Owner: Appleton Property Articles URL:http://www.appleton-estates.com/articles/ Join Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 08:52:33 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Appleton Estate agents provide residential property sales, rental and management services in England. This blog contains posts on these subjects. Site statistics:Click here
The panic seems to have calm down today 2007-09-18 06:46:58 After the announcement of the Chancellor Alistair Darling announcing last night that the Bank of England would all existing deposits, the shares of the Northern Rock has gone up today and there seems to be less queues by the savers to get their cash out.
Northern Rock 2007-09-17 17:02:31 Over the last few days, there is a lot of hype about Northern
Rock. Here are some details on the situation:
Due to the recent issues in the US mortgage market, NR recently decided, for safety’s sake, to open up what’s effectively an overdraft facility with the Bank of England. Due to the problems in the US market, the banks are unwilling to lend each other money and NR’s business model is based on borrowing money from other financial institutions.
Because of the media coverage lead to panic and people are trying to get their savings out.
As a result of these recent events, we have already seen some banks/building societies increasing their rates although the Bank of England has kept the base rate unchanged.
Almost everyone is predicting that getting mortgages is going to become more difficult and the cost of the mortgages are going to go up. However, very few are predicting a housing market crash citing the huge demand for property outweighing the supply at the moment.
We
House prices fall! 2007-09-13 07:18:35 According to a new study published today by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the house prices fell last month for the first time in more than 2.5 years as the recent rate rises have cooled down people’s appetite for property.
House
price growth turned negative since October 2005 said RICS.
The demand for property is continuing to weaken as rising interest rates further hit affordability levels, the report added. Overall 1.8 per cent more chartered surveyors saw a fall in prices during August than those who saw a rise, down from 10.8 per cent more who reported a rise in July.
Record buy-to-let market growth 2007-09-11 07:43:50 According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the recent increases in the interest rates have not slowed down the buy-to-let market.
The RICS indicates that the slowing housing market and high interest rates are pushing the first-time buyers to stay rented accommodation. This has resulted in the fastest rent rises.
New landlord instructions, which is quoted as an indicator of buy-to-let activity, increased significantly in the second quarter of 2007 too.
Rent-flation
During the recent years, the number of buy-to-let mortgages has almost doubled. 1 in 10 mortgages are now for investment properties.
The growing influence of buy-to-let investors, with more financial muscle than the typical first-time buyer, helps explain why house prices in the UK are still rising briskly, despite the Bank of England having imposed five rises in interest rates since the summer of 2006.On Monday, BBC news reported that the house price inflation picked up again; rising from 12.1% to 12. Read more:Record
Interest rates unchanged at 5.75% 2007-09-06 10:57:38 The Bank of England has kept the base interest rates at 5.75 today.
Amid the recent financial problems due to the U.S. mortgage issues, the Bank has recently intervened in the marketplace and today’s news was expected.
Unlike the predictions of the base rate going up to 6% by the end of the year, some analysts are now expecting the rates to be kept at the same level and some even argue that they should be reduced.
Either case, this should be good news for the investment property landlords.
Read more:Interest
Be careful of ‘Desperately’ Low Letting Fees 2007-09-04 05:33:06 With strong rental demand in the Maidenhead and Reading area, many letting and estate agents are struggling to find new properties to offer to applicants and, in a desperate attempt, are reducing their fees drastically to attract prospective landlords.
At face value, this may sound like positive news. However, the landlords should be wary of offers that seem too good to be true.
Landlords should keep in mind when picking a letting/estate agent that you get the professionalism and service you pay for. Slashed fees may result in a poor letting/management service. Even worse, the agent may end up having insufficient funds to survive.
The letting and management of residential properties is a very complicated and costly process; it demands significant time and resources as well as money. Some people have a misconception of thinking of lettings only requiring to advertise in the local paper.
As a start, having well-trained and knowledgeable staff is vital. Vetting the prospective tenants car Read more:Letting
Conveyancing 2007-08-31 17:08:49 What is conveyancing?
Conveyancing is the legal process whereby the ownership of a property is transferred from the seller to the buyer. In simple terms, it is the legal process of buying and selling property.
Who does the conveyancing?
In general, the conveyancing work is carried out by a solicitor or a licensed conveyancer. One lawyer cannot act for both parties, as this would cause a conflict of interest so therefore both the buyer and seller will have their own representation.
Nowadays, with the increased popularity of the Internet, the e-conveyancing is on offer as a less expensive alternative too.
Housing slow down 2007-08-30 05:50:26 The recent data from Nationwide shows that there are clear signs of a slow down in the housing market. Although the house prices have gone up 0.6% in August, Nationwide says that the annual house price inflation has fallen down to 9.6% from 9.9%.
