Will ‘Help to Buy’ kill ‘Buy to Let’?

There has been a lot of speculation about what is going to happen to the Lettings market, in light of a steadily improving sales market and in particular the effect on the continually popular Buy to Let arena.

The view of Lyndon Bent, Director at Bradleys Estate Agents who oversees the letting of over 1000 properties a year in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, is that Rental sector is to remain strong. He maintains Buy to Let could feature even more than before during 2014, despite the Government’s help to Buy scheme doing its best to kill off the lettings sector by dragging more first time buyers out of tenancies. The industry pundits view of life sounds out his beliefs.

The Help to Buy scheme for New Homes has been running for some time now, yet Bradleys Let nearly 10% more homes in 2013, than the previous year, so no adverse effect seen there. The extended scheme which came into full flow at the beginning of January will undoubtedly encourage some First Time Buyers out of the rentals sector, however a recent Rightmove survey of Tenants revealed that only around 15% of them acknowledged that their savings were on track to be able to find a sufficient deposit to buy. This is of course Contrary to the widespread knowledge that Tenants would prefer to buy rather than rent. Indeed the report also shows record levels of ‘Trapped Renters’ (those who would like to buy but can’t) has risen to 60%.

Add this to the economy still driving struggling homeowners into the rentals sector points to the reality that we are not likely to see a significant change in the rental sector market for some time to come.  

It must be conceded that we are currently in a period of Rental Value adjustment. MoveWithUs, who represent over 1000 estate agents across the country, issued their Rentals Index covering the last quarter of 2013, which suggests a £10 reduction in average rents in the South West. Down to an average of £780 per month, from £815 at its peak. This is a downward trend that started early last year across the country (except in London of course), but not necessarily experienced by all Bradleys offices. Indeed forecasts indicate Rental Values are now levelling out and maybe set to increase again throughout the year.

In summary, there is much for Buy to Let Landlords to look forward to this year. Property values are still competitive enough to provide good rental yields. Bradleys will continue to offer great investment opportunities to existing and aspiring Landlords by highlighting the potential yield of their properties for sale and best Buy to Let mortgage deals available though their Independent Financial Management arm.

For more information please contact your local Bradleys office or visit www.bradleys-estate-agents.co.uk

Lyndon Bent FNAEA MARLA
Director

 

Leave nothing to chance!

At a recent meeting of Estate Agents on the outskirts of London, one  agent remarked that the year had started disastrously with 9 fall throughs in the first 2 days of the year. He went on to explain the cause of the fall throughs were vendors who had agreed to sell but couldn't find anything to buy so pulled out of the deal.

This made me think about the market in general and also of agents business practises. At Bradleys we operate a strict policy of not instructing anyone to proceed on any sale until the proof of funds for the purchase has been seen, solicitors have been decided upon and there is a completed chain in place. This can take some time to get agreed but with a fall through rate of just 23% compared to the national average of 33% last year we are happy in the knowledge that we did everything possible to give the sale the best chance possible to complete and to give all in the chain the opportunity to avoid the dreaded costs of an aborted sale if the worst happens.

 

That made me wonder about the sales where the vendors had pulled out so freely. I wondered if the buyers had been made aware that the vendor hadn't found and the sale was dependant on them finding? I wondered what they thought about the cost of lost time and expense all for nothing? Vendors are our clients but we have a duty to all involved to ensure positions are represented honestly and nobody should knowingly be put in the position of standing a chance of losing time and money without being fully informed before proceeding. This made my thoughts turn back to allAgents and my advice to buyers is to use an agent that has a good allAgents ranking and I am sure this is one of the reasons all of our customers rank us so highly on allAgents.co.uk we are very thorough and leave nothing to chance when dealing with our customers lives and
money.

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Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group

What goes down must go up!

According to Isaac Newton, what goes up must come down. Fortunately, in the property market at least, what goes down must also come up. At least that is what happened in the 70s, the 80s and the 90s after periods of recession. Now it looks as if history is repeating itself.

Bradleys Estate agents are always glass-half-full people. But can anyone have failed to notice that things are on the up? High Street spending is up, employment is up, manufacturing is up, GDP is up, the service sector is up, lending is up and the property market is up. In fact the property market is back  in most areas. Is all this a blip? It is now looking unlikely.

The planets seem perfectly aligned for growth in the property market. This is a great time to buy or sell. Low interest rates, plenty of stock in many areas, keen buyers, less reluctant lenders – the market is set pretty fair.

But no matter how the market looks there are still some things we must watch carefully. If purchasing we need to keep an eye on interest rates – they also go up as well as down. If selling we must not get too ambitious and let our enthusiasm for achieving a top price blind us to reality – a glut of properties in the market means a lot of choice for buyers, and buyers never select an over-priced property when a sensibly priced one is available – would you? This is a time for level headed buying and selling - remembering at all times the laws of physics and of the market.

Richard Greetham
Director
Bradleys Estate Agents

Bradleys hits 50,000th Sale!!

Brian Hadfield, Janet Mullins and Mike Dibble.

Bradleys Estate Agents opened their first office in Exmouth at the beginning of June 1992. The company now have 33 offices and earlier this month the company exchanged contracts on sale number 50,000! This sale was a 3 bedroom detached house in Sidford owned by Brian Hadfield and his partner, Janet Mullins. To commemorate the event Director Mike Dibble visited them to make a special presentation. 

