Introduction

Douglas & Gordon’s February 2010 Market Report

March 11th, 2010 by Ivor Dickinson

Residential Sales

For the second month running, the amount of property available for sale is steadily growing.  It is still less than this time last year, but only by 7%.  The number of new properties coming to the market is also healthy – not as many as in January, but still 40% more than February 2009 and likewise valuations are up 32% for the same period. 

There is still a strong desire to invest in London property with sales applicants remaining at the same high level as January and the number of sales agreed higher than in any of the previous 12 months and 38% more than February 2009.

Money for old rope…my a**e.

February 24th, 2010 by Ed Mead

Most know me as a straight talking agent so it’s difficult to keep my mouth shut when there’s so much utter rubbish being bandied about by supposed “property experts” about how estate agents are all bloody useless and that their fees are money for old rope. 

An objective view of the future of Prime London Property

February 16th, 2010 by Ed Mead

Central London is the most extraordinary and perhaps unrealistic property market, particularly Prime, and to be blunt this has been a “good” recession for those with money and property here. Never has there been so much that’s unknown or data that’s so subjective and it’s rewarding to spend a day with someone who has a uniquely objective view, as I did yesterday. 

Blind spot…..

February 10th, 2010 by Ed Mead

Blind spot….. 

This has little to do with property really but driving around all day everyday my eyes have been opened to the perils of something that’s meant to actually help us drive around all day. 

I’d like to talk, if I may, about the unbelievable and clod hoppish phenomenon that is the screen mounted sat nav. Rather like mobile phones the penetration of these ubiquitous gizmos must now be close to 100% and you’ll see them in cars from Park Lane to Peterhead. 

The politics of house prices

February 5th, 2010 by Ed Mead

If I have one more person asking, with genuine interest in the answer for a change, what’s happening in the property market I’ll have to buy an even bigger megaphone and simply tell them that I’ve no idea. Whether we’re talking objective or subjective stats, expert or amateur opinion, boardroom or pub chat or as importantly, London or Country, North or South East or West we’re all just waffling. 

Market Report – January 2010

February 3rd, 2010 by Ivor Dickinson

Ever since our return to work after the Christmas break, I have been besieged by requests from all corners as to what is going to happen to the market this year.  My answer has been “we must wait until the end of January to get a good comparison of year on year statistics”. Considering two weeks of this January were virtually a non event because of the extreme weather conditions, the results are perhaps even more startling than they might first appear.

Sales

Noughtie Parakeets

January 29th, 2010 by Ed Mead

Just as we’ve got used to calling them the Noughties we’re into the Teens. The end of the Nineties saw prices and volumes in K&C moving higher very quickly, but the dot com bubble bursting caused ructions at the beginning of the new decade with a loss of volume and flattening of prices. Such worries were brushed aside and forward momentum quickly re-established. Prices in K&C have again been rising fast at the end of this decade at 10% up (Land Reg) over the last 6 months, but volumes, already half what they were in ’99 have been falling. Not really sure anyone expected this but the “perfect” central London storm looks set to continue for a few months irrespective of bankers and Tax. Will we get out of jail this time….what do I know, I’m just a stupid estate agent. We’re all bloody lucky to live in such a resilient City. On a lighter note, one of our finest spaces is Richmond Park, but every time I go there I’m shocked by the number of parakeets, and luckily they’ve just been designated as pests. Given that they’re not indigenous can I suggest that a charity parakeet shoot there would raise a fortune for charity.

Why we WON’T all be selling privately in the near future

January 25th, 2010 by Ed Mead

There has been plenty of press over the weekend and Twitter chat about how the Telegraph’s interview with Sarah Beeny points to the demise of the estate agent. To be fair she opines that 50% of all property sales will be done privately by 2015 so that would seem to give half of us a stay of execution at least.

Sarah has obvious charisma and appeal and it’s all too easy to denigrate agents and jump on the bandwagon. I wish her all the best with her site which is well thought out, slick and deserves to carve out a niche for itself. Private sales are not new and have in the past been the preserve of the bargain hunter, either buyer looking to buy without competition, or seller trying to avoid paying an estate agency a fee. 

Tenancy Deposit Scheme

January 21st, 2010 by Ivor Dickinson

” The 500% increase in costs for the TenancyDepositScheme are exorbitant, monstrous and hardly in keeping with the biggest global recession in living memory!

Something must be done. I know the reason they have gone up, because a large majority of agents, particularly those new to lettings and with no experience of settling end of tenancy claims are now just forwarding every claim they have to the TDS and funnily enough TDS can`t cope. Maybe they should have thought about this when they launched the scheme! (why is everyone so incompetent, it beggars belief).

Buy yourself a pay as you go mobile when dealing with some agents.

January 19th, 2010 by Ed Mead

It depends of course which estate agent you’re talking about but the US style hard sell is here to stay and it takes various forms and involves differing levels of commitment from those paid to do the selling. 

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