Category Archives: News

Home values hit 8 month low, according to Zoopla.co.uk

There are always many different opinions on house prices and to some degree you have to take it with a pinch of salt, but I thought this seemed like a reasonably accurate picture of average home values over the past few years.

“Our latest property data shows that property values have fallen every month since last July.

However, whilst it has been a challenging period for the property market over the past few months, the recent dip in prices … Continue Reading…

10 Ways to Sell Your Home

1. Prepare your budget and visualise your next home

Before you put your home up for sale you need to try and form a realistic idea of your requirements, you will need to have an image of where and what kind of home you want to move to. Get a feel for the house prices in your area and the area you would like to move into, with any house sale, once you have a realistic … Continue Reading…

Should We Take House Price Data With A Pinch Of Salt?

Every month we are bombarded with statistics and data about house prices.

One month they are up 0.3%, the next they are down 0.9% and so on.

Is this data accurate?

The answer is, No!

First of all much of the data is based on sales put together by Estate Agents some months before. By the time a sale has completed and registered it can be four or five months after the price was originally agreed.

Furthermore two of the biggest mortgage lenders in the … Continue Reading…

What Does £7.5m Buy You?

Robbie Williams’ Wiltshire mansion, that’s what!

Take that star Robbie Williams’ ”exceptional country house” is still on the market after almost a year with a price tag of £7.5m. The stunning property is “situated to the edge of the charming hamlet of Compton Bassett. The village lies between Calne and Marlborough, in rolling Wiltshire countryside.”

Property features include:

7 bedrooms
Indoor pool/leisure complex
Tennis Court
Paddocks
Hangar
Two staff flats and a detached cottage
Formal gardens and approximately 71 acres

Here are more details of Robbie Williams house in Compton … Continue Reading…

Mortgage Market Still Tough

There were 45,723 house purchase loans approved in January, the Bank of England has reported.  Although an increase on December’s 42,7190, it was lower than the monthly average of 46,686 for the previous six-month period, leaving mortgage specialists frustrated and unimpressed.

Brian Murphy, head of lending at independent broker Mortgage Advice Bureau, said the slight rise was always likely after a subdued housing market in December.
  He added: “Unfortunately, many people want to remortgage but can’t because they have insufficient equity … Continue Reading…

A Happy New Year for Home Sale Network

A recent survey conducted by Home Sale Network indicated a promising start to the New Year. Over 91% of survey respondents saw an increase in the number of instructions in January 2011 compared to December 2010. Importantly 88% of respondents saw an increase in buyer enquires compared to the previous month with a quarter seeing more than a 50% increase.

When asked what was the most common buyer type, over half (54%) of Home Sale Network respondents saw more ‘trade up … Continue Reading…

Where’s the mortgage money?

This week saw “Project Merlin” put into force, an agreement for the largest UK banks to lend businesses £190bn this year.

There was no mention of more mortgage lending, why not?

Surely if the banks and lending institutions eased their criteria and lent more mortgage money to pent up homebuyers, this would act as a financial injection to many businesses instead of lending them money. Not only would estate agents and solicitors benefit from more proceedable buyers but so would many other … Continue Reading…

New Website Launch

Richard Fowler and Gavin Hills with web designer Hughie Wilmshurst

We re-launched our website on 1st February with many new features, including a blog, better quality photographs, more information for prospective buyers and a more contemporary overall look.

Northampton based web design company, in.house.media redesigned the site, this being the fifth generation site for us since our first in 1998. They have also designed our previous sites and have continued to support us in developing our technologies and … Continue Reading…

BBC Dragon’s Den star lowers his house asking price

I spotted quite an interesting article over at zoopla (one of 25+ property portals that Richard James market your home from) about BBC Dragon’s Den star Peter Jones and how he has had to reduce his 6 bed mansion by  a whopping £150,000. Here’s an exert from their article:

Recently X-Factor judge Danni Minogue dropped her asking price by £50,000 and now it looks like Peter Jones, entrepreneur and TV personality from BBC Two’s fantastic Dragons’ Den has followed … Continue Reading…

Home Sale Network Agents Exceed National Average For Customer Satisfaction

Home Sale Network, a national network of independent estate agents across England, Scotland and Wales has exceeded the national average for customer satisfaction, according to responses received following a recent survey conducted by The Property Academy amongst UK based estate agents. Continue reading →