Tuesday

16 Mar 2021

How to find a property bargain in London

The centre of London currently looks as though the apocalypse has struck. Streets, bars and restaurants lie empty and shops are boarded up. It's hard to picture the bustling capital so familiar to many of us a year ago and it's understandable that this dead city centre has prompted many home owners to up sticks and leave. But reinvention is sure to occur. And when it does, you’ll want to be a part of it. Whilst interest in rural properties has surged and rents in London are falling, prices in the capital are yet to reflect the sheer volume of people moving out. Those who can hold on to their London property are doing so in the hope the city will bounce back post Covid. Supply remains tight whilst domestic buyers continue to take an interest.

How to find a property bargain in London

Tuesday

23 Feb 2021

Is now the time to buy a coastal bolthole?

It's hard to believe we're heading towards the pandemic's first anniversary. The economy has had a torrid time. But if there's one area that has surprised us all with its buoyancy it is the property market. Ever since the first lockdown, there has been a flurry of activity at a time when a market crash was predicted. So, what is going on and should you hop on the bandwagon? The Office for National Statistics reported that UK house prices rose by 8.5 per cent over the year to December 2020. That growth wasn’t in city centres which have, at best, been largely stagnant. Instead it was driven by properties out of town and particularly in rural areas and on the coast near to major conurbations. According to Knight Frank, the residential and commercial property agents, second home purchases are up 59 per cent year-on-year.

Is now the time to buy a coastal bolthole?

Monday

18 Jan 2021

8 mistakes to avoid when house hunting

House hunts often begin in the new year, prompted, perhaps, by the removal of the Christmas tree and its gaudy baubles. Maybe there’s a realisation as you take down the decorations and start work again that the place you live in is a bit tired. There's a temptation to think that all of life’s problems could be solved by a new start. Fresh-faced house hunters often forget that there are few things more stressful than moving house - bar, perhaps, divorce. Since the housing market has effectively closed shop during lockdown, it's the ideal opportunity to reflect on how to remove the pressure from the process once there's a chance to look at houses again. Here's my guide to eight common mistakes people make - and how to avoid them: Do your sums My first rule of thumb is simple: stop going to view properties you cannot afford.

8 mistakes to avoid when house hunting

Monday

4 Jan 2021

Where to search for property in 2021

Did anyone get their predictions for the 2020 property market right? I suspect not. We’d barely heard of Covid back in January last year and, if we had, we would have probably written off the housing market for half a decade. But look at property now. Prices are up 5 per cent on average and so too is the volume of sales: £62 billion of extra transactions according to Zoopla compared to 2019. And that's despite the economic hit we've experienced over the last year. I’d suggest the upward trajectory will continue, albeit with a few wobbles. This market movement is being driven by macro factors, not local ones. Low interest rates and economic optimism surrounding a 2021 vaccine could mean continued growth. U-turns on planning policy and delays in house building caused by the first lockdown will mean demand will continue to outstrip supply for some time.

Where to search for property in 2021

Friday

14 Aug 2020

10 myths about moving to the country

Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.— Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson made this remark in 1777 to one of his friends who lived in the wilds of Scotland. Covid, the internet and cars hadn’t happened at the time. But he did have a point. Many office workers have been told they are unlikely to return to their places of work this side of Christmas. And when you do return, it is likely that home working could be on the cards at least one if not two days a week. If that’s the case, do you really need to live in a central city area? After all you could have nature on your side and a whole different lifestyle ahead… Before you fall for a rural or seaside idyll, it’s worth dispelling some very common misconceptions about leaving the city:1.

10 myths about moving to the country

Thursday

18 Jun 2020

Are house prices about to fall or rise?

As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, you can find statistics to prove pretty much any movement in the housing market. Up. Down. Sideways. At the beginning of the month, the Nationwide reported that house prices fell 1.7 per cent in May. The largest fall in 11 years. The latest data from Zoopla revealed that demand for housing is 54 per cent higher than at the start of March. And Savills reported a significant rise in activity across their offices in England with deals agreed, new instructions and exchanges all sharply up on previous weeks. Meanwhile the RICS says surveyors are recording falling house prices but increased activity. So, what on earth is going on? Is that report of a drop in prices good news? And what should you do if you are planning to buy, sell or even stay put? Try as I might to find reasons why the market may falter, I am actually fairly positive about the prospects over the coming months.

Are house prices about to fall or rise?

Tuesday

26 May 2020

The great escape: where to buy property after lockdown

The latest research from Deutsche Bank suggests that a dramatic shift in working patterns is on the way. 57 per cent of the 450 financial workers surveyed expect to be working from home between 1 and 3 days a week once the pandemic has passed. Covid-19 has not only disrupted our lives in the short term but is changing our longterm mindset. So, what does that mean for the property market? If you think it’s back to business as usual, you’ll need to redefine usual before you proceed. Our new reality now affords office workers the opportunity to live further away from their place of work, which in turn brings the prospect of more space. If lockdown has taught us anything it’s that we’ve undergone a technological revolution without having yet embraced the geographical flexibility it affords.

The great escape: where to buy property after lockdown

Monday

11 May 2020

When will the property market start moving again?

For those looking to buy or sell houses, lockdown has put many of the best laid plans on hold. Since lockdown was imposed on the 23rd March, the property market has entered into a period of suspended animation. We don’t know when lockdown will end, nor what the financial and economic collateral damage will be for the UK economy and we certainly don’t know what the ‘new normal’ will be or how long it will have to go on for. So, what do we know? Financial markets, although initially taking fright, have recovered somewhat. Falls of between 10 and 15 per cent across indexes around the world with markets seeming to have stabilised. At least for now. Interest rates have fallen and unprecedented levels of intervention by central banks have been deployed by the largest economies in the world.

When will the property market start moving again?

Thursday

2 Apr 2020

House buyers should be poised for the aftermath of Covid-19

It’s easy to look with doom and gloom at the Coronavirus situation and imagine that this could be the death knell for the property market. Why would you make the biggest investment in your life at a time of great economic uncertainty? Furthermore, the government has requested that the market effectively shut down while we fight this pandemic. In the short term, will there be disruption and pressure on pricing? Yes. In the longer term, is the market doomed? I am going to stick my neck on the line and say that property is set for a strong recovery. Before the pandemic struck there was a shortage of supply and an increase in demand for good property. That dynamic has not changed. Meanwhile supply has been interrupted and the housebuilding ‘boom’ will take some time to reignite, allowing demand to grow again.

House buyers should be poised for the aftermath of Covid-19

Tuesday

25 Jun 2019

How would Labour’s proposed tax grab affect your home?

At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking that Labour’s publication ‘Land for the Many’ is a set of policy ideas that solves the housing crisis. Increasing the supply of affordable housing and freeing up land to build, improving access to existing stock and transparency sounds fair, right? Yet tucked away inside the report, you’ll find a range of measures that could pull the market as we know it to pieces; it’s the most radical sets of property proposals since the mass building plan after the Second World War. The report’s editor, George Monbiot, has not thought through the unintended consequences of the proposals. Just one example and perhaps the most damaging is the desire to reduce land prices. With government (national and local), institutions and pension funds and religious organisations being the most prolific landowners, often on our behalf, this would be an economic disaster.

How would Labour’s proposed tax grab affect your home?
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