Notting Hill residential property overview January 2012 - 22 February 12
The first quarter has brought a great deal to smile about in the Notting Hill property market. All evidence suggests that the steady climb in prices seen in 2011 will continue through 2012, the London Olympic Year. Due to a build up of unsatisfied demand from the domestic market, coupled with an influx of buyers from the Euro Zone seeking a safe haven to invest away from the Euro Zone debt crisis, Notting Hill house prices are surging ahead with little on the horizon to arrest this upward trend.
A prolonged period of uncertainty in world financial markets has seen many investors migrate towards tangible assets, with high levels of growth in investments such as precious metals and bricks & mortar. A strengthening US currency is likely to bring a fresh wave of dollar based investors to the London property market all seeking out prime areas such as W11, W8, W2 and W10. With the continued loosening of constraints on bank lending and a government willing to force some state owned financial institutions into increased lending, first time buyers are now finding easier access to favourable mortgage products.
Property investors have returned to the market with a renewed vigour and an apatite to expand rental portfolios. Developments that may have been moth balled in a tougher financial climate are now being dusted down, unwrapped and unveiled for sale, allowing investors to once again eye up new prospects for development.
The prime London market has continued to set the region apart from the rest of the country with levels of growth streets ahead of the UK average. While many areas of the country continue to face a bleak outlook in the property market, central London and the North-western edge of London’s Hyde Park can look forward to a bright future.
Hot spots include W10 which has seen some tremendous price rises due to its wide tree lined streets including Cambridge Gardens, Oxford Gardens and Bassett Road allowing buyers to purchase highly desirable lateral apartments in the double fronted villas that line these streets. W2 Paddington and Bayswater have seen somewhat of a renaissance with the launch of The Lancasters Development focusing attention on the area. The Lancasters was originally an elegant parade of 15 magnificent stucco-fronted Grade II listed houses dating from the mid nineteenth century. Painstaking restored, the developers have turned the buildings into 77 super luxury apartments overlooking Hyde Park.
For residential buyers this means a highly competitive time ahead, if you are thinking of looking for a property to purchase before putting your current property on the market this is not the market for you. Buyers need to be primed and ready to grab with both hands their highly sort after and painstakingly searched out dream home.
Chard Autumn 2011 Property & Lifestyle Magazine
- 02 September 11
Please click the link below to open the digital version of our first Property & Lifestyle Magazine. Hope you enjoy the read!
Property & Lifestyle Magazine
Chard's Autumn Market Update 2011 - 24 August 11
Summer may be drawing to a close but the sales and rental markets in London shows no sign of cooling down for autumn.
Many estate agents are reporting that in popular areas of London prices have risen by up to 10% in the past year with centrally located apartments and houses rising the most. Values now rival or even surpass the highs seen in the years before the economic downturn.
“There’s a huge demand from buyers across all property types but a shortage of stock for them to buy. The quality of buyers is very strong, with a high percentage able to fund a purchase from cash” according to a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ spokesman.
Certainly Chard has seen a similar bull-run in the sales market, even during months which in past years were quiet.
“June and July were absolutely fantastic, with the number of deals completed reaching the highest level for two years. It’s been absolutely phenomenal” explains Gareth Jones, Managing Director of Chard’s sales division.
If you want to see a demonstration of the strength of the market, look at what happened to a two bedroom lower ground floor apartment at Pembridge Crescent, W11, taken on by Chard at the height of the summer.
Its asking price was £875,000 and the seller was privately willing to take £850,000 because the flat had a relatively short lease of 64 years. Within days there were competing bids and two buyers eventually slogged it out - the deal was agreed at £923,000 despite the sum the successful purchaser would have to pay on top to extend the lease.
“This is evidence of what the market has been like. Even in August, when many people are away, plenty of deals have been clinched. Viewings are fewer in number but the ratio of viewings-to-offers is just two-to-one every other viewing produces an offer. In past busy times, that ratio has sometimes been as big as 15-to-one which just shows that today’s buyers have a much more focused and no-nonsense approach” explains Jones.
Part of Chard’s successful summer included expansion further into Chelsea, Bayswater and Paddington through the takeover of a popular and well respected agent, Thornton Residential. This is part of the company’s long-term plan to extend its network of offices across central London under Chard’s new owner, Thamesview estate agent group; expect further expansion by the firm across the capital.
For the moment, however, Jones estimates that prices have risen about 8% so far in 2011 but with the tantalising prospect of more growth in the autumn. “In recent years the third and fourth quarters have been busy and have produced strong rises, so there’s every reason to believe we are in for more capital appreciation in the rest of the year” he insists.
