Skip to main content

House hunting

The property market has gone mad. In four days, I will have only seen four properties (compare that to 26 properties in 5 days a year ago!). Looks like we might have to stay put and pay the rent increase.

They have an odd agent system over here. Both the tenant and the landlord have an agent, these are often two different people, both of whom expect their cut of the fees. This means that when taking out a year's rental agreement (the standard is two years), the tenant must pay half a month's rent in fees, this is as well as the landlord paying at least that if not more to their tenant. Being a property agent in this country is lucrative, and it seems they don't have to be all that good, and they certainly don't have to speak clear English...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Early morning toy soldiers

Pippa has gone off for cross country, so Tasha is using the glorious early morning play time to play toy soldiers.

Home made Harry Potter broomsticks

Super heroes party at church tomorrow night, Pippa is going as Harry Potter. Much excitement in our house today.

Barra brith and being blessed

Barra Brith They say you start 'nesting' when you are pregnant, well, it's true - I've been into baking these last couple of weeks. Today I decided to make Barra Brith (Welsh tea loaf) for my colleagues, since it is my birthday. What a disaster! First it overflowed, surgically welding itself to the intereior of our oven, then it burnt on top whilst remaining raw on the inside, then it rufused to be extracted from the loaf tin. I wouldn't be surprised about any of this with my track-record in baking, but I made exactly the same thing using exactly the same recipe last week and it was 100% successful. It still tasted great though - once I managed to extract it from its tin. I'm not, however, looking forward to dealing with the oven! That can wait until the weekend. Hard times I've had a number of emails from friends recently telling me of the death of close friends and accidents that people have had; it has made me realise just how fortunate and blessed we are...