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July 5, 2008 DAILY POST
weekendPOST
DAILY POST July 5, 2008 University Education in Wrexham
University Education in Wrexham
homes-northwales.co.uk
in association with fish4
One in a million ...WELL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED £2.5M BEFORE YOU CAN CALL THIS LUXURY HOUSE YOUR OWN
Taking a hit just to sell
WITH transactions in the housing market set to hit levels not seen since the 1970s, a survey claims owners have to accept a fall of nearly 10% in their asking price to sell. So is there a danger of vendors adding 10% to asking prices, so they can swiftly drop the price when offers come in? “Many vendors don’t have to sell, and many have a tendency to add a bit on to ensure they can accept a bigger hit,” said Richard Donnell of housing intelligence business Hometrack. “You get some idea of the real price gap when you compare prices which developers advertise on new homes, and prices which owners have to accept when they resell. “These owners can’t match perks which developers provide, like stamp duty paid and no deposit required. Nobody really knows where true values are, and probably won’t for months.”
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travel
weekendPOST
Fantasy island GILLY PICKUP FINDS HEAVEN ON EARTH IN ANTIGUA
TRAVEL INFORMATION
● Virgin Holidays (0871 222 0304 or www.virginholidays.com) offer seven nights all-inclusive at Galley Bay Resort for £1,665pp ex-Manchester. Prices based on two adults sharing in July. Seven nights all-inclusive at Verandah Resort, again ex-Manchester, for £1,219pp
Owners win as rents rise
Architect-designed Ger y Dw ˆ r lives up to its name as it boasts a private beach and its own mooring
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By JOANNE ROBERTS F you like nothing better than messing about on a boat and you’re on the hunt for a deep water Menai Strait mooring with a luxury family house attached, then Ger y Dw ˆ r is a must-see. It would help if you have a cool £2.5m to spend on your new property, but for your cash there’s an awful lot of home – plus outstanding views across Snowdonia. This architect-designed fivebedroomed home, built just a year ago, stands in two acres of wooded gardens and comes with both a 120m-long mooring and a private beach. There’s also an ice house, dating back to 1860.
A mile from Menai Bridge and near Llandegfan, it’s handy for the A55 and Bangor. Don’t be put off by thought of keeping pristine that huge glass frontage – it’s made from Pilkington Activ T self cleaning glass, so you don’t even have to employ a cleaner to ensure you enjoy those sweeping views. Ger y Dw ˆ r shares its driveway with another property, Craig y Don, yet is still secluded. Steps lead up to the double front door, leading into the entrance dining hall with its French chestnut panelling and galleried landing – a very grand first impression. Leading off to one side is a corridor with a formal dining room and large kitchen, with specially-made buttermilk wall and floor units with granite worktops and two Aga cookers.
Off it is an utility room with easily become a nursery – with fitted units and sink, plus a fitted wardrobes. There’s a downstairs loo. A door leads small, separate walk-in wardoutside from here, while robe room plus a fully-fitted another takes you into the bathroom and shower. large garage. Across the landing are four Leading from the other side more well-sized double of the entrance hall is another bedrooms. Two have Juliet passage, with a 19ft balconies overlooking the ● Ger y Dw ˆ r, lounge boasting a Menai Strait and their Glyn Garth, Menai Bri Cerrig granite own en-suite bath or is for sale at £2.5m thr dge ou fireplace and French shower rooms. The Carter Jonas, Bangor gh doors opening out to fourth bedroom, (www.carterjonas.co.u k or the front garden and overlooking the rear, 01248 360410) terrace. There’s also a comes with a shower snug with a sun room off to room and fitted wardrobe. The one side, and a lobby and fifth has fitted cupboards and house-keeper’s room. can be used as a study/office. The main stairway from the There’s also a linen store. hall again leads to two wings. Outside the grounds have On one side is the master suite, been elegantly landscaped, with a 19ft long main bedroom with many mature trees. The with Juliet balcony. There’s driveway continues down to also a large walk in dressing the foreshore, with the beach room – at 18ft long it could and moorings.
WHO wants to buy a house when prices are falling and mortgage rates are climbing? Despite all the doom and gloom, homeowners are in a stronger financial position than renters – and their advantages are increasing as rents rise – says a study from Abbey. “The housing market has changed,” said Phil Cliff, director of Abbey Mortgages. “Despite increased mortgage rates, falling house prices along with increased rent in comparative terms mean a person is better off, in terms of payment cost, by getting on the property ladder.”
