Laurieston’s Living Legends

In December, local heroes from Laurieston in Glasgow were commemorated in a unique art installation which was unveiled at the Laurieston Arena. Here at Urban Union we were thrilled to be able to commission this initiative art organisation WAVEparticle.

Over the summer last year, the community was asked to nominate members of the public who live locally who have inspired a series of bespoke artworks celebrating community figures who have made notable contributions to the local area.

The local residents voted for people who have inspired them. In total, 16 people were selected from a shortlist of remarkable nominee stories. Among those selected were community leaders who have dedicated their care and service to the area. Each nominee has a truly inspiring story and shows that people really do make Glasgow, especially at a local level. The Living Legends installation encapsulates what the art strategy is about, using art as a means to express our gratitude to the community.

Each nominee was then photographed individually and a large two and a half metre portrait was made. The portrait was printed on metal and arranged in a circle facing one another.

This incredible artwork was seen day and night by residents and visitors to Urban Union’s Laurieston Living development and celebrates the extraordinary in the everyday. Basharat Khan created the art work and captured an engaging portrait of each person, resulting in an installation of 16 large-scale photographs facing each other in a circle, creating a concatenation, a suggestion of a community of people, strong and diverse individually and stronger again in close connection with each other.

Everyday acts of goodness are shown in strong communities like the Gorbals and Laurieston, and regeneration has to begin and end with a focus on the people who live here.

Neil McKay Managing Director at Urban Union, said: “Working with WAVEparticle to deliver this art installation in the heart of the Laurieston community has been a fantastic opportunity for us to say thank you to the amazing people living in the area who consistently go above and beyond to make it a better place to live.”

Glasgow and Edinburgh

During Autumn and Winter many property commentators will reflect on the year and assess how the market has performed in each region. Recently, property portal Zoopla released figures showing that the property market saw some real success in Scotland. In fact, according to Zoopla, homes in Glasgow and Edinburgh take around half the time to sell compared to the rest of the UK, demonstrating a strong market with high demand in those areas. Homes in Glasgow and Edinburgh homes took on average of six weeks to sell compared to twice that across the whole of the UK.

Compared to the rest of the UK sellers in Glasgow and Edinburgh were less likely to need to drop their asking prices throughout the marketing process and expecting to achieve up to 10% above the asking price especially in areas where top performing schooling was in high demand. This compares to accepting offers 3.8% or £9,800 less than the initial asking price, the average across the rest of the country.

Edinburgh had the fastest moving market in the whole of the UK during last year, with homes taking just 22 days to sell on average, with Glasgow in second place at an average of 27 days. This compares to 47 days throughout the rest of the UK.

The West Midlands was third fastest in the UK with 38 days followed by the East Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber with 40 and 46 days respectively. North East England was  54 days and Aberdeen was the slowest market in the country with homes taking 15 weeks to sell and seeing forced discounts of 9.4% as a result.

London saw a slowdown with an average selling time of 54 days. Experts recognise it will take time for the London and South East markets to stabilise and see prices start to reflect this and what buyers are willing to pay and are able to afford.

Scotland on the other hand remains affordable in many areas and this is set to continue into 2020 especially with the announcement of the First Home Fund.

How Much is the Property in Your Town Worth?

According to a recent study by Good Move of over 2,000 home owners, most people were unaware of how much property in their area was worth.

Do you know how much a property costs here in Glasgow? It turns out that Glasgow is one of the least knowledgeable cities!

The research uncovered that people in London were least aware of the property prices, guessing them to be £160,000 less than they really are.

Other cities in which the residents were unaware of how affordable property were include Belfast and Nottingham where the average person guessed the property to be £60,000 more than they area. In addition, most were unable to identify the cost of property in their home town and here in Glasgow, people had no idea that property was so affordable.

The 10 UK cities which those surveyed were least knowledgeable about were:

1. London – average 2019 house price is £472,753
2. Glasgow – average 2019 house price is (£137,970
3. Belfast – average 2019 house price is £129,451
4. Nottingham – average 2019 house price is £145,479
5. Bristol – average 2019 house price is £278, 533
6. Liverpool – average 2019 house price is £136, 517
7. Manchester – average 2019 house price is £179,506
8. Edinburgh – average 2019 house price is £265,894
9. Newcastle – average 2019 house price is £166,662
10. Sheffield – average 2019 house price is £166,916

Those who were surveyed were asked to estimate how much house prices had changed in the last three years, since the EU referendum. Figures show that property have risen by £20,000 on average but many people in Britain seem to be unaware of this.

In all but one of the cities in the study, those living there believe that their local house prices have increased by less than they actually have. More than 13% think house prices have decreased by £10,000. This is due to the negative press surrounding Brexit and house prices, with Brexit not having the scale of impact that many believed.

If you are looking for an affordable place to live, award-winning developer Urban Union has a range of properties for sale in regenerated communities at affordable prices. Talk to us to find out more.

What to consider!

It’s the most wonderful – and wasteful – time of year! Though many people agree that the most important thing about this time of year should be spending time with loved ones, Christmas and New Year still comes with a lot of baggage – whether it’s bin bags full of wrapping, unwanted gifts or leftover food! Here are some tips for a greener festive season and beyond.

