The importance of light when selling in the winter months

By Team Tepilo | 17th December 2015

Advice

During the winter months the number of daylight hours are drastically reduced, which can make things difficult when it comes to showing off your home in its best light. Of course, viewings can still be carried out when the light fades, but buyers might not be so eager to view homes when it’s cold and dark outside.

As such, sellers will want to make the absolute most of the daylight hours that are available to them. Given the mildness of this year’s winter, sellers should find it easier than normal to get people to view their property in these traditionally colder and gloomier months.

Sellers should be scientific in their approach, showing off the rooms that receive the most direct sunlight and pushing the virtues of these rooms at a time when daylight is at a premium. Gardens might not be used so frequently in winter, but that doesn’t mean they should be ignored or neglected, quite the opposite. Buyers will want to see a garden that is in good condition – for one, gardens can be given a unique beauty by the harsher conditions of winter; secondly, they’ll want to visualise how they can use the garden when the weather starts to get warmer again.

Generally speaking, people prefer morning light in the bedrooms, helping them to wake naturally from sleep. By contrast, afternoon and evening light is most desired in the kitchen and living room, as this is where people tend to socialise and entertain. If your property offers this, tell prospective buyers about it. It could be a major selling point.

Windows, of course, play a vital role in flooding natural light into your home. Larger windows, as you would expect, let in plenty of light. Smaller windows are unlikely to bring in as much light as you might require. In some cases, this is not such a bad thing. Rooms that want to give off a warm, cosy vibe might not need as much light as others.

However, light and airy rooms will have significant appeal to many, particularly because they are so versatile. They can work equally well in winter, summer, spring and autumn. Big rooms with high ceilings will allow you to achieve a lighter and airier atmosphere, because of the extra natural light that can be flooded in. By contrast, smaller rooms with low ceilings will give off a more intimate ambience.

As usual, it will come down to the demographic you are targeting your property towards to determine how you make use of the light in your home. There will be things that are out of your control, too – the weather, for one; surrounding trees, buildings and hedges which could shield light from entering your home for another – but if you are able to get viewings conducted when the conditions are ideal then your chances of selling are likely to go up.

As we mentioned, people tend to prefer viewing homes when it is light outside. This is more difficult when there aren’t as many daylight hours, but not impossible. With a bit of planning and innovation, your home can be shown off at its best even when the weather outside might not be.

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So you have decided to put your property on the market. Follow PrimeLocation's guide to ensure the process goes smoothly and your home is looking its best for viewings.

Keep it clean 

• No amount of talking from the agent is going to help sell your house if the place is a tip.
• Even if you are the cleanest, tidiest person in town, the reality is that you are probably going to need to do at least a few things to spruce up your home.
• Make your home really sparkle - especially on the day the photographer turns up. Get the carpets, sofa covers, oven and windows cleaned and pay special attention to the kitchen and bathrooms, which need to be inviting and hygienic.
• Start with fresh folded towels and a few strategically placed plants.

De-clutter

• Even if arranged neatly it will make your home not only appear smaller and messier, but can distract your prospective buyers, so they won't notice all the positive qualities your property has to offer.
• The most effective action of all is to clear clutter away.
• To make some space, move unnecessary furniture into the attic, basement or garage.
• Better still, get it off the property altogether.
• Remember that homebuyers will open everything.
• If your cupboards look jammed full and buyers are hit by falling shoes when they open the doors, their lasting impression will be one of a lack of storage space.
• Self storage depots are an invaluable tool for the house mover. They're inexpensive and convenient.

Freshen up - flowers can make a difference

• A fresh coat of neutral paint or new tiling can do wonders to smarten a tired looking property, as will putting in matching chrome fittings, a freshly painted door, ironed bed linen in the bedroom and brightening the living room with subtle lighting.
• Strategically placed flowers throughout a home can really make a difference too.
• A little time and effort in preparing your home for selling will help the process be faster and more successful.

Make your home "anonymous" - don't distract potential buyers

• Whilst we understand that selling your home is a stressful time, it is important to remove emotion from the equation by putting away any personal and symbolic items, such as family photo's and souvenirs. This allows potential buyers the opportunity to see the property as their potential home, not yours.
• It also helps them concentrate on the aspects that they should be looking at - your desirable home - not being distracted by your amazing paraphernalia.

The exterior - first impressions count

• Do as much as you can to ensure that the outside of your property looks clean and tidy.
• Take bins away, tidy up communal areas and if you have a garden, your lawn should be freshly cut and cleared of loose leaves and grass cuttings.
• Remember that your front door may start to colour a potential buyer's initial impression before it is even opened.

