It’s all hotting up in the retirement living sector. Last week on the Diary page we featured a Fifty Shades of Grey-inspired poster for a residents’ association meeting on a proposed retirement village.
And this week we hear that, on a visit to PegasusLife’s development in Steepleton, Tetbury, a panel of judges for the Housing Design Awards felt the need to cool down a bit.
After a hard day of judging on a sunny day at the shortlisted site, John Slaughter (director of external affairs at the Home Builders Federation), Dan Roberts (planner representing Homes England), Gareth Capner (chairman of the Housing Design Awards), Tony Whitbread (from Crest Nicholson and representing the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists), David Birbeck (chief executive at Design for Homes and director for the Housing Design Awards) and Atam Verdi (chairman of Aspinall Verdi and representing RICS) took a quick dip in the outdoor bathing pond.
Diary can only hope they weren’t skinny dipping.
The dog ate my EG
Diary always likes to hear from readers who still devour the weekly EG print magazine.
So thanks to Justine McGuinn, MD at Just PR & Marketing, for drawing our attention to exactly who in her household couldn’t wait to sink their teeth into last week’s issue.
The front cover headline referenced a “Real estate relationship that’s built to last” – just a shame that wasn’t the case for the magazine itself, once McGuinn’s “bloody dog” (her words, not ours) got hold of it.
The need for speed
Diary would have thought that tearing round the streets of Monaco at speeds in excess of 200mph wouldn’t offer much opportunity for property gazing. But clearly something caught the eye of Formula One star Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate.
Bottas, the current F1 championship leader, has become a major shareholder in Monaco property investment company Azurite, set up by serial entrepreneur and fellow Monaco resident Nigel Robertson.
“Like Monaco’s F1 circuit, the market is very tight,” quipped Robertson, “but we’re looking to change that and partner with local developers to create new properties and refurbish some of the older ones.”
Bottas continued the metaphor, adding that “timing is everything in F1 and in business” and that “Monaco has a close family network – much like the F1 circuit”.
Forgive Diary for joining in. With the necessary nerves of steel, ability to navigate all sorts of twists and turns, and iron will to inch ahead of rivals, Bottas surely has what it takes for property. Get those champagne corks popping.
Two for the price of one?
The e-book of Damaged Goods: The Rise and Fall of Sir Philip Green is on special offer this month on Amazon, notes author Oliver Shah, in a neat bit of Twitter self-promotion. It’s a mere £1.99 – and, really, what can £1.99 get you these days? Thankfully, Shah didn’t miss a trick, reminding us: “Just 99p more than Dominic Chappell paid for BHS!”
The perils of power naps
Sometimes we all need a breather. Literally. At the judging session for the second EG Tech Awards last week, talk turned to grabbing 40 winks during particularly stressful workdays.
After establishing that some sleep-deprived souls have been known to use Breather – the flexible, instantly bookable workspace provider – as a means to find some space for a quick power nap between meetings, one judge revealed how they got the shock of their life when they were fresh to a job several years ago.
“There was one guy there who, unbeknownst to me as I was so new at the time, would often lie down next to his desk for a quick nap during working hours,” said the judge.
“He was quite tall and I came into the office one day to see his feet and legs sticking out from under his desk as he lay motionless on the floor with all of his colleagues working around him, seemingly oblivious. I panicked and started to shout: ‘Quick! Call an ambulance.’”
Needless to say the colleague woke up with a jolt – alive and well, if a little grumpy at the interruption to his mid-morning REM cycle.
Never wake a sleeping baby, they say – maybe that should apply to workmates.
Hedgehogs and houses
Does housing minister Kit Malthouse read Diary? Just weeks after we featured an adorable hedgehog on the page, he is tweeting about #HedgehogWeek. Coincidence? We think not.
On Tuesday, Malthouse and Berkeley chief Tony Pidgley took to the landmark development at Kidbrooke Village in Greenwich in a joint venture for Hedgehog Awareness Week.
The 25-year project will see 5,000 homes replacing the old 1970s Ferrier Estate, with the creation of a sustainable village that will promote environmental growth.
The duo learnt about biodiversity in the region, with talks from London Wildlife Trust and initiatives including hedgehog tunnels to help save the dwindling population in London.
Malthouse took to Twitter, describing his visit as “illuminating” – which can only be good news for the capital’s beleaguered little critters.
