terminals four and five, and will boast 31 check-in desks and seven security lanes.
Meanwhile, hundreds of extra border staff - they will not give an exact figure - will be on hand to try to keep passport queues down.
Sixteen mobile teams of 10 guards each will be available to target trouble spots if, or should that be when, the queues build up.
It is not just Heathrow of course.
Air traffic control is facing its biggest ever challenge, coping with heavily-congested skies, the threat of a terror attack and possible bad weather. Twenty-five controllers are practising in the simulator every day.
In all, 400 have been specially trained over the past four years to deal with the extra workload.
Any rogue planes should be spotted within two to three minutes, after which military controllers take over that zone and a decision is made whether or not to scramble fast jets.
Extra plane?The Paralympics is a third of the size of the main event but it is still a huge challenge.
“Start Quote
End QuoteThe Chinese team are arriving on 27 different planes and they'll probably need an extra plane at the end to carry all their medals”
Heathrow will have to deal with a month's worth of wheelchair users in just a week - about 1,800 in total.
Thirteen new scissor lifts and 100 new ramps have been deployed to load and unload wheelchairs while there are six new powered stair climbers to move large electric wheelchairs.
Two-hundred extra staff will welcome the Paralympians and help with the biggest challenge of all - making sure every athlete is reunited quickly with their chair.
As one Paralympian put it, you wouldn't expect able-bodied athletes to leave the plane in someone else's trainers would you?
The Chinese team are arriving on 27 different planes and they'll probably need an extra plane at the end to carry all their medals. I made that last bit up.
Finally, 1,000 local volunteers will greet athletes off the plane, help with their luggage and welcome them to London.
Then a few weeks later, as the Olympic flame dies, those volunteers will wave them off again as they head for home.
One thousand people will be standing there waving goodbye at planes, so if you happen to be going on holiday that day, you might want to wave back.
London Book And Poetry Events: 23-29 May - Londonist
Wednesday: Rachel Caine talks books and vampires at Foyles from 6.30pm (free, but reservations recommended).
Sarah Butler, Sangeeta Bhargava, Tina Sederholm, Paul Askew, Kate Walton, Marc Nash, Davy Mac, Clare Waters and Davy Mac look at our colloquial past at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5).
GREEdS hosts the latest Jawdance at Rich Mix, with Abir Ibrahim, Selina Nwulu, Laurie Bolger and Anthony Fairweather (7.30pm, free).
Thursday: Marina Warner and Hanan al Shaykh discuss bringing the Arabian Nights into the 21st century, at the Festival of Asian Literature (6.45pm, £10 / £8).
Mark Niel and Paul Lyalls are the guest poets at Bang Said the Gun (8pm, £5).
Mark 200 years of Edward Lear with a night of nonsense poetry at the Poetry Cafe (7pm, free).
Mexican poet Homero Aridjis reads from his work at the Swedenborg Society (7pm, free). Ali Smith reads English translations.
Friday: Celebrate five years of Caught By The River at the Southbank Centre, with Tim Burgess, Roy Wilkinson, John Andrews, Michael Smith, Chris Yates and Richard King (7pm, £17.50).
Do you know where your towel is? You might need it if venturing to the Vogon Poetry Slam at Hackney Picturehouse Attic (7.30pm, £5 / £3 in costume or with towel).
Have lunch with Paul French and Misha Glenny at the Festival of Asian Literature (1pm, £15 / £12).
Farrago mark the time of year with an Exam Blues SLAM, with performances from Brother Niyi, Keith Jarrett, Hollie McNish, Rhys Rodger, Hannah Joshua and Lori King (7.30pm, SLAM sign-up from 7pm).
Saturday: Cassandra Clare talks about her latest book, City of Lost Souls, with Shades of London author Maureen Johnson at Theatre Royal Stratford East (2pm, £8 / £13 including copy of book).
Liz Berry, Jenna Butler and Nancy Mattson are the poets performing in St Mary’s church crypt on Upper Street (7pm, £4).
Sunday: Celebrate the work of former laureate John Masefield at Keats House (3pm, £5 / £3).
Monday: The Festival of Asian Literature looks at the Arab Spring, with Ahdaf Soueif, Kamin Mohammadi, Paul Mason and Mishal Husain (6.45pm, £10 / £8).
Kate Mosse talks to Rosamund Lupton about getting published, and then chairs a panel of agents and publishers in a writers clinic, for an Orange and Grazia event at the Southbank Centre (6.45pm, £10).
Ivor Game and Wendy Shutler have some summery poems at the Poetry Cafe (8pm, £5 / £3.50).
Tuesday: Authors shortlisted for the Not-Going-To-Be-Called-Orange-Much-Longer Prize – Esi Edugyan, Anne Enright, Georgina Harding, Madeline Miller, Cynthia Ozick and Ann Patchett – read from their nominated books at the Southbank Centre (7.30pm, £12).
Glyn Maxwell gives a talk based on his new collection of essays, On Poetry, at Keats House in Hampstead (6.30pm, free but email the Poetry Society to reserve a place by Friday).
James Sallis talks about his new book Driven, a sequel to Drive (now a major motion picture, so the saying goes) with Iain Sinclair at Belgravia Books (7.30pm, £5).
Perform your own work at the Poetry Cafe’s open mic night (7.30pm, £5 / £4). Niall O’Sullivan hosts.
Mohammed Hanif, Madeline Thien, Nikita Lalwani, Kim Thuy and Claire Armitstead bust some stereotypes at the Festival of Asian Literature (6.45pm, £8 / £7).
Follow @LondonistLit for our pick of that day’s literary events.
London 2012: First Look At An Olympic Lane Outside London - Huffington Post
The Olympic and Paralympic Games will be the biggest sporting event in the UK this year. Will you be travelling to the UK to see the Games? Please send us your comments and experiences.