The facts - you need to be honest too

• You stand a much better chance of selling your property if you have acknowledged any problems and reflected them in the asking price.
• Forearmed is forewarned - up front honesty about your property from your first negotiation with a buyer will mean that they will have less reason to reduce their offer price or change their mind later in the proceedings.
• We would also recommend that you ask your agent to give you an honest opinion of anything about your home which is likely to affect its sale.
• You may even find this hurtful initially and you may not agree (perhaps you spent hours painting that hallway bright green) - but agents are the experts who make it as easy as possible for you to sell your home.
• Their honest advice is always given with your best interests firmly at heart.
• When your agent does complete the particulars, make sure you see them and check them carefully.
• Have they missed anything?
• Does the description accurately reflect the character of your home?
• Do the photographs show the property to its best advantage?

Some information contained herein may have changed since it was first published. PrimeLocation strongly advises you to seek current legal and/or financial advise from a qualified professional.

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WhatHouse? Awards 2015 winners – Notting Hill Housing, Best Starter Home Scheme

Posted 7 December 2015 by Keith Osborne

New homes for first-time buyers are crucial to the property market and these properties in Camberwell are worthy of a WhatHouse? Award...

Transforming an unappealing London estate with a range of contemporary new homes available in a mix of tenures, Camberwell Fields was well- deserving of its recent Bronze at the WhatHouse? Awards 2015.

Notting Hill Housing’s scheme is due for completion by the end of 2015, by which time many residents will be occupying their first home, making this an apt winner in the Best Starter Home Scheme category.

David Walliams presented the WhatHouse? Award Bronze at the Gala Luncheon at the Grosvenor House Hotel on 20 November.

Katie Bond, director of Notting Hill Sales says: “This award is not only fantastic recognition for us as one of London’s leading housing providers but also a great reward for the Notting Hill Sales division, as a team of passionate individuals. Camberwell Fields has been a very successful project for us to date. It’s a perfect example of the way Notting Hill Housing provides many Londoners with great-quality homes and an easier route to homeownership.

“Plus, like many of our developments, Camberwell Fields has built an entirely new community alongside an engaging part of South London which is very much becoming a hotspot as a new living destination. All in all, we are immensely pleased to see everyone’s hard work so well rewarded.”

The WhatHouse? Awards judges said of the company’s achievement:

“While neighbouring Elephant & Castle has made many headlines, the regeneration of SE5 has been quiet and effective, with Camberwell Fields representing a great example of what that can achieve, bringing social and affordable rented homes, Shared Ownership apartments and private sale flats and houses.

“Notting Hill Housing has done well to provide properties to suit the range of homebuyers who have purchased here. The unloved grey blocks of the old Elmington Estate have been replaced by colourful and contemporary buildings that have brought new vibrancy to the area. The mix of designs and finishes for the different blocks make for attractive scenes from every corner.

“Huge windows bring light flooding in and add to the exterior appeal of the blocks, and homes have well-proportioned rooms and a high-quality all-round specification as standard. A good-sized balcony or terrace to each apartment and gardens to the houses have made them practical spaces to enjoy rather than token attachments to each home.”

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GORDON RAMSAY driving his Ferrari LaFerrari in London!

Record house prices will continue steady growth in 2016

Dec 4, 2015

First lender to make 2016 forecast says pace will slow, but will still outstrip wage growth

Record house prices will continue steady growth in 2016

House prices are already at record levels according to every major index – and the first lender forecast looking ahead to next year predicts they will continue to grow steadily.
Halifax is estimating growth through the whole of 2016 of between four per cent and six per cent, according to The Guardian. This is slower than the 9.7 per cent annual growth it recorded for the past 12 months, but enough to reduce affordability at a time when average wage growth is only around 2.9 per cent.
It blamed the continued steady gains on an ongoing shortage of supply. This, it says, is in turn caused by a paucity of housebuilding that is also now feeding into fewer secondary sales, as people either fear there will be no suitable house to move to, or cannot afford to upgrade.
But the affordability crisis will, itself, begin to weigh on demand as people are priced out of the market, Halifax adds. This, combined with increasing interest rates, will begin to reduce inflation as the year goes on and is the reason that the annual growth rates will not match those seen in the past few years.
"Price growth could start to cool off with investor appetite dampened by higher stamp duty taxes, issues over affordability and the prospect of interest rate rises," Alex Gosling, chief executive of HouseSimple.com, told the Daily Mail.
George Osborne said in his Autumn Statement that he will double funding and relax planning laws to ensure the government meets an election pledge of 200,000 new homes a year, and a new pledge of 400,000 affordable homes in the next four years.
He also boosted the demand side of the equation to help buyers meet higher prices, with an extension of the core Help to Buy scheme and the launch of a London-specific branch that offers up to 40 per cent of the value of a home as a government loan.  Prices in the capital are more than double the wider national average.

