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New research reveals extreme measures some Brits take to squeeze into their homes and highlights what people really want and need from their homes

The vacuum cleaner stored at Mum’s house a 20 minute drive away; BOGOF supermarket food deals kept in the boot of the car; these are just two of the real-life examples of how some British households are constrained by the design of their homes.

Rental values are rising faster than underlying house prices in many of the world’s leading cities as demand from domestic and international corporate tenants in an increasingly supply-constrained global residential real estate market, with Paris now the most expensive city for tenants. 

The Savills World Class Cities Index recorded an average rental rise of 2.3 per cent in the second half of 2011, compared to a rise of just 1% for capital values, with values in the ‘old world’ markets outperforming the ‘new world’ destinations with a 2.8 per cent increase compared to 1.8 per cent. 

When it comes to selling a home, there are few do’s and don’t's that will significantly increase the chances of a quick sale.

Harrison Murray have some easy to follow tips, which have been tried and tested among its customers – not least the recent sellers of a Home Counties property that attracted 18 viewings leading to eight offers in just several days!

UK commercial property performance improved in April with a marginal increase in headline total returns, as capital value declines slowed allowing All Property total returns to increase to 0.2%, up from 0.1% in March, according to CBRE’s latest UK Monthly Index.

This improved performance was again due to the continued strength of Central London offices, which maintained their lead on other property markets.

Discontent is spreading in Europe, there is open revolt against austerity. First Greece and now even France, one of the founding members, have fought elections promising to lessen the blow on their beleaguered populations.

Nobody wants austerity, the problem is austerity is essential to the European single currency as we know it, yet governments remain powerless to convince people to take the medicine of cuts to living standards.

More than half of all landlords use a letting agent, but most are probably unaware whether any money they handle is being protected by a client money protection scheme.

As part of Safe Agent Awareness Week, the British Property Federation is reminding landlords that if their agent absconds with their rental income they may have little hope of recouping the money they lose, unless protected by a scheme.

First time buyers rushed to beat the March stamp duty deadline according to the latest LSL Property Services/Acadametrics House Price Index.

The increased activity pushed average house prices up £792.

One in 10 new homes in the UK are self built and the market generates £3billion annually for the UK economy, according to the BSA.

It wants to see the sector grow and has published a toolkit to provide information to encourage lenders not yet in this market to offer self-build mortgage finance.

Equity release body SHIP has established a Fraud Working Group to consider the impact of fraud on equity release and to further protect consumers.

This comes ahead of its re-launch as a new organisation that will represent the whole of the equity release industry.

Here, Ray Boulger of independent mortgage adviser John Charcol comments on the news that the MPC left both Bank Rate and the size of the Quantitative Easing programme unchanged at its recent meeting...

"In terms of whether any policy action was required [today] MPC members are unlikely to have spent much, if any, time discussing whether to change Bank Rate. The only decisions requiring any serious consideration were whether to add to the current £325billion of Quantitative Easing and what comments to record in order to pad out the minutes.