What was once a niche product is being embraced by more people. We examine the options at a range of prices

They are de rigueur in Scandinavian and Nordic countries, with as many as one for every household in Finland, where the old saying goes: “First build the sauna, then the house”, and it appears Britons are now following suit. Google UK searches for “home sauna” rose by 84% between January and March 2024 and the same period in 2020, according to the marketing company Semrush.

Hampson Architects – based in Brighton and working across the south-east of England – has seen a large uptick in demand. “On the larger houses (3,000 sq ft-plus) it’s increased from 30% wanting saunas to as high as 80-90% now,” says the managing director, Andy Parsons. “I think it will stay at that level now as there’s a market expectation to have them.”

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Cruise control sensors taken by thieves, forcing drivers to pay to replace them or face higher insurance premiums

Volkswagen owners targeted by thieves who have stolen cruise control sensors from cars across London are furious after discovering the car’s “poor design” that makes them so easy to steal is set to cost them £1,600 each.

The sensors, which cost about £700 each, are fitted behind the VW badge, and appear to be a popular target for thieves.

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From a cottage built into sand dunes with its own ‘stargazing room’ to an eco cabin-style home in a walker’s paradise

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Entrepreneur Bassim Haidar says ending the break is self-defeating as total UK tax take will fall amid an exodus of the super-rich

Bassim Haidar is house hunting. He owns “more than 10 properties” in central London, including a £20m five-bedroom flat near Chelsea’s Sloane Square. But he said he had decided to “urgently” leave the UK to avoid paying millions of pounds in tax after the government and Labour’s plan to scrap the “non-domicile” regime , which has allowed Haidar, and 68,800 other non-doms, to avoid paying UK tax on their overseas income for the past 225 years.

“I am moving – that is it,” said Haidar, an entrepreneur who has lived in the UK on-and-off since 2010. “There’s no two questions about this; we have looked at it from every angle and it just doesn’t make sense to stay here. This [the ending of the non-dom regime] is going to cost me millions and millions of dollars and pounds every year in taxes on money that I’ve actually made abroad and businesses that I’ve built abroad.”

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The pandemic accelerated the shift away from notes and coins. But China and others are realising that transition has a price

One of the idiosyncrasies of China’s huge appetite for luxury goods has been the high sales of man bags – a niche item in the west. Their popularity initially reflected not just the fondness of the newly rich for conspicuous consumption, but also the practical need to carry large wodges of banknotes in a country that hadn’t truly embraced credit cards. Early last decade, it was unremarkable to pay a quarter’s rent or buy a car in cash.

Yet even vegetable sellers in small markets, or people begging on the streets, now use QR codes. By 2020, 98% of people in a survey said they most commonly paid using smartphone apps. The advantage, for the consumer, is convenience. For the authorities it offers not only efficiency but oversight, in a country which is battling corruption and which closely surveils its citizens. Beijing has also been promoting a “digital yuan” developed by its central bank.

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I bought it for just under £3,000, and it developed a fault just before the warranty expired

In October I bought an electric Brompton bicycle for just under £3,000. Initially all was well but about three months before the two-year warranty expired, it started suffering intermittent power problems.

It would work on the electric assist, and then wouldn’t. I stopped using it as a result .

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Shareholder payouts grew 14 times faster than wages over past three years, says Oxfam report

Shareholders have proved to be more successful at securing bumper payouts than workers have at winning higher pay, according to two studies that show dividends outstripping wages by a considerable margin in recent years.

Oxfam said analysis of global data showed that dividend payments to shareholders over the last three years grew an average of 14 times faster than worker pay across 31 major economies.

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Banks may follow suit after UK weather-related claims on home insurance reach new high

Britain’s biggest building society has stopped granting mortgages on some properties where there is a high risk of flooding but said this affected only “a very limited number” of homes.

Nationwide’s head of property risk, Rob Stevens, said the lender used mapping technology to identify which homes were vulnerable to flooding, and it would decline to grant a mortgage to buy a property it deemed to be at high risk.

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Take advantage of refills, dupes of high-end products and sharing with your partner

There are plenty of ways to reduce the cost of your skincare routine – from everyday moisturisers to potent serums.

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