Plans for thousands of new trees, new parks, play areas and open spaces to support the new homes being delivered in the Athletes’ Village site were unveiled by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) today.

The announcement comes as the first stage of landscaping work is now underway in the Village site with the creation of an extensive wetlands park.

The Athletes’ Village, which lies adjacent to the Olympic Park, will accommodate athletes and officials during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. After the Games the Village will deliver the legacy of 2,818 new homes for east London, of which 1,379 will be affordable, owned and managed by Triathlon Homes.

Together with the new homes being built, the landscaping and public realm project in the Village site will create 10 hectares of new parklands, wetlands, and open space featuring more than 2,000 new trees and over 100,000 wetland and wild flower plants.

Excellently located in a sought-after Clerkenwell location close to the fashionable area of Hatton Garden and Leather Lane, this is a stunning two bedroomed, third floor flat (with lift) that also benefits from a private balcony on a quiet and peaceful street.

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Master bedroom, Hatton Place

Stylish kitchen

Comfortable living room

The pound has tumbled to a 10-month low as fears grow the UK will have a hung parliament in the forthcoming election.

The currency fell 1.7% to drop below the $1.50 level against the dollar for the first time since May. It has lost 7% against the dollar this year.

The pound also fell against the euro and most other major currencies.

The weak pound is good news for property investors, as UK house prices become cheaper to buyers from overseas.

Source: BBC

The Bank of England has decided against further quantitative easing (QE), the policy designed to stimulate growth in the UK economy.

Under QE, the Bank has pumped new money into the economy by buying assets such as government bonds, as a way to boost lending by commercial banks.

Last week, it revealed it had spent all of the £200bn it created for QE.

The Bank also kept interest rates on hold at a record low 0.5% for the 11th consecutive month.

Britain finally broke out of recession in the final three months of 2009, government data showed Tuesday, with the economy notching a feeble increase after six straight quarters of contraction.

Gross domestic product grew 0.1 percent in the October to December period from the previous quarter, the Office for National Statistics said in a preliminary estimate. That was less than the 0.4 percent growth that economists surveyed by Bloomberg and Reuters had been expecting.

Source: International Herald Tribune

Like Mark Twain’s death, rumours of the demise of buy-to-let have been greatly exaggerated.

Rental demand rose in 2009 and there is no sign yet of a reversal. Restricted access to mortgage finance means would-be first-time buyers are renting.

Uncertainty over house prices means ”treading water renting is a safer option than risking negative equity”, says Barry Manners of Chard lettings agency in London. He knows shrewd investors buying ex-council flats at low prices and enjoying 13 per cent annual rental yields.

Can anything upset the applecart in 2010? The return of full stamp duty may deter some investors expanding their portfolios but the acid test will be if interest rates rise. That may force highly geared landlords to quit, causing the flood of flats on sale that some pundits expected a year ago. It may be a knife-edge market late in 2010.

Source: The Telegraph