This is the first post by our brilliant guest blogger and official  interior design guru for PrimeLocation.com,  Sarah Ward. We have asked her to record her life as an interiors expert, revealing what it’s really like to shape people’s homes. Sarah runs her own interior design consultancy, Sarah Ward Associates and has worked for big name property developers large and small as well as high-profile personal customers. Here’s her first post.

Thankfully, another festive season is past. It seems to get longer each year; it started in late November and is not truly over until the start of the second week in January. It is always an interesting juggle to morph from the workplace into attempting to become an amazing wife and earth mother. Particularly if one happens to be busy which I fortunately was.

2011 was a year most people want to forget or re write  but fortunately I was fully absorbed with  a number of fabulous projects  spread around the south of England, ranging from a top-end private client fit out; the hard specification for a 9000 sq ft house and then to furnish it; through to show units for a top developer . Thrown in the middle of these commissions was a very snazzy night club refurbishment in Crawley on a very tight fit out program.  Those four projects were, of course, intermingled with obligatory fact finding and  travel.

This year, though, opened with the fit out of a palatial show house in Hertfordshire handed over on 21st January (thankfully  avoiding Friday the 13^th the previous week I’m not superstitious but let’s not tempt fate).

After that it was time for our annual visit to Paris for Maison Objet 2012. In my view this is unfailingly one of the best ‘trade’ interiors exhibitions in Europe, covering all aspects of interiors and decoration with some stunning stands and lots of new ideas, each year from around the world. I have never been disappointed with the exhibition and an additional benefit is a couple of days in Paris for some sightseeing and a foray into Rue Honore for a spot of window shopping.

Fresh from Paris and now of course re inspired, I have two new immediate tasks to perform.  One is to advise on a what sounds like an amazing project in Antigua, the client has purchased a hillside plot with views to die for at Reeds Point, which overlooks a two mile golden sandy beach and the beautiful Caribbean Sea.  The debate is whether to have an ultra modern structure or a south east Asian style of structure – both different but a great challenge for an interior designer. I just can’t wait to start this project, not to mention a spot of winter sun won’t go amiss.

The other short, medium and long term project that I have unbridled enthusiasm for and am really looking forward to, is our own new home.  The planning is now finally through and we can get going.  For me, it is a new challenge to actually have to live with what I choose.  So I fear the decision process could be more of a challenge.  So hard hats on and off we go.

There has been much speculation in the media in recent weeks about one of Nick Clegg’s favourite political goals –  a ‘super council tax’ or ‘mansion tax’ – being included within George Osborne’s budget, due to be revealed next month.

Details of the tax have always been hard to establish but properties worth over either £1 million or £2 million would pay an extra 1% tax, collected by local authorities via the council tax. So the owner of a home worth £1 million face an additional duty of £10,000 and for a £2 million property £20,000 and so on up the scale.

Nick Clegg: has he lost his bid to bring in a mansion tax?

It is understandable why the collation would want to raise such a tax at a time when the government’s budget has yet to be balanced, but is it a practical way to raise the funds?

At first the figures look promising. According to estate agent Knight Frank there are 155,000 homes in the UK worth over £1 million, which would help Osborne raise at least £1.55 billion. On the other hand there are 42,000 homes worth £2 million or more, which would raise at least £840 million.

The word mansion tax is misleading, of course. Many of Britain’s £1 million homes are not huge piles but apartments, bungalows and terraced Victorian houses. For example, in the London Borough of Westminster there are 630 million-pound homes for sale, of which 430 are flats. And in Buckinghamshire there are 540 million-pound homes, of which half are what many might call ‘ordinary’ three or four bedroom houses.

One other concern has been who owns these properties. While many are wealthy families, some are not and those opposing the mansion tax say the property rich (but income poor) will be unfairly punished by it; for the crime of having not moved to a smaller house beforehand.

Lastly, many say a mansion tax would be difficult and expensive to collect. Local government data on how much homes are worth – i.e. council tax bands – are extremely out of date and last calculated in 1991, so the cost of working which homes are really worth over £1 or £2 million would cost £200m, somewhat defeating the tax’s purpose.

