A growing number of investors who bought new homes to sell on for a profit have got their fingers burnt
In Earls Court, west London, there is a flat that has just been built. Before anyone even moved in, this three-bedroom apartment had three different owners, and lost one of them almost £400,000.
The flat is part of what will be an 808-home project in Lillie Square, co-developed by Capital & Counties Properties and members of Hong Kong’s Kwok family. The scheme’s first phase went on the market in March 2014, just as property prices in London were beginning to crest.
The developers quickly found a buyer for the flat, who took on a £2.07m contract to pay for what was then merely a picture in a glossy brochure. The buyer’s hope was that it would grow in value and could be sold on — perhaps before it was even finished.
But then London’s high-end market turned and prices fell. Unable to complete on their contract, the buyer of the Lillie Square flat sold last month for £1.7m, 18 per cent less than they had paid the developer.
Buying unfinished property and aiming to sell it on quickly for a profit — known as flipping — was a safe bet in London immediately after the recession. Now, the odds have changed.
As prices fall, many property flippers are unable or unwilling to complete, so face either selling at a loss or losing their deposit, says Camilla Dell, founder of buying agency Black Brick, which represented the most recent acquirer of the Lillie Square apartment.
In 2014, 21 per cent of resales in recently completed developments were sold at a discount, according to property research company LonRes. Last year that number had more than trebled, to 67 per cent. At the same time, the size of discounts has ballooned. From an average of 2.2 per cent in 2014, to 13.1 per cent last year.
In some places, the markdown can be double that. “It’s 15-20 per cent in prime central London. South of the river it can be 25 per cent or upwards,” says Charlie Ellingworth, a founder of buying agents Property Vision. For dollar buyers, the falling value of the pound means “you could be talking about [a discount of] 40 per cent”, he adds.
Off-plan investors often rely on a process called assignment, where the right to complete a purchase is sold to a new buyer. Typically, the original party, the “assignor”, will have paid only a deposit to the developer when they contracted to buy off-plan and in assigning their rights under the contract they are looking to recoup their downpayment and more. Because stamp duty is paid on completion, this is another overhead that can be avoided by assignors.
A seller in One Blackfriars has taken a hit of nearly £1m.
When prices were increasing, such transactions could provide handsome returns for assignors, without them ever being responsible for the physical property. Riverlight, a high-end Berkeley Group development in Vauxhall launched in 2011 and was completed in 2017. Soon after it went on sale, deposits were put down on two-bedroom apartments that cost roughly £700,000, says Andrew Griffith, managing director of estate agency MyLondonHome, which has sold a number of flats in the scheme. Two or three years later, they were able to sell on those homes for up to £1.2m.
It is hard to get a sense of the current scale of London’s assignment market. Resellers value discretion and properties resold on the assignment market do not appear in Land Registry figures.
But a ring around agents marketing homes in the Thames-side Nine Elms development suggests flippers are common. One estate agency is listing four apartments in The Dumont, a Berkeley Group development that is not set for completion until 2020. How many of the listings are resales? All of them.
Next door in the Corniche, another Berkeley scheme, all but one of the properties listed by estate agency MyLondonHome are resales. “Most of them are people who’ve bought direct through the developer and want to avoid the stamp duty,” says Griffith. One buyer who paid close to £900,000 is now willing to sell for £100,000 less, he adds.
In the recently completed One Blackfriars — a glass monolith that towers over Blackfriars Bridge — one seller has taken a hit closer to £1m. Having put down the deposit for a £3.021m, three-bedroom apartment, they sold it before it was finished, for £2.25m.
“During the last bull market, many investors were exchanging on off-plan new-build properties with a view to re-assigning their contract for profit ahead of completion,” says Chris Jones, director of buying agency Warnerheath. With falling property prices, some investors have come unstuck, he adds.
The price you negotiate off-plan is the price you pay at the end, even if the market has fallen 30 per cent.
As well as speculators on the assignment market, there are plenty who will have taken out substantial loans to cover their acquisitions. Between April 2014 and March 2016, more than half of all overseas buyers in London’s new-build market took on a mortgage, according to research from the University of York.
“A lot of these overseas buyers are not cash-rich oligarchs or sheikhs, they’re middle-class Singaporeans or Malaysians, [people from] Hong Kong or mainland Chinese”, says Neal Hudson, director at Residential Analysts.
Some of those buyers will be “pretty unsophisticated”, says Ellingworth, and might well have agreed to a purchase “in a hotel in Hong Kong”.
Having done so, they have little protection against falling prices. “The price you negotiate off-plan is the price you pay at the end, even if the market has fallen 30 per cent. Your mortgage lender doesn’t care if it’s gone down. As the buyer, you can inject the equity yourself, or you fail to complete,” says Dell.
Distressed sellers are unlikely to be the only ones touting discounts. “The developers who want to offload their stock are undercutting the flippers,” says Jo Eccles, founder of buying agency SP Property Group.
Two-bedroom apartments in Riverlight, a Berkeley Group development in Vauxhall, launched in 2011 for a price around £700,000. Two or three years later, they sold for up to £1.2m.
Slashing prices is a last resort for developers, who will instead dangle add-ons such as “a beautiful furniture pack or a parking space worth £75,000”, says Eccles. Even so, she says, a number of developers are accepting lowball offers in order to meet sales targets.
“We’re beginning to see 20-30 per cent [reductions] being considered by developers”, says Jones, who typically acts for clients buying in bulk. “Developers are looking to get deals done.”
Faced with selling at a loss, a growing number are opting to take the “for sale” signs down and are falling back on the rental market or taking up residence. LonRes report that 68 per cent of the recently completed flats that came off the market last year were removed because of withdrawal rather than sale — compared with 34 per cent in 2014.
Rather than resigning to the downturn, some see opportunity. On a recent property search in west London, reports Jones, “it was very clear across the board that a lot of sellers had overpaid in 2014 and 2015”. Now, a number of them are actively looking to sell at a discount.
Their eagerness is not borne of financial distress: they want to upsize. If the market is down 20 per cent across the board, a £200,000 hit on a £1m home will be more than offset by a £400,000 discount on something twice the price. Those lucky enough to afford the trade-up might find a few sellers desperate to transact, even at a loss.
The wealthy are splashing out on penthouses. We look at the reasons behind this buying spree
The five-bedroom penthouse in Cheval Place, Knightsbridge, central London, is on sale for £24.5 million through joint agencies H Barnes & Co and Knight Frank.
Reports of the death of the super-prime property market have been greatly exaggerated, as Mark Twain might have said had he worked for an estate agency in London. Hundreds of millions of pounds of property transactions have been completed in the past six months, with buyers — particularly those with US dollars to spend — aiming high and paying top prices for penthouses.
Among these is the penthouse at the Peninsula London hotel, overlooking Hyde Park in central London, which is believed to have been bought for £100 million by Ken Griffin, an American investor, as part of a wider portfolio, which includes a mansion on Carlton Gardens, St James’s, for £95 million.