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Victoria Beckham to take up 40,000 sq ft of office space in White City for global HQ

3 December 2015

Victoria Beckham is rumoured to be eyeing up 40,000 square feet of offices and studio space in Garden House at the BBC’s Media Village complex.

The fashion entrepreneur is reportedly moving the global HQ of her fashion empire from Battersea to White City.

Beckham’s eponymous fashion label is eight years old and employs 150 at its studio and two atelier spaces in London . The turnover of her company stood at £30m in 2013.

Next year, Beckham is set to open a store in Hong Kong.

BBC’s Media Village complex is being developed by Stanhope and Japan’s Mitsui Fudosan.
Other tenants set to move in include John Lewis and Imperial College.

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Best Modern Kitchen Design Ideas 2015

Average rental prices in London reach over £1,400 a month

Thursday, 26 November 2015

Rental values in London have risen by 4.67% since June 2015, with the average rental price for a property in the capital standing at £1,467 compared to £1,402 in the summer, the latest figures show. Greenwich saw the largest increase taking the average rent to £1,397 per month, according to the Rentify Property Index. The firm said that this could be due to the time of year when students are starting back at university. Other areas that experienced considerable rental uplifts include Brent, with average rents in the North West London borough growing by £201 to almost £1,500 per month. Next was Newham with an increase of £197 taking the average rent to £1,378 per calendar month, then Lewisham with an increase of £194 taking the average rent to £1,305 and Lambeth with an increase of £182 to an average rent of £1,617. Areas that saw a fall in rent included Wandsworth where the average rent fell by £33, and Kingston-upon-Thames, with the average rent in the area falling by almost £90 to £1,237. Homes in the City of London have also experienced what the firm described as an unprecedented dip in price, with the average monthly rent dropping £185 to £2,149. Although this can’t be considered a long term decline, the figures do highlight seasonality in the market, according to the report, which adds that the dip in costs could be in part attributed to the school calendar, with families moving to ensure they secure the best postcode possible for their child’s education during the summer months. The data also showed how strong rental demand is across the capital. Bexley proved to be the most popular area for property hunters with an average of 10 people viewing each home in the borough each day, whilst other outer London boroughs such as Enfield and Haringey, both seeing an average of 9.6 viewers per day, also generating huge interest. ‘High cost of rent in central London is continuing to drive people away to outer boroughs in search of affordable housing. This however means that these so called cheaper locations are seeing a remarkable rise in rent due to their popularity. They are hot on the heels with central London due to strong demand,’ said Rentify chief executive officer George Spencer. ‘Furthermore, the recent buy to let tax hike introduced by the Chancellor will further constrain supply as less people invest in property to rent, making life increasingly hard for Londoners,’ he added. Source

These are London's most controversial billionaire basements

27 November 2015 | By Shruti Tripathi Chopra, Robyn Vinter

The super-rich and their love for London basements….

The former home of singer Duffy and the address at which the rules of football were first written down has collapsed thanks to a basement excavation gone wrong.
One wall of the £3.8m Barnes townhouse, which is now owned by former Phones4U boss David Kassler, completely disintegrated as builders dug beneath to create a home cinema, gym and wine room.

The company carrying out the work denied the collapse had anything to do with the basement excavation, saying it was “just an old building”.
Here are five more basement excavation controversies:

Bernie Ecclestone’s daughter, Petra

Petra Ecclestone, daughter of F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, was forced to withdraw a planning application on a 19th Century lodge in the grounds of her Chelsea mansion after planners thought the work would be too invasive. However, the basement excavation on her Grade II listed home still went ahead despite residents objecting to the work.

Nigella Lawson and Charles Saatchi

The next-door neighbour of the TV chef and art collector submitted planning permission for a huge basement complex underneath the garden of the Eaton Square home in 2012. Saatchi had previously clashed with residents over building works and was accused of causing £50,000 worth of damage to some Italian marble bathroom tiles. However, despite these protests the couple were no strangers to causing disruption themselves. In 2010, they bought a former factory in Chelsea and converted it to a mansion, including, you guessed it, a massive basement excavation.

Jon Hunt

Foxtons’ billionaire founder Jon Hunt wants a humongous basement under his home in Kensington Palace Gardens to fit a tennis court, swimming pool and a showroom for his collection of Ferraris.
However, the French government has launched a legal tirade against Hunt claiming that certificates granted by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for completion of the property mogul’s project are invalid.
Hunt bought his home for £15.75m in 2007.

