Which swine will make it to Number 10?
It’s manifesto week, and it wouldn’t feel like an election year unless somebody somewhere was attempting to coax an animal into predicting the result.
Tourist attraction and micro-pig breeder Pennywell Farm, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, is hoping it can hog some of the limelight this year by launching a daily party political miniature pig race.
Representatives Ed Swiliband, David Hameron and Nigel Forage will be competing daily until 7 May, as the race to Number 10 heats up.
Owner Chris Murray says: “Everyone is talking about the forthcoming election, so we thought we would run our own daily Pennywell poll. The latest news is that Hameron is steaming ahead, closely followed by Swiliband.”
A right royal estate
Young Prince George will be getting swiftly accustomed to lavish gifts and lofty accolades, but few will flatter his ego like In-Site Property Solutions, which has just named an industrial estate after the latest addition to the royal family. The 33,819 sq ft Prince George Trading Estate in Pontefract, Yorkshire, which is being marketed by DTZ, will feature a series of sheds on the site of what was once an office block housing disability quango Remploy.
Property’s in the wrong boat
Last week’s Oxford vs Cambridge boat race was a resounding victory for Oxford. Diary would love to say that the winning vessel was laden with property’s finest young minds but, unfortunately, they were all in the other boat. It transpires that the Cambridge squad boasted four team members studying the notoriously intellectually challenging land economy course and a further one undertaking an MPhil in real estate. Oh well – just goes to show you can’t have brains and brawn.
In each other’s Pockets
From Pocket living to Pocket loving – Diary heard a heartwarming tale of two residents whose eyes met across a crowded communal corridor. OK – that last part may not be true, but it is the case that property developer Pocket inadvertently played matchmaker after two singletons moved into one of its London developments. Romance blossomed and land director Nick Cuff confirms that the couple in question have taken things to the next level: “We recently had the first Pocket wedding,” he beams proudly. Maybe the first Pocket progeny won’t be far off?
The answer’s in the post
It is the second most common question Diary gets asked (after “Will you be coming back after lunch?”): Where are we in the cycle?
And we have been dogged in pursuit of an answer – quizzing movers, cross-examining shakers – to no clear effect. Until this week, when a definitive sign landed from above. After two weeks away a colleague returned to find an unusually large pile of snail mail on his desk. The bulk of the post consisted of five inward-investment magazines.
Like rural buses, it seems one had arrived every other working day. What does it mean? Well, it smacks of a collective realisation that there is no shortage of money out there, strong competition for those looking to tap into it, and an awareness that the lift doors are slowly closing. As for when those doors firmly shut on another cycle, Diary will let you know as soon as cabs become a little easier to hail and that vogueish restaurant we can no longer afford to eat in finally gives up a table.
Links in
Property is all about branding, and this has not been lost on M7 Real Estate’s exuberant chief executive Richard Croft – or at least on his son, who astutely bought him these rather dashing cufflinks. What better way to remind people of the name of your company?