Caspar Harvard-Walls, a partner at Black Brick, a buying agency, says: “It is the classic thing of people trying to call the bottom of the market. For those with American dollars there’s been an extra incentive. The weak pound means that buyers now receive the equivalent of a 40 per cent discount on prices, compared to the first quarter of 2015. “There is a feeling that there might have been an overcorrection in the market and maybe it has gone too far in favour of the buyer. There is also the reasoning that if people like Ken Griffin are investing, maybe they ought to, too.”
Griffin’s acquisition is not the priciest of its kind in this period, though, having been pipped by the sale of the 8,100 sq ft penthouse — with a 5,000 sq ft roof terrace — at Lodha’s No 1 Grosvenor Square development to an unnamed Chinese buyer for a reported £105 million. These prices beat the previous year’s £90 million sale of the penthouse at The Knightsbridge to the British media entrepreneur Ashley Tabor.
Buyers at this price point are fussy. James Hyman, the head of residential at Cluttons, an estate agency, says: “These are not just top-floor flats, they have to be the whole top floor, have unrestricted 360-degree views, double-height ceilings, a hotel-style concierge and total ‘wow’ factor.”
The penthouse that has fetched the highest price this year is thought to be that at Clarges Mayfair, just off Piccadilly and overlooking Green Park, in central London, which sold for £55 million (after a £60 million deal for the same property fell through), with a smaller penthouse in the same development selling for £38 million.
There has recently been a cluster of other deals between the £15 million and £20 million mark, including the penthouse at the Nova development, near Victoria, for just under £17 million.
This spurt of activity can partly be attributed to several new-build super-prime penthouses having come on to the market at the same time. There are more in the pipeline, too, with hopes of record prices at John Caudwell’s Audley Square development in Mayfair, where the eight-bedroom penthouses are said to have their own swimming pools and gyms.
Penny Mosgrove, the chief executive of Quintessentially Estates, the buying agent involved in the sale of the Clarges Mayfair penthouse, says: “Here is a purchase that represents confidence in the prime central London market and assurance in the UK’s economy, despite Brexit and other global pressures.”
While the lower end of the London market remains cautious over Brexit concerns and increased stamp-duty rates, buyers at the upper end are jumping at the opportunity to invest.
Ed Lewis, the head of residential sales at Savills, says: “There is confidence in the London story and, if we have an orderly Brexit, many believe there will be a surge in the market and prices will rise.”
Mosgrove says: “We have more than £200 million of property requests for prime central London.”
And Camilla Dell, a managing partner at Black Brick, says: “We had a record number of inquiries for property up to £20 million in January, more than the whole of the last quarter last year. There is a lot of pent-up demand.”
Stuart Bailey, a partner in Knight Frank’s Belgravia office, says: “There are two schools of thought: either that people want to spend on the best in class and think, ‘My equity is safe here’, it is a real flight to quality, or people are looking for a second-hand property that they can get at trade prices. There is a belief that best-in-class penthouses will hold their value because there is a finite supply, and with predictions that the market will rise by 12 to 13 per cent over the next five years I expect buyers will hold for the medium term.”
David Lee, the head of sales at Pastor Real Estate, has also had an increase in buyers looking for properties between £10 million and £20 million.
“There is a real inflection point in calling the bottom of the market in terms of the dollar-sterling currency,” he says. “Brexit is not important for many at this level. They have cash and still feel that central London is a good place to have it.”
Hyman, who recently sold the freehold of the Bankside Collection, a 16-storey development that includes a triplex penthouse, for more than £19 million, says: “The international market hasn’t fallen out of love with London. It has very much been sitting on the fence and waiting for the market to bottom out, waiting for the London property market to stabilise, but more importantly the currency play.”
For many of the buyers and sellers of these super-prime properties, discretion is paramount, with penthouses such as the one at No 1 Grosvenor Square neither advertised nor marketed. Wealthy buyers such as Griffin send agents to scout out suitable properties, with offers made through brokers.
Mark Parkinson, a founding partner of the buying agent Middleton Advisors, says: “A lot of the buyers at this end of the market have US dollars to spend, and to a lesser extent euros. For some it is about currency, for some Americans there is the prospect of [President] Trump gaining a second term too.
“For others it is political instability at home. They are not too worried by Brexit. For many at this level it is not going to be their main home; domestic politics isn’t seen as too much of a worry. Taxation might be more of a worry, with the prospect of a Corbyn/McDonnell government, but many think that would be short-lived.”
People without the taste for political intrigue may have had enough of conversations about Brexit, but there is an appetite for news about its impact on the housing market, especially for tales of mansions struck by Brexit blight.
A former pub in Mayfair (converted into a residence with a gym and pool) recently fetched £15 million. It had been marketed for £25 million before it was repossessed. Camilla Dell of Black Brick, a buying agency, acquired the house on behalf of clients. Many of the wealthy like to subcontract house-hunting to this species of personal shopper, which may be why they secure advantageous deals.
You should be able to obtain a discount on a new-build property if you target certain developers in the right way. Smaller companies may be more under pressure from their banks.
Outside London and the southeast, requests for price cuts may be less likely to succeed because Brexit has done less harm. Since the referendum in 2016, prices in ten cities in the Midlands, the north, Wales and Scotland, including Edinburgh and Manchester, have appreciated by as much as 16 per cent, according to Zoopla, a property portal.
In this new north-south divide there is one uniting factor. In every area, homes are selling more quickly if the online pictures feature a shot taken at dusk, with welcoming light shining from every window. This response to comforting images, combined with the downbeat tone of Nationwide’s latest survey, suggests that uncertainty may be spreading beyond London and the south. There are buyers around, but they want the reassurance that a home will be a haven in every sense of the word.
When news broke that US hedge fund manager Ken Griffin paid £95m for a London mansion, it made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. It was not the amount the billionaire founder of Citadel paid for the home that caught the attention of property pundits — he went on to make an even pricier purchase in New York several days later — but the price he did not pay. The 20,000 sq ft home near Buckingham Palace, remodelled by property developer Mike Spink and backed by private equity group Evans Randall, had an initial asking price of £145m and had languished on the market for two years priced at £125m. According to London buying agents, Griffin’s cut-price purchase last week may be just the start, as fears grow over the health of the city’s prime property market, spooking lenders and sparking an increase in heavily-discounted sales.
Falling prices and slowing sales of homes valued above £5m — transactions of such properties in 2018 were 36 per cent lower than in 2014, according to Savills — have led to banks and other lenders routinely revaluing homes downwards, agents say, and requesting more cash from developers who are already strapped. Many must now slash prices, accept low offers or face collapse.
I have seen more repossessions of super-prime homes in central London in the last year than in the 10 years prior,” says Roarie Scarisbrick of Property Vision, a buying agent focused on prime central London. Smaller, niche developers have been hit hardest, says Henry Pryor, another buying agent based in London. “A lot of the funders of these developments are offloading their positions, turning the screw on developers,” he adds. “The hedge funders who thought that property was a doddle are getting out.” “It’s worse for the single house developers, especially those who bought sites in 2013 and 2014 at the high point in the market,” says Scarisbrick.