Such arguments seem to have got through over the weekend. Yesterday, The Sunday Times quoted an anonymous Whitehall source who said Osborne would not be introducing a mansion tax after unrest within his party over the tax – a group headed up by the communities’ secretary Eric Pickles, who has opposed it since at least August 2011.

If you believe what you read in the newspaper then every Londoner is planning on skipping town and renting out their home to an athlete, official or tourist during the Olympic Games. But so far, the detail on who will actually be doing the renting or the letting is fairly thin on the ground.

Olympic Stadium: The Games are just around the corner

That is until now.

Step forward Hamptons International who have just released research that shows rental properties in both Stratford and Prime Central London are likely to attract premiums of between 50 and 240 per cent during the Games period, depending on where the home is situated.

They’ve focused their research on each country’s  “national house” – the name given to the team headquarters of each  Olympic team. The ”national house” is where the officials, athletes, national media and “super fans” (the ones who follow the team all the way from their home countries) are likely to spend most of their time when they’re not competing, watching, reporting or cheering from the side lines.

A map of the who's who of the Olympic short term let premiums

For instance, the Great Britain team, which will base itself in Stratford, will pay the highest premium (240 per cent) for short-let accommodation close to the stadium. Homeowners of an average two bedroom apartment in Stratford who usually rent their properties for £380 a week can charge an average of £912 during the Olympics, according to Hamptons International.

The Japanese team, which will be based in Mayfair (close to its embassy in Piccadilly) will pay the highest average rent per week for a two bedroom apartment (£4,221) which represents a 110 per cent premium when compared with average rental prices.  Areas such as Muswell Hill (The Netherlands) and Finsbury Park (Jamaica) represent the best value for money with premiums of around 50 per cent.

Boutaina Cansick, Hamptons International associate director of London lettings says it’s mainly homeowner and occupiers who don’t want to be in London for the Games, rather than professional landlords, who are offering up their homes to rent and, at this stage, it’s mainly the corporate market who are making enquiries into letting out the properties.

 “Enquiries are mainly from companies at the moment,” she says. “With the tourists it might be a touch too early, but I think they are coming, ” Cansick says.

Prime Central London is likely to be extremely popular with Olympic visitors because so many national houses will be based there, says Adam Challis, Hamptons International’s head of research. “Mayfair is expected to outperform as the rarity of Olympic short-lets will create significant price pressure in an already popular short-let market,” he says. ” SW7 (Kensington) will be a big wind down and party area and a popular base – Team USA will also have a large entourage in SW7 that will put demand pressure on available properties.” But he says those looking for value should consider areas in North London which are well connected via the Overground to Stratford.

On a slushy and wind whipped day last week PrimeLocation was in Southwark in central London passing by one of the UK’s most amazing engineering projects, one which has been rapidly climbing into the sky near London Bridge since building work began in 2009.

The Shard, which is nearing completion and should open its doors in May or early June this year, has thrust its 1,000-plus feet of glass-lined spire into London’s skyline despite hostility and official opposition from English Heritage. It’s also effecting a stark transformation of the area around London Bridge Station which has few other architectural highlights.

What’s most unusual about The Shard (compared to the capital’s other famous skyscrapers such as The Gherkin and the Nat West Tower), is that as well as being an office block, 13 of its 72 habitable floors have been set aside for apartments whose future inhabitants, on a clear day, will be able to see for 44 miles across London.  There’s also a hotel, office space and several viewing floors at the top; what agents like to call mixed use.

What’s not known though, is how much apartments will go for. Developer Sellar Property Group has so far refused to say how much they will cost or even when they will officially come on the market, so we’re going to have a go at working out their likely future asking price without their help.

Large apartments in London tend to be between 5,000 and 10,000 square foot and a spokesman for Sellar recently told Bloomberg it would build 12 properties within the 64,000 sq ft residential space, giving the apartments an average footprint of 5,100 sq ft.

