You told us which property bloggers deserved recognition (and Habitat vouchers). The nominations are in and have been counted.

So, without further ado, and in no particular order, the shortlists are:

Best blog
Property Owl
Cognac Property
Agent’s Diary
The House Historian
Renter Girl

Best blog post
Agent’s Diary: Love actually – Wednesday
Douglas and Gordon: A joke’s a joke, but this one is wearing thin
Agent’s Diary: Cut and run – Friday
Cognac Property: Buy the house or the dog gets it
International Property Journal: How tall is the world’s tallest building

Newcomer
GoGreene
Property Addict
My Deco
London BrickWork
The House Historian

Users’ favourite blog
Renter Girl
The House Historian
The Rat and Mouse
Clutton Cox
Cognac Property

Voting for the Users’ favourite blog award is now open. Please place your vote below.

The poll closes at midnight on Sunday 31 January.

The winners of the Primelocation.com Blog Awards 2009 will be announced on Monday 1 February. Good luck!

Here’s a batch of ten unusual and unique properties on Primelocation.com this week. Included is a home previously owned and restored by Grand Designs award winner Nigel Daly and a David Chipperfield designed home.

1. Timber framed house

2. Former piano factory

3. Low built contemporary house

4. Nigel Daly restored home

5. David Chipperfield designed

6. Urban Splash build

7. Modern House property

8. Stanley Kubrick-esque

9. Charming farmhouse

10. Rennovation opportunity

I was told recently that many of Country Life’s readers were really city dwellers pining for the mud, manors and wellies of a pastoral existence, rather than rural folk themselves.

Well, it appears that many of us have been unable to resist this bucolic promise. The insurance arm of the NFU revealed today that 70 per cent of those living in the country have city origins.

“The attractions of rural life are clear with almost 2.4 million Britons moving to the countryside alone over the past five years,” says Lindsay Sinclair of NFU Mutual.

Live the dream? TV presenters Nick Barratt and Melissa Porter

Programmes such as BBC2’s TV show Escape to the Country or ITV’s Live The Dream have worked hard on this, tracking down metropolitan dwellers ‘keen to find a quieter, less stressful’ lifestyle to film, all jollied along by presenters such as the ever-cheery Melissa Porter (pictured).

And it appears to be working. The NFU reveals that 30% of the ex-townies canvassed said ‘friendlier people’ and a ‘stronger sense of community’ were the main reasons for their move along with a good place to raise children (37% of those canvassed), peace and quiet (64%), a better quality of life (53%), open spaces (48%) and closeness to nature (36%).

The survey also highlights the benefits of country living. Respondents were keen to point out just how they now talk to neighbours, visit local shops, go to the local pub and attend local meetings much more.

Also, NFU Mutual says its research shows rural people think urbanites moving to the country do try hard to integrate into rural communities – which goes against frequently-aired media comments about ‘city slickers’ irritating their new rural neighbours.

Homeowners in the London Borough of Greenwich woke up this morning to the happy news their addresses are now officially ‘royal’.

It has been announced that the Greenwhich  to become a Royal Borough as part  the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations which are due to start later this year. The move celebrates the borough’s links to monarchy, which include the Royal Observatory and its Greenwich Meantime; Royal Arsenal; and Royal Naval College – plus both Elizabeth I and Henry VIII were both born within its borders.

Given the borough’s blue-blooded history, which goes back to the Middle Ages, it’s a surprise royal recognition has been so long coming. But during the ‘interregnum’, as Britain’s brief and bloody republican experiment is known, Cromwell seized crown lands in Greenwich to make way for his family manor house. Memories are long within the royal household, it would seem.

An aerial view of Greenwich including the Thames, former Royal Naval Hospital and Park

Today’s excitement at the name change is focused on the new impetus Greenwich’s recently-stalled gentrification may receive. Although awash with upmarket restaurants and boutiques these days, Greenwich’s property market has endured price slides recently as City bonuses have dried up; a situation not helped by the glut of new homes for sale to the east of the Cutty Sark dock area.

But agents in the borough are hoping that royal endorsement will help propel the area up the popularity stakes again, particularly as it is only the fourth borough to be honoured this way, alongside the Royal Boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, and Windsor and Maidenhead.

“Greenwich has always taken tremendous pride in the borough’s long history of royal connections with Greenwich, Woolwich and Eltham dating back almost 600 years and which continue so strongly right up to the present day,” says Greenwich council leader Chris Roberts.

What do the Duke of Westminster, Kualar Lumpar and Liverpool have in common? The answer is Cesar Peli, one of the world’s leading architects famed for his designs for some of the world’s best-known skyscrapers including One Canada Square in London’s Docklands.

His most recent cloud-tickling structure is One Park West, a large apartment tower under construction in Liverpool’s Albert Docks retail and hotel quarter.

Grosvenor's One Park West development in Liverpool

The development is being masterminded by the Duke of Westminster’s Grosvenor property development firm and when completed the 17-storey building will include 326 apartments from studios to three bedroom units.

And although Peli is probably proud of his latest design, he may be put out that one of his more famous ones – Kualar Lumpar’s Petronas Towers – was yesterday overtaken as the world’s tallest structure by Dubai’s much-vaunted The Burj Khalifa tower – at 825 metres high.

But unlike the £1m-plus apartments for sale at the Dubai tower, properties at One Park West are more affordable starting at £90,000 for a studio and rising to £400,000 for the largest three-bedroom units.

This may account for its apparent success. Grosvenor claims to have sold apartments off-plan worth some £25 million and rented out most of the 123 apartment completed on the project so far – an admirable result given the current economic woes in the region and the UK as a whole.

Building ambitions in Liverpool: The Duke of Westminster

“Demand and new sales struggled during the first quarter of 2009, partly due to the availability of viable mortgage products and potential purchasers being nervous to take the plunge until they saw how the economic landscape was likely to pan out,” says Grosvenor’s Guy Butler.

“But in June we witnessed a change in the market, with an upturn in sales, which has resulted in an average of close to two sales a week since then.”

These figures mask an important point though – almost 70 per cent of sales on the development have been to landlords (rather than owner-occupiers), who have realised that One Park West is one of Liverpool’s few city-centre addresses ideal for upmarket professionals – rents being achieved range from £525 a month for a studio to £900 a month for the larger apartments.

Click here to find out more about the development and see pictures of the apartments.

We’ve heard there has been some protest over the fact that we’ve closed the nominations for our blog awards already.

We admit that launching the competition so close to Christmas may have meant that many of you were too busy tucking in to your turkey to get your nominations in. So, we have bowed to the pressure and are pleased to announce we’ve extended the deadline for nominations until midnight on Sunday 10th January.

Keep those nominations coming!