Jonathan Harris of Anderson Harris, which arranges mortgages for luxury homes, estimates that more than half of London properties bought by private individuals for more than £5m include some type of mortgage. With banks’ appetites waning, these buyers are feeling the pressure. “It’s no secret that the bank valuers are extremely cautious at the moment: when they come to revalue something there is a loan on they will mark it down 10 or 20 per cent,” says Scarisbrick. A quarter of loans taken out at the market peak in 2014 have since faced a margin call thanks to the drop in prime home values, says Harris. “It depends on the asset: if the property is worth below £10m there is less urgency, but if you’re lending on a £15m or £30m property, things will be different.”
What do you get for £95m? 3 Carlton Gardens, St James’s London Behind the Grade II-listed, John Nash-designed exterior, 3 Carlton Gardens has many of the features you might expect in any super-prime home: the pool, the staff quarters, the gym and the subterranean extension, all sprawled across nearly 20,000 square feet. For that money, though, Ken Griffin does not get his own driveway, and must share one with the foreign secretary, whose official residence is next door. In 2013, the home was bought by Mike Spink, developer and designer to the ultra-wealthy, for £65.5m, who completely remodelled it. George Hammond The typical loan duration is five years, he says, meaning many loans taken out at the peak will fall due this year. Lenders are not high street banks. Even traditional private banks like Weatherbys or C Hoare & Co tend to prefer British landed wealth over the newly affluent from abroad, who have become the major acquirers in London’s super-prime market, says Harris. Typically they will use large firms with a global presence, such as Kleinwort Hambros (part of Société Générale), UBS and Credit Suisse. These firms’ international banking networks allow foreign buyers to use assets at home as collateral for a mortgage on a London purchase, saving them UK tax. “The larger the loan they can raise this way, the smaller the remittance tax bill associated with transferring money into the UK to make the purchase,” says Harris. In March, Savills sold a home on Cresswell Place in Kensington for £25m. An agent, who wished to remain anonymous, says the home was first marketed at £42.5m in 2015 and the developer turned down an offer “in the thirties” soon after. After the receivers were appointed last February, they slashed to price to £20.95m. Recommended UK property London property transactions drop to decade low Camilla Dell of prime London buying agent Black Brick recently acted for the buyer of Red Lion House, a six-bedroom converted pub in Mayfair, another repossession sale. When the bank made a further margin call to reflect the lower value in the falling market, the owner ran out of cash and defaulted, leaving the bank racing to sell the house, she says. First marketed at £25m last year, the home was sold in November for £15m: at £1,748 per sq ft this was a 20 per cent discount on the average Mayfair sale in 2018, according to LonRes. While the total number of repossessions is still small, there is growing pressure on developers to reduce prices to avoid joining the pile, meaning further sharp price cuts are likely. “Repossession is the nuclear option,” says Scarisbrick, so lenders will typically go to great lengths to avoid it. As soon as the receiver is appointed, he says, it affects the perception of value in the whole market. Bargian buys This 11-bedroom townhouse in Belgravia had its price reduced by £6m in November to £30m So where might bargain hunters with a spare £30m start their search? The day after the FT reported the story about Ken Griffin’s purchase of 3 Carlton Gardens, £6.05m was cut from the price of a seven-bedroom townhouse on Cowley Street, less than a mile away, by developer Saigol DDC. The new price of £29.95m, through the agent Rokstone, represents a drop of 17 per cent. The super-rich looking for something further out of town might consider the six-bedroom house on Canons Close, a cul-de-sac off Bishop’s Avenue near Hampstead Heath, listed for sale at £11.95m with Glentree Estates. The price represents a cut of more than £4m, or 26 per cent, of the home’s original listing price last January. The developer, Friroka Group, knocked down the old home on the site and rebuilt the current one from scratch. “The new price cuts out the negotiating room, not the value,” says Trevor Abrahmsohn of Glentree Estates, sounding, perhaps, the desperate side of optimistic. In Belgravia, an 11-bedroom townhouse in Wilton Crescent is for sale for £30m with Rokstone. This price follows a £6m cut made in November, just over a year after the home was put on the market.
One result of the property slowdown is lower prices close to good primaries
By Jessie Hewitson
This three-bedroom house in Kensington, west London, is on sale for £2.75 million through Lurot Brand. It is close to Fox Primary School, which is ranked ninth in the country by The Sunday Times Parent Power guide.
Securing a place at some of the country’s top schools may now be easier than you think. Fewer property sales in the catchment areas of some of the best state schools is creating opportunities in these locations for savvy buyers.
Knight Frank analysed the local property markets of top schools as ranked in Parent Power, a schools guide published by The Sunday Times, and found that sales within one and a half miles of the top ten state schools dropped 18 per cent in four years, from 15,656 in 2013 to 12,822 in 2017. This is at odds with the average 15 per cent growth in property sales UK-wide in the same period.
These findings indicate that schools aren’t receiving the usual number of applications for Reception places (a child’s first year of primary school), which had to be lodged by Tuesday for the start of the school year in September.
This four-bedroom house in Great Bonas, Shropshire, is on sale for £925,000. The nearby primary school at Tipperton is ranked as outstanding by Ofsted.
Estate agents report that catchment areas are widening as a result, and one desirable school in north London, rated outstanding by Ofsted, is for the first time having to market itself to parents. The school blames its dwindling applications on the local property market: there are no new families moving to the area.
“The slowing property market will mean that people who want to sell a property within a traditional catchment area may struggle, so the catchment area may grow to take in streets that historically would never have had the chance of getting a place at the school,” says Caspar Harvard-Walls, a partner at Black Brick, a buying agency. “This is good news for those parents and buyers, especially because properties outside the traditional catchment area are usually cheaper than those inside.”
The lull in sales close to good schools has been compounded by a general drop in property transactions since 2017 and property unaffordability after years of strong price growth.
According to Patrick Gower, an associate in the research department at Knight Frank, the drop in sales is related to the drop in house price growth, tighter mortgage regulations and potential sellers not building up enough equity to move up the ladder. Brexit uncertainty is also causing vendors to wait and see before moving, with this week’s vote doing little to change this.
“This poses problems for schools with tight catchment areas, and some will need to look farther afield for their intake,” Gower says. “The issue is likely to be compounded for primary schools with an outstanding secondary school near by, [because] it effectively reduces the need to move.”
A four-bedroom apartment in Earls Court, west London, is on sale for £1.75 million through Tedworth Property.
Marc Schneiderman, the director of Arlington Residential, an estate agency in northwest London, says that the volume of sales in St John’s Wood and Hampstead, where there are many outstanding private and state schools, has gone down by about a third compared with two years ago. “With fewer families moving into these areas, the number of new pupils at local schools has been reduced,” he says. The homes within close walking distance of well-regarded schools that have historically sold quickly are also taking “some time” to sell.