Decorations

Whether you’re a reusable plastic trees, wreaths, flowers and mistletoe, it’s worth noting that there is now a third much more sustainable option out there. Farms and smaller local produce shops are encouraging people to rent decorative Christmas trees, which are then replanted and used again next year! When it comes to decorating your home, give the tinsel, shiny plastic decorations and plastic baubles a rethink. Think of paper alternatives and even get the kids to help make them! Decorations of sentimental value that you bring out year on year are great if being reused but if you plan to buy extra decorations and party items this year, think about what they are made from, swapping plastic for more natural materials where you can. LED Christmas lights are also far more energy efficient, using as much as 80% less than incandescent lights, as are solar powered ones for outdoors.

Gift giving

The tradition of sending Christmas cards is dying out, with a quarter of us no longer doing so and it makes sense when we can reach out to friends and family in a multitude of other ways that don’t create waste! As with wrapping paper, if you do want to send cards look for recycled material and avoid non-recyclable elements like foil and glitter. Cards and wrapping marked with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) logo has been produced sustainably. When it comes to presents, be thoughtful, shop local, look out for eco logo products such as Fairtrade and think about gift ‘experiences’ over things that people don’t really need.

Food & drink

We eat and drink a lot at Christmas and New Year especially if you’re throwing a party, so it pays to be a bit more ethically minded when it comes to mince pies and turkey too. Can you use a local butcher and greengrocer to cut down on food miles whilst avoiding pre-packaged food in plastic too? Consider organic local wine over imported bubbly. Take the time to wrap up and freeze leftovers so nothing goes in the bin – vegetable ends and turkey carcasses can make a brilliant stock and even leftover Christmas cheese can be grated and frozen.

Party clothes

New Year brings glitz and glamour to the high street and it can be a fun time of year to dress up! But all that sparkle isn’t very sustainable, with things like sequins and glitter being non-biodegradable, bad polluters. Is a new Christmas jumper necessary every year too when cheap, fast-fashion is such a problem for our environment? Don’t let sustainability cramp your style, but when buying festive fashion think about versatile items than can be used again throughout the year, or consider vintage, charity shops or clothes swapping over buying brand-new.

Green resolutions

If you navigate the consumption of Christmas and New Year in an eco-friendly way, why not carry this spirit into the New Year with a commitment to even more sustainable living. Whether it’s eating less meat, being organised with reusable Tupperware, coffee cups and water bottles for the working week, a stay-cation vs long-haul flights, growing your own produce or a commitment to simply buying less– green resolutions should be on everyone’s list, starting the new decade as we mean to go on!

Property Market Expected and Demand

We recently saw a Conservative result in the UK General Election. But what does this mean for the housing market?

Here in Scotland the market has stayed strong with high demand especially from first-time buyers, especially in Glasgow and Edinburgh. In fact those two regions were the fastest selling property markets in the UK. Across the rest of the country, property market activity declined, especially in the south, but estate agents are expecting a rebound in the coming months. With this renewed demand, now could be the time to reserve one of our apartments whilst you still can.

According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, typically before a General Election people put any major plans on hold. However,  professionals are currently more upbeat about the market’s prospects in the new year, with 12-month sales expectations reaching their highest level since the beginning of 2017.

Historically, the property market doesn’t like uncertainty and potential buyers are currently facing a triple whammy of uncertainty over the Government, Brexit and the calls for another Independence Referendum here in Scotland. The General Election has at least given people an idea on when we will leave the EU with the January deadline looking highly likely.

Going forward, sales look set to pick up over the next few months and optimism has improved. We expect strong gains here in Scotland.

If you would like to reserve an incredible home in one of our developments before the New Year rush, talk to us today.

We have a fantastic New Year giveaway!

We have SEVEN pairs of Strictly Live tickets for January 22nd at the TECA in Aberdeen. You’ll enjoy the show in style in a corporate box, with fantastic views of all the action.

All you have to do is visit our development on 14^th , 21^st or 28^th  of December and tell us what you like about our development.  Our showhome is located at 2 Kite Way Perth, PH1 5FU

The competition closes on January 5th so get your entries in before then! The winner will be announced on January 6th.

Good luck!

Competition rules

Prize is non transferable and cannot be exchanged for cash.

No purchase necessary and making a purchase does not increase your chance of winning.

Contest will run from Friday December 13th to January 5th at midnight.

A winner will be chosen from the visitors who have visited the Urban Union show home and development and told us what they like about the development.

The competition is being run by Urban Union Ltd.

There are seven pairs of tickets to give away.

Urban Union is not responsible for travel costs to and from the show.

The tickets are for Strictly Live at the TECA in Aberdeen on 22nd January 2020 in the Robertson corporate box.

Food and drink at the show is not included in the prize.

The tickets can be gifted but must not be sold. Failure to comply will invalidate the tickets.

Urban Union reserves the right to use any user-generated content that is required for the contest and to use photographs of the winners and their guest for publicity.

This competition is not endorsed or managed by Facebook.