Lakshmi Mittal

Indian steel czar Lakshmi Mittal spent millions putting an underground complex of Turkish baths and a pool made of marble from the same quarry as the Taj Mahal. No wonder his Kensington Palace Gardens home is nicknamed “Taj Mittal”.

Hedge Fund boss Edmund Lazarus

Hedge fund boss and major Conservative Party donor Edmund Lazarus submitted plans to build a three-storey basement underneath his Victorian home in West London. If built, the basement would be more than double the size of his Holland Park home.
Lazarus was reportedly willing to fork out £16m for the basement complex. Frills and thrills include a swimming pool, gym, yoga studio, wine cellar and private cinema.

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Autumn Statement 2015 - Paul Emery responds to Chancellor George Osborne

Urgent announcement on stamp duty hikes

26th November 2015 |

Yesterday’s autumn statement from the chancellor delivered more challenges for all of us involved in residential property investment. Whilst not all of the changes are completely clear, it does seem that from April 2016 stamp duty on residential purchases above £40,000 will be increasing by 3%.

For example, the purchase of a house for rental at £100,000 will from April 16 attract stamp duty on any amount over £40,000 so in this case: £60,000 @ 3% or £1800, not the end of the world but certainly a consideration. A bigger property (which you might buy for HMO purposes) with a purchase price of £250,000 will attract £8,800 stamp duty rather than £2,500 you pay currently, clearly more of a consideration.

There are a variety of other changes including one that means we now have to pay capital gains tax on the sale of property within 30 days of completion, probably not a massive issue for most people.
There does, however, seem to be (which we are currently assessing) an exemption for companies - The government seem to be consulting groups on how to introduce an exemption for those holding more than 15 properties in a company or other structure. Whilst not completely clear at the moment, it does seem as though they want to encourage larger professional landlords (as they seemed to suggest with the mortgage interest offset changes earlier in the year), so buying in an Ltd company may again prove to be a solution.

For the geeks out there that want the detail, a lot of the fine print is in this document:
HM Treasury: Spending Revue & Autumn Statement 2015

I had a discussion with someone yesterday about boats resetting their sails when the wind changes. When legal or economic changes take place (as they did with the credit crunch a few years ago and lots of other times over the hundreds of years that property investment has been a favored investment tool) we have to change the angle of our sail to continue to prosper. We will go through this cycle many times in our lives and we just need to accept it as being normal. There are and will always be solutions for those who are willing to learn and adapt. Lots won’t adapt and you should see this as your advantage as competition will inevitably decrease, and as with any business this will mean that your margins will increase. Progressive saw this through the credit crunch when 80% of our competition gave up. We persevered and now have much higher margins and sales volumes than before 2008. Playing the long game in business and investing is the single best way I know to achieving extraordinary results. Warren Buffett is a great example of this.

Some Government policy changes which are responding to public sentiment about a wider issue of a lack of housing (which these policies won’t materially change) don’t change the economics. There are not enough properties for the people that live in this country, many of the people in this country can’t afford to buy as they can’t or won’t save for a deposit and pay a mortgage (or want to be more transient/rent for other reasons) so they need to live in rental properties. As quick as negative sentiment can move against us it can move onto something else just as quickly, people are fickle like that. We won’t be the focus of other people’s issues forever, rather than taking personal responsibility some will want to have a new group to point the finger at as landlord bashing becomes boring. How long this will take I don’t think anyone knows.

I will believe that George’s building boom is actually going to happen/make a difference when we see results (as so many of them before him have promised similar and achieved very little in this area) so I predict the shortage will continue and therefore rents will rise even more strongly. You might want to use this extra cash from rents to pay your accountant to run your new Ltd Company :-)
Mark Homer (Progressive Property)
"Invest For Freedom, Choice and Profit"

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Autumn Statement: Buy-to-let homes face higher stamp duty

By Brian Milligan Personal Finance reporter

• 2 hours ago
• From the section Business

Buy-to-let landlords and people buying second homes will soon have to pay more in stamp duty, the chancellor has announced.

From April 2016, those in England and Wales will have to pay a 3% surcharge on each stamp duty band.
George Osborne said the new surcharge would raise £1bn extra for the Treasury by 2021.
Landlords reacted angrily to the change, saying it would "choke off" investment in rented properties.
Other changes announced by the chancellor included an extended Help to Buy scheme in London, and more money for the Starter Homes programme.