James Hyman, the head of residential at Cluttons estate agency, says that, while property prices in good catchment areas of central London have not dropped by as much as the 15 per cent national average over the past three years, they have gone down
(5 per cent). However, research by Knight Frank shows that homes near the best schools command, on average, an 11 per cent premium compared with ones at the bottom of the league tables.
The stagnation in people buying and selling means that local authorities are having to flex the rules on owning a home and renting in the same borough. One parent, who is renting a home close to a desirable secondary school in Haringey, north London, but also owns a home outside the catchment area, was recently inspected by Haringey council. When asked why she was renting while also owning a home, she said that she couldn’t sell her main residence in the present market. The local authority accepted her explanation. It is likely this reason will increasingly be given to councils as parents give up on moving closer to schools and choose to rent instead.
Jemma Scott, a partner at the Buying Solution, a property agency, says she has seen a “marked reduction in the availability of prime rental family houses in the home counties. She says in Ascot and Sunningdale in Berkshire and Virginia Water in Surrey some families are opting to rent during Brexit negotiations and have given up trying to move close to a new school.
In the second of a two part series we look at neighbourhoods where growth is being driven by great food.
By Jayne Dowle
The Mansion development by Clivedale is just to the north of Oxford Street, close to Marylebone, in central London. Apartment prices start at £4.95 million.
Last week we brought you the regional locations where the food revolution is fuelling buyers’ appetites. In the country, nothing adds value to a property like an award-winning village pub or a bustling farmers’ market within walking distance. This week we focus our attention on London.
Part of the old BHS on Oxford Street will reopen in the summer, not as a department store, or a cheap sportswear outlet, but as an indoor market, brimming with producers, retailers, restaurants, street-food vendors, four bars, event spaces and a demo kitchen. It belongs to the chain Market Halls, which is opening branches across the capital and regionally, including one in York in late spring.
Its expansion underlines the growing relationship between decent food outlets and a postcode’s popularity. Take, for example, Borough Market in southeast London. Southwark has grown dramatically in popularity since this foodie paradise appeared 15 years ago.
Soho and Marylebone, prime locations within walking distance of Oxford Street, enjoy a fine reputation for neighbourhood markets, delis, restaurants and cafés.
However, is it the eateries that attract the residents, or vice versa? It’s a debate that the residents of Islington have been chewing over for decades, with the restaurants of Upper Street contributing to a Georgian terraced house in NW1 being able to command an average of £1.38 million.
Whatever the answer, it’s a trend that other areas of London are rapidly emulating. “An army marches on its stomach and the march of some of London’s coolest neighbourhoods is being driven by great food,” says Nick Dawson, an associate at Garrington property finders. “Shoreditch in east London is a shining example. The formerly down-at-heel neighbourhood is a hotbed of tech start-ups, with a bohemian vibe and new restaurants and bars opening. For a three-bedroom property in Shoreditch you can expect to pay £1 million on average, but this is still nearly a third cheaper than the likes of Soho and Covent Garden.” Speaking of value for money, Bethnal Green (where the average price of a flat is £512,102) and Hackney Wick (£522,298) are good examples of areas getting an upgrade to their traditional offering of greasy spoons as buyers move eastwards in search of affordability. “These may offer a slightly more eclectic feel, but they do have an abundance of artisan breweries and cheesemakers,” Dawson says.
Northfield Butchery in Borough Market in Southwark, southeast London.
Tom Kain, a buying consultant for Black Brick, a property agency, adds Brixton and Bermondsey to the list. “These are good examples of areas that have rapidly become more gentrified,” he says. “And a large part of the gentrification is fuelled by the food markets. Many young professionals and families relish the pop-up foodie outlets found in Brixton Village and Maltby Street Market in Bermondsey. It certainly is a draw card.”
A main factor is the surge in healthy and organic eating. Katy Brookes, a sales manager at Foxtons in Muswell Hill, says that a popular spot for north London’s health-conscious is Planet Organic, open until 9.30pm to welcome weary commuters desperate for a Fatigue Fighter (apple, beetroot, orange, celery and ginger) fix.
Her colleague, David Busson, says that the farmers’ market in nearby Stoke Newington helps to create a sense of community and marks the area out from its neighbours. Stoke Newington, with an average price of £653,804, is more expensive than Stamford Hill (£570,416), Upper Clapton (£506,292) and Clapton Common (£510,760). “All the produce comes from within 100 miles of Hackney,” Busson says.
And if you’re wondering where the next hot meal might be coming from, Dawson advises looking northwest. “Queen’s Park is one to watch, with gentrification spreading into the less-affluent areas of Kilburn and Willesden and creating strong demand for fine dining,” he says. “With investment in Queen’s Park on the rise — and family upsizers continuing to move in from Notting Hill and St John’s Wood — this is a foodie haven that might be worth getting in on now.”
There are bargains in the prime market, but choose carefully for a sound investment.
By Carol Lewis
Buyer beware: there is a glut of luxury flats coming on to the market, so you will need to be discerning.
Jonathan Mount, a director of Sterling Private Office, a property advisory company, says: “With construction of prime new-builds outstripping demand by two to one, concerns of oversupply in London’s prime market are justified. However, while we advise our clients to tread carefully, there are savvy investment opportunities in this market if investors exercise good judgment. The key is to find something unique, that won’t become part of a homogenous mass.”
The luxury new-build market is floundering amid Brexit uncertainty and developers are feeling the pinch. Capital & Counties (Capco) wants to sell its site in Earls Court, west London, while Barrett London says it isn’t going to build anything in the transport zones 1-3 for the next two years. Almacantar, the developer that owns Centre Point in central London, has said it will stop selling rather than cut prices.
“There’s no point buying a property simply because it’s cheap if it’s still going to be cheap in five or ten years,” says Caspar Harvard-Walls, a partner at Black Brick, a property buying agency. “The challenge is finding properties that are competitively priced and really good quality.”
Harvard-Walls says that repossessions are starting to come on to the market in locations such as Nine Elms, south London. “We are seeing more repossessions across the board, but particularly at the higher end. People who bought off-plan in 2014-15 in a project, with a three-year build time, and put down a 20 per cent deposit on a £1 million property, are finding that the bank is revaluing the finished property at £850,000. With banks lending less, the buyer has to stump up the difference.
“You shouldn’t be tempted by the cheaper price. If they were originally being sold at an over-inflated price, it doesn’t make them good value now. Buyers need to think about whether the property will still be of interest to buyers in the long term.”
Charlie Ellingworth, a director at Property Vision, a buying agency, says: “There is a load of stuff being thrown up and buyers need to tease out the decent places, look for quality and place-making. Find a good development where the pricing is right. If flats in the mansion block next door are selling for £900 a square foot, then £1,300 a square foot for the shiny new tower block isn’t great value.”
Rachel Thompson of Sterling Private Office recommends looking for something that will hold its value, either because it is within a special building, such as the 253 apartments in the grade II turbine hall at Battersea Power Station, or the apartments in the renovated grade I listed Regent’s Crescent, or the location is special, such as Lodha’s Lincoln Square development near the London School of Economics in central London, or Chiltern Place, one of the few high-rise blocks in Marylebone in London’s West End.
