How will the stamp duty holiday affect the housing market?

With the Chancellor officially announcing a stamp duty tax break until the end of March next year, there may well be some big changes coming soon for the UK property sector.

In a new article by The Times that discusses how the stamp duty holiday will affect the housing market, Black Brick Founder and buying agent of over 20 years, Camilla Dell shared her thoughts on whether the government may even abolish the tax altogether:

“I can’t see it happening politically. They’d be accused of being a party for the rich when they are trying to help the north. Sunak’s reforms gave my buyer on a £2 million flat in St John’s Wood an extra £15,000. I think this is as good as it gets for us.”

Read the article here.

Have London’s new homes lost their lustre?

With lockdown slowing down the sales of luxury new-builds in London, have they lost their appeal?

Camilla Dell, Black Brick’s Founder and experienced London buying agent for premium property, shared in The Financial Times this week how the pandemic has shifted cultural behaviours towards apartment properties:

“It was once a plus having the shared gym, spa, swimming pool and concierge,” Camilla said. “In a world with a pandemic they might think twice and want to buy the freehold on a newly refurbished Mayfair town house instead.”

Read the article here.

Top town & country buying agents compare notes on post-lockdown demand trends

We are delighted to have been interviewed in a new piece for Prime Resi this week, sharing our insight into the UK prime property market as a London buying agency.

Our Founder, Camilla Dell shared which trends are rising, and slowing, in London prime property right now, thanks to the pandemic.

Read the piece here.

English property market rebounds on pent-up demand

Is the property market coming back to life yet?

In a new article for The Financial Times this week, Black Brick Founder and Managing Partner, Camilla Dell shared her perspective as a London buying agent for prime property:

“There is quite a big gap at the moment between buyers, who feel the world is not what it was, and sellers, who think they’ll just hang on.”

Meet the estate agents turning themselves into superstars

As the world continues to go a little crazy in lockdown, some professionals in property are dialing up the fun-meter in a bid to grab attention and stay on top.

Offering her view on the trend, our Founder and Managing Partner, Camilla Dell shared with The Financial Times how in the UK, some high-end sellers simply do not want an online presence because of confidentiality and security:

“The property might have artwork and family photographs. Private individuals don’t want that kind of exposure or need that kind of exposure.”, she warned.

How to avoid getting into negative equity if house prices fall

With the global outbreak of the coronavirus, house prices here in the UK are likely to fall soon, leaving buyers with high LTV mortgages out in the cold.

Speaking on whether now would be a good time to make a deal in property, our Founder, Camilla Dell shared her thoughts in a new article for The Telegraph this week.

After a crisis, “we will always see a bit of distressed selling,” Camilla said. “There will be some undoubtedly, but I think it will be few and far between.”

Could the stamp duty holiday stimulate recovery of the housing market?

While the pandemic has brought about a standstill for the UK property market, the upcoming stamp duty holiday might just be the thing to bring it back to life.

Commenting on whether the government may in the future raise the stamp duty levy later on, Black Brick’s Camilla Dell shared in Forbes:

“If you look at past recessions and the speed of the property market recovery, we can predict that the Treasury will most likely not raise stamp duty to make up for this until a year or so down the line, once property prices and transactions have risen again.”

Calls grow louder for full-scale overhaul of UK property tax

Our Founder and Managing Partner, Camilla Dell has joined calls on the government this week to overhaul the tax system for UK property.

Commenting in The Financial Times, Camilla said that the 2016 surcharge, particularly for people whose house sale fall through and leave them with two properties, has created new administrative difficulties:

“The whole property tax regime has just become too complicated. It’s a headache,” she shared.

Why London’s imminent property boom is not all that it seems

Prime central London property sales have “spiked in the wake of the election”, writes Melissa Lawford of The Telegraph.

Sharing his insight for the piece, Black Brick’s Caspar Harvard-Walls shared how, in his experience as a premium buying agent right now, everyone is waiting for the sales to lead to property price increases:

“It is happening, we can feel it happening on the ground,” he said. “Straight away, sellers who would have maybe taken 5 or 10 per cent off their asking price now won’t budge.”

Home sales slide in Battersea Nine Elms

According to Zoopla, some of the Battersea Nine Elms high-end homes have had their prices cut by more than 25% since being relisted for sale.

It comes as the area faces lower-than-expected attraction from wealthy buyers looking to cash in on Battersea’s wider regeneration project.

Commenting on the area and its hopes for becoming a premium property hotspot, our Founder and Managing Partner, Camilla Dell shared her thoughts in The Financial Times:

“People are quick to bash Nine Elms and that part of Battersea,” Camilla said, “but that’s oversimplifying things. In five or so years’ time, the clatter of power tools will hopefully no longer fill the air and the wind-tunnel streets around the US embassy will have been transformed into the thriving community spaces that developers have promised. Because of its potential, Battersea is an area worth considering”