• Full in-depth coverage of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement
• How the Autumn Statement and Spending Review will affect your finances
• Full Autumn Statement and Spending Review documents via HM Treasury

'Choke off investment'

The stamp duty surcharge will lift each band by 3%. That means that for properties worth between £125,000 and £250,000, where the stamp duty is 2%, buy-to-let landlords will pay 5%.
For the average buy-to-let purchase of £184,000, that means they will pay an extra £5,520 from April 2016.
Commercial property investors, with more than 15 properties, are expected to be exempt from the new charges.

Stamp Duty Rates (on purchases)
Property value	Standard rate	Buy-to-let/second home rate (April 2016)
Up to £125,000	0%	3%
£125 - £250,000	2%	5%
£250 - £925,000	5%	8%
£925 - £1.5m	10%	13%
over £1.5m	12%	15%
Source: HMRC

Buy-to-let landlords will also be hit by a change to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) rules.
From April 2019, they will have to pay any CGT due within 30 days of selling a property, rather than waiting till the end of the tax year, as at present.
Landlords are already due to get a lower rate of tax relief on mortgage payments.
In his summer Budget, the chancellor said that landlords would only receive the basic rate of tax relief - 20% - on mortgage payments, a change being phased in from 2017.
Responding to the latest changes, Richard Lambert, chief executive of the National Landlords Association said: "The chancellor's political intention is crystal clear; he wants to choke off future investment in private properties to rent.
"If it's the chancellor's intention to completely eradicate buy-to-let in the UK then it's a mystery to us why he doesn't just come out and say so".
Up to £60m of the money raised from the stamp duty surcharge will go to help home-buyers in England in places where holiday homes have forced up local prices.

Image caption An extra £2.3bn will be lent by the government for building starter homes

Help to Buy

The Help to Buy (equity loan) scheme in England will also be extended to 2021, one year longer than planned.
An extension to the scheme in London will see buyers who can find a 5% deposit given a loan worth up to 40% of the property.
The loan will be interest free for five years.
Elsewhere the existing maximum loan is for 20% of the property's value.
In total, the government will put an extra £6.9bn into housing.
This includes an extra £2.3bn in loans for the government's starter homes programme, and £4bn lent to housing associations and local authorities to build more homes for shared ownership.
Another £200m will be used to build homes for rent, which will allow tenants to save for a deposit.
There will also be a pilot scheme to trial the government's Right to Buy programme for housing association tenants.
Five housing associations will take part, to help design the final scheme.

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Onliner takes a swipe at estate agents who 'lose interest' in vendors' homes 

An online estate agency claims it has evidence traditional agents have attention spans “not that much longer” than goldfish when it comes to the properties that they market.

House Simple claims that traditional agents lose interest in homes they are marketing if no offers have been received within two week.

The online agency, in a poll of more than 2,000 people who have sold a property in the past 12 months, says 50 per cent felt their agent’s commitment to sell dropped off considerably after the initial marketing period, and by the second week they felt they were already having to chase the estate agent for updates.

House Simple also claims “it is not uncommon for high street agents to promise an unrealistic sale price to get sellers signed up only ... to quickly recommend a price drop once the property is marketed.” It claims 51 per cent of those polled revealed their agent suggested they drop the asking price soon after marketing began.

The poll also suggests 21 per cent of those surveyed regarded half or more of those would-be buyers who came to viewings were actually time-wasters - in London and Wales that figure rose to 40 per cent.

“Agents only receive their commission once a property is sold, so they need to secure an offer quickly. Once they have you signed up, their interest in your property can wane rapidly if an offer doesn’t materialize” claims Alex Gosling, House Simple’s chief executive.
“Sellers shouldn’t feel under pressure, but often do, to lower the price to attract a buyer, especially when viewings dry up. And the agent is in a much stronger position to suggest dropping the price, when the seller is tied into a contract.”

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Dog-friendly flats to rent in London command £25,000 premiums

The craze for 'handbag dogs' has led to a rise in letting enquiries from pet-owning tenants, according to EJ Harris.

By Annabel Dixon
October 12, 2015

Dog-friendly flats to rent in London command £25,000 premiums as supply fails to keep up with demand from tenants with pets, research showed today.
The craze for ‘handbag dogs’, driven by celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Simon Cowell, has led to a huge rise in letting enquiries from dog-owning tenants, according to EJ Harris.
The most sought-after addresses for tenants with pets in the prime areas of central London are around Hyde Park, Regent’s Park, Green Park and Holland Park.

