The price is right: a guide to valuation

How should vendors decide who to listen to? In a new article for The Times, we share our perspective as a top London buying agency.

“The key is research,” our Partner, Caspar Harvard Walls said. “There are some estate agents who are desperate for stock, and so will value a property high so that they can get it on their books. All too often the overpriced property is then used as a ‘lever’, whereby agents will show it alongside more accurately priced alternatives in a bid to make them look cheap. This does not help the owner, and they will have to bring their price down.”

A Knightsbridge flat for £10?

In a new piece for The Financial Times this week, Black Brick Founder Camilla Dell shares how some buying agents are trying to overcome the slowing London prime property market.

“Knightsbridge is not the desirable postcode it once was,” she shared. “A lot of my clients say Knightsbridge has lost a lot of its gloss. Even Middle Eastern buyers — so established in the area that Harrods is now an asset of the Qatari state — are venturing to the garden squares of Belgravia and Mayfair”.

Read more in the full article here.

Bag a bargain in Belgravia

Is now the perfect time to buy property in Belgravia?

In a new piece for The Financial Times, Black Brick Founder and top London buying agent for over 20 years, Camilla Dell shares her advice for buying prime property in Belgravia.

“Now might be a good time to put in a cheeky offer,” she said. “Christmas can be a great time to buy because a lot of sellers who’ve had their houses on the market [for a while] want to get it done, and start the year afresh.”

Read more in the full article here.

Tech firms buoy up property in Silicon London

Certain areas of London are starting to attract the investment of international tech giants…

The impact of this market trend is leading some to believe that London’s properties could start to see “distorted price rises”, according a new article in The Financial Times.

Sharing her insights for the article, our Founder and Managing Partner, Camilla Dell said she believed that the effect of the tech companies on London’s property market has already been felt.

“Once all the companies are in, it’s too late,” she simply put, going on to explain how “the short-term beneficiaries from the new tech arrivals are likely to be landlords looking to rent units out”.

Read more in the full article here.

Where to buy for wild swimming, rowing and fishing on your doorstep

Looking for a house in the UK from which you can swim, row and even fish?

Well, look no further than Thames in Barnes, south-west London, where the Olympic rowing champion, Ben Hunt-Davis lives with his family for year-round access to the water.

Sharing his insights into the area, Black Brick partner Caspar Harvard-Walls commented on the region’s buying prospects in a new piece for The Telegraph this week:

“The river was a very undeveloped area and there was a lot of land available to build on,” he said. “And there is something iconic about living over the Thames.”

Read the full article here.

Mum and Dad rent a different class of digs

In some areas of London, it’s been reported that parents are paying almost 100 times more than the average £88 a week for their children’s student accommodation.

So why is this case? Is it Brexit? Is it the economy in general? Black Brick’s London Buying Agents have lent their insights to The Times this week in the article on the topic.

Read it here.

Four beds good, five beds bad

People might often assume that a five bedroom house would be more sought-after than a four-bedroom one…

In a new piece for The Times this week, Black Brick’s Founder, Camilla Dell offered her perspective on why homes with three to four bedrooms and additional storage rooms are better than houses with five or six crammed in bedrooms.

Read the article here.

How much does it really cost to live in London’s residential squares?

In new article for Absolutely Chiswick this week, our Founder Camilla Dell shared her perspective on how expensive London’s residential gardens are to buy in.

“Our data shows that in the last 18 months, the average price paid per sq. ft. in Eaton Square was £4,113,” Camilla shared. “When we compared this to nearby Eaton Place, buyers paid an average of £2,404 per sq. ft. That is a whopping 42% premium to be on Eaton Square.”

Strategies to survive a price slowdown

With the UK property market expected to fall in the next few weeks, a new article in The Times shares top tips and advice on how property searchers should navigate it.

Adding our insight as a top London buying agency, Black Brick’s Founder Camilla Dell advised:

“Try to avoid flats higher than the first or second floor without a lift, ground and lower-ground floor flats, which suffer from damp or low levels of light, and properties far from public transport and shops.”

Read the article here.

Inside the ‘national scandal’ of leasehold properties

New data reports that the UK’s rate of homeownership has fallen from 72% in 2003, to just 64.5% in 2014.

Excluding leasehold properties not legally owned by owner-occupiers, the true rate is actually 58.9%, which is only 0.9% higher than in 1981.

Reflecting on what’s being dubbed as a ‘national scandal’, Black Brick Founder and Managing Partner, Camilla Dell shared her thoughts for a new piece in Ham & High Property this week:

“Never rely on an estate agents estimate on what a lease extension might cost you,” she advised. “Make sure to ask estate agents what the length of the lease is. It’s the estate agents job to accurately state this, along with the service charge and ground rent on the sales particulars,”.

Read more in the full article here.