What to look for
● Walk the area Lots of places are marketed as “just two to three miles from Harrods”, or in “central London”. Make sure you really know where you are buying.
● Research future plans Find out what is proposed for the area. You don’t want your view obscured by a tower block in a year’s time.
● Look into the developer Buy from a reputable company. Go and see what else it has built. Be wary of those offering incentives, such as free cars or luxury gifts; there’s probably a reason.
● Check the scheme details Buy from schemes where the contract to buy can’t be reassigned several times before completion. If contracts can be reassigned, it leads to oversupply and threatens the value of your property.
● Insist on quality Look for classic contemporary finishes that won’t date.
Inspect the building materials used. A nice worktop is no substitute for poor-quality units.
● Negotiate It is possible to save as much as 30 per cent on the price in some schemes.
Boris Johnson has used some contentious turns of phrase. Aside from the extraordinarily witless remarks he made about burkas, he once compared female volleyball players in the 2012 Olympics to “glistening wet otters frolicking”. But his claim in 2014 that London was “to the billionaire as the jungles of Sumatra are to the orangutan” perhaps demonstrated more foresight than he knew. London’s property market was once such a natural habitat for Russian oligarchs that The Washington Post called it “Moscow on Thames”; nowadays, they are starting to look wholly endangered. By 2016, Russian demand in London was “practically dead”, says Dmitry Zakirov, director of Russian language property consultants LonGrad. In the wake of tax changes in the UK and restrictions on money leaving Russia, he estimates that the number of Russians buying in London dropped 75 per cent in a year. Numbers were beginning to recover, he adds, but have since slumped again thanks to the introduction of unexplained wealth orders in January, which permit investigators to seize unaccounted for assets, the souring of Anglo-Russian relations following the Skripal attack in March, and the subsequent decision of the UK government to re-examine 700 Russian visas. Even Roman Abramovich, the billionaire posterboy of Russian investment in London, has got himself an Israeli passport— and there were rumours this year that he’s considering selling Chelsea FC, which the club denies. But it’s not just the Russians.
The international share of the market in prime central London dropped from 52 per cent in the first half of 2014 to 39 per cent in the first half of this year, according to Hamptons International. The drop looks even more pronounced when you account for the fact that the volume of transactions over that period has fallen by at least 30 per cent, according to Liam Bailey, global head of Knight Frank Research. The appeal is not sweetened by the fact that London property, while still among the most expensive in the world, is a depreciating asset — and getting harder to shift. As of July, prices for homes in prime central London had dropped by 3.8 per cent in a year, according to Savills, and are 18.4 per cent down from their peak in 2014. Back then, demand for London property among rich Russians was stratospheric. Thea Carroll, senior buying consultant at The Buying Solution, describes her clients as being “hyper-demanding and glamorous and ridiculous on another level”. One Christmas Eve a Russian client phoned her to ask if she could remove a bumble bee from their bedroom. Developers were targeting Russians with expensive marketing plans and regional sales shows, says Alisa Zotimova, chief executive of AZ Real Estate, which specialises in finding homes for Russian speakers in the capital. There was a flow not just of “mega-rich Russians” but of those buying properties from £2m up, says Zakirov.
“The whole landscape started changing massively from 2014 onwards,” says Camilla Dell, founder and managing partner at Black Brick Property Solutions. “The Russian market dropped off along with lots of others”. Along with that year’s stamp duty reform — which increased the tax bill on all homes priced above £937,500 — changes to capital gains and inheritance taxes, the government also started reforming the Tier 1 “golden visa” programme. In November 2014, the price of the visa doubled from £1m to £2m and then, the following April, a more rigorous system of background checks on applicants’ sources of wealth was implemented. The number of investors moving to the UK fell by more than 80 per cent in the year to March 2016 compared with the year before.
The anti-money laundering laws “changed a lot”, says Carroll. “I had someone who tried to pay 10 years upfront for a rental in cash before, and in the huge trophy market I think there was a fair amount of [money laundering] going on”.
While overall numbers of overseas buyers have been falling — and may yet reduce further if the 3 per cent stamp duty premium for foreign buyers, proposed by the government in September, is imposed — it is still the case that the higher up the value curve one goes, the higher the proportion of international buyers.
Dell puts the foreign share of the £10m-plus and £20m-plus markets at 60 per cent and 80 per cent respectively. “I can’t remember the last time we did a deal with a British domestic client in excess of £20m,” she says.
According to some agents, rather than ease the affordability crisis for ordinary Brits — which is what Theresa May said the intention of the proposed foreign stamp duty increase was — the levy will worsen London’s housing shortage. “You need to have international buyers purchasing off-plan to support the bank debt in the cycle of development,” says Ed Lewis, head of residential development sales at Savills. If foreign investment is penalised, fewer new homes might be built as a result, says Dell. Russians are moving out of London’s residential market to chase returns.
Zotimova notes one client who has just put nearly £5m into a hotel at Manchester airport. “We are refocusing on other regions in the middle and north of England,” says Zakirov. “Anything from Bedford to Sunderland.” Others are going further afield: “Buying a supermarket in Germany seems to be the flavour of the day,” she adds. For those Russians set on London, renting is a preferred option to buying, says Zotimova. “People like London and they see themselves living here but they’re not sure that in three years’ time all of their family will have a legitimate chance to live in the UK,” she says.
The developers behind the 50-storey Aykon London One tower in Nine Elms, which is due to complete in 2020 and will feature interiors by Versace, are perhaps hoping that being London’s first “fashion-branded” residential development will make the apartments more appealing. The Russian property platform Tranio is marketing a five-bedroom apartment with concierge and access to a residents’ swimming pool for £13.5m.
On Bishop’s Avenue near Hampstead Heath, Glentree Estates is selling an eight-bedroom detached house behind imposing security gates for £12.5m.
Educational institutions are still a universal pull, says Bailey, who estimates that £2bn in foreign purchases have been made in the past 12 months that have been motivated by education.
Zotimova notes the problems of sourcing a pet-friendly home for one granddaughter of a Soviet ballet dancer who came with her dog. Yet as Russian buyers may be moving on, Turkish buyers, who want to hedge their money against the falling lira and political uncertainty at home, have been on the rise since 2016, say agents.
The numbers are still very small, says Carroll, “but in the last two years it must be double”. Golden postcodes such as Belgravia and Chelsea are most popular, says Nathalie Hirst, a buying agent. “They are later to the game in the millionaire world and they work on the fact that if you buy in Knightsbridge it will always sound swish,” says Carroll.
