Mark Palmer tries to cash in on the 2012 games by renting out his London home but trips at the first hurdle

[richard]

The 2012 stadiums in London are ready, the buses primed, the roads are, well, all dug up, and hopefully our athletes are eating more than enough Shredded Wheat to pick up an array of gold medals.

‘We can all be winners in next year’s Olympic goldrush,’ announced a property magazine a few weeks ago. Which got me rummaging around for my money-making trainers and plotting a route to that elusive podium of economic gold.

I was banking on selling my tickets to the 100 metres final and making a few bob, but sadly, despite a possible outlay of more than £800, our household was rewarded with zero tickets to the greatest show on earth.

Then, suddenly, I woke up and smelt the high-performance Lucozade and realised that the way to participate in this potential goldrush is to rent out our house for the duration of the games and for a few weeks either side of the event if necessary.

Apparently, one or two-bedroom flats within commuting distance of the Olympic Park in Stratford can fetch £2,000-£3,000 a week during the games. And with 40,000 London hotel rooms already reserved for the International Olympic Committee members, staff and other officials, plenty of people will be looking for a roof over their heads.

We live in Fulham, South-West London. Some way from the sexy Velodrome in Stratford, but nicely positioned for Wimbledon and the Olympic tennis, not far from Lord’s, which will host the archery, and an easy drive to Eton for the rowing.
We expect things to pick up nearer the time, but at the moment there’s no sign of much rental activity associated directly with the games

My thinking was that the Chinese gymnastic team or Japanese fencing squad could move in. They would probably leave the place tidier than they found it.

We’ve got four bedrooms — five if you count my office. The garden faces west, Fulham Broadway Tube station is just down the road and, according to my stepsons, Pippa Middleton was spotted in the over-priced, gastro pub at the end of the street. The American basketball dudes might be interested in that.

I was thinking of a flat fee of £20,000, roughly £5,000 a week, but if they want to come well before the opening ceremony that’s fine. So I rang a woman at estate agent Henry & James in Chelsea, and prefaced the conversation by acknowledging that I should have got in on the act earlier.

‘No, I don’t think so,’ she said, cautiously. ‘We expect things to pick up nearer the time, but at the moment there’s no sign of much rental activity associated directly with the games.’

Really? I went back to my cuttings and read that one rental agent was looking for four times the normal rate during the Olympics and has ‘had serious interest, and viewings, from representatives of the Saudi Arabian, Australian and German equestrian teams’.

But in the next paragraph the same agent was quoted as saying: ‘So far there have been no takers.’ Undeterred, I invited the Henry & James lettings manager round. ‘Perhaps one of the Saudi grooms could sleep in this room,’ I told her as we looked at a tiny bedroom on the top floor. ‘You can practically see Greenwich from here, where they’re hosting the equestrian events.’

She was impressed. Or, so, I thought. But then her letter arrived, ‘thanking me for the opportunity to visit’ and concluding that ‘I might get about £150 more a week renting out the house during the Olympics than I would at any other time of the year.

Not quite a goldrush. And further proof that we Londoners are hosting — and paying for — a big knees-up to which we haven’t been invited.

I’m sure when the time comes we’ll warm to that cherub Tom Daley as he narrowly misses out on gold in the diving and feel sorry for the nice Scotsman with the big thighs when he realises he should have got off his bike four years ago.

But don’t tell me how lucky I am to be a Londoner living in the capital next summer. And let’s never have to hear again this nonsense about how everyone can be a winner. I’m accepting defeat gracefully. Just about.


Source
By Mark Palmer
Home | Mail Online

[discountdept]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/active/91...-Olympics.html

sounds more positive!!!