These finding have been backed up by separate sets of data that has recently been published by Halifax and by the Land Registry as well.
The recent actions that the Bank of England have taken seem to be the key factor in this.
Read more:Housing
House Price Inflation 2007-08-01 08:27:37 According to the Land Registry, the house price inflation in England and Wales slowed down in July. The recent survey it carried out recently shows that the increase was only 0.1% in July. This is claimed to be the lowest during the previous 13 months. As a result the house price inflation has dropped down to 8.8% from 9.1%.
London and the South East seem to be still leading the price increases; keeping the rate divergence between London and the rest of the country.
Some experts argue that the recent 5 increases in interest rates by the Bank of England is paying dividends in slowing the house price increases down.
Read more:House
, Inflation
, House Price
Floods in Maidenhead 2007-07-22 11:21:18 We hope that none of our landlords or tenants has suffered as a result of the floods.
If it was a few years ago before the Jubilee flood relief, a lot of the properties near the river would have been affected by this year, it has not been as bad as some of the recent incidents.
Read more:Floods
House prices unaffected by recent financial concerns 2007-09-28 07:15:12 According to the Nationwide Building Society, the recent financial concerns
(especially the Northern Rock problems) have not affected the UK housing market in September and the prices are still rising in the month.
As expectedly, though, the sub-prime (or riskier) mortgages have become more constantly to the borrower.
The prices rose by 0.7% in September but more importantly the house price inflation has slowed down to 9% from 9.6%. This is almost the lowest level over the last 12 months. The Building Society suggests that this slow down is mainly due to the base interest rate increases by the Bank of England.
Different surveys from different sources indicate conflicting conclusions, though. For example, Halifax claim that the house prices are still on the increase whereas other sources, such as, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors are now more certain that the long awaited slowdown in house prices has already started this summer.
Slowing property demand
Earlier this week, Ba Read more:House
Advantages of Home staging 2007-09-26 11:28:11 Essentially, home staging means setting up the property so it can make the best possible impact on the potential buyers or tenants.
Start the home staging process as early as you can once you have decided to sell/let your property. Don’t wait until your property is on the market for a long period that you are potentially forced into lowering the asking price.
View your home honestly from a buyer’s/tenant’s perspective. You may need to invest some money and effort to carry out small repairs. Give your house a touch up or get it painted. Ensure that your property has “curb-appeal”; trim the hedges and mow the lawn.
Organise your belongings and eliminate all the clutter or unwanted items. If you don’t use something throw it away. This will help when you move. Clean all areas from the outside to the inside. People look at corners that you might over look so inspect your home before you show it and give it one last cleaning before your buyers/tenants arri Read more:Advantages
Good news for Reading public transport users 2007-09-20 15:48:33 The new premier bus routes are being introduced in Reading
this autumn.
Reading Buses plans to introduce 21 new buses with latest technology. These buses are expected to make the travel easier and more comfortable for thousands passengers. The bus stops will also be revamped with to provide Real Time Passenger information according to the Reading Borough Council.
The Reading Borough Council is also introducing a a state-of-the-art travel information system.
The system can be accessed by the Internet, mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants or hand-held computers. This scheme is claimed to be exclusive to Reading and is expected to be rolled out later in the year. It means that people has more flexibility in planning their journeys and getting the most up-to-date public transport
information.
For those people who need to (or prefer to) travel by car, there is also a new car-pool scheme is being introduced in Reading as well. It is open to all the volunteer and the details can be ac Read more:users
, public transport
Property Investment: The Advantage of Letting vs. “Flipping” 2007-10-04 05:31:26 When beginning to invest in residential property, a big question that will have to be addressed is &ldquo
;Should you let it or fix it up and sell it?&rdquo
; There are advantages and disadvantages associated with each choice. While the best answer depends on many different factors, in many cases there is a long-term advantage to letting the property versus flipping it for a profit.
Owning rental property can generate a good level of income if the property is located in the right area. If the property is in a transitional area, one where individuals tend to move within about five years, then a rental property at the right price is a great commodity. In these cases, the investor will have no trouble finding a renter who will be interested in the property.
Letting
the property can result in a greater profit for the investor over time because the investor is obtaining money from the property each month for a number of years instead of one lump sum payment. The money can quickly add up and t Read more:Advantage
, Flipping
Islamic Mortgages 2007-10-18 17:34:05 According to the Islamic
law, Sharia, the Muslims are forbidden to pay or receive interest. Most of the mortgage products on the market thus were unsuitable for Muslim borrowers as these mortgages are mainly based on interest.
As a result of the increasing demand by the Muslim borrowers, lenders have in the recent years expanded their product ranges with Sharia compliant mortgages. Under Sharia law, two mortgage types are available to potential homeowners: Ljara (Lease To Own) and Murabaha (Deferred Sale Finance) loans.
