Posted on

RICS figures confirm short-term bounce but supply is very low

RICS figures confirm short-term bounce but supply is very lowThere’s more confirmation this morning that the housing market is enjoying a short-term bounce – and that’s before the effect of yesterday’s stamp duty initiatives.

The latest market snapshot from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, out today, shows a net balance of 61 per cent of its monthly survey respondents seeing a rise in new buyer enquiries over the past four weeks.

The number of new properties being listed for sale also rose over the month, with a net balance of 42 per cent of survey participants noting an increase rather than decrease.

As agents continue to deal with a backlog of sales held up by lockdown, the number of newly agreed sales moved into positive territory for the first time since February, with a net balance of 43 per cent citing an increase in completed transactions.

However, the average number of properties on agents’ books remain close to all-time lows – just 39 on average per branch, says RICS. And on prices, for the third successive report respondents have reported a decline in house prices.

“Key activity indicators in the RICS survey suggest that the market is enjoying a short term bounce following ending of the lockdown, with sharp spikes in the metrics tracking both buyer enquiries and new instructions” explains Simon Rubinsohn, RICS chief economist.

“However, there are worrying signs that this rebound may quickly run out of steam against the backdrop of a tightening in lending criteria by mortgage providers, and the uncertain macro environment particularly with regard to the employment picture. Respondents to the survey highlight both of these issues in explaining the broadly flat picture regarding sales expectation beyond the immediate uplift.

“Meanwhile, the issues around the sales market appear to be shifting sentiment in the lettings market with, somewhat ominously given the prevailing economic climate, rent expectations beginning to edge upwards once again.”

Posted on

Stamp Duty dithering could kill the market, warn angry agents

Stamp Duty dithering could kill the market, warn angry agents

Agents have spoken out angrily against any uncertainty in the market caused by government leaks about future stamp duty changes.

In recent days many national newspapers have reported that Chancellor Rishi Sunak will tomorrow reveal the principles of a stamp duty change – either a six month holiday, or selected short-term changes at the mid and lower end of the market.

But most of the government leaks say this change will merely be discussed in Sunak’s announcement tomorrow, but not actually introduced until the Budget in the autumn.

This has led to widespread concern that the uncertainty will damage the market’s recovery over the summer as buyers wait to see if they have to pay less duty – or none at all – later.

“Please either announce that you are changing it one way or another. Please don’t say you are thinking about it or it may be introduced in a few months. Otherwise, you will stop the market in its tracks as buyers and sellers wait to see what will happen before making decisions and you will kill off any or much of the growing increase in activity we have seen since lockdown restrictions were eased” explains Jeremy Leaf, former chair of the residential faculty off the RICS and the owner of his own London estate agency.

Stacks Property Search, a buying agency, tweeted yesterday: “More uncertainty and a brake on the market as buyers wait for the autumn?”

And a statement from Tom Bill – head of UK residential research at Knight Frank – said: “The government understands that moving house has far-reaching benefits for the UK economy and this may form part of a wider re-think of property taxation that recognises this strategically important role. However, it would need to be introduced immediately to prevent buyers from putting plans on hold and losing the momentum that has built since the market re-opened.”

Other industry figures are concerned that the suggested changes – which, if they come to pass, would apply almost wholly at the middle and lower end of the market – do not go far enough.

Tomer Aboody, director of property lender MT Finance, says: “The [stamp duty] threshold for higher-end properties – £1m plus – is still at extraordinarily high levels, which prevent many from selling or buying. While giving a stamp duty holiday at entry level, why not also reduce the higher-end stamp duty to previous levels where it was a set amount? This would allow, even for a short period, for the market to evolve, and for buyers to move up and down the ladder more easily.”

Aboody also calls for downsizers to have a stamp duty perk to encourage greater mobility in the market.

Last summer Johnson himself said during his Tory leadership campaign that he would consider raising the stamp duty threshold from £125,000 to £500,000 and cutting the top SDLT rate from 12 to seven per cent.

