In the usa

1985, 72 per cent of households were occupied by families, while 28 per cent contained people living alone or with someone who was not a relative. The family remains important in American society, although it has been changing in character, partly because people have become increas­ingly mobile. Americans move an average of 13 times in a lifetime, often to find work or to get a better job. As a result, most Americans no longer live in extended family groups - that is, close to grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives. Instead, most households contain only parents and children.

In cities, people live in rental apartments or condominiums (indi­vidually-owned apartments) or in single-family houses. Six out of every seven homes have at least one room per family member. Although most Americans shop and cook for them­selves, life is made easier by many domestic time-saving devices.

About 85 per cent of homes have a TV set and a car, while more than 50 per cent have two or more TV sets and cars. Cars play an important part in society with drive-in movies, restaurants and even banks.

In China

Like almost everything else in China, home life varies greatly between the towns and the countryside. Eight out of ten Chinese are peasants who live in the country and work on the land. Their small houses are usually built from mud or clay bricks and have thatched or tiled roofs, no electricity, no running water and no private bathroom or toilet.

It is common for three generations - grandparents, parents and children -to live together in these three- or four-room cottages. Grandparents usually look after young children, prepare the family's meals and do much of the lighter housework. Parents work in the fields or with animals or farm machin­ery. The children usually help with feeding animals, growing and gathering crops and housework.

Since the government relaxed its strict laws on free enterprise in the early 1980s, peasant families have become much better off. Many have a radio - there are over 50 million radios in China - but peasants usually have few personal possessions apart from farm implements and perhaps a shared bicycle.

Families living in the towns and cities are better off than peasants, but they work long hours for low pay and few holidays. Most families live in small houses or apartments owned by their work unit. They usually have electricity and running water. More modern buildings in the colder north may have some form of central heating. Kitchens and toilets are often shared with other families and most work units have separate communal showers or baths for men and women.

4. Live a life of prime Tenants are happy to pay dearly for a top-of-the-range interior, says Paula Hawkins

Selling point: Pierre Brahm's strikingly modern flat in South Eaton place illustrates

the standard expected for properties let at the top end of the market

The problem with renting a property is that you are stuck with the landlord’s taste in interior design. If you rent a furnished flat, you are stuck with his or her furnishings as well. More often than not, the landlord last decorated in the Seventies and on the cheap. But living with your landlord’s taste can be a blessing – if he is Pierre Brahm, chairman of Brahm at Henry & James, which owns a portfolio of beautiful, cutting-edge London apartments.

Brahm’s latest apartment is a three-bedroom pied-à-terre in South Eaton Place, Belgravia. The neighbours are glamorous (Joan Collins, Roman Abramovich), the shopping is fantastic (you are five minutes’ walk from Sloane Street and ten minutes’ stroll from Harvey Nichols), and the Tube is near by should you need it – black cabs are in plentiful supply in this part of town.

But the real selling point of this flat is what is inside. Designed by Julian Land, one of the UK’s most fashionable design consultants, the apartment is a “homage to Hicks”, using patterns by the late David Hicks and furniture designed by his son, Ashley. The reception room, with pale grey walls and a walnut floor, is dominated by a few select Hicks pieces: a chaise longue, two armchairs and comfortable sofas. The main bedrooms, which have a Seventies’ feel, are decorated in blues, browns and faux fur; the third bedroom, which also serves as a study, is striking in reds and pinks. Heavy silk drapes hang upstairs, while in the hallway a red Pierre Frey curtain, made up of 80 per cent metal and 20 per cent silk, conceals the lift entrance.

This kind of style does not come cheap. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in South Eaton Place is on the market at a rental price of £2,000 a week. This may sound astronomical to the likes of you and me, but it is a fairly good price by the standards of London’s very exclusive lettings market.

In Old Church Street Knight Frank is letting a house for £15,000 a week, although for this you get five bedrooms, all en suite, a kitchen and breakfast room and a separate two-bedroom staff flat, plus a swimming pool and a media room.

While a media room might prove popular with some clients, installing the latest gadgetry, saunas, steam rooms and expensive hi-fi equipment is not necessary to let out a property at the top level. Clients tend to focus on the fundamentals. “Most importantly, the basics have to be right,” says Mark Turnstall, of Chesterfield, a Knightsbridge-based agent. “The property should be bright, well configured, well finished and well located. These factors are ultimately far more important than plasma screen televisions and trendy washbasins.”

Indeed, Brahm, who spent about £150,000 converting, decorating and furnishing his South Eaton Place flat, says he decided against using the most expensive materials: “We could have put limestone floors into the bathrooms, but you are talking about adding several thousand extra pounds to the cost, and it is not worth it for a rental flat.”

As it is, the flat has beautiful, dazzling white bathrooms with stand-alone showers, twin sinks and plenty of space, but they cost a relatively modest £10,000.

Good-sized family homes are highly sought after. Tim Hyatt, head of lettings at Knight Frank, says that large kitchen/dining areas, spacious living rooms and bedrooms and outside space are very important for senior staff relocating to London. “A lot of clients from overseas are shocked at the small size of properties in London,” he says.

As well as providing light and spacious living areas, you need to focus on technology, rather than clever gadgets.

“Tenants paying between £3,000 and £4,000 a week are less concerned about having the latest cappuccino machine and more concerned about being able to connect to the internet from every room in the house,” says Mary Ryan, of Property Vision, which helps tenants to find top-of-the-range London rentals. “Landlords often forget about technology until it is too late. We had a Brazilian client who wanted to be able to watch Brazilian TV. This very reasonable request caused a huge amount of problems and the equipment proved very costly to install.”

Properties should be decorated beautifully and in neutral colours and landlords must be prepared to pay for professional management if they wish to let them at the highest level.

“The sophisticated tenant at this level will expect the property to be professionally rather than landlord-managed,” says Ryan. “They will want to be able to contact someone 24 hours a day, should any problems arise.”

Many properties at the higher end of the lettings market are sought by American families. “Americans are used to very high standards of customer service,” says Hyatt. “They are not accustomed to living in old, draughty Victorian houses.”

Properties must be properly maintained to attract the highest rents; minor inconveniences such as leaky roofs or windows that do not close properly might be endured by ordinary tenants but will not be tolerated by clients renting a home for thousands of pounds a week.

MEALS