There were virtually no dog-owning London tenants 10 years ago. However, up to 30 per cent of all tenants searching for a flat in London now own a pet.
In the heart of the capital alone, 8 per cent of all households now own one or more dogs – up from 7 per cent in 2010 and 4.8 per cent in 2002, according to the UK Pet Food Manufacturer's Association.
However, some 40 per cent of all flats in the prime areas of central London have head leases which ban pets.
The typical six week deposit for a one bedroom pet-friendly flat in central London, available to rent for £500 per week, is £3,000 for a pet-free tenant. However, this would rise to £5,000 for a dog-owning tenant.
And for a three bedroom flat for rent at £2,500 per week, the deposit for a tenant with a dog increases to £25,000 or more. This compares to a £15,000 deposit for a pet-free tenant, claimed EJ Harris.
The bulk of landlords of dog-friendly flats to rent in London also include a professional cleaning clause in the tenancy agreement. It requires pet-owning tenants to make an extra, non-refundable payment at the start of the tenant to cover the cost of sanitation and professional cleaning when they move out. The bill can sometimes rack up to several hundred pounds, the estate agent warned.
More than 80 per cent of the enquiries for dog-friendly flats to rent in London are from affluent English, continental European and American tenants, EJ Harris said.
Tenants are typically professional couples in their 30s and 40s as well as single socialites, 70 per cent of which are women. They tend to look for spacious one or two bedroom flats in Mayfair, Belgravia, Chelsea, Marylebone, Hyde Park, Regent’s Park, Westminster or St John’s Wood.
However, landlords’ concern that pets will cause damage to property and furnishings means that lettings to dog owners can take up to seven times longer than tenants without one.
Elizabeth Harris, managing director of EJ Harris, said: “Despite the stigma surrounding tenancies with pets, in our experience tenants who own dogs make for reliable and responsible tenants. They take good care of the property and keep their pets pampered and well trained.
“We always advise dog owning tenants to create a ‘pet CV’ that provides a detailed description of the pet. It outlines key facts regarding behavior, health and grooming, which can help alleviate the landlord’s concerns.”

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Home Advice Selling property guides How to prepare your home for sale

Selling property guides

How to prepare your home for sale

Selling your home? Not having much success? It could just be the state of the market, or the lingering bad luck from when you broke that mirror six and a half years ago.

By Property News team
September 2, 2014

Or actually, come to think of it, it could be the broken light fixtures, weed-choked garden and residual smell of fish from the bouillabaisse you served at last week's dinner party.

Take heed, home sellers - first impressions really do count.
Exterior appeal
Stand outside your home and compare it to your neighbours' properties. If you do this and it makes you feel slightly mortified, it's likely that you've already failed to impress your potential buyers.
Ask yourself:

• When was the last time I mowed the lawn?
• Have I ever cleaned those gutters out?
• Could those window frames use some fresh paint?
• Were those paving slabs always that uneven?
• Don't those children's toys have somewhere to be?
• Can people see my house number behind that embarrassingly overgrown shrub?
• Does a surplus of weeds say that I embrace all forms of nature, or that I'm a lazy homeowner who probably hasn't maintained the rest of the property very well either?

Depersonalise
Those gorgeous photographs of your daughter, husband, wife, nephew, best friend, cat and so forth that line the hallway and stairwell? Take them down. All of them. The ones in the bedroom too, and the living room, and everywhere else in the house. Don't forget the cute finger painting your three year old made you for your birthday last year that's still stuck on the fridge.
Your buyers don't want to see the lovely life you've made for yourself in your beautiful home. They want to imagine the lovely life they could make for themselves in their beautiful potential new home. Don't allow anything to clutter that vision.

Speaking of clutter
Get rid of it. If you've accumulated a lot of bits and pieces over the years (and you definitely have), now's the time to either a) throw them out, b) give them to charity or c) find proper, neat places for them in a closet or cupboard. You might even consider having a garage sale to purge your house of all that unnecessary 'stuff'. Do whatever you need to so that your buyers never have to lock eyes on it.
Pay specific attention to:

• Books, CDs and DVDs
• Ornaments and knick-knacks
• Kitchen tools and appliances that currently live on the counters
• Potted plants
• Posters on your children's bedroom walls

Another idea many sellers have embraced is renting storage space to temporarily keep any extra furniture that could be making their house feel crowded. Be radical - remove half the furniture in your living room and see how spacious, sleek and light it looks and feels without it. As a general guide, there should be enough space for people to move around the room unhindered, and enough furniture to convey the room's purpose.
Spring clean
Clean! Clean as though your life depended on it. We're not talking about a quick once-over. Serious attention to detail is necessary here.