At around the same time the new Chancellor, Sajid Javid, made clear in media interviews that he too wanted a reform of the tax – although his initial suggestion that the burden could be shifted from buyer to seller was later denied.

By the time of December’s General Election the only firm commitment regarding stamp duty in the Conservative manifesto was to create a three per cent stamp duty surcharge on non-UK resident buyers.

Posted on

Code of Practice for Estate Agents set to change industry forever

Code of Practice for Estate Agents set to change industry forever

A new estate agency Code of Practice is to be written by a group set up by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and The Property Ombudsman.

It will be led by a Labour peer and should produce the code by the end of this year.

The steering group – which also includes representatives from ARLA and NAEA Propertymark, Trading Standards and sales and lettings industry trade bodies – is charged with developing what RICS and TPO call “an overarching code of conduct for residential property agents”.

It will be independent under the chair, Baroness Dianne Hayter, and is the first attempt to enact one of the many recommendations put forward a year ago by the Regulation of Property Agents Working Group.

That group called for an independent regulator, licensing for all agents, a new code of conduct, mandatory qualifications and a new form of redress more powerful than existing operators: until now, none of these recommendations had been acted on, and even this morning’s new announcement addresses only one of the proposals.

The new Code of Practice is likely to be a single, high-level set of principles to be applied to all residential property agents; there will also be a number of other more detailed sections developed that are specific to various aspects of the residential property agent sector, such as sales, lettings and management.

A statement from RICS and TPO says the code is being prepared so that it can be “handed over” to the new regulator once that role is established.

The Code of Practice Steering Group will consist of consumer and sector representatives who “will work collaboratively and in the public interest, and those participating in the group do so voluntarily, in good faith.”

No names or organisations have been named so far as being involved.

A draft on the new code will go out for consultation this month, July, when according to the TPO and RICS “feedback from users, professionals, buyers, sellers, lenders, tenants and landlords will be sought.”

Baroness Hayter is a Labour peer whose CV includes being Chair of the Legal Services Consumer Panel, Vice Chair of the Financial Services Consumer Panel and a member of the National Consumer Council. She also chaired the Property Standards Board.

“The forthcoming combined code will ensure that consumers are clear what standards they should expect from property professionals, and it will enable them to be confident that all residential property agents will be held to account in meeting them” she says.

“The independent Steering Group is undertaking this work to prepare an over-arching Code of Practice for the new regulator, very much within the public interest.  With both consumer representatives and cross-sector support and commitment to achieving this goal of a combined code, as proposed in the Regulation of Property Agents Report, it will raise standards and trust in the industry” she continues

The launch statement of the new body includes a quote from Housing Minister Chris Pincher who says: “Baroness Hayter’s appointment is an important development for property agents as they further raise standards in their industry and protect their customers. I look forward to continuing to work with all to ensure customers are treated fairly and that all agents work to the same high standards.”

Posted on

Homesearch portal launches with two-week feedback period for agents

Homesearch portal launches with two-week feedback period for agents

Homesearch, the long-awaited new free-to-list portal, launches today with a string of testimonials from supportive estate agents.

The new portal announced at the end of last week that it had secured over 10,000 agents signing up, although it has made it clear that not all of their listings will be visible from day one – today.

Agents are encouraged to visit the site from today, ahead of a consumer launch on July 15.

A blog from founders Sam Hunter and Giles Ellwood says: “Until our consumer launch, as an agent, you will have this upcoming two-week period to familiarise yourself with our public site and how it all works before you begin inviting your contacts to connect with you and explore the site.

“One of our main aims always has and always will be to provide agents with the best possible tools to enhance their daily activities. With this in mind, we’re looking forward to receiving your feedback once you have the chance to use our public site so we can continue to make sure the platform offers you as much as possible.”

So far no details have been revealed as to Homesearch’s marketing – a critical element to get “eyes” on a portal and produce leads to agents – but the company has now appointed an in-house PR and is expected to step up its consumer-facing activities in the near future.

