More news – Page 4163

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    Options run out

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    Deciding the colour of the tiles on the bathroom walls used to be the biggest choice a homebuyer had to make. Now housebuilders are producing optional extras catalogues, offering everything anyone could want. In the USA buyers spend about 10% of a new home’s sales price on extras, and although ...

  • Features

    McCarthy & Stone asked 394 local authorities whether they had assessed the housing needs of older people.

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    Why does this matter? Because it is depriving elderly people of housing choice and making it difficult for retirement housebuilders to meet the increasing demand for their product.

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    The great public–private divide

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    As a practicing architect and a judge for different housing design awards, I am acutely aware of the issues at the sharp end of the housebuilding industry.

  • Features

    (Where) The mummy lives

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    They may have taken longer to build than planned, but judging by their popularity, there's no curse on Crest Nicholson's Ingress Park homes. Josephine Smit talked to director Stephen Stone as he paid a call on one of the residents.

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    How low can he go?

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    Famed for an audacious, but failed, bid for Tay Homes, Country & Metropolitan boss Stephen Wicks had better luck with his acquisition of NorthCountry Homes. Now he's championing rock-bottom sale prices and planning his next buy. Josephine Smit met him.

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    Factfile

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    Planning approvalsThe southern market may be slowing but Berkeley Group is still feeding its development pipeline, with the highest number of approvals in April. Overall, the emphasis has moved away from London and the South-east, with most approvals being won in the West Midlands and the North-west.New-build completionsPrivate completion numbers ...

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    How buyers spend £30,000 on extras

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    Homebuyers are spending an average of £3200 and up to £30,000 on optional extras and upgrades, according to a Homes survey of 30 housebuilders – including the top 10. But what are they buying with their money? Here are the 10 most popular extras

  • News

    Optional extras

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    We're talking creature comforts this month, indulging in those optional extras that soon become must-haves – after all, once you've enjoyed the luxury of an on-tap masseur or the added light from a conservatory, do you think you'll be willing to give them up?

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    Get it right: Plumbing and electrical

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    The Annual Customer First Survey carried out on behalf of Zurich Insurance Building Guarantee is in its fourth year. The survey provides information on customers' satisfaction with their new homes. This year's survey shows a growing frustration with plumbing and electrical installations. Problems can usually be attributed to errors in ...

  • News

    Protecting your own

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    With esculating insurance premiums crippling small contractors, four trade bodies have stepped in to offer cheaper alternatives.

  • Comment

    A friendly suit

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    The claimant, Roy Hammond, sought damages of £973,264 arising out of the repudiation of a contract to provide central heating and plumbing services to the 130 cottages and other properties on the Glynde Estate in East Sussex, of which the first three defendants were trustees and the fourth defendant was ...

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    Papa love

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    Michael Archer, partner at solicitor Beale & Company, outlines employment law changes that benefit fathers

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    We've got your results

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    The Cumberland Infirmary was the prototype PFI hospital, and therefore a test-bed for how well the private and public sectors work together. Building visited it three years after it opened and makes a disturbing diagnosis

  • Features

    European whole-life costs

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    Quantity surveyor Franklin + Andrews' cost research unit has produced its annual study of whole-life costs. Here we hold up the results against last year's figures and pinpoint fluctuations in construction, ownership and labour costs for a notional manufacturing plant in 12 European countries

  • News

    Wrekin back in black after business shake-up

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    Wrekin construction has turned in a pre-tax profit of £2m for 2002 after making a loss of £800,000 in 2001

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    Death by Venice

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    The A-list of tourist destinations thrive on their history, uniqueness, beauty and immutability. Which is precisely what makes them so deadly

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    Hansom

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    More surreal goings-on this week, with sinister gloves reaching through the letter box, sick companies wanted and the Mad Hatter's property awards

  • Features

    Steve Feery

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    Why break into the PFI market? It's too expensive and too risky – just stick to what you know

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    The leveller

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    Julie Mellor, chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission, has construction's lousy record of recruiting women in her sights. But she's not out to give the industry a bashing: she has more subtle ways of making it see sense

  • Features

    Richard Rogers' Japanese school: Dream school

    2003-05-30T00:00:00Z

    An elegant open-plan school beneath a sawtooth roof has been built in a Japanese village to designs by Richard Rogers Partnership