Primelocation and Zoopla for example, track the asking price, not the sales price, which provides a current, if rather an inaccurate and negative view of the market. The Land Registry House Price Index (HPI) on the other hand is based on the sold price. Although perhaps not as up to date as other reports, the HPI does have the benefit of being the most accurate indicator of the state of the housing market.

So, how is property faring in the summer of 2010? According to the HPI, house prices in London at least are at the same levels they were in 2007.

In England and Wales there has been a significant growth in the volume of properties on the market that have sold at over £250,000; this growth more than doubles at the highest end of the market.  In London the number of properties sold for more than £2,000,000 in April 2010 has almost quadrupled compared to the same time last year.

As Manse & Garret predicted three years ago, the high end prime central London market is flourishing, in particular in Kensington & Chelsea, where the average price of a property has increased by more than £6,000 since May. There will continue to be demand for high end property in prime central London, where property tempts buyers not only from the capital and the UK, but from the rest of the world.  The UK property market, like the UK economy may still be on shaky ground, but for overseas investors prime central London real estate will always be a fairly safe haven for cash.

A tenant has successully complained about  her Lettings Agents for failing to ensure the Landlord of her flat was registered under an appropriate Tenancy deposit scheme, before handing over her deposit.  This meant that the Tenant has had to pursue the Landlord, so far unsuccessfully, to return her deposit

The agents, Global Realty who have 2 offices in London have been ordered to pay the Tenant’s deposit plus £200 for aggravation by the Property Ombudsman, Christopher Hamer.

Whilst the Ombudsman agreed with the agents that the Landlords actions were not the fault of the agents,  in failing to properly protect the deposit, the agents had disadvantaged the Tenants and led to a situation which could have been avoidable.

In our capacity as residential property finders dealing with both sales and lettings, our contracts include a requirement for Lettings Agents to lodge the deposit with an appropriate scheme and prove they have done so, regardless of the rental value.  At present only rents under £25,000 per year are covered however we insist that Agents acting for our Clients lodge all deposits with such schemes.

After all, no-matter if you’ve paid £6,000 in deposit or £60,000 - all Tenants want their deposits back don’t they?!  

For more information contact the best London Property Finders here

or look online here.

Technorati Tags: London property finders, Mayfair Lettings Agents, Mayfair Property Finders, Property Ombudsman, Tenacy Deposit Scheme

With the plethora of Winter auctions upon us with another company releasing their catalogue day by day, we were expecting to have seen more larger ticket  houses on the auction market by now, but what there is is few and far between.

Barnard Marcus have a terraced family house in Hurlingham Road just north of Putney Bridge next week and it may be of interest to some.   Houses in that road generally go for £1.1 - £1.2m but the guide on this one is £900K however it needs to be totally refurbished, so there isn’t much room for manoeuvre or profit if it makes it’s guide.

Other than that there is nothing whatsoever in the November auctions for more affluent owner occupiers or developers wanting a bigger ticket project. 

It is however investor and first-time buyer city, with many lots not quite reaching their reserve prices in the room but being snapped up afterwards.  Everything from little flats in St Leonards for £38K to Hampstead period wonders for £500K and in need of work are going and there has been a good supply of stock between £200,000 and £350,000.

In our view as Property Finders, it seems that the big ticket properties are again being offered privately rather than suffering the ignominy of being offered to the world at auction.  Rather like the market as a whole really.  And while some parts of London and the South East are still in the doldrums, other parts are flourishing - and it’s all due to lack of stock.

Technorati Tags: London Property Auctions, London property finders, property auctions

My Osteopath has just qualified and dreams of a small shop with a flat upstairs which he can call home.  A busy-ish road would be good: one with plenty of passing trade during the day and quiet enough for him to be able to sleep at night.

The thing is, after studying for 6 years part-time, he has done well to escape without the mountains of debt most students leave with, nevermind scraping together a deposit.

