Ambika News & Blog

Notting Hill Carnival hits West London on Saturday 29th of August for it's 60th anniversary. Two million people, three days, one small patch of London. Great weekend for carnival. Risky one for your property if you haven't planned for it. How close is too close? Your risk goes up the nearer you are to the parade route, sound systems, stages and official carnival sites, tube stations and bus stops taking the footfall surge, and pubs, bars and food spots that will be rammed a

The days of squatters simply stumbling across an empty building are over. Years ago, identifying an empty building required local knowledge, luck or simply walking the streets looking for obvious signs of vacancy. Today, the information is often available online before anyone has even stepped foot outside. Property listings, planning applications, business rates data, satellite imagery and social media all provide valuable clues about which buildings are vacant, undergoing re

An empty building rarely gets targeted overnight. It starts small - a forced bin store, a jemmied window, the same faces walking past a little too often. Miss the early signs and a quiet vacancy becomes an occupied problem. Here are the 5 warning signs your vacant building is becoming a target - and what to do before it's too late.

An empty building is a fire waiting to happen. No one's there to notice the faulty wiring, the piled-up waste, the broken-in squatter with a portable heater. And in a dense London street, one vacant property fire rarely stays one property's problem. Here are the key causes of vacant property fires in London - and how to cut the risk before it catches.

Summer feels quiet - but for a vacant property, it's the busy season. Long light evenings, empty streets, people away, and more time on idle hands. It's when break-ins spike, squatters settle in, and an unwatched building gets tested hardest. Here's why summer is the riskiest time for vacant property owners - and how to stay ahead of it.

Empty homes in England have passed 750,000 - and property owners are taking notice. Searches for property guardianship are up 24%, as more owners look for a smarter way to protect vacant buildings than leaving them empty and exposed. Here's what's driving the shift, and why guardianship is fast becoming the go-to answer.

It started the way these things usually do - with a video online. Strangers walking into a vacant garage in North London, and a brand-new Volvo sitting unprotected inside. An empty building is one thing. An empty building full of assets is another. Here's what happened when someone got in - and how to test your own site before they do.

Five vacant pubs, half a mile apart, all squatted in four weeks. Different owners, different timelines - same outcome. At first glance it looks like bad luck. It isn't. Vacant risk doesn't sit still, it spreads - and when empty sites cluster, they get targeted together. Here's why, and what asset managers keep getting wrong about it.

Two minutes. That's all it took. A guarded building in Clerkenwell, one brief step away - and someone got in and locked the door behind them. Because a guard being there isn't the same as a building being secure. Here's what that gap really costs, and why structure beats headcount every time.