He foresees the same factors that have governed the market so far this year continuing to hold sway until Christmas. Properties that are in good condition and are well-located in key streets nearest to transport links will always be popular, he says, and attract premiums.
“About 60% of our clients are from the UK, typically working in or closely dependent on the City of London. The other 40% are from overseas, quite often from mainland Europe. So we are not wholly reliant on one source of business, so to some extent we’re insulated from a lot of the economic problems being seen elsewhere in the country” Jones explains.
That optimism stretches across to the rental sector too.
Whereas in past years the sales and lettings markets in London have been counter-cyclical - when one was strong, the other was weak - but today both are booming. As with the sales market, the lettings sector is defined by high demand but a shortage of stock.
Chard reports that many of its tenants are intent on staying in their existing properties when their tenancies need renewing, to avoid the disruption of moving and the risk of not being able to find available property at a reasonable cost. “Even if their rent rises some 5% or 10% at the time of contract renewal - and that’s pretty typical - most tenants are happy to pay it because they know their alternatives are limited” says Jones.
Now the company’s findings have been supported by the Association of Residential Lettings Agents' latest survey, which suggests that London’s landlords are the most optimistic in the country.
Analysing a sample of well over 1,500 UK landlords using ARLA-compliant agents, the association found that some 26% of London's landlords had bought at least one additional property in the past 12 months; over 30% say they will buy one or more in the coming 12 months, to take advantage of the continuing strength of the market.
“That’s a real sign of confidence in the London market that investors and owner occupiers alike recognise this is the time to buy and get a stake in the capital. It’s seen as a safe haven” according to Gareth Jones.
As the days get shorter and the nights longer - and the economy still threatens storms across the world - there is great comfort in that...
Chard's Spring Market Update 2011 - 19 July 11
Spring is here and blossom is dropping on to central London’s streets - but that may be the only thing falling as the capital’s sales and rental markets continue to defy the downturn seen elsewhere in the UK.
“We’ve had our best March ever in almost a decade of trading in the sales market with spectacular successes. A property on Portland Road in Kensington went on sale for £2.2m but within 48 hours went to a cash buyer for about £2.4m. A block of newly modernised apartments close by went to a foreign investor for £8.5m at the same time” says Gareth Jones, Chard Sales Director.
The company’s mainstream market - properties from £400,000 upwards - are also going strongly as demand continues to significantly outstrip supply. “Anything that’s of a good quality goes quickly, with ground and first floor apartments with high ceilings being especially popular and first to be snapped up” says Jones.
Although most of Chard’s offices have recorded increases even in the first quarter of the year - usually a quiet period - prices are “rising particularly dramatically” in the North Kensington/W10 area, says Jones. This is partly on the back of significant numbers of European buyers who have bought homes there recently.
This is not merely classic estate agents’ optimism. One of the most respected industry market barometers, a quarterly survey produced by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, supports Chard’s own findings.
“Central London has characteristics quite unlike the rest of the UK. A much smaller proportion of buyers rely on borrowing than elsewhere, so are less likely to be deterred by mortgage restrictions. Buyers are generally wealthier than in the rest of the country, so will not find prices unaffordable. And there is a generous share of overseas buyers, tempted by the exchange rate making London homes even better value” says a RICS spokesman.
“For overseas investors, property in London is seen as a safe haven because it’s easy to let out and London is an attractive, global city. I'm sure City bonuses will be playing a part too, because central London property performs in line with the world economy" explains Richard Donnell, head of research at the independent property consultancy, Hometrack.
But whereas often a strong sales market means the lettings market slumps, in central London the rental sector is enjoying one of its strongest-ever phases.
“It’s been a very good and early start to summer. Business levels are 20% higher, partly because the market is much busier but also because we’ve increased our market share" explains Richard Saltmer of Chard’s South Kensington office. It is the same story from Fulham and Brook Green to Kensington and Notting Hill. “We’re playing to our strengths, putting out flyers and contacting landlords to find the maximum number of good quality apartments and houses to let” he says.
In the past year rents have risen 10 per cent in Chard areas. “This is proving to be a really good investment for landlords, especially with void periods between tenancies being close to non-existent. There’s a large number of corporate tenants securing long term rentals, many working in the City” says Richard Saltmer. He also reports competitive bids from tenants for properties in the most popular spots, while some existing tenants have had to downsize if they have been unable to afford increased rental prices.