He lives in Manor House but works in Islington and felt sure that there would be no possibility of being able to afford more than a shoebox, despite my reassurance that actually Islington is a pretty good bet as buyers pretty much dried up overnight during the Northern Rock crisis so confidence fell fast.

As yet, the Osteopath still hasn’t got a deposit but it got me thinking that architects, Natural therapists, Hairdressers and other new small business owners should consider jumping in if they have the funds to buy property.

This small unit recently sold on Newington Green Road for £242,000 - including a shop with basement  and enough room for a small reception area and two decent sized  treatment rooms.  In addition, there’s a one bedroom flat over the ground floor and basement with a garden and separate access from Beresford Road.  According to the auctioneer, Strettons - it was in need of work: read complete refurb.  But considering a one bedroom flat in a reasonable period conversion or new-build in the area costs about £240,000 - £242,000 seems like a good buy considering you get your business premises for free!

It’s not the first small commercial unit to go cheaply either.  One of our Clients turned down a double fronted Victorian 2 storey in Liverpool Road, again in Islington.  Arranged as 2 commercial units and 2 small flats on the first floor, t hey sold for £370,000 earlier this year.  Bargain.

If you are trying but failing to find a bargain property in London or the South East, may we suggest that Manse & Garret might just  be the best Property Finders to call?

Technorati Tags: bargain London property, bargain property, first time buyer property, property for small business owners, small commercial property units

Last year in the midsdt of recession those of us dealing in the luxury goods in London were warned that the Hedge Funds were leaving London but barring my cousin, it seems that most people have decided to stay put.  At the time, our Clients were saying they would drag their heels if asked to relocate to Geneva and there was much made of the ability to work from home, either as a trader for someone else or to make the leap to self-employment.

None of this seems to have happened however as most of the major hedge funds have stayed put.

Wealth Bulletin have reported that a mass exodus is ‘overblown’, speaking to a few leading Hedge Fund Managers  at a round table organised by Hedge Fund organisation Opalesque.

He is reported to have said: “I agree that there are concerns about taxation and regulations. But something else comes into play here that I call the Wimbledon effect. London attracts the best people to one of the best tournaments. Businesses come to London because they have the best courts, the best talent, the best infrastructure, and a great championship.”

This view was apparently echoed by Lawrence Staden, managing director of GLC, which manages around $1bn (€678m) in assets. He said: “You can’t in every case just effortlessly move your family to a tax haven. What does money give you if not the freedom to decide where you spend your life?”

He cited an experience 25 years ago, when he told his wife that his then employer, Bankers Trust, wanted him to move to New York. Her response was “Send me a post card”. As a result, he didn’t go - he explained: “These things are not that easy for some of us.”

He said he did not believe that floods of funds would move for tax reasons, as the net impact of the UK’s 50% tax rate was neglible. He said: “Most people’s assets under management are less than they were two years ago. That means moving to avoid 50% tax on a smaller amount, when you were not prepared to move before to avoid 40% on a larger amount.”

He added: “Personally, I’d say that even if they put the [top rate of] income tax to 100%, I would still be in London.”

Long may it continue and for us Mayfair Property Finders to continue to deal with Hedge Funds!  If you need a fabulous property in London or the South East, the Manse and Garret Property Finders would be delighted to help.

Technorati Tags: Hedge Funds, Hedge Funds stay in London, Mayfair Property

Reproduced with the kind permission of the Land Registry

Musings of the best Upmarket London Property Finders

The Land Registry  house price statistics for August reflect the rosier ambience those of us involved in the property market have been experiencing for a number of months now.  Most significantly, the number of house sales at the top end, particularly those over £2 million are up year on year at 54 a month in London.  House prices in Westminster, which includes Mayfair, Marylebone, Bayswater and parts of Notting Hill are now down just 3.4% versus last year and we would expect them to end the year close to prices achieved in May 2008, when house prices in Westminster were at their peak.  The average home in Westminster is now worth £574,714 compared to £622,950 in May 2008.

