Owner: Less2sell Online Estate Agent Blog URL:http://www.less2sellblog.co.uk Join Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:12:00 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Keeping the people of teh UK updated on relevant news and views Site statistics:Click here
Interest Rates Remain Unchanged 2007-08-02 14:10:14 The Bank of England have held the UK interest rate at 5.75% today, however most economists are predicting one final 0.25% rise before the end of the year.
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Historical Interest
Rate Decisions
UK Interest Rate Rises by 0.25%
Read more:Rates
, Interest Rates
Advice on Selling your Home Safely 2007-08-01 15:13:18 Showing your home is a vital element of the selling process. The latest figures from Less2sell Online Estate Agents suggest that you can expect an average of twelve viewers through your door before you confirm a sale. However, inviting so many strangers into your home could place you in a vulnerable position.
It is with this in mind that Less2sell, member of the National Association of Estate Agents provides advice on how you can ensure your personal safety whilst selling your home.
1) Be sure to obtain all of the viewer’s details from the agent when arranging times and dates. Check you have the right name and contact details of each viewer, and ask the viewer to confirm all the details to you upon their arrival. If you are going to be alone in the house, it is probably a good idea to ask a friend or a neighbour to accompany you whilst you show your home.
2) Be friendly whilst conducting the viewings but don’t be lured into giving away too much personal informat Read more:Safely
Home Information Packs Have Arrived 2007-08-01 02:15:24 Finally after the embarassing last minute u-turn in May, HIP’s are here. As of today, home owners puting their 4 bedroom or more properties on the market will have to get a HIP.
If you are thinking of selling your home or you require further information on HIP’s including what’s in a pack, pricing of HIP’s and how to conduct a D-I-Y HIP please visit our main website www.less2sell.co.uk - Less2sell Online Estate Agents
Related links
Hips causes chaos in rental market
September start likely for Hips and three-bed homes
House of Lord’s Abolish Home Information Packs
House of Lord’s Abolish Home Information Packs 2007-07-20 14:50:42 Peers have voted in favour of the Conservative motion for the Government to revoke the Home Information Pack Regulations 2007 and the Housing Act 2004.Whilst on the face of it, this vote again shows that their Lordships remain unconvinced that HIPs are the way forward, it should be remembered that the Governement can totally ignore the decision. Nevertheless, yet again, the House
of Lords has shown that they agree with many of the concerns continually expressed by most Estate Agents.
A CLG spokeperson on behalf of the government made this statement “This vote will not affect the introduction of HIPs and EPCs on 1 August, which are going ahead in the interests of consumers and the environment. We think that tackling climate change and getting a better deal for consumers is vital - it is disappointing that some do not agree. They will cut nearly a million tonnes of carbon a year and help reduce the millions of pounds wasted by consumers buying and selling their homes.”Thi Read more:Abolish
Agents Report a Buoyant UK Residential Letting Market 2007-07-14 14:49:20 Affordability issues have and still do contribute to the strong home rental conditions that we are seeing are the moment.
According to the latest figures released by the National Association of Estate Agents, demand for rental property continues. The increase in Eastern European immigration, good employement conditions and the demand from those who cannot afford to buy ther first home has contributed to a thrivingrental market during Quarter 1 of 2007.
Despite the increase in in the number of buy-to-let investors and properties available, landlords have been very succesful in achieving the desired rental yields.
With affordability still a major issue for first time home buyers looking to get onto the property market, many professionals are being forced to stay in rented accomodation for longer and are now starting to pay higher premiums in order to enjoy better standards of living.
Chargeable rents rose in the first quarter of 2007, up an average 1.77%. However, the interest rate Read more:Letting
, Market
Fixed or Variable Mortgage? 2007-07-14 14:33:07 As Less2sell Online estate agents have reported previously, interest rates are on the rise. The Bank of England have increased the interest rate 5 times (see our historical interest rate page for actual increases) since August 2006 to try and controll the UK inflation.