The Ijara Loan
By this method, the mortgage lender would buy the property from the vendor; becoming the owner. The lender then leases the property to the over 20 to 25 years with a monthly lease payment. The lease payments would take all of the lender’s costs into account.
Now the Muslim borrower’s payment would now be treated as rent instead of “interes”. And the payments would fluctuate with the interest rate changes.
The lease agreement wou
Further evidence of housing slowdown 2007-10-26 09:29:18 The recent figures announced by the Land Registry is backing up the recent claims of a housing market slow down. According to the published data, the annual inflation rate for residential properties fell in September to 8.7%, down from 9.4% in August.
Although the Bank of England has kept the base interest rates unchanged this month, many analysts are predicting some cuts before the end of the year.
The slow down in the residential sales market traditionally increases the rental demand as more first time buyers tend to keep hold on to their money until everything settles down. The managing director of Appleton Lettings in Maidenhead, Sarah Akkus said “this is certainly in-line with the increase we have experienced in our rental and management division”.
Read more:Further
Estate Agents in Cookham 2007-10-12 15:34:26 If you are searching for Cookham Estate
Agents, then you have come to the right place. We are one of the best estate agents Cookham area with an exceptional reputation for outstanding residential property services.
You can find find a selection of our fantastic reviews here. At Appleton Estates, we take pride in our customer-friendly agents and trust our long-time landlords have placed in us.
We cover Cookham Village, Cookham Dean and Cookham Rise areas. At Appleton Estates we have an extensive knowledge of the Cookham, Maidenhead and the surrounding areas at a personal and professional level.
Our vast range of residential property services includes the sales, rentals and management as well as house staging. We have been successfully dealing with town houses, cottages, flats as well as new developments.
If you are a landlord or tenant or an investor, please contact us for advice on purchasing, lettings, management, rent reviews, general maintenance, rent collection Read more:Estate Agents
Crossrail 2007-10-01 15:09:12 The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has announced today that the long awaited Crossrail project will go ahead and the Government will supply the final third of the required funding. The £16 billion project will start in 2010 and become operational from 2015.
The news has been welcomed with eagerness by the property agents and investors alike. The line will start in Maidenhead, expectedly boosting the local property market as well as the businesses. It will almost halve the travel into the City of London and the Maidenodians do not need to even change trains.
The Crossrail will not only help modernise the rail travel into London from Maidenhead but will also create a lot of jobs into the Maidenhead area; with a very significant impact on the local housing market. Already there is a big build up of office headquarters in and around Maidenhead, most of which is currently vacant at the moment.
The BBC website reports almost a train every few minutes from Maidenhead. This is going to make so
Maximising income from rentals 2007-11-08 10:31:07 With the buy-to-let investments becoming more popular everyday, more and more people treat their investments like businesses.
As with any other business, the property investment should therefore aim to maximise the income from the rentals. This is a fine-balancing
act of keeping the property in a “desirable” state while ensuring that the vacant period for the property is minimal.
Naturally, it is not easy or realistic to find tenants that stay in the property for years. Currently, the average tenancy period seems to be
around 10-14 months in the South East of England. So, on average, the landlords go through a tenancy renewal once every year.
As a premier estate agent in Maidenhead, to help our valued landlords strike the right balance, Appleton Estates aim to achieve 2 key objectives
for our valued landlords while managing their properties:
Our main aim is to secure the next tenancy in advance so that there is either no vacant period or it is kept to a minimum window. App
Expected interest rates cuts 2007-11-15 14:07:09 The Bank of England has signalled potential interest rate cuts for 2008.
This has been welcome by millions of mortgage payers who have been struggling to keep up with escalating interest rates.
The Bank of England has increased the interest rates 5 times over the past 15 months - peaking at 5.75%.
However, there were also some worrying news in the its quarterly Inflation Report. The Bank forecasts the economy would slow down in 2008 and inflation would increase.
The Bank noted a significant amount of uncertainty over for the economy in the upcoming months, particularly due to the vulnerable world financial systems.
The bank also indicated that there were some signs the house price inflation was softening.
Read more:Expected
Housing market continues its slump 2007-11-14 11:07:01 The mortgage lending fell again in September in the UK as interest the rate rises slowed the housing market and house prices continued to fall.
According to a recent survey, a total of £30.6 billion was advanced during September. - This is the lowest monthly lending figure since April of this year. The amount lent to first-time-buyers fell sharply to £12.7 billion, down from £16.2 billion in August. They are now spending an average of 20.4% of their income on mortgage interest payments, figures showed.
The increase is part of a trend which began in early summer and reflected interest rate rises in May and July, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said. But the credit crunch, which has led lenders to tighten their belts, has only just started to affect mortgage approval numbers, suggesting interest rates could be increased again in the coming months.