Technorati Tags: Latest London House Price Data, London House Prices, london house prices rise, London property, London Property Finder, London property finders, London property prices, London Property Prices Stable

It’s conference season again and with most people believing the Tory takeover will be a shoe-in next year, Labour are on the defensive and one of the first things on the agenda at their annual conference today was an attack on Tory housing plans. 

John Healey the Housing Minister suggested the Conservatives would abolish assistance to those struggling to pay mortgages and allow property developments to go ahead without the often draconian requirements for social housing.  He added that plans for social tenants in Conservative-controlled Hammersmith and Fulham would ‘double or triple rents and put their homes on the line with 2 months notice’.

The government meanwhile outlined plans to add a further £180m to fund 1,200 more affordable homes.  The thing is, we can think of several ghastly developments which would eat that up in no time.  Land with planning for development and affordable housing is still being sold relatively cheaply, particularly where a housing association has already agreed to buy the social housing element and with banks now cautiously lending to developers again, 1,200 more affordable homes don’t really get our vote.  Particularly when they are likely to be the first flats hit when the recession bites again.

With all this, coupled with the Liberal Democrats ill-conceived  idea to tax houses worth over £1 million, we wish the politicians would just leave us London Property Finders and other Property people to get on with things and stop interfering.

Technorati Tags: Labour housing plans, Lib Dem housing plans, London House Prices, London property finders, Tory housing plans

We’re no experts on the American property market - actually, we know nothing about the American property market but for us in London, a 36% drop sounds like very bad news - normally reserved for the repossessions market.

So has Hef been foreclosed?  Apparently not, but according to the Wall Street Journal, he and Mrs Hef (they split in 1998) have apparently accepted an offer of $18 million, $10 million less than the asking price from 25 year old Daren Metropoulos, the son of C. Dean Metropoulos, a super-successful private equity investor.

The house in question is not Playboy Mansion, where Hugh Hefner still lives with the ‘playmates’ but the smaller version next door where his wife had been living.

So was it just grossly over-priced to begin with or has Hugh taken a hit where it hurts?  There are a few top end drops in London at the moment, but they are almost exclusively the reserve of the handful of people like us in the know.  If you need London Property Buyers Agents who might just be able to secure a similar gem, in London, you can contact us here.

Technorati Tags: Buyers agents, Hugh Hefner's house, Hugh Hefner's house for sale, London Property Buyers Agents, property buyers agents

According to Estate Agent Today, Miles Shipside the Commercial Director at Rightmove has announced that they have had their biggest ever day - which is newsworthy, because it comes in the middle of the summer holiday and in the middle of a recession.

Already feeling suspicious, it turns out their second best day was last March, when very little was happening in the property market.  So are people just window-shopping?  We know from anecdotal evidence that people are buying again.  More people seem to be buying this year than last year and there is definitely little stock in many areas in many several price ranges, although we are starting to see an increase in properties coming to the market.

Equally you could argue that everyone is checking up on their house price by browsing house prices for other homes in the neighbourhood.  As for us, Manse and Garret Property Buyers Agents are still forcasting a few bargains before Christmas, and we’re not convinced there will be a genuine surge in house prices in most parts of London, any time soon.

Estate Agent Today

Technorati Tags: House Prices, London Property Buyers Agents, Rightmove

What a fabulous story for a Friday blog.

It turns out that two weeks ago, Boris Johnson erected a weird wooden shed on the first floor roof of his Grade II listed home in Angel.  But yesterday, Islington planners instructed him to pull it down after a tip-off from a disgruntled neighbour.  Most people would be pretty fed up that NIMBY neighbours complained and for the planners involvement but according to many newspaper reports, Bojo is apparently ‘grateful for the advice’.  Isn’t that nice?

Maybe Boris has just realised that sticking an ugly shed on top of a roof has tarnished any pretensions he had to being a ‘classy bloke’.

Technorati Tags: Boris Johnson, Islington house, plannning permission, shed