From today, the search giant’s Streetview technology will feature 360-degree images of more than 99 per cent of the United Kingdom’s roads, including rural and urban freeways, covering a total of approximately 238,000 miles.

A recent survey commissioned by Google showed that 21% of people had used the technology it to help while house hunting. PropertyPal were the first property website in Northern Ireland to implement the technology, and we now can proudly state that our coverage of houses using Streetview has increased as a result of this move by a whopping 71%.

The company launched Streetview in 25 UK cities in March last year – about 12 per cent of Britain’s streets and roads – and since then has been working on surveying the rest of the country using specially designed cars fitted with cameras. Hard to access areas have been captured using tricycles. The entirety of Spain, France, Italy and the USA is already covered.

To celebrate the recent developments, we’ve also quickly put together a little Google maps application – showing exactly how much Streetview coverage Google now has across Northern Ireland and the UK, check it out.

The Solar Powered Pod

The MercuryHouseOne is a mobile lounge powered by solar panels and decked out with all the latest and greatest sound equipment and lighting.

The Office POD

Designed for use as an outdoor office, the office pod provides a working environment that is separate to home life. If you find yourself needing to completely shut out the kids, this is the perfect modular solution.

The Walking POD

This modular dwelling system collects energy from its surroundings using solar cells and small windmills. There is a system for collecting rain water and a system for solar heated hot water.

O2 treehouse

The 02 Sustainability Tree House is unusual in both implementation and design. It is fully modular, and hangs from cables rather than being fixed to the tree.

Taiwan House Pod

These crazy shaped homes were perhaps unsurprisingly built in the 1960’s. As well as looking like something from an Austin Powers movie, they were later abandoned after several unfortunate mishaps during construction and typhoons led inhabitants and locals to believe the sites had been cursed – or perhaps they released pink isn’t everyone’s colour.

Continuing on from shows one and two – the third ‘Northern Ireland House of the Year show’ was set in Co. Down, with showhouses located in Banbridge, Cultra and Ardmillen respectively. Two of the homes had loughside views of Strangford.

The first home showcased was a new build stone home in Banbridge, with stone sourced at both the Giant’s Causeway and imported chinese granite for the sills. The second marine villa, and eventually heat winner was a lakeside family home influenced by classical italian architecture in Cultra, and finally the show finished with a retro modern penthouse in Ardmillen.

Take a look at some of the photos from the set of the show below, or indeed watch over at the BBC.

If you are a great landscape photographer in Northern Ireland, and have taken great shots from around the province – get in touch, we’ll be happy to feature your images here on the blog.

7 Arches Bridge

River Douglas just outside Draperstown.

Carrick a Rede Rope Bridge

Ballycastle, Co. Antrim

Weddle Bridge

Weddle Bridge located near where the river Douglas meets the river Moyola. Draperstown.

Lough Fea

Lough Fea, Cookstown – Co. Tyrone

North Coast of Antrim

This picture was taken along the cliffside path which leads to the earlier featured Carrick-a-Reed Rope Bridge on the North Coast of Antrim.

Portrush East Strand

White Rock Beach is located along the coast from and joining with Portrush’s East Strand and is named so due to the unique white cliffs and rock formations found at it’s Eastern end.

Arcadia Cafe, Portrush

The Arcadia Cafe in Portrush is one of the towns most recognisable buildings. In the 1950s there was a ballroom which played host to some of the county’s most famous showbands.

Sperrin Valley

Sunset outside Derry.

Forget home theater in a box: For a cool $1 million dollars, (£666,400.107 pounds sterling in case you were wondering) high-end audio manufacturer Goldmund will build you an entire room, complete with 32-channel surround sound, 52 drives and a brain-melting 13,000 watts of power from 5 Hz to 50 kHz.

How’s that for face melting home entertainment!

Following on from last week, as promised – the second show in the house of the year series kicked off last night in Co. Antrim, with homes showcased from Randalstown, Cloughmills and Kells. Two ultra modern homes went up against a traditional renovated cottage home, with the end winner being the final showcased – Origami house in Kells. For us it was a clear winner, with the architecture and ultra modern design standing alone from the other two.

As previous, you can watch the episode over at the BBC IPlayer, or take a browse through the gallery of photos below.

It never ceases to amaze us what things people get up to with their properties. What better place to find them, than on the web? Some of these thrill seekers have taken the boundaries of what you can do inside your home, and literally in turned them on their head.

Home Bouldering

There’s nothing quite like thinking outside the box when it comes to your home. No one knows this better than Maximo Kausch, a climbing enthusiast who created a bouldering route in his house. This is the “Sofa route” in 37 moves. He used 42 screw holes through the plaster ceiling connected to the wooden beams above. Oh and he also does quite a bit of ice climbing in the mountains in Paris.

Backyard Bungee

Who needs a theme park, when you can bring the theme park to your backyard?

The Human Slingshot is located at the Pope Ranch in Hobble Creek Canyon (Springville, Utah). A power company installed the 60 ft power poles, and scarily enough the pulleys and bungee cords were self-made.

Extreme Ironing

You probably aren’t going to find this sport at the olympics, but extreme ironing is a bonefide sport invented in England, with a pretty big following on the web. Should you decide to take up the extreme challenge, some of you may want to start off slow – perhaps start with some ironing outside, then move up to the pro ranks. :o)

Iron’s at the ready…Ironing boards steady…Steam on!

Extreme Knitting

You may associate the under rated sport of knitting with old ladies curled up in front of a log fire, crocheting you a Christmas masterpiece that you are forced to accept through gritted teeth..

Not so.. These visionaries have paved the way for young folk such as Lauren Porter to come along and create “extreme-wool sculptures ” such as the ferrari knitted below. Just one more reason to get a home with a garage.

Extreme Creme Egging

A couple of us at Property Pal are chocolate fiends, and our own cooking skills are quite impressive if chocolate is involved. But how’s this for a way to creme your eggs?

The Gap decided to do just that with this innovative campaign to attract shoppers into its stores. Created by Canadian advertising agency Cossette West, visitors to the Vancoover store on Robson Street found everything flipped on its head.

The entire shop front reversed, including logos.

Even cars outside got the overnight reversal treatment, creating additional buzz around the shop front.

Manikins, stuck to the roof.

Gap logo’s reversed on all of the bags during the campaign.

Hot dog stand reversed for added effect.

This Youtube video shows some of the efforts that went into creating an upside down store.

Following on from our earlier blog post, Northern Ireland’s house of the year competition burst onto our screens last night in stunning fashion, with three high profile properties in the Tyrone area being showcased.

In case you didn’t manage to catch the programme we’ve collated some of the best photos of the homes, which all have their own quintessential style. The winning home in this heat, was a restoration project near Omagh / Beragh.

We’ll be following the program with interest as the weeks go on, and next weeks program will be covering the Antrim area (including a house in sunny Randalstown!) but for now take a browse at our slideshow containing some of the photos.

The full episode is available to watch over at the Beeb.

Unfortunately for us, it has been revealed today that Northern Ireland will be the first region in the UK to experience both nasties at once.

Gordon Brown has today unleashed plans that will clobber the elderly with a savage pay-as-you-die tax bombshell that could force people to give up their home on their death.

In addition to inheritance tax, the new announcement could almost wipe out any inheritance parents were hoping to leave their children.

Government Ministers sneaked through new rules before Christmas which allow Britain’s 11 million pensioners to put off their council tax bills, using their homes as security.

Town hall chiefs reapers will then be able claw back the cash, with interest, from the value of their homes.

The scheme is to be rolled out first in Northern Ireland after the Rates (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009 received the Royal Assent late last year.