Most likely to: East London’s Zone 1 Crossrail hotspot where house prices are still rising

The launch of the Elizabeth line is going to accelerate Whitechapel into a much sought-after London region, according a new research from The Standard.

In a new article published this week, Ruth Bloomfield reports that the area has been named “most likely to outperform” in terms of property prices over the next five years.

Sharing his thoughts as a prime property expert for London, Black Brick buying agent, Tom Kain shared his belief that Whitechapel will become hotspot for city workers who might previously have preferred a “City-fringes” home in, for example, Shoreditch or Spitalfields.

“It is going to be fantastically well connected,” he revered.

Read the full article here.

How to deal with sealed bids

In a new article for The Times this week, we share our top tips for handling high-end property purchase negotiations.

In the piece, Black Brick buying agent Caspar Harvard-Walls shared his recommendations when it comes to sealed bids, citing how they often appear for “really high-quality, best-in-class properties”

“As an extreme example, an unmodernised detached villa in Holland Park, west London, went on the market at about £13m. A round of sealed bids later, it sold last month for more than £18m.”, he said.

The fixed-upper is fashionable again

There’s a growing number of buyers looking for properties that they can give a complete makeover to.

In a new piece for The Times, Black Brick buying agent, Camilla Dell shares why “faded glories” present fantastic opportunities for buyers to make a profit off of flipping.

“We recently sourced a property in Marylebone [northwest London] for a client that was for sale at £1,200 a square foot,” she said. “The buyer needed to spend £300 a square foot renovating it. However, when complete it will be worth upwards of £1,800 a square foot, making it a great deal.”

Read the full article here.

How to negotiate with estate agents

Whether you’re buying or selling, dealing with estate agents can be testing, to say the least!

In this new article for The Times, we share our tip tips for negotiating with estate agents, drawing on our 20+ years expertise as a top London buying agency.

“Rather than pay a multiple fee of 3% shared between them, no matter who finds the buyer, we adopt a winner-takes-all approach,” our Founder, Camilla Dell said. “Saying up front that you’ll pay 2% or 2.5% to the agent who comes up trumps with a purchaser — and nothing to the ones who fail.”

Read the full article here.

Construction of central London new-build flats fell by a quarter in 2017

Apartments in new developments have been dubbed ‘posh ghost towers’ as they struggle to sell, a new article in The Guardian reveals.

Sharing her insight as a top buying agent for London’s premium property, Black Brick Founder Camilla Dell featured in the article, commenting:

“We are seeing continued interest from Middle Eastern buyers, with Saudi clients particularly active. Brexit notwithstanding, the UK offers political, economic and legal stability. Saudi buyers tend to value confidentiality and favour trophy properties. In the current market, few of those are marketed publicly. Around a third of the properties we bought for clients last year were sold off-market.”

Read the full article here.

Black Brick buying agency sets up divorce division aimed at wealthy splitters

We are delighted to have announced the launch of our new, specialised service for high-profile divorcees in The Telegraph this week!

As an top agency for buying premium homes in London and the wider UK, we have established a new team this year dedicated solely to offering well-informed advice to clients going through a divorce and in need of an estimated new home cost; which can then be presenting to courts for settlement purposes.

Read all about it in the article here.

How beliefs and superstition can make or break a property sale

In a new piece for The Telegraph this week, Black Brick Founder Camilla Dell shares some of the quirkiest and peculiar requirements given by some of London’s richest property buyers.

“These days in London, feng shui requirements compete with another Eastern system of beliefs, vastu shastra, which is important to some Indian buyers”, she said. “One of the main requirements of vastu is that the front door should face south, which, in theory, sounds relatively simple but in London it can rule out whole parts of the city where the streets simply face the wrong way.”

She continued: “With off-plan developments, we can try and find a way around these problems. But with some Indian clients, it’s likely that their vastu consultant will be the first to see the floor plans. If something’s not right, the property is simply ruled out before anyone has been to take a look.”

Chelsea mansion’s £16.5m price cut does the trick

With a well-known Chelsea mansion recently selling for £16.5m price reduction, we’ve shared our thoughts into the current UK prime property market in Prime Resi.

In the piece, Black Brick’s Founder and Managing Partner, Camilla Dell said:

“Sellers at every price point, including super-prime, are becoming more realistic. Understanding who you are buying from and their motivation for selling is crucial in order to get the best outcome on price. We have noticed an increase in the number of newly developed properties that were on the market for over inflated prices back in 2015/16/17 and which are now in receivership – in other words developers that got their timings wrong and are now suffering the consequences. Now could be an excellent time for buyers at the top end of the market to take advantage of sellers looking to close a deal and receivers looking to get their money back on un-sold properties.”

Read the full article here.

Will redevelopment blunt Kentish Town’s edgy appeal?

With regeneration in north west London’s Kentish Town on the rise, will it still be seen as edgy in five years time?

Black Brick’s Founder, Camilla Dell joined a host of fellow London estate agents this week in The Financial Times to discuss Kentish Town’s prospects as a desirable place for families and top buyers to live.

Reacting to its rising house prices, which have nearly doubled since 2007, Camilla shared her perspective that the area was “up and coming”.

Market stalls in London’s Covent Garden

In a new piece for The Financial Times this week, Black Brick buying agent Camilla Dell shares her thoughts on why prime property prices have fallen in Covent Garden recently.

“One of the reasons people were buying four or five years ago is it looked great value compared to Mayfair or Kensington,” Camilla said. “But now the price per square foot is the same as Kensington on new-builds. To buy in Covent Garden you have to love Covent Garden”.