Category: News

The housing market’s recovery will be threatened with drastic consequences for buyers and sellers if the stamp duty holiday isn’t extended beyond March 31 next year.

That’s the warning from Mark Hayward, chief executive of NAEA Propertymark.

“This boom has been hugely beneficial for the housing market; however, with a stamp duty cliff edge on March 31 we are calling on government to rethink these timings due to the increased pressure on service providers within the industry which is causing delays for buyers and sellers” he says.

“Failure to find a solution to the cliff edge, whether that be a taper or extension, could cause thousands of sales to fall at the final hurdle and have a knock on and drastic effect on the housing market which has recovered well from the Covid slump” Hayward adds.

The NAEA chief executive’s remarks come in the latest market snapshot from the association – relating back to September. It reveals that the number of prospective buyers registered per estate agent branch rose a third from 396 in August, to 525 in September.  This is the highest number of house hunters recorded since June 2004.

The average number of sales agreed per estate agent branch stood at 14 in September, the highest since August 2006. This is an increase from 12 sales agreed per branch in August.

Year-on-year, the number of sales per branch has increased 75 per cent.

Meanwhile the number of sales made to FTBs stood at 19 per cent in September – the lowest amount recorded since March 2013, when the figure also stood at 19 per cent. This is a fall from 23 per cent in August this year and 30 per cent in September 2019.

And the number of properties available per member branch stood at 41 in September, rising marginally from 40 in August.

Finally in terms of prices, in September just eight per cent of properties sold above the original asking price; this is a fall from August’s high when 13 per cent of properties sold for more.

The majority (53 per cent) of properties sold for less than the original asking price in September.

A London agency says it’s discovered the five key priorities that buyers want, following a survey of its own database.

“Lockdown and the continued challenges presented by the global pandemic have undoubtedly changed the way homebuyers think and act. We are noticing some quite significant shifts in mindset when it comes to the priorities and the wish-list of buyers seeking to move house or buy a new home in London” according to Clynton Nel, residential director at JOHNS&CO.

Based on enquiries across the agency’s seven offices in the capital it says buyers’ aspirations are:

– Views: Nel says these have previously played second fiddle to the interior of a property, with buyers seeing them as a ‘nice to have’ but not essential. “Now though, with homeowners having spent months staring out of their windows, often to brick walls, neighbours’ balconies or unsightly graffiti, the importance of a good view has increased significantly.”

– Outside Space: The agency’s Nine Elm’s office reported a 200 per cent increase in the proportion of buyers requesting private outside space.

– Room to Work: “Unsurprisingly, space to work effectively from home has also become a new must- have amongst buyers in London. With so many people forced to work in bedrooms or living rooms surrounded by other family members, having a dedicated workspace has become key. The look of that space is equally important given the prevalence of video conference calls so the rise of the ‘Zoom Room’ is a key trend to watch.”

– Peace and Quiet: An increasing number of buyers questioning the noise levels in the rest of the home, in particularly the living space given this is being used more frequently during daytime hours. The agency says one buyer was close to exchanging on an apartment in a new development, but after lockdown changed his mind and chose a different property on the other side of the building away from the street.

– Amenities: In the new build market JOHNS&CO notes an increasing demand for developments that offer a variety of on-site amenities. Concerns around local lockdowns have encouraged buyers to consider what is on offer within and around their buildings. The most asked-for amenity is currently shared workspace, so developments that offer a place outside of the apartment for residents to come and work are proving popular. Gyms, swimming pools and residents’ lounges are also increasingly requested features.

I had a wry smile when I read the article on Monday from the conveyancers complaining about people getting off their backs. It was quite fun.

The comments were also interesting. There is a serious disconnect between both sides and it is not going to resolve itself. Each side is blaming each other.

I am sorry to say that this issue is not going to go away anytime soon, quite simply because no one is managing expectations.

• Conveyancers need time to do what they have always done.
• Estate agents don’t have time, and perhaps don’t have the visibility to rest their impatience and frustration at the process taking so long.

It is that simple. That is the frustration. No expectation management and no visibility in understanding the process from both sides.

One comment from Tim stated: “Meanwhile IT this and that nonsense is floated about as some kind of solution or ‘tips for speeding up conveyancing’, which in the hands of a mediocre conveyancer does nothing.”

I might add a mediocre estate agent doesn’t help either, if you view it from the other perspective –  but let’s not digress.

