Category Archiveletting agents maidenhead
letting agents maidenhead appletons on 07 Jan 2010
Base rate frozen
still at 0.5 per cent.
Adil Akkus of Appleton Estate Agents Maidenhead commented: “Especially 2010 being an election year, the property prices are expected to increase in value slightly but the overall economy is still under a lot of pressure, and there are not enough mortgage products on the market, so this base rate is expected to remain as it is at least until the second quater of the year”.
letting agents maidenhead & estate agents maidenhead appletons on 11 Dec 2009
Base rate kept at 0.5%
The Bank of England has decided to keep the interest rates at the same level to ease the current economic situation.
Adil Akkus of Appleton Estate Agents Maidenhead comments that this will help the property market in Maidenhead but the government needs to do a lot to help the Bank of England as the current mortgage offers are still very limited.
letting agents maidenhead appletons on 03 Dec 2009
Free Google estate agents listings
According to the rumour mill, Google is likely to launch a free service in the UK market.
Google launched this service in Australia last August, which caused a lot of stir in the property market there.
Google gives the impression that there is an increase in the real estate search activity. And, when they enter a market like real estate, then the whole industry takes notice. Google tends to keep its service free by making its revenue out of the advertising. This certainly the strategy that Globrix has followed recently with a lot of success. And, others like Zoopla are trying to replicate Google’s Pay Per Click method.
What remains to be seen is how the UK property industry will react to this. But Rightmove’s share’s have already dropped today. And, a lot of estate agents, such as Appleton Estates are very excited about the prospect. Currently the agents are paying approx £350 per month to Rightmove, which is one of many portals. And, especially Rightmove has not made any friends during the recession by increasing its fees at the most difficult times due to its market dominance.
Adil Akkus of the Appleton Estate Agents Maidenhead has commented: “We are delighted to hear Google’s potential involvement with free listings in the UK. This would certainly dilute Rightmove’s dominance and force the competition in the market place. It may even lead to a complete overhaul of the property listing in the country by blazing the trail for an advertising or pay-per-click lead focussed property listing.”
letting agents maidenhead & estate agents maidenhead appletons on 16 Nov 2009
Asking prices dip
Both Rightmove and Findaproperty have both published reports with interesting statistics. They both indicate that the asking price for the new properties that are coming on the market is lower than last month. Righmove shows this figure to be 1.6% down whereas Findaproperty shows it to be 0.5% down.
Both portals have been very downbeat about the asking prices they report to be over £200,000. These figures are significantly higher than the actual amounts paid for the properties that Nationwide and Halifax insist to be around £160,000.
The property market in Maidenhead and surrounding areas of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire still seems to be very buoyant. The online marketing director for Appleton Estate Agents Cookham, Adil Akkus commented: “We are seeing strong signs of return to 2 year ago in the sale market. The letting market is still tough with the lower rental rates but soon it should follow as well. Just take a look at the local printed media, and the property advertising section. When the market bottomed, this section was down to half the size but now it seems to be back to its old size”. Adil stressed: “We have never reduced our advertising even at the toughest times. This shows our commitment to our landlords, and our commitment to marketing their property in the best way possible, which the local printed media forms a key part of”.
For more articles on this subject or others, visit our property articles site.
letting agents maidenhead appletons on 05 Nov 2009
Interest rates unchanged
The Bank of England has decided to keep the interest rates unchanged at half of one per cent for the eighth consecutive month.
They also agreed to put an extra £25 billion into the British economy in their quantitative easing (QE) programme.
This amount brings the to £200 billion on Quantitative Easing measures. The quantitative easing involves printing money to buy assets from banks and other companies to stimulate the economy.
The executive director of Appleton Estate Agents Marlow commented: “This is not good news for the savers (especially the elderly and the pensioners) but good news for the real estate market. This will not only help the first time buyers but will also help bring back the rental prices up inline with where it was a couple of years ago”.
letting agents maidenhead appletons on 30 Oct 2009
House Prices Higher than 2008
The Nationwide Building Society claims that the UK house prices are higher year-on-year in October.