So, does it make sense to avoid the pain of future rate rises by locking yourself into a fixed-rate mortgage now? This question is extremely difficult for Less2sell Onlline Estate Agents to answer, because it depends on your own view on the future direction of interest rates, your personal attitude to risk, how affordable your monthly repayments will be, and so on.
If you are comfortable with knowing how much you mortgage is going to cost you per month for a pre-arranged period, then a fixed mortgage should be right up your street. However, if you think that interest rates are near their peak (some analysts think that 6% is the peak) and will come down over the next year, then a variable-rate deal may be a better b Read more:Fixed
, Variable
, Mortgage
Seven Simple Tips to Increase Your Chances of Selling Your Home 2007-07-06 05:14:11 Studies show that most home buyers make their minds up about a property within the first seven seconds. So if you’re thinking of selling your home, it’s vital that you make a good first impression.
A clean and tidy interior often reflects well on the rest of the property being sold and could be the key to a quick and easy sale.
www.less2sell.co.uk has Seven
simple tips to help you sell your property.
Your front door can say a lot about you and your property - a quick make over of the front door can make a difference and set a tone for the rest of your home.
Make sure that your doorbell works (if you have one) - a simple chime will apeal to most.
Keep your wheelie bin hidden.
Ensure any hedges or lawns are neat and trimmed. Remove litter, dead leaves or weeds from the drive.
Plant seasonal flowers and plants to inject colour and highlight your gardens strongest assetts.
Clean your car or park it around the corner for a while. Make sure there is somewhere for your viewer Read more:Simple
Beginners Guide to Predicting the Outlook for the Housing Market 2007-07-04 08:47:57 Everyone who is involved with property knows that it is extremely difficult to predict its future. So why am I bothering writing a post about it! I would like to impart a bit of knowledge on the 5 key drivers that affect the market. Even with these key drivers, it is still difficult to estimate what the future hold for property but it will arm you with important information in order to make a sensible and informative decision.
Although my attempts at predicting the outcome of the housing market have rarely been correct, I still keep an eye on a number of demographic, financial and socio-economic factors which are believed to influence demand for housing. In alphabetic order, here are five of the various indicators which I monitor in an attempt to get a feel for the UK property market:
1. House price indices
Although I take house-price predictions with a huge pinch of salt, I do study historical changes to house prices in order to take the temperature of the UK housing market as Read more:Market
, Guide
, Outlook
, Housing
, Beginners Guide
UK Housing Market Shows Signs of Slowing Down 2007-07-02 14:50:30 U.K. house prices rose in June at the slowest pace since December as higher interest rates deterred buyers, according to the latest figures.The average cost of a home in England and Wales increased 0.3 percent from May, to £176,100 , matching the rate of increase in December 2006.
A survey conducted by Bloomberg News Survey stated that the Bank of England will raise interest rates on July 5 from the current six-year high, according to 53 out of 60 economists surveyed. If this is so then the housing market will continue to slow down.
Less2sell estate agents have seen faltering demand for properties resulting from an increases in interest rates and the rush to market properties before 1st June in anticipation of the introduction of Home Information Packs.
A fifth interest -rate increases (which we at Less2sell feel is 90% possible) since August to 5.75 percent and the prospect of further rises are keeping prospective buyers out of the market.
The annual rate of growth fell Read more:Market
, Housing
, Slowing
Will UK house prices rise by 40% over the next 5 years? 2007-08-10 14:52:35 Many of you will have seen today that the National Housing Federation (NHF) expects house prices to rise 40% by 2012, with the average House price then breaching £300,000. With compounding, this means an average increase of roughly 8% per year. This is in line with the long-term average, which Halifax says is 8% since 1983.
Is the Market Going Up or will it Crash!’
All predictions should be taken on face value and you should always take head of who has commissioned and written the article. The NHF has a vested interest and this could be why we have an upbeat report.
Most experts seem to think price rises will slow with the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) estimating that house prices will go up by just 7% in 2007 and only 2-3% in 2008.
Halifax recently revised up its prediction for this year from 4% to 6%. However, this is still lower than the average needed to hit NHF’s prediction.