Amongst the testimonials from agents who have signed up, Peter Ledger – director or Newton Fallowell in Oakham – says: “Homesearch has the potential to change the general day to day of Estate Agency for the better and we are excited to be part of this movement. The simplicity of design and ease of use is honestly fantastic, the ease of use on Homesearch Pro gives a flavour of how the public platform will work.”

David Thomas – director of Liberty Gate in Nottingham – comments: “The engagement Homesearch has with the industry is incredible. They haven’t just assisted agents to improve their service and understand their data, but they have also taken a huge amount of time to listen.”

Posted on

BEWARE of The Equity Manipulators!

BEWARE of The Equity Manipulators!

 

There is an unscrupulous element within the Estate Agency business who cynically and calculatedly exploit people by misleading them about the value of their most valuable asset, their home. These people know EXACTLY what they are doing and they shame the word ‘professional’ because they knowingly over-value property to win the listing, justify a higher fee or upfront costs, knowing full well, that once your ‘cooling off’ period is over, you are tied to them for weeks or months, so they then set about manipulating their clients in every way possible, to pressure them to reduce the price of their home.

Always look at the evidence, how did they really value your home?

For further information, valuations, marketing, help finding your next home, or if you would like further information on BUYING, SELLING, INVESTING, OR RENOVATING, please feel free to contact me directly.

Antony Antoniou
Office: +44(0)1604 807308
Direct: +44(0)1604 807306
Mobile +44(0)7564 161436
antony@clever-gates.77-68-54-124.plesk.page

Posted on

Cashflow crisis likely for agents later this year – warning

Cashflow crisis likely for agents later this year - warning

Estate agents are likely to get through the next five to six months even if the market falls away – but November is most likely the critical month.

That’s the forecast from the chief executive of property recruitment firm Rayner Personnel who says the immediate future should be easy for agents to get through.

This is because portal fees are on offer and the furlough scheme is still at its most generous.

However, Josh Rayner is forecasting problems later in the year.

“[There’s] a problem coming down the tracks as the government support starts to dilute because it’s as this happens that cashflow will potentially be most vulnerable – a combination of landlords insisting on backdated rent payments, Rightmove and Zoopla support waning and an absence of deal completions from a barren lockdown period – all make for a collision of circumstances that some agencies may not easily cope with come November” he forecasts.

From the end of the summer estate agency employers like every other will be required to support the cost of furlough in respect of funding employer national insurance and pension contributions.

From September an additional 10 per cent will have to be paid by agency owners as government insists employers pay the difference between the current 80 per cent furlough threshold and a revised 70 per cent government contribution – and then 60 per cent from October.

Typically an estate agent in the UK earns £28,800 annually according to the average from the Office for National Statistics and other sources; on that basis, the total salary burden for the whole agency industry would be up to £122m per month once furloughing is scrapped entirely.

Posted on

Rush hour! Agents agree huge sales volumes since market reopened

Rush hour! Agents agree huge sales volumes since market reopened

Data released this morning by Rightmove suggests that agents in England have agreed no fewer than 40,000 sales since the market reopened little more than four weeks ago.

The data, from Rightmove, shows that over the past month in total sales are still down some 36 per cent on the comparable period last year; however, a snapshot from early June alone shows that sales are running at just three per cent lower than a year ago.

The portal – in another statement showing how influential it believes itself to be in the sales process  – says 10 of its busiest-ever traffic have been recorded in the past month.

The busiest single day for time spent on the site was Saturday June 6 with people collectively spending over 955,000 hours.

This rush of demand has had an effect on prices too.

The portal says asking prices in England are now some 1.9 per cent more than they were in the beginning of March, the last time there was sufficient data to make a meaningful comparison. This data applies to England only, as the market is still restricted in Scotland and Wales thanks to Coronavirus lockdowns.

New supply in England is also starting to recover, though there are over 175,000 missing sellers that would have come to market between March 24 and May 12 when compared to the same period in 2019.

“Whilst it’s still early days, Rightmove’s statistics covering 95 per cent of the market indicate far more resilience than had been expected, with a strong initial bounce-back in all metrics” reports the portal.