Of the £4.4bn-worth of UK property bought with “suspicious wealth”, £4.2bn is in London, and a fifth is bought by Russians, according to a report last year by Transparency International UK, writes Hugo Cox. The majority flows through shell companies — foreign firms own roughly 40,000 London properties this way. “Corrupt individuals [need] a getaway vehicle and a safe place to stash their stolen loot. Anonymous companies are the getaway vehicle and UK assets, such as property, are the safety deposit box,” says Duncan Hames of the organisation. Transparency campaigners are not the only ones sounding the alarm. In its annual report in May, the National Crime Agency (NCA) singled out London’s property market as a target for laundered money from Russia, Nigeria and Pakistan. Since the poisoning of the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in March “ministers have spoken with renewed vigour about creating a hostile environment for dirty money”, says Hames.
The UK introduced a public register of companies in 2016 and has committed to introducing a register of the beneficial owners of overseas companies that hold UK property. But checks on the accuracy of the register, maintained by Companies House, are limited. The only person to have been convicted for faking records was Kevin Brewer, a businessmen who set out to demonstrate how easy it was to do so (one firm he created, Cleverly Clogs Ltd, included the government minister responsible for Companies House as a director). “Unlike David Cameron, I just don’t think Theresa May is that interested,” says Oliver Bullough, author of ‘Moneyland: Why Thieves and Crooks Now Rule the World and How to Take It Back’. “Rich Russians deserting London property has much more to do with the fact that the value of the rouble has tanked.”
Choose the right agent, buy new cushions and be available for viewings
By Annabelle Williams and David Byers
It’s only 81 days until we crack open the mince pies and mulled wine, yet it takes an average of 60 days to agree a sale on a property, from the moment it is listed. So if you are you looking to sell your home before Christmas, you better get a move on.
The British property market hardly looks encouraging for people trying to buy or sell. This week’s Nationwide index shows the average British house price rose by a sluggish 2 per cent over the past year to reach an average of £214,922. Yet the market remains full of nuances. Yorkshire and the Humber’s market, for example, rose 5.8 per cent in the third quarter of this year, while the average price in the East Midlands rose 4.8 per cent.
Even those in London, where average house prices dropped 0.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2018 — the fifth consecutive quarterly dip — have reasons to be cheerful.
According to a breakdown in property prices by postcode by Propdex, an analytics company, London’s dip is only affecting a minority of areas — 74 out of 231, mostly in west London — where prices have become too inflated and are undergoing a correction. Meanwhile, the postcode in Britain in which the most homes were sold, is in Croydon (there were 833 sales in six months), proving London’s affordable outer zones are doing fine.
However, according to research by Rightmove, a property portal, you’ll sell faster if your home is in Scotland, with Edinburgh and Glasgow experiencing an unprecedented boom. You can achieve the quickest sale anywhere in Britain in the commuter town of Livingston in west Lothian, which is a magnet for workers; it’s 40 minutes by train to both cities. Here it takes an average of 26 days for a property to be sold after appearing on Rightmove. “We’re in the centre of Scotland, with good commuter links to Edinburgh and Glasgow and we’re very affordable — you can buy an ex-local authority three-bedroom terraced house from £100,000 and a four-bedroom detached house for £300,000,” says Simon Thomas, the owner of Remax, an estate agency in Livingston. This compares favourably with Edinburgh, where flats start at £200,000.
Scottish authorities make up six of the seven fastest-selling areas, and include Glasgow (31 days) and Edinburgh (28). Other notable areas in the top 20 include booming areas of the West and East Midlands, where property prices are rising rapidly. Among these are Coventry (36 days), Rugby (36), Corby (37), Kettering (37), Redditch (38) and Bromsgrove (39). In London the fastest-moving areas are the most affordable — sales in Forest Gate in Newham, east London, are agreed after an average of 43 days — and those where middle-class families snap up properties nearest the best schools, such as Whetstone in the borough of Barnet (58 days’ selling time).
If you are struggling to sell your home, we have asked the experts for their tips on how to get your place sold.
This six-bedroom house in Buckland Newton, Dorchester, is on sale for £2.25 million with Knight Frank.
Price
Caspar Harvard-Walls, a partner at Black Brick, a buying agency, says sellers need to be “extremely realistic” about the price their property will fetch. “It’s a buyer’s market,” he says. “The most important thing you can do is ensure it is priced sensibly, otherwise you are just wasting time.” He advises sellers avoid relying on estate agent estimates — after all, they are trying to win your instruction. Think about whether your asking price reflects the market conditions. Look at sales of comparable properties online, and if those sales were a while ago, consider deducting something from the price.
Prepare for a quick sale
Thea Carroll, a senior buying consultant at the Buying Solution, a buying agency, says sellers who are serious about shifting their property before the end of the year should make arrangements to rent somewhere. Be clear with buyers that you’re prepared to move. “The worst thing you can do is be ambivalent with buyers. Give the buyer an element of security about how you will move your family out of your home, and tell them you are keen to exchange and complete before Christmas.”
Carroll says that this could also be a good bargaining chip when it comes to your property’s sale price. “Tell buyers the reason you are not being weak on pricing is because you are being flexible with your moving date,” she says.
Mark Hayward of NAEA Propertymark, a professional body for estate agents, says: “Instruct your solicitor to prepare contracts and seek answers to preliminary inquiries, so when a buyer is found there won’t be any delays. If your house has been extended, obtain copies of planning consents and building regulations.”
In Barnes, southwest London, this house with three bedrooms is on sale for £3.2 million with Marsh & Parsons.
Choose your agent carefully
How did you choose your agent? Was it based on its fee, because it is the best-known in the area, or its expertise in selling homes like yours? “We see people who are selling with completely the wrong agency. The days have gone when you could instruct an agency and wait. The seller has to become far more involved in the process,” says Harvard-Walls.
Carroll says the autumn may be time to appoint another agency. “Properties go stale in the run-up to Christmas. If an agency has had your property all summer I would ask to see their viewing numbers, and if you are only getting one or two a week, appoint another agency and negotiate a lower fee.”
Harvard-Walls advises people to ask prospective agencies to show them examples of similar homes that have been sold and choose an agency that frequently sells properties in your segment of the market.
Look at the agency’s marketing material for your property. If the photos of your home show spring flowers and sunny skies, have some autumnal photos taken.
This house in Holland Park, west London, has five bedrooms and is on sale for £8.25 million through Marsh & Parson
Presentation
“Towards the end of the year, with Hallowe’en and bonfire night, the chintz and decorations start to appear. Try to keep the family home neutral and clear of tatt,” Carroll says.
Regularly ask your agency for feedback from viewings and act on what prospective buyers are saying. Harvard-Walls says he knew of one seller who was told by prospective buyers that the garden was a selling point, but not in its present state. The seller spent £5,000 doing up the garden and shortly afterwards secured a sale.
Mhairi Coyle, a designer at Mhairi Coyle Interiors, says that sellers should wash windows, internal and external paintwork, and touch up any nicks on skirting boards and walls. Consider refreshing your interiors with modern bedspreads, curtains and hide old-fashioned sofas with throws.
Coyle says: “There are inexpensive things to choose from everywhere now. The market has changed drastically, you never used to be able to get anything stylish in cheaper shops.” She recommends people look at H&M, French Connection and Habitat for affordable furnishings.