• Dust the skirting boards (if you don't know what a skirting board is, yours probably really need dusting)
• Clean the windows (inside and out) and then polish them for extra shine
• Dust light fixtures and furniture
• Vacuum like there's no tomorrow
• Get rid of cobwebs
• Polish taps and mirrors
• Clean out the refrigerator and deodorise it by a) placing an open box of baking soda inside it to soak up odours and b) wiping down the inside surfaces with vanilla extract
• Bleach tile grout
• Scrub the oven clean - it may sound excessive, but prospective buyers are notoriously nosy and judgmental

Control your pets
No buyer wants to be greeted at the door by your charming King Charles Spaniel. Or any other breed of dog, cat, rabbit, guinea pig and so on. If possible, remove pets altogether when you're showing your property. Ask a friend or family member to take them off your hands for awhile, or better yet, take Cujo for a walk yourself. This brings us to our next point.
Get out
Presumably your estate agent knows what she's doing and has sold some houses before. Why not leave her to get on with it?
No offence, but prospective buyers don't really want you hovering over them while they're trying to nose around in your wardrobe and pass judgment on your crockery. It's a bit off-putting. If they feel awkward, they're much less likely to linger in your home and get the full impact of how great it is and how they'd very much like to buy it.
Repair, restore, revamp
The devil is in the details, and the sale of your home could be hampered by simple little things that you've stopped paying attention to. Try to look at your home from the perspective of your buyer, and think about the details that would impress or dismay you if you were in their position. Then take care of those details immediately.

• Replace broken light bulbs
• Fix leaky taps
• Fix doors and drawers that don't open or close properly
• Repair cracks in the walls
• Touch up paint and repaint altogether where necessary (in a neutral colour)
• Hang up fresh towels in the bathroom
• Get a new shower curtain and bathmat (again, choose neutral shades)
• Get rid of that busy wallpaper that you loved five years ago. Remove it and then paint the walls - don't simply paint over it, as it will be obvious to your buyer and make the wallpaper difficult to remove
• Eradicate odours - particularly those from cigarette smoke, mildew and pets. Open the windows and air out your house. Simply masking bad smells with a perfumed air freshener won't do the trick
• Replace cushion covers, bedspreads and curtains that are worn or have garish colours and patterns

Let there be light
Lots of natural light usually tops the list of things people are looking for in a home. This is great news if you own a home on a barren cliff top with ceiling-to-floor glass facing the afternoon sun, but that's not always on the cards, is it?
Fortunately, there are other ways to maximise the light in your house - natural or otherwise - and give the impression of having plenty of bright, airy space.

• Replace dim light bulbs with higher wattage
• Don't just pull open those heavy, dark curtains - pull them down altogether
• In areas of your house that are particularly dark, install some extra light fixtures
• Repaint darker rooms with light-coloured and light-reflecting paint
• Prune any trees or vines that are casting shadows inside the house

Related information

• Viewing property - helpful hints
• How to sell a house
• Choosing an estate agent to sell your home
• Guide to HIPs when selling
• How to value your home

Some information contained herein may have changed since it was first published. PrimeLocation strongly advises you to seek current legal and/or financial advice from a qualified professional.