New builds down 38%
APPLICATIONS by builders to start new homes fell by nearly 40% in three months from March to May. Statistics from the National House-Building Council (NHBC) show there were just over 35,000 new-build applications – 38% down on the figure of nearly 55,000 recorded last year. From March to May, the average daily sale of new homes was 452, against 549 last year. There is little doubt developers will do deals with buyers ready to proceed without delay.
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LEGANT retreats, friendly locals and leisurely lifestyle... this is Antigua, sunniest island in the Eastern Caribbean. With a necklace of 365 pristine, palm-fringed beaches. Where else could you stay for a year without visiting the same beach twice? This crunchy Caribbean island can be sure its never-ending stream of celebrity visitors like the Beckhams, Peter Gabriel and Roger Moore give it an iconic appeal. Giorgio Armani owns a rather splendid place on the northwest coast at Galley Bay Heights, while Eric Clapton went one step further and not only bought a home here, but also built a drug rehabilitation clinic. There is no shortage of places for travellers to hang their hat, but Galley Bay Resort is the kind of place for which the phrase “exclusive hideaway” was invented. Nestling on one of Antigua’s western beaches, Galley Bay offers guests megadoses of superior service, great food and understated, rustic luxury. Though there are plenty of complimentary facilities for those who stir from their sun lounger – tennis, croquet and windsurfing to name but a
Galley Bay (main picture) and (from left) English Harbour, Nelson's dockyard and Verandah Resort Pictures: ANTIGUA & BARBUDA TOURIST OFFICE
few – this big-on-peace, hide and chic resort languishing in 40 acres of lush tropical gardens bursting with hibiscus, oleander and bougainvillea is somewhere to take your relaxation seriously. On the remote northeast coast, surrounded by a reef-protected bay, is Antigua’s newest eco-friendly retreat The Verandah, which opened last year. It is near Devils Bridge, a natural limestone arch carved by the sea which explodes in a never-ending frenzy of spray. Only a short boat trip away are the uninhabited nature sanctuaries Green Island and Great Bird Island, home to West Indian whistling ducks, rare lizards and laughing gulls. The resort’s low-rise villas are built in classic Caribbean design with gabled roofs and timber-clad frames, designed to blend with the perfect surroundings. It is an idyllic location where tiny hummingbirds build nests lined with cobwebs on flowering Dagger Trees and
CARIBBEAN CRUISE OFFER
Cruise the Caribbean on board Fred Olsen’s Boudicca for 15 nights from £1,225. Ports include Barbados, Tobago, Curacao, Jamaica, Cuba, Dom Rep, Tortola, Antigua, St Lucia, and Grenadines. Price includes return flights from Liverpool. Details from Daily Post Travel Service on 0151 227 5987.
cheeky bananaquit birds swoop down at breakfast to steal sugar from the tables. But if – perish the thought – all this luxuriating in heavenly hotels should begin to pall and you are hell-bent on wasting energy, you could cycle or take a drive round the island. The minus side is negotiating pot holes large enough to hold a party in. On the plus side, driving is on the left. Wherever you venture, you will see crumbling sugar mills, remnants of the old plantation days. A thriving sugar industry once drove the island’s economy. Betty’s Hope, built in 1650, was one of Antigua’s first sugar plantations and its success led to the island’s rapid development of large-scale sugar production. Antigua is still proud of her British ties, and for a bit of historic atmosphere visit Nelson’s Dockyard, the only working Georgian dockyard in the world. Nelson was stationed here 200 years ago to develop British naval facilities at English Harbour and enforce stringent commercial shipping laws that made him unpopular with locals and traders. Due to hostile attitudes, Horatio spent almost all of his three years in Antigua on board ship. He declared sulkily in correspondence the harbour was “a vile spot” and the
island was an “infernal hole”. High above English Harbour and the dockyard stand the ruins of garrison buildings and fortifications of Shirley Heights with Guadeloupe and Montserrat visible in the distance. On Sunday afternoons, the bar at this former British lookout station, with its gasp-inducing drop to the churning waters of English Harbour, pulses with harmonious rhythms. Steel bands pump out old Bob Marley songs and the whole area becomes an impromptu open-air club where tourists and locals enjoy boogying and sizzling barbecues. While most leisure pursuits for visitors to Antigua involve the sea or golf, cricket is the national passion. The island’s most famous son is cricketer Sir Vivien Richards who has a home here. St Johns, the island’s capital, a mass of wooden houses brightly painted in bold poppy reds, rich saffrons and giddy neon pinks, has renamed the rickety street where he was born in his honour. There isn’t really much to see in St Johns, though some may feel it is worth a visit for the duty free shopping. For seekers of a chilled-out holiday, the slice of paradise that is Antigua is one big stress buster... the perfect antidote to the strains of everyday living.