Property prices are two per cent up in October compared to October 2008. This is the first annual increase over the last 19 months.
However, the Nationwide also points out another trend that the pace of monthly price increases has is slowing down, and perhaps can level off in the months ahead.
The director of Appleton Estate Agents Marlow, Adil Akkus, commented that this may be due to more sellers coming back to the market.
The recent increases in the the property prices have been widely attributed to the lack of properties on the market.
Even though the US economy has officially come out of the recession this week, the UK economy firmly stays in recession. And, if this prolongs, it may lead to higher unemployment, which is likely to slow down the housing market recovery.
It is also worth pointing out that the average property price is still thirteen per cent lower than its peak during the autumn of 2007.
letting agents maidenhead appletons on 28 Oct 2009
Maternity Leave
Our executive director, Sarah Akkus, will be taking a maternity leave soon for the arrival for her second baby.
Sarah has reassured the valued landlords in an email in a recent email. Sarah has mentioned it will be “business as usual” while she is off. Sarah said “all the properties are in capable hands of Sue and Sophie. I am sure they will go the extra mile.”
letting agents maidenhead appletons on 27 Oct 2009
ARLA claims landlords increasing their portfolios
According the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), residnetial andlords have increased their portfolio of properties over the past year in order to take advantage of the low property prices as a result of the economic downturn.
ARLA published the results of a survey they have recently carried out. The survey indicates that on average each landlord in the residential property market has increased their average number of properties from 6.3 to 7.0 in a period less than twelve months. In 2004, the average size of a portfolio was 4 per landlord.
Executive director of Appleton Estate Agents Marlow, Sarah Akkus commented: “I believe the main reason behind the surge is the higher rental yields of the buy-to-let market. The lower interest rates increased the interest for the seasoned investors as well as people who are after some good deals.”
letting agents maidenhead appletons on 14 Oct 2009
Minimise Issues for Return of Tenancy Deposit
The government introduced a mandatory Tenancy Deposit Scheme on 06/April/2007, which governs all the Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreements in England and Wales where the landlords and letting agents take a deposit from the tenant.
This is a scheme design to protect the tenant’s deposit from the rogue landlords or agents following from a high number of disputes about the security of the deposit as well as significant number of cases where tenants felt their deposits were retained by the landlords unfairly.
However, this scheme does not remove the tenant’s duties in looking after the rental property beyond the general “wear and tear”. Neither does it ignore the landlord’s right of ensuring that the property is still in an acceptable condition at the end of the tenancy.
To start with, having an inventory at the check in is a crucial step. This is a document where everything in the property is listed and their conditions. It can be done between the landlord and the tenant but using independent professional inventory clerks further reduces the disputes.
When you decide to vacate the property, check if the property requires any repairs. Do get in touch with the trades people with enough notice to arrange repairs. If your landlord or letting agent has done a professional job, they would have inspected the property throughout the tenancy regularly, and would have pointed any potential issues.
Make sure that the property is cleaned to a “professional” standard. Most of the landlords arrange professional cleaners to clean the property prior to the tenancy, and rightfully expect it to see the same quality at the end of the tenancy. You can either do this yourself, call in professional cleaners or accept the cost to be deducted from your deposit.
If you decide to clean the property yourself, pay special attention to
- the cookers and ovens
- windows, carpets
- also consider re-decorating any walls, doors or skirting boards that may have been damaged during the tenancy.
When you confirm the moving out date, contact your utility companies and the local authorities to ensure payments are up to date.
Provide a forwarding address to the landlord (or the letting agent where applicable), the post office, the utility companies and the council.
When you move out, ensure to go through the inventory again to discuss the state of the property, any issues and resolve them
At Appleton Estate Agents Marlow, we have a good network of professional cleaners, inventory clerks and local tradesmen; all with good reputation. We would encourage both the landlords and the tenants to not take any shortcuts in these matters.