Source

More British buyers in the prime London property market, research suggests

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Domestic buyers have risen to a new level of prominence in the London property market as overseas purchasers are being put off by current property tax levels, it is claimed. In the third quarter of this year some 79% of property purchases were made by domestic UK buyers, up from 75% a year ago, according to the latest London Property Monitor from March & Parson. The firm says that sales activity from domestic buyers has surged forwards to fill the gap left by overseas buyers and investors, who have been left more cautious by the strong sterling, stricter Government measures on non-domicile status, and heftier Stamp Duty for higher value purchases. As a result of this new hesitation, domestic mortgage buyers and first time buyers have become more prominent in the London market, with the proportion of mortgage buyers in Prime London soaring from 53% in the second quarter to 65% in the third quarter. At the same time, overseas and foreign nationality buyers accounted for 21% of all prime London property purchases during the third quarter which has fallen quarter on quarter, and is also down from 25% of all sales during the third quarter of 2014. This pattern is also being mirrored in the prime central London market traditionally favoured by overseas investors, with the proportion of foreign buyers standing at 32%, down from 34% in the second quarter and 37% a year ago. The investor share of the market has also dipped in the prime central London market over the past three months. Investors accounted for 35% of all prime central London sales during the third quarter, a considerable drop from 42% in the second quarter. Yet with domestic buyers stemming this shortfall, overall demand for Prime London homes has grown in the three months to September 2015, and the number of registered buyers has climbed 4%. Combined with a 5% drop in the supply of properties available on the market, and buyer competition is building as these trends diverge. There are currently 14 buyers for every available property for sale in London, increasing from 12 in Q2, and 10 at the end of 2014. According to Peter Rollings, chief executive officer of Marsh & Parsons the strength of sterling and government encroachments on nom-dom status make investing in the London property market seem daunting for foreign buyers. ‘This has cast some shadows over the capital, but the millions of Londoners who live and work in the city have acclimatised much more quickly to the property taxation changes, and have risen up to fill the void left by overseas purchasers and investors,’ he pointed out. ‘We’re noticing longer purchase chains than ever as domestic buyers really start to dominate the market, and demand is really putting a strain on supply. This should ensure that London houses prices and sales activity continue their ascent into 2016,’ he added. The research also shows that after a period of stalling prices from October 2014 to March 2015, house price growth in London is back in positive territory and continued a steady recovery throughout the third quarter, with average property values climbing 0.3% in three months. After experiencing such rapid house price growth in 2014 the market in outer London prime suburbs is adjusting, and as a result prime central areas of London are now seeing the strongest house price growth across the capital, with average property values boosted by 0.4% in the third quarter. But taking into account the much faster gains in the outer prime London market over the last two years, the premium a home buyer can expect to pay to live in prime central areas is in long term decline. Indeed, since the third quarter of 2013, house prices in outer London have soared 12.6%, equal to £131,000, and this has narrowed the price gap significantly between homes in prime central and outer London. The data also shows that the price premium of buying property in prime central London over outer prime neighbourhoods now stands at 74%, but this has shrunk from 98% two years previously. One bedroom homes are the most sought after in the prime London market, either as a starter home, buy to let or pied-a-terre, and have witnessed the largest increases in price in the past quarter. Average prices for a one bedroom property have risen 3.5% since the second quarter of 2015, or £21,240 in cash terms. The trend is even more pronounced in prime central areas, with smaller one bedroom properties appreciating in value by 5.9% in three months. Larger family sized properties have experienced slower price growth in the third quarter, with the typical four bedroom home increasing in value by just 0.5% in the three months to September 2015. ‘The sudden price surge in outer prime areas over the past two years has really come to challenge what we consider the prime property heartland of London, and the reality now is that the epicentre of the capital’s housing market is expanding outwards,’ said Rollings. ‘Properties in the traditional prime central stronghold will ultimately always hold their value, but after 24 months of relative price stagnation, it requires much less of a price leap than it did a few years previously, after such stellar price rises in the outer areas of the city,’ he explained. ‘We expect property further out from the centre to make the strongest gains before the end of the year, mirroring the trend evident across the capital as a whole. Properties at the lower end of spectrum have accumulated the strongest price momentum, and this is unlikely to dissipate,’ he added. Source

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UK house prices rise 6.1pc as strong demand pushes up values

Prices in the capital continue to increase but the pace of growth is slowing, says the Office for National Statistics

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/house-prices/12000155/UK-house-prices-rise-6.1pc-as-strong-demand-pushes-up-values.htmlHouse prices across the UK have risen 6.1pc over the past year, pushing the average cost of a home in London beyond the half-million mark to £531,000.

The 6.1pc increase recorded in the year to September compared with a 5.5pc rise in the year to August. However, the pace of growth was much slower than the 12pc rise registered a year ago, says the Office for National Statistics.

The average price for a house in the UK now stands at £286,000, up from £273,000 last year.

Regionally, however, there were huge variations in growth over the 12-month period. Property prices rose 6.4pc in England and 10.2pc in Northern Ireland, but just 1.1pc in Wales and 1.1pc in Scotland.

House prices by region:

The average house price in England is £299,000, followed by £199,000 in Scotland, £175,000 in Wales and £162,000 in Northern Ireland.
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And while the London property market remains hot, there are signs the market is slowing. Prices in the East of England grew of 8.4pc, followed by the South East at 7.4pc, while London house prices increased 7.2pc over the year.
The North East is the only English region where prices remain below their pre-downturn peak, with prices 2.4pc lower than in January 2008. Northern Ireland enjoyed the fastest rate of growth, with prices there soaring 10.2pc, albeit from a low base.

Annual house price growth by area:

  Photo: Source: ONS
The figures also suggest the market may be easing for first-time buyers. Property values purchased by first-time buyers increased 4.3pc to £216,000 in the year to September, compared with a 4.5pc rise in the year to August.
Mortgage broker SPF Private Clients said a £216,000 average price tag on a home means first-time buyers will need to save at least £11,000 for a deposit, plus moving costs, and have a salary of around £50,000.
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Separate data earlier this year suggested the average first-time buyer needed an annual income of at least £41,000 to afford a home, while in London that figure rises to £77,000.
And while consumers might be benefitting from falling prices in some areas of life, such as travel, energy and food, the ONS said house price growth continues to outpace real term wage growth, making homes even more unaffordable for first-time buyers.
The authors of the report added that a shortage of new housing would continue to push up prices.

Source