Consider moving some furniture into storage. Coyle says: “More houses would sell if they had a couple of pieces of furniture in each room. The less stuff you have, the easier it is for people to see themselves in the space.”
Coyle also worked with a couple who bought new cupboard doors for their kitchen in a makeover aimed at selling their home. “They didn’t want to redo the kitchen, but they needed to refresh it.” She recommends companies such as Naked Doors, or Superfront if you have Ikea furniture that needs a stylish overhaul.
Be available
Harvard-Walls says he has had sellers make things tricky for people to view their home. Even if you have endured many months of viewings, try to be flexible. “You have to work with your agent to make your home available at short notice and outside working hours,” he says.
With the “improve, don’t move” mantra ringing in their ears – sometimes fuelled by a reluctance to pay the huge stamp duty bill involved in upsizing to a bigger house – many homeowners are finding a new way to extend. They’re buying next door.
In certain situations, it can make perfect sense. You love your house and the location, but you need more space, perhaps because of boomerang children or grandparents moving in, or some other millennial or multi-generational arrangement. You’ve probably already extended into the loft, out the back and maybe even underground. So should the chance arise to extend into next door too, why wouldn’t you do it?
There’s still stamp duty to pay, of course, but it will most likely be a lesser sum to buy a neighbouring property of similar size to your own than it would to upgrade to a far bigger house (even taking the three per cent surcharge for second homes into account). “There will be the costs of architects, builders and solicitors too, but it will still represent a considerable saving on the usual costs of selling a home and buying a bigger one,” says Sara Ransom of buying agent Stacks Property Search.
There may even be some financial gain in buying next door. “I encourage my clients to do so at every opportunity, where their financial position allows,” says Marc Schneiderman, of estate agency Arlington Residential. Even when the space isn’t needed immediately, he is looking long term at the investment value of having a handily located spare property to rent out, to eventually sell as a project for someone else to convert, or use some of next door’s garden to add to your own. “You may only get the opportunity once to buy next door, so when it does become available, consider it very closely,” he says.
Making a huge profit is rarely the motivating factor behind such projects, as the whole may not be worth more than the sum of its parts. Two adjoining cottages were recently available in Devon’s Culm Valley for a joint price of £695,000 through Greenslade Taylor Hunt. “If they were sold separately, would they be worth more than £350,000 each? Probably,” says Gideon Sumption of Stacks. “It rarely makes financial sense to join two properties, unless there is some marriage value to be released, such as restoring a shared drive to single ownership, or even getting rid of an unpleasant neighbour.”
Three Cotswold cottages which can be knocked together, on the market through Strutt & Parker.
For most people who carry out this kind of conversion, it’s all about the lifestyle or emotional benefits. It attracts buyers across the entire property spectrum, from small country cottages to huge central London apartments. “If it enhances your quality of life, forget about the end value and go for it, and you may well make an unintentional stamp duty saving,” says Sumption.
At the priciest end of the knock-through spectrum, there’s Trevor Square in Kensington, Harrods’ former Grade I listed depository. Nick and Christian Candy, the developers, briefly lived in the building and in 2006 turned four of the apartments into one vast, six-bedroom duplex that spans 6,400 sq ft and is now on sale for £30 million through Harrods Estates. “Buyers in this market want purpose-built lateral living with a 24/7 concierge and parking, and this ginormous property comes with four large, secure parking spaces,” says Shaun Drummond, sales director of Harrods Estates.
The huge duplex made from four apartments on Trevor Square, £30 million through Harrods Estates
In some London boroughs – Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster are the notable ones – reducing the housing stock by knocking two into one goes against their targets to increase supply of new homes, so owners are now unlikely to be granted permission. “Even where a house has a mews behind, if it has been two separate households paying two lots of council tax, it will be a challenge to secure planning,” says Brendan Roberts, director at Aylesford International.
Apartments can lend themselves more readily to this kind of redevelopment, either by creating a duplex by knocking into the flat above or below, or by knocking into the flat next door, in a mansion block for example – provided you have the consent of the freeholder/landlord and the local council. “You would also need to amalgamate the leases, which is potentially complicated,” says Simon Tollit, co-founder and director of Tedworth Property.
In some London boroughs, reducing the housing stock by knocking two into one goes against their targets to increase supply of new homes, so owners are now unlikely to be granted permission
In the most expensive areas of London, “double laterals” are also popular, says David Lee, head of sales at Pastor Real Estate. That’s where two adjoining flats span two buildings, satisfying wealthy buyers’ tastes for large, lateral space that maximises light and eliminates staircases and corridors that waste room.
“Some excellent examples can be found in South Kensington, where a number of stucco-fronted period buildings have been brought together to form exceptionally wide residences, particularly those located on first floors, which tend to have the highest ceilings and grandest proportions,” adds Lee.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, there are rural opportunities crying out to be restored into one. Occasionally, you will find an entire row of two-up, two-down farmworkers’ cottages up for sale, says Bruce King, director at Cheffins estate agency in Cambridge. “The properties that work best in this situation are not high value so even when you factor in the buying and conversion costs, it can be cheaper than buying one property,” he says. “They don’t come up very often, so keep an eye on property auctions and private treaty sales, or ask local farmers and landowners.”
Nicholas and Jill Leader’s house in Canterbury, £599,950 with Strutt & Parker
Martin Walshe, of Cheffins, expects demand for knock-throughs to rise in central Cambridge, too, where city centre stock is an issue. He mentions a current example on the market: two neighbouring Victorian terraced houses in Romsey Town, priced at £550,000 for the three-bedroom, and £400,000 for the two-bedroom. Both are owned by the same couple, who live in one and rent out the other.
Walshe suggests knocking through the two would cost £100,000, including enclosing the driveway that links them with a modern, glass walkway. “It works best in city centre homes when the houses need complete modernisation and can be picked up at lower prices, reconfigured and then sold at a premium,” he adds.
Nicholas and Jill Leader’s house in Canterbury, £599,950 with Strutt & Parker.
One issue to avoid is creating a super-sized house whose value is out of proportion with what’s around it – as Jamie Oliver discovered. He spent millions conjoining two Primrose Hill properties into one, which failed to sell a few years ago. He then had to reinstate it as two separate houses.
It’s the “best house in the street” syndrome that no one really wants, says Camilla Dell, managing partner at Black Brick buying agency, which sources prime London property. “If you knock two houses together on a street where the average house price is £3 million, it’s unlikely a buyer with £6 million will want to buy there. They will choose a better street. The key is to consider the surrounding area and work within the confines of the market,” she says.
It can be a lot of hassle reconfiguring two properties from scratch, including getting rid of surplus staircases and kitchens
It’s also a lot of hassle reconfiguring two properties from scratch, including getting rid of surplus staircases and kitchens. But without re-designing the newly combined property, you may end up with odd and compromised space. “In London, especially, integrating two houses is usually reserved for those with deep pockets and plenty of time,” says Tollit.