Is the Market Going to Crash!
The truth is no-one knows take for examp
Home Information Packs Extended to 3 Bedroom Properties 2007-08-17 12:01:43 As Less2sell Online Estate Agents rightly predicted in our article on 25th June 2007 titled September start likely for Hips and three-bed homes, the government has today announced plans to extend the recent home information packs to 3 bedroom properties as of September 10th 2007.
For more information on home information packs please visit Less2sell Online Estate Agents
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September start likely for Hips and three-bed homes
Home Information Packs Have Arrived
Hips causes chaos in rental market Read more:Extended
, Bedroom
, Properties
UK Inflation Drops Below Magical 2% level 2007-08-16 07:34:15 Good news for homeowners with mortgages as this dramatic reduction in inflation has probably removed any potential further increases in interest rates for 2007.
After last months figures, specialists where 80-90% certain of another 0.25% in interest rates, however the chances of such an increase is now less than 50%.
CPI annual inflation – the Government’s target measure – was 1.9 per cent in July, down from 2.4 per cent in June, the largest single drop in inflation for 5 years.
The largest downward contribution came from food prices, as supermarkets led price cuts across a range of products including bread and cereals, meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. In addition, price increases last July on beef and shop bought milk were not repeated this year.
Another large downward contribution came from furniture and furnishings, with average prices falling over the month by more than 10 per cent, a record for July, following record increases for June last month. Widespre Read more:Inflation
, Drops
, Below
, Magical
, level
Online agents call for investigation into industry competition 2007-08-24 14:51:42 The online estate agency firm Brightsale has called on the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to investigate the issue of competition
within the UK estate agent industry
. The move comes soon after the website reported that several of its customers had been hit by punitive and arbitrary fee increases from a leading high-street agent.
In addition to agents increasing their rates of commission for no apparent reason, Brightsale also claimed that one of the UK’s best-known firms urged traditional estate agents to work together to force their online competitors out of the market.
Emily Bellusci, Less2sell’s owner backs Brightsale’s and she states “We would urge all home sellers to insist that they are free to use an online agency, alongside a traditional one, without a threat of punitive commission hikes.
“We believe that competition crushing contracts are not in the best interests of consumers or the industry as a whole. We at Less2sell Online Estate Agent set our bus Read more:investigation
Some Long Awaited Good News for First-Time Buyers (Maybe!) 2007-10-14 15:24:10 What is good news for one person can be bad news for another. When it comes to property ownership in this country over the past decade, first-time buyers have repeatedly drawn the short straw (bad news). The housing boom that has had millions of older homeowners (good news) jumping all the way to the bank, has been nothing but bad news for first-time buyers.
Latest report received by Less2sell Estate Agent indicates that first-time buyers now need to save £25,600 (up £12,351 from 2001) to cover the costs of buying a home (deposit). And to consolidate the problem, some are borrowing more than six times their income in a desperate bid to get a foot onto the property ladder.
The good news is that the ramifications of five interest rate hikes, the US sub-prime mortgage crisis and the much-lamented global credit crunch start to hit home, there are signs that the housing market is cooling down.
What does this mean for first-time buyers? Well for a change the recent news from the housing Read more:First
, Buyers
, Maybe
How to add value to your home through D-I-Y. 2007-10-14 14:44:19 A recent survey of estate agents by GE Money highlights that the right DIY project can add as much as £22,300 to the price tag of an average property.
But what are the most value-adding home improvements?
Less2sell estate agents believe that increasing the square footage of your property is likely to add the most value:
Top 3 Home Improvements Most Likely To Improve The Value Of A Home according to Halifax’s valuers
Rank
Room
Rank out of ten
1.