Technology can help if systems are there to help and I know a lot of work from the government is trying to push through reforms to help conveyancers do their job, particularly around searches BUT let’s look at it with today in mind.

Technology may not help completely with the process itself but it can help, I believe, with managing expectations and clearly pointing out where flaws in the process (or conveyancer) exist.

If we can offer transparency to all sides, it may lessen the frustration and may allow the agent to manage the buyers and sellers to make for a more fluid transaction with less chance of falling through.

It may also keep the agents off the back of the conveyancers. But I can’t promise.

Let me explain.

Many, many firms focus on the quick wins of improving the transaction experience – I might even suggest the UK leads the way here given the sheer volume of companies that exist.

The ability for people to search for their next house. The ability to view the chosen few and then how to make the offer process more efficient.

Anybody can really get involved there. It is simple to understand, and easy to develop for.

Post-offer acceptance, it gets super complicated and more difficult for people outside of industry to understand what the hell is going on.

And this is the problem. When you put insecurity into the equation, it breeds frustration and concern into a transaction. Then everyone gets jumpy, estate agents get nervous of deals falling through and they put the pressure (and the blame) on conveyancers.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned the speeches I give and brought in my example of how iBuyers give ‘certainty’ to transactions.

This current argument – and it is just that – speaks to a second trend I mention. Transparency.

When I give these speeches, I generally try to make the companies I then showcase relevant to the audience I am speaking to. Yesterday, it was a Canadian conference and so the majority of companies were either Canadian or American.

The slide below shows some of the firms from yesterday’s presentation. You can see the iBuyers there with the American and Canadian slant. Then there are those that give transparency in the transaction process.

You will note they are only British firms. That is because we have leading firms that are helping the process. We should be embracing firms like these to help streamline this difficult time to aid both sides of the market.

Delays across the house buying sector mean those wanting to benefit from the stamp duty holiday need to begin the buying and selling process by November 1.

That’s the advice of the Legal & General Mortgage Club, which has tracked delays occurring because of the high transaction volumes in recent months.

L&GMC says in the majority of cases before the pandemic, a mortgage application for a consumer with straightforward circumstances took less than two weeks  to move to mortgage offer.

However, since the UK-wide lockdown ended, this process is taking much longer – around a third of its mortgage advisers told the club it was taking three to four weeks with a further third saying it is taking four to eight weeks. Those applicants with more complex backgrounds, such as those with impaired credit histories or who have been on furlough, may typically need six to eight weeks to get approved for a mortgage.

Conveyancers have told L&GMC that the time between offer and exchange is now taking three weeks, while the period between exchange and completion stands at one to two weeks. Responses from estate agents also indicated that the average time between receiving an offer on a property and completion has increased by some eight weeks.

The overall timeline for home buying, therefore, could be up to 15 weeks for a straightforward deal or up to 17 weeks for buyers with more complex requirements.

However, this figure does not take into account half term and Christmas holidays nor the impact of a possible second lockdown.

Legal & General therefore advises buyers to begin their search by November 1 to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday to give themselves enough breathing space should any issues arise before completion.

“Policy makers need to consider if a tapering of the Stamp Duty deadline is needed instead of a hard deadline. We need to avoid those moving or purchasing a home missing out through delays after 31 March when the holiday ends” says club director Kevin Roberts.

Agents in some parts of the country may be able to make use of data from utilities comparison service uSwitch, which has drawn up working-from-home information for buyers.

Its remote working index taps into the trend of some people seeking to move from major cities to other locations where they may get an improved quality of life, especially if they are to spend more time at home because of the continuing pandemic.

Harrogate in Yorkshire emerged as the best place to work from home, with its combination of superfast 60Mbps broadband, large amounts of green space in the area, low crime rates and good schools.

Other locations in the top 15 are Bath, the Mendips, Derry City and Strabane, Wigan, Cheshire, St Albans, York, Edinburgh and Swansea, plus St Helens, Cheltenham, Basingstoke, Stockport and Exeter.

In comparison, big cities fare poorly – Birmingham 82nd, London in 88th place, and Manchester ranked 100th out of 104.

A uSwitch spokeswoman says: “The pandemic has turned our working routines upside down and given many of us a taste for what our lives could be like if we worked from home on a more permanent basis.

“With the likes of Derry and Wigan so high up the list, it shows how different our priorities are once we are liberated from having to worry about the length of our commute.”

