Of course what everyone would like to know is “what will happen to house prices once this is over?”. On Twitter I find there are quite a few estate agents who would prefer not to speculate – one or two feel that it would be self-fulfilling to do so butContinue Reading
Government advice has been thin but consistent. If you have contracted to move then you can continue but it would be much better if you agreed with the the buyer or seller to postpone the completion until after the lockdown. If you haven’t then it would be better to wait.Continue Reading
Writing in The Sunday Times Carol Lewis has the unenviable task of trying to predict what might happen to the housing market during the Covid19 epidemic. As usual she has sought the views of experts like Lucian Cook at Savills and Liam Bailey at Knight Frank. She has also quotedContinue Reading
Reports in the Telegraph today suggests that property viewings are down by as much as 50%! According to the National Association of Estate Agents their members have “seen a marked reduction in viewings and enquiries, particularly in the last 10 days, with quite a rapid slowdown,” according to their chiefContinue Reading
The Law Society has issued advice to anyone either buying a property or who has exchanged contracts on a sale or purchase. Solicitors have raised questions which include; requests for properties being decontaminated refusal to vacate on completion because seller in isolation failure or disruption to parts of the bankingContinue Reading
Despite the advice not to gather together or of a health minister testing positive for Coronavirus this morning 600+ MP’s met to listen to the new Chancellor deliver his first Budget following the Conservatives Election victory last December. The headline will be “They’ve found the Magic Money Tree!”. How theyContinue Reading
Two sales agreed on one day – a first for me and three agreed in total this week! One was for clients who had been searching unsuccessfully for a year and who needed some confidence and focus. Another was for a property that had started off asking £1.65m last SeptemberContinue Reading
Last year, according to Zoopla, the average UK home buyer paid £8.5k or 4% less than the asking price. Over the past decade my clients paid £120k or is 6% less. As you can see some years it seems to be more than others. I need to try and workContinue Reading
Reports in the Telegraph this weekend suggested that the Chancellor was flirting with the idea of a Mansion Tax. You may recall that such a tax was first floated by Vince Cable and subsequently by Ed Miliband to which the response from the Conservatives was unequivocal. Already wealthy home ownersContinue Reading
When you buy a property you will have to pay Stamp Duty Land Tax, a ‘purchase tax’ payable within 30 days of completing on the purchase. It varies depending on the price you pay and whether you are a first time buyer, an overseas resident, a company, if you areContinue Reading
It’s the end of the first full week back at work and I’ve bid of four properties. Two went to best and final offers and my clients came second on both. Frustrating but both were sanguine. We lost one by £5,000 on a £1.35m offer. The second was agreed toContinue Reading