Loft conversion
10
2=
New kitchen
8
2=
Painting and decorating
8
4=
Extension/extra rooms
7
4=
New bathroom
7
A similar survey from GE Money breaks down approximately how much money different types of home improvement could potentially add to the price of a property:
Estate Agents’ Top 10 DIY Projects, according to GE Money
Recommended Top 10 DIY projects
Average £s Added
1) Loft conversion
£22,300
2) Add an exte
Pre-Christmas Slow Down Comes Early 2007-11-23 15:14:36 The latest NAEA survey has been published and Less2sell have summarised the key points from the September report below:-
The number of house buyers on estate agents’ books was at its lowest for the past four years, with agents reporting an average of 282 buyers registered in comparison to the 326 recorded in October 2007.
The figures reflect the current housing market cool down, as banks, building societies and borrowers tighten their belts following continued uncertainty in the current economic environment. Prospective purchasers are putting their existing buying and selling ambitions on hold as the present cautionary cloud exists.
CAUTION IN THE MARKET
The number of sales agreed per agent was down in October with on average 10 sales reported, compared with 11 in September 2007. This is a significant drop from the same time last year when a figure of 14 sales was reported for October 2006, but reflects the current caution in the housing market.
Meanwhile, the percentag Read more:Christmas
, Early
Final Phase Roll Out of HIP’s 2007-11-23 14:51:22 From the 14th December 2007 all residential properties being put up for sale will require a HIP. This latest announcement has come despite huge opposition from the industry and warnings that HIPs are seriously damaging the market.
A small ray of light today is the decision to extend first day marketing until 1 June 2008. This will allow some breathing space for the market, but is in no way a solution to any part of the HIPs fiasco. Read more:Final
Looking For A Good Deal - Tips For Homebuyers 2007-11-27 14:42:57 With the numerous stories about house prices at the moment, it’s hard to know what to believe.
Whether house prices are going up, down or sideways, it makes sense to put in the hours to get the best home for you at the best price possible.
Less2sell Estate Agents eluded in a previous post titled ‘Pre-Christmas Slow Down comes Early’, that we feel that a series of interest rate cuts are needed in 2008 to re-stimulate the market. Since then rumours are emerging that the Bank of England have declared the need to reduce interest rates next year.
Anyway, if you’re looking to buy, Less2sell Online Estate Agency would like to share some top homebuying tips with you.
1. Do Your Own Research
One top reason many parents choose to move home is due to the fact they have a child about to start school, and unsurprisingly, properties in excellent state school catchment areas tend to have a hefty premium slapped on.
The trouble is, catchment areas usually vary from year to year, th Read more:Homebuyers
Interest Rate drops by 0.25% 2007-12-06 05:32:41 As predicted by Less2sell in our August article Interest
Rate Remain Unchanged the Bank of England have today reduced interest rates by 0.25% to 5.5%.
Related Links
Interest Rate Remain Unchanged
Pre Christmas Slowdowncomes Early
UK Inflation below magical 2% level
Mortgage lenders leaning towards cash-laden buyers 2008-02-26 16:47:58 The credit crunch is starting to afect mortgage borrowers who are unable to muster a big deposit. Nationwide has told its customers wanting a loan of more than 75% of the properties value that they will pay higher interest rates to reflect the increased risks involved.
Nationwide increased its mortgages for home buyers wanting to borrow [...] Read more:Mortgage
, leaning
Interest Rate Cut to 5.25% 2008-02-07 06:02:40 The bank of England today decided to cut the UK interest rate by a further 0.25% to 5.25%
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Interest
Rate could fall to 4%
Interest rate drops by 0.25%
Historical Interest rate cuts
Interest rates could fall to 4%. 2008-01-23 11:29:33 This year will see at least three interest rate cuts taking the interest own to 4.75%, however, if the USA enters into a recession this could fall to 4%.
How! Well the Bank of England are holding back on ate cuts due to high inflationary pressure predominantly from Energy and food stuffs. However, [...] Read more:Interest
Mortgage Approvals Down by 40% 2008-05-27 19:11:40 April figures for Mortgage
approvals show a 40% decline in approvals on this time last year, further highlighting the effect that the credit crunch is having on the UK housing market.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders has indicated that house prices in the UK could drop by 7% and the number of property transactions could fall [...]
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