When choosing a new place to live on the assumption they were working from home, 53 per cent said house prices were most important, followed by green spaces (45 per cent) and broadband speeds (34 per cent).

A fifth of people want to spend more time working from home even when the pandemic is over, and one in six employees want to work from home full time when life returns to normal.

People generally want to move from cities and larger towns to smaller towns and villages.

One in four currently live in a city of more than 500,000 residents, but only one in nine wish to do so in the future. Conversely, the proportion who live in a village is only 15 per cent but rises to three in 10 who would like to do so.

Agents Together, the wellbeing and mentorship service which came into existence earlier this year, is launching what it calls a Redundancy Bounce Back Series.

This is a month-long virtual event aimed at supporting agents worried about losing their jobs or already redundant.

“We know that estate agency and the property market has been more buoyant since lockdown but the three month cease of trading has caused some significant issues across businesses” explains a statement from Agents Together.

“As uncertainty continues and the prospect of a second round of lockdowns loom we felt it was our duty as a charity focussed on a healthy mind that we help those most in need” it continues.

The organisation – set up by Michael and Kenny Bruce with the involvement of key industry figures including chief executive Sarah Edmundson and high-profile consultants Mike Day and Chris Watkin – says that in the past two months across the whole UK jobs market some 227,000 losses have been reported.

The Agents Together series is supported by some of the best known recruitment experts in the industry including Josh Rayner, Nicola Broomham, Iain White, Russell Humphrey and Andrew Deverell-Smith.

Other experts joining in during the month include Stuart Perkin, head of people at the new Bruce brothers portal, Boomin.

More details can be found here.

Key dates include:

Today, October 16: Official Launch of the Series;

Wednesday October 21, 1pm: Webinar 1 – How to make your CV and LinkedIn profile stand out from the crowd;

Wednesday October 28 1pm: Webinar 2 – How to prepare for and win your interview;

Wednesday November 4 1pm: Expert Panel – A chance to ask the experts anything about redundancy, CV’s, interviewing, and maintaining a healthy mind.

Agents Together is also setting up a support group on Facebook from early next week – where it will be a safe environment, with experts on hand to answer any important questions around redundancy.

A Bank of England survey suggests it may be more difficult for prospective buyers to get a mortgage later this year.

In the BoE’s latest quarterly Credit Conditions Survey, lenders reported that credit to households – including mortgages – increased slightly in the three months to the end of August. Much of this was driven by greater demand for mortgages as a result of the stamp duty holiday.

However, those same lenders have told the Bank that while demand for both house purchase credit and remortgaging would probably increase in the next quarter, it would more difficult for borrowers to take out a mortgage.

This is because increasingly-cautious lenders are considering tightening lending criteria – and that’s despite a call from Prime Minister Boris Johnson just a week ago for more relaxed mortgage conditions for first time buyers.

In response to the warning shots from lenders, Joshua Elash, director of property lender MT Finance, says: “As the economy deteriorates, and unemployment numbers continue to creep up, adverse credit could seriously impact the availability of credit to the average household.”

And Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, adds: “Borrowers who have found it harder to get a mortgage will not be surprised to hear that lenders tightened criteria in the third quarter and expect to tighten further in the run-up to the end of the year. Concerns about the impact of the pandemic on earnings and what will happen to property prices, particularly for those borrowing at high loan-to-values, is behind this growing caution.”

According to Jeremy Leaf, the London estate agent who is also a former residential faculty chair at the RICS, the figures demonstrate the strength of increase for house purchase mortgages in the third quarter after lockdown ended and the SDLT holiday began.

The Bank of England carries out the credit conditions survey each quarter, but individual lenders’ views are not necessary Bank policy. The latest survey was carried out between September 1 and September 18.

An estate agency in Lancashire has been taken over by a hotel group, which pledges to expand and create more jobs.

Mikhail Hotel and Leisure Group is to takeover David Davies estate and letting agents in St Helens.

The firm plans to make its new acquisition one of the largest agencies in north west England.

Mikhail has become a major investor in the region’s hospitality and property sectors and recently bought one of Europe’s biggest gaming arcades in the area.

David Davies Sales & Lettings is one of the oldest sales and lettings businesses in the North West and was founded by the late David Davies in 1981.

Mikhail has now joined this brand alongside David’s wife, Paula Davies, who remains in place as an executive director of the company.

Andrew Mikhail, chairman of MHALG, says: “I am very excited to have bought such a prestigious business in St Helens and keeping Paula involved in the business was crucial to me. Paula was David’s rock both within and outside of the business for the last 21 years until his untimely death last year.