Rightmove has made a specific analysis of over 7,000 newly agreed sales provided by major corporates and property groups, and this study indicates that buyers are agreeing to pay closer to the asking price than they were at the beginning of the year.

In recent weeks, buyers were having offers accepted at 97.7 per cent of the last advertised asking price on Rightmove; although these sales have not yet completed, they are the most up-to-date view of sales agreed prices until completion data is available in a few months’ time.

“This indicates that sales agreed after the market reopened have not only shown price stability but a likelihood of modest upwards price pressure” says the portal.

Posted on

Property Gurus lure another prominent agent for central London

Property Gurus lure another prominent agent for central London

The new YOUhome Property Gurus agency has announced another key hire to strengthen its central London activities.

The agency, set up by Adrian Black, offers its so-called ‘Property Gurus’ a salary, commission, administration support, marketing support and access to PlatformYOU, which provides up to the minute aggregated market data and supports vendor management.

Now it’s revealed that it has appointed Chris Shaw to cover the Notting Hill and Bayswater area – Shaw has spent seven years at boutique agency Domus Nova and was previously head of sales for Hamptons International at its Hyde Park office.

YOUhome chief operating officer Laurence Lai says Shaw’s move to the new agency “reflects a seismic shift in the industry where good estate agents can enjoy the freedom to express themselves, provide a better service to their clients, take higher commissions and work flexibly whilst having the platform and resources.”

YOUhome Property Gurus became fully operational in London in 2017 and claims to have the most experienced sales team in London, with their least experienced guru having 12 years in the business and their most 30 years.

Collectively the agency’s sales team has sold almost 5,000 Prime and outer Prime London properties.

Posted on

First time buyers take four in 10 mortgages since market resumes

First time buyers take four in 10 mortgages since market resumes

Today is one month since the government lifted restrictions on agents and the housing market – and since that time the largest increase in business has been for mortgages.

In the past month the total mortgage search volumes using FinTech service Twenty7Tec has doubled from 479,000 searches to 955,000.

“We’ve also seen the volumes of first time buyers’ searches quadruple since that announcement. First Time Buyers accounted for 39.4 per cent of all purchase searches in the past month – up from a lockdown low of 31.82 per cent just days before the [market opening] announcement” explains James Tucker, Twenty7Tec’s chief executive.

He adds: “There are still some major challenges ahead. Payment holidays are now in place for one in seven UK mortgages and we need to see how those are going to transition back to normal payments in challenging employment conditions.

“We hope that there’s a new price point that emerges quickly between first time buyers and lenders that will continue to reinvigorate the market. Currently, demand well outstrips supply with only 50 per cent of the volumes of mortgage products available pre-Covid now available.”

Posted on

High-profile husband-and-wife agents move to rival company

High-profile husband-and-wife agents move to rival company

Rupert and Annabel Wakley – both long-time stalwarts of Knight Frank’s country department – have moved over to the rival Jackson-Stops agency.

Rupert is to head up the Chipping Campden branch of Jackson-Stops, following 15 years at Knight Frank where he was most recently partner and office head of the Stow-on-the-Wold office in Gloucestershire.

Prior to that he spent eight years at the Knight Frank Stratford-upon-Avon office.

Meanwhile Annabel will be heading the Chipping Campden lettings operation for Jackson-Stops, having left her role as head of lettings for Knight Frank’s Stratford-upon-Avon office.

“We’re delighted to welcome Rupert Wakley to Jackson-Stops. His commitment and expertise in growing and developing offices within this region is impressive and we are looking forward to seeing Rupert, Annabel and the team continue to build on Jackson-Stops’ high-quality service in the area” says Jackson-Stops chairman Nick Leeming.

“Although a lot has changed in the last few months since Covid-19, I am looking forward to embracing our ‘new normal’ with Annabel and the team, building on our strong links with the local community, and continuing to share our knowledge and love of the Cotswolds with our clients and buyers alike” says Rupert Wakley.

Before establishing his career in the estate agency industry, Rupert Wakley was a professional jump jockey for 10 years, riding some 250 winners including Wandering Light, which he took to victory at the Cheltenham Festival.