A pretty face for a pretty city studio
Wouldn't your studio apartment look great with this pic in the center of your livingroom? Give a bit of class to your house with black and white photos.
Bright Blue in a White Kitchen
Jo's Page - Great ideas to decorate your house
Have a look at these amazing ideas to decorate your kitchen in bright and colorful patterns via desiretoinspire.
Housing Market: China vs Spain
China’s property market at risk
News that government measures to cool China’s sizzling property market were beginning to work have no doubt been a relief to many investors in the country.
Property, afterall, is particularly important in China, with property construction alone accounting for 15 per cent of China’s gross domestic product. But a report in Monday’s FTfm says it is not time to stop worrying yet.
Edward Chancellor, a member of the asset allocation team at investment manager GMO, looks at the parallels between the Spanish housing market bubble and the bubbles he thinks are still inflating in the China, Hong Kong and Singapore property markets.
The three respective authorities have all instituted measures to cool their property markets. Beijing has gone furthest. Over the past couple of years, the People’s Bank of China has raised bank reserve requirements nine times.
Chinese banks have been ordered to restrict lending to real estate developers. Households face a limit on the number of properties they can acquire. Beijing also plans to provide some 36m affordable homes over the next five years.
The trouble is that none of these measures will work, according to Chancellor. He points out that during Spain’s housing boom there was relatively low loan-to-values on mortgages. Spanish banks also kept mortgages on their balance sheets and there was no subprime.
Nothing the government did stopped the great Iberian housing bubble from inflating. Spanish home prices more than doubled between 2001 and 2006. Housing construction soared. The lending boom actually increased in intensity after the introduction of counter-cyclical capital rules.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcHlUZOs-5s[/youtube]
Recraft Your Bathtub
Simple and Elegant: a tab caddy made out of oak
"This caddy will cause skin pruning. Holding candles, a book, a glass of wine or a steaming cup of tea the caddy will turn your bathing experience into a dream. You will be able to spend hours reading a book, writing a letter or sipping wine and listening to music without having to leave the steaming water. Once your bath is done it can be used to hold towels or other bathroom necessities. You can even Personalize your caddy with antique letter punches."
Phantom House
Spanish Luxury Property Market Resilient
Luxury properties are hot and running in Spain
"The lack of property finance available and changes to mortgage taxation have led to an overall slowdown in Spanish property sales in the first half of 2011 but the luxury property market has shown more resilience than other sectors of the market, a new report suggests.
International buyers are acquiring luxury properties in Barcelona, the Costa Brava and Ibiza without mortgage financing, according to an analysis of the Spanish luxury real estate markets by Lucas Fox International.
Its report on the first two quarters of 2011 also shows that there is a growth in property investment in Spain from Russian, Dutch, and Swiss buyers and investors. And tourism growth in Barcelona, the Costa Brava and Ibiza in 2011 has had a positive effect on demand for short term rental properties."
See-Through Bath
Fancy modern decoration? New and sexy: the see-through bath
It's time to get naked, and show it to the world! No intimacy in the bathroom whatsoever, but pure beauty of bodies with this see-through bath.
Warning of Housing Crisis
Housing Crisis will get worse in United Kingdom
UK .- "The National Housing Federation (NHF) has warned that a chronic under supply of homes is plunging the house market in to crisis. A study by the National Housing Federation (NHF) predicts that home ownership in England alone will fall from 67 per cent to 63.8 per cent over the next decade.
Oxford economics commissioned research recently that showed home ownership has been steadily falling for the last 10 years and this could decline further from its current rate. This forecast is based on assumptions that affordability will worsen as employment and wages fall and house prices rise over the next 5 year."
How European Crisis Might Play Out And The Impending Recession
Excellent article examines German and European Crisis
"The problem here is simple and everyone knows the story by now. Germany benefited from a weak Euro relative to what it otherwise would have experienced had it not been a part of the EU.
Their growth and exports skyrocketed and the lesser nations from an economic and financial standpoint (often referred to collectively as the PIIGS) borrowed from Germany essentially to finance current account deficits as they took advantage of much lower interest rates due to their affiliation with Germany via the Euro.
These PIIGS lived up to their name in eating up every source of financing they could."
Its conclusion:
"You cannot borrow more than you can pay back and if you do, you will pay for it eventually either via war, severe or hyperinflation, deflation, depression etc.
The market won’t disappear and we will get back to the “good times” eventually. However, the 90s were an aberration where everyone made money like in the roaring twenties, and we all know what happened there.
We have a solid 5-10 years of pain before we can get our house in order and get back to a “normal” economy, if there is such a thing".
Concrete and White
Decorate your entrance hall with a parisian style
Vosges Paris. A story in concrete and white.
One of those blogs with style. Its black and white images remind us to the Europe of the 20's. This one in particular: chic wardrobe with unique lighting.