Figures also showed a fall in house prices for the third month in a row. Analysts expect these factors to combine to further cool the prope Read more:Housing
House prices falling 2007-11-13 07:10:58 The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) claims that the housing market slow-down is becoming more apparent.The RICS UK housing market survey published in November suggests that prices in October fell for the third month consecutively. This is the fastest pace since July of 2005.
Most of the surveyed areas have indicated a slow-down since the summer and London seems to be the only exception.
This is yet the clearest sign of the widely forecasted house market slow-down so far and the recent troubles in the financial sector seems to be a big influence.
A combination of high prices and increased interest rates have finally reined in the housing market, with the unaffordability of homes, relative to average incomes, having risen to record levels.
Enquiries from new buyers also fell, for the 11th month in a row, as other factors came into play.
Read more:House
, falling
House market winter slump 2007-11-20 04:11:08 During October, the property prices fell by 0.7% as the winter
has slowed down the buyers’ interest.
The vendors were forced to drop their asking prices according to new figures published this week. Leading up to November, the average asking price was reduced by over £1500 in England and Wales. According to Rightmove, the average property prices thus dropped below £240000.
This drop has effectively brought the house prices back to July levels.
Analysts are widely expecting further price reductions before the end of this year and early part of next year. If the financial markets can achieve some stability, the analysts are saying that small price increases might be possible later in 2008.
However, noone is still expecting a wide recession in the economy; therefore they are ruling out a majot price correction at this stage.
Read more:House
Off-plan investment 2007-11-23 06:25:50 Off-Plan property purchase scheme has become very popular amongst the investors in the recent years.
Purchasing a property off-plan simply means buying a property before it is built. These properties tend to be mostly flats. For the buyers, one of the biggest advantages is the flexibility to influence the finishing, such as the worktops, carpets, etc.
For the property investors, this scheme has a lot more significance associated though:
The property development companies aim to secure their financial position as quickly as possible. They aim not to get their capital tied up in a development for long periods so that they can start up their next project. Like any other retail trade, they tend to choose discounting as an effective way of luring the buyers in and release their capital as early as possible.
Some of the investors do claim getting up to 15-18% discounts and in some cases even getting their stamp duty paid this way.
The key benefit for the property investor is that typical Read more:investment
Home Information Packs 2007-11-23 06:18:34 The government has announced that in England and Wales, the controversial Home Information Packs (HIPs) will be mandatory for all properties sold from the 14th of December.
Initially the HIPs were required for the sales of all properties with 4 or more bedrooms. Since September of this year, the scheme was extended to cover all the properties with 3 or more bedrooms.
Since their introduction, the HIPs have been very controversial as most people claim that they make the sale process more complicated and costly without significant tangible benefits. The average cost of a HIP is around £300-£350.
Following on from the initial expansion of the scheme to cover 3 bedroom properties in September, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has claimed that more than half of its members have recorded a fall in the number of three-bedroom-plus properties coming on the market.
However, the government is still insisting that the HIPs will bring benefit to the consumers. They claim that
highest level of tenants for 5 years 2007-12-03 09:26:22 The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) claims that the level
of tenants searching for a property to rent has hit a five year high in the UK.
ARLA highlights several potential reasons for the increased tenancy demand including increased levels of immigration, concerns about the housing market, and more people living alone.
The South East of the country is heading the list where there is a shortage of rental properties.
The ARLA survey suggests increased tenancy periods where tenants are preferring to stay in the property well over twelve months. Also the vacant rental property period seems to be well under a month.
Read more:highest
Buy-to-let changes 2007-12-10 06:24:43 Over the last 10 years, in the UK there have been significant changes
in the property prices, lending and legislation; making the buy-to-let a very attractive investment alternative.According to some statistics, in the UK, the buy-to-let mortgages now constitutes 12 per cent of all mortgage advances, compared with just 3 per cent, only five years ago.
This demand has not gone unnoticed by the property developers. They have been busily popping up new buildings all over the country almost over night. There have also been an enormous increase in the property investment clubs. Some of them are now even offering free membership, free advice etc.
The director of Appleton Estate Agents Marlow, Adil Akkus, believes neither the property developers nor the investment companies have helped the buy-to-let market in the long term. Mr Akkus personally thinks that these are the 2 main factors behind the unsustainable property price increases in the South East. He continues “there may be better
Energy Performance Certificates 2008-03-10 18:07:38 Starting in October of 2008, the residential property landlords will need to provide a EnergyPerformance
Certificate (EPC ) for their property to any prospective tenant; similar to the Home Information Packs for the residential property sales, which were introduced very recently.
The EPC will contain information on the property’s energy efficiency rating on a scale [...] Read more:Certificates
Recommend Site To A Friend