“I got to know David and Paula extremely well in the later years as I used their services and was so impressed with the way that they conducted their business that it was such an easy decision to make the purchase.

“I will grow David Davies to become one of the largest Sales and Letting agencies in the North West, growing a business on a 40 year solid foundation, thanks to David and Paula Davies and their team, makes my goal achievable.”

Paula Davies adds: “David Davies is a great business with brilliant staff who have worked with us for a long time, but we have been through a lot in the last 12 months and it’s a credit to the team that we are in such a good position now.

“David and I have known Andrew for many years and know he can offer the company a bright future. He has a lot that he can bring to the business, but importantly for us, he acknowledges the existing brand and wants to take that further.

“It’s already a very strong St Helens brand but there are now big plans for the business, and I’m delighted for the staff because they really deserve for this to happen.”

A new portal-style PropTech product has launched and wants to recruit estate agents to its fold – despite describing the way agents work now as “outdated.”

Vyomm is a portal that currently operates as a showcase for a small number of high-end homes on sale or to let but ultimately wants to operate across a wider market.

The platform enables landlords and vendors to upload details of properties before then offering the listings to ‘winner’ agents who effectively bid for the instructions.

The sellers or landlords who have created property profiles and uploaded photos and other information, then wait to receive the agents’ bids, valuations and indications of a marketing strategy.

The portal charges agents only when a home is known to sell via the platform.

A spokesman for Vyomm told Estate Agent Today: “The way estate agents work is quite outdated. So imagine an Airbnb type of technology but for property and selling.”

Vyomm is the brainchild of businessman Utsav Goenka, who has married into the Mittal steel family; the product has been five years in development.

Publicity for the product says: “We all enjoy a good story, novel or movie, and in the social media era, people are telling their own stories every day, forging connections and stimulating emotions. In an ever-crowded, noisy property market, the art of story-telling holds key.

“Vyomm launched to fast forward the property market with its unique technology, which took five years of development, leveraging the power of visual narrative. By showcasing homes and presenting them with modern visually appealing images and videos (think Instagram and Airbnb), viewers are immersed in the visually rich living experience of the home and emotionally connect to it.”

Three high-end agencies – Carter Jonas, Beauchamp Estates and Sotheby’s International Realty – are “embracing Vyomm’s technology” according to the firm, which is first operating in London’s premium market but has “a view to go global.”

In a section of its website aimed at attracting estate agencies to sign up, Vyomm claims: “Zoopla and Rightmove have been presenting properties much the same way for over a decade. Vyomm changes all that. Browsing a home on Vyomm is as close as you can get to experiencing being there. You not only attract more buyers, but also the right ones for each property, allowing you to close more deals in less time.”

And on the site the creator, Utsav Goenka, writes: “As resources become available on a tap, and marketing and sales converge in a digital, social media-driven world, large corporate agencies are starting to look a lot like Goliath – big and powerful but slow to move.

“The independent agent is the David – small, but savvy and agile. With the right technology platform and support channels, they are ready to go forth and carve out their niche in the market.

“It’s not a question of who will win, as perhaps there is place for both. Only one thing is certain! The high ground shall belong to those who embrace the future by engaging the technology and tools that differentiate them and set themselves up to better serve the market.”

An estate agency in the south of England has abandoned its online-only strategy and has decided to open a physical office in a local High Street.

Open House Brighton Coast, which has been operating for five years, has stepped out of the virtual world because of what it calls “growing demand and ongoing success.”

Owner Neil Standing says: “Demand from both buyers and sellers is strong and we’re seeing properties sell faster and close to or above asking price. Given the challenging world we’re living in, it’s great to see our industry thriving and we felt the time was right to make the local investment in Peacehaven with our new office serving Brighton, Saltdean, Peacehaven and Newhaven.”

Co-founder Stuart Foster adds: “In November we’re launching a 360 degrees ‘virtual tour’ service for vendors, making it easier for potential buyers to ‘walk through’ properties before a Covid-19 safe viewing of the properties they’re interested in making an offer on.”

The local council has welcomed the move to open a physical office which a statement saying: “Peacehaven Town Council’s priority is supporting the local community. This new venture will enhance the interaction that Open House is offering their clients.

“We continue to support our local businesses during these unpredictable times and wish Neil and Stuart the very best of luck with this enhanced service.”