Mike Dibble said that the clients were incredibly patient vendors through the sales process. 'We were delighted when the sale exchanged contracts. Various hitches had occurred through the transaction but Brian and Janet stuck with it and got their reward in the end. Janet's niece used to work for Bradleys so I'm sure they were aware that not all sales go through like clockwork! The eventual buyers were very sympathetic with the clients and the issues with their ongoing purchase.'

Choose your weapon!

Many vendors when considering selling their property assume a sale by private treaty is the only method that applies to disposing their most valuable asset. Indeed many agents will only advise and offer this method. However there are many other ways to sell a property all of which our valuers are aware of and can offer the  vendor as part of Bradleys complete property service. These different methods have evolved over time to offer a better sales outcome in certain circumstances where private treaty can be found wanting.

One thing I look forward to at the end of the day is reviewing comments customers have left on the independent estate agency website, Allagents.co.uk. regarding our services whether they be good or bad. As Bradleys is rated third out of all the 12,000 + companies in the the UK we have a lot to live up to!

However one very recent review from our Mannamead office caught my eye as follows

 "As the executor of my late mothers will it was my responsibility to sell her home. I had four agents come and value the property and advise me on how to proceed. With winter fast approaching and the property costing me money to keep in good condition Ian Christie suggested the online auction, something I had not even thought about. The property sold within 4 weeks and contracts were exchanged approx 3 weeks later."

This to me sums up the advantage with the right property and the right circumstances converging to advise an online auction as the best method of sale. I am also glad to see our valuer identified this at the correct time with the right property and the vendor's position. 

The moral of this example is, if your agent cannot offer or indeed advise auction or tender as well as the normal private treaty method of disposal....look for one that does!

Chris Baxter

Bradleys Land & New Homes Director

2014 - The year of the seller!

2014 looks like it might be a year for the seller.  Estate agents often get the blame for pushing up prices. But it is buyers who set the pace. Whichever way you cut it a property is still only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it.

So here are just a few things to take into account if you are keen to move home this year.

By all means keep your eye on the big property portals like Rightmove and Zoopla. But by the time a new property hits those sites it could well be too late – there may be several people ahead of you in the queue. That is because they know what is coming on to the market before it actually does. So it is essential for you to get to know the estate agents in the area and ensure that you stay in regular contact with them. What we at Bradleys have learned is buyers do their research but want good local advice. So having 33 branches with  local estate agents that know their markets is key to successfully selling properties. Making yourself known and heard is the best way to keep ahead in the buying game. 

Within reason, in a rising market, dare to buy at a future value rather than the present one. Offer what you think the property will be worth by the time you complete several months down the line. By the time you do move the value of the house may have risen. This means you can sometimes afford to outbid more timid buyers. So don’t be mean with your offer – you could lose a really good property.

Make sure you are in a good position to buy. If you have a property to sell then sell it. At least have it under offer. If you were deciding between one buyer with a house to sell or another who had already sold which would you choose?

Be very careful of gazumping. Outbidding on a property where a deal has already been agreed may seem clever. But it very often leads to misery. First, the original buyer may top your offer. Second, if the owner is prepared to go back on the original deal to take a better offer he could well do the same again with you.  Gazumping is not illegal but many would agree it is far from moral. Take it from someone who knows - avoid gazumping like the plague.

Don’t be too gleeful at the amount you get for your property – the price you pay for the next one you buy could wipe the smile off your face! In other words what you win on the swings you lose on the roundabouts.

This year we will see many more initial asking price offers. Yet some buyers, still believing that they can wait or make silly low offers, will be left behind.

But all this still doesn’t mean that sellers can slap on any old price for their properties and expect a stampede. Buyers may be keen but they are certainly not desperate and definitely not stupid.

Richard Greetham
Director Bradleys Estate Agents

Computer says 'no'

Down here in the SW Corner of the country we are going quite well, sales are reasonable and the instructions are coming on. Probably we could do  more if we could get everything else technological in our world to work 100% straight away. We are trying to launch a new website but are having data issues. We are integrating a phone system but it's so clever it is taking a time to install, We are upgrading all of our computers but again it all takes a time because we can't deflect those that are vital to everything from the area of key importance. No this isn't a public moan, the Bradleys IT Team are the finest group of people we could ever have hoped to be lucky enough to work with but we are being held back by outside influences. Forces over which we have no control are effecting our business by putting obstacles in our way and by preventing the technology from working. This is a bit like life in general, we all aim for the perfect solution but we often have to accept that perfect is not always possible so everyone does their best to operate with the tools they have and those that keep at it get there in the end. The same applies to choosing an Estate Agent and if you look at our reviews on the Estate Agents review site allAgents.co.uk you will see Bradleys are not quite perfect either (but we a pretty close) with 1236 good reviews and just 12 poor reviews. If you are thinking of selling your property and would like to see for yourself why Bradleys receive awards for their customer service then contact your local office to request a free valuation.

Did I mention a new website? It's very close now and watch this space for further news.

If you found this useful or think someone else would then why not share it or like it?

Francis Marshall FNAEA
Managing Director
Bradleys Group