Several agents have said the Shard’s residential floors should attract prices of around £4,000 per square foot – valuing each apartment at around £20 million, which will inevitably create headlines once the first sales go through.

Such lofty per square foot prices have already been reached in London. Peter Bill, former editor of property industry bible Estates Gazette, recently reckoned that prices at One Hyde Park, the Candy Brothers’ luxury apartment development in Knightsbridge, are already at £4,500 or so per square foot rising to £6,000 for the more sought-after apartments. Also, agent Knight Frank has also said luxury property in central London will reach £10,000 per square foot by 2016.

Get your most comfy shoes out and prepare to tread the boards – or should we say the multi coloured carpets – of this year’s Grand Designs LIVE show in London.

The organisers say that it’s going to be bigger and better than ever, and if previous shows both in London and Birmingham are anything to go by, it will be a spectacle like no other packed with innovative ideas for homes, interiors and beyond.

So flip open your diary – if you’re preparing to undertake or are considering a home renovation, restoration or new build – and keep the 5-13 May 2012 clear.

Design guru and all round nicest-man-on earth Kevin McCloud – who we interviewed only a couple of months ago – is among the experts set to divulge the secrets of their success at this year’s event, which will be your chance to see hundreds of innovative and inspirational products, get free expert advice from designers, architects and project managers and learn all the tricks of the trade on how to make your project run without a hitch.

The event also includes vast areas dedicated to build, kitchens, bathrooms and gardens. As well as this, there will be over 500 exhibitors offering an unrivalled range of products – many you will not find on the high street.

But if there’s one other reason to go it’s to see the design and build of the show itself – which every year blows most other ‘LIVE’ style shows out of the water with the layout, colour schemes and coffee shops within the hall.

More information from granddesignslive.com

During a recent radio show appearance PrimeLocation.com was corrected on a small but significant piece of property history by the London Evening Standard’s no-nonsense planning correspondent, Mira Bar Hillel.

The mistake had been to claim that Margaret Thatcher (pictured above, before she became Prime Minister) and her 1979 Conservative government had sparked the home ownership revolution that rumbles on today.

Mira, shaking her head vigorously from across the studio, pointed out that it was an earlier Tory administration, not Thatcher’s. Instead, in 1957  Harold Macmillan abolished rent controls and it was this, after rents subsequently soared, that persuaded millions of us to embrace ownership.

Even though Mira was right to assert this, for many people Margaret Thatcher’s ‘right to buy’ council homes scheme (brought in soon after her 1979 victory) was a seminal moment in Britain’s property market, enabling some two million or more people to buy their local authority homes, often at a very substantial discount.

But as many of us queue to see the film Iron Lady starring Meryl Street (pictured above), how has the property market changed since her triumphant, ‘the lady’s not for turning’ speech?

Like today, the economy was in difficulties and Thatcher had to bring in harsh policies to correct the downturn. Nevertheless, in those days first time buyers required just £25,000 to get on the property ladder (compared to £155,000 or so today); a million pounds bought a huge 2,000 acre country estate; and mortgage rates were running at 17%, something we haven’t had to endure this time round.

According to agent Jackson-Stops & Staff, wealthy commuters could buy a good six bedroom family home in the stockbroker belt of Surrey with an acre of garden for £250,000 – today it would cost over £2 million.

And Dawn Carritt, who heads up JSS’s country house department, also remembers how “loans would not be considered for anything more than two and a half times a person’s salary” and mainly came from building societies and that only a few years before women would have needed to get their father’s or husband’s consent to get a mortgage in their own name.

Tax was also in its own bracket in the 1970s, as many rock stars famously grumbled about at the time – including Mick Jagger. Inheritance Tax (then known as Capital Transfer Tax) was 75% and income tax for high earners 83 per cent, though it was reduced by Thatcher in 1979 to 60 per cent. Basic rate tax was 33 per cent but fell to 30 per cent in the first Thatcher budget.