Stamp Duty : £9,000. Guvmints are evil. FACT.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
I'm very pleased for you and your flat, Mobius

Thanks, it's not mine just yet though! And the survey just came back with some troubling news about the excessive levels of damp in the as yet unconverted basement - but I'm sure I can come to an arrangement with the seller (or should that be cellar!?).

My point was, though - isn't it unusual to have garages in major city centres? A Capital of a country with its own football team, no less.

I suppose it is.

But then Cardiff is an incredibly young city that boomed literally overnight during the Industrial Revolution. The house I am buying would have been a development for the horse and carriage owning classes, where there is a sort of back alley running between the backs of the gardens - hence my garage! It is a very common feature in what would have been the more affluent areas of Cardiff in the past.

The best bit though is that where I am buying is relatively cheap because it is traditionally an area of poor ethnic minorities, but because of the vast amounts of money pouring into the city right now this part of town cannot help but take off as the area gets increasingly gentrified. It's already happening if you look hard enough, I've seen it happen right across the East End of London when I was growing up - and this time I am in a position to capitalise!

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
The house I am buying would have been a development for the horse and carriage owning classes, where there is a sort of back alley running between the backs of the gardens - hence my garage!

Like a mews?

[MOBIUS]

Yeah, I suppose but without the actual Mews houses - this is provincial Cardiff after all!

[Provost Harrison]

Yeah, I think Londoners can have difficulty conceiving the structure of a 'provincial' city. I know that in Hull that some housing estates (with houses with garages) can run very close to the city centre. This is the case with an area called Victoria Dock and The Deep (large deep aquarium). It's a similar thing because they were both developed on previously unused land just outside of the city centre. I presume this would be similar for the Millennium stadium in Cardiff...