Sometimes, however, knocking through is really quite simple. In Canterbury, Kent, within close range of the famous cathedral’s spires, retired teachers Nicholas and Jill Leader seized the opportunity to knock through and create their dream home when their neighbours announced they were selling up.
“We were looking for a four-bedroom house within the city walls and couldn’t find anything. We had often been to our neighbour’s house for drinks and thought about how great it would be to knock these two mirror image properties into one,” says Nicholas, 80.
Two houses in Cambridge, which can be knocked together, on the market with Cheffins.
Built in 1739, their original house had just a downstairs living room and small scullery, with a spiral staircase leading to one bedroom and a reduced-height attic. Their current two-in-one home – which is now on the market for £599,500 through Strutt & Parker – provides the four bedrooms they were looking for, and a large kitchen extension at the back, in place of the previous two small kitchens.
They spent about £60,000 on the conversion, filled 16 skips with rubbish, had to rewire the house completely and replumb, with the added complication of the property being in a conservation area. “The archaeological society was keen to jump down any hole we created,” adds Nicholas.
One pleasant surprise awaited them, however, when they knocked through; they found an 18th-century time capsule buried in a wall, containing a ha’penny and some toys, including a leather ball and hoop. “We replaced the capsule with some items including a letter saying we hoped whoever found it was as happy in the house as we have been,” says Nicholas.
“I still feel the sense of the two old houses. I climb the spiral staircase in No. 13 and walk along the corridor in No. 14. But it just feels like one adorable house now.”
If you’re selling or buying a home it’s difficult to avoid dealing with one. Here’s what to watch out for
We trust bankers, weather forecasters and television newsreaders more than estate agents, according to the latest Ipsos Mori Veracity Index, but if you’re selling or buying a home it’s difficult to avoid dealing with one.
While there are trustworthy agents, a dastardly few spoil it for the others. This is despite a raft of measures, announced by the government in April, aimed at cracking down on rogue agents by making qualifications mandatory and promoting professional standards.
There is no overall governing body for estate agents. Instead, there is a hierarchy of legislation, mandatory redress schemes and professional trade bodies, including the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and the surveyors’ organisation RICS.
Paula Higgins, the chief executive of the HomeOwners Alliance, an advice and campaign group, says all estate agents need to be a member of a consumer redress scheme. However, one of the schemes, the Ombudsman Services: Property, no longer works in the property sector, so any agency still registered with the scheme may be trading illegally. Make sure your agent is a member of the Property Ombudsman or Property Redress scheme.
Here’s what else sellers and buyers should watch out for:
Over-valuing
It’s reported that 86 per cent of properties are selling for less than their asking price, so a realistic valuation is critical. “Estate agents want your business and can sometimes give overly generous valuations so you pick them,” Higgins says. “Once you’re on the market at an inflated price the only option after a lack of interest from buyers is to suggest you lower it.”
There can be an element of vendor vanity in this too. However, a good agent will offer brutal guidance, and a good seller will get at least three valuations from different agents.
Down-valuing
When you do manage to find a committed buyer, along comes a valuer for the buyer’s mortgage company to say that your beloved home is worth less. While lender nervousness can be a factor in this, agents inflating prices don’t help. However, Higgins says: “If you genuinely believe a valuation is incorrect, don’t be afraid to challenge it. If you think the figure is wrong or have evidence of local sale prices to the contrary, question it.”
Claiming to have buyers waiting
Few agents have legions of ready-made buyers clamouring to view your home, whatever they may claim. If you are buying, do your due diligence. It has been known that those who register with certain agents and sign up to their mortgage and conveyancing services receive preferential treatment. If you suspect it’s happening, contact the relevant ombudsman.
Keeping it in-house
Camilla Dell of Black Brick, a property consultant, says there is nothing wrong with agents earning referral fees for persuading you to sign up with their recommended conveyancer, mortgage provider, energy performance assessor or plumber, but they must be clear about this in writing. However, she does advise against it. “Always use an independent lawyer and surveyor. While all parties should be neutral and act professionally, this isn’t always the case. There is a risk they may not be forthright if there is a legal or structural issue.”
Portal juggling
This is a murky area where buyers, sellers and reputable estate agents unite. It has been known that properties taking a long time to sell will be removed from portals such as Rightmove or Zoopla by a duplicitous agent. They relist it shortly afterwards, which reduces the portals’ “how long on the market” statistic, making the agent and house look better. It’s an offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act and industry codes of conduct, but that doesn’t stop it happening.
Hidden fees
The average high-street estate agency fee is about 1.42 per cent, including VAT, of the sold price of a property, says Gavin Brazg of the The Advisory, an online property advice service. “It is worth being very clear with agents about what you are paying for, especially any add-ons,” says Kate Faulkner, a property expert. As a rule, most marketing expenses should be included in the commission fee and not billed as extra costs. And check that you are not liable for any payments if you withdraw from the contract.
Failing to pass on offers
Sellers, after you’ve accepted an offer and up to the point of exchanging contracts, your agent is obliged to pass on any other offers, including higher ones. However, your agent may elect not to because they have the first buyer “verified” in-house, or they simply want to shift your property off their books without distractions. If you find out this has happened, raise it with the agent, and seek redress. It is also said that some agents pressure dithering buyers into making an offer by inventing phantom bids.
If you suspect a false bid, ask to see written proof that the third party exists and their offer status.
Double commission
This is when a seller sacks one estate agency, working on a commission basis, and puts their house on sale with another, but the original agent claims they “introduced” a buyer and attempts to claim commission on the sale. The hapless homeowner can be faced with requests for double commission.
The problem lies in confusion over what constitutes an introduction. Look up the 2008 case of Foxtons v Bicknell & Anr in which the Court of Appeal ruled that to claim a commission the estate agency had to do more than introduce the buyer to the property; they must be directly involved in the selling of the house. Avoid any agent who attempts to persuade you to sign up for “sole selling rights”, which allows them free rein on any sale. They could claim their commission even if your cousin from Australia turns up on your doorstep and buys your home for cash.
Over-long contracts
Lots of estate agencies include a tie-in period in their contracts, meaning you may struggle to escape if you’re not happy with the service you’re receiving. “Make sure your contract gives you the flexibility to terminate and go elsewhere, without incurring a penalty,” Higgins says. “You should never tie in for more than 12 weeks and be careful of long notice periods too.”
Overstating potential
A desperate estate agent may go to any lengths to convince a doubting buyer. This includes telling them a spine wall can be easily removed to create a lovely open-plan kitchen and that air conditioning might be popped into place in a leasehold flat as easily as changing a lightbulb. “Never take an estate agent’s estimate on any cost as written,” Dell says. “Always seek a second opinion and independent advice on any additional costs you may have to incur post-sale.”
The launch of the Elizabeth line will speed this Zone 1 neighbourhood named “most likely to outperform” from edgy to sought after.
By Ruth Bloomfield
Of all central London areas getting a Crossrail station, Whitechapel is the most likely to outperform in terms of property prices in the next five years, according to exclusive new research for Homes & Property.
And 2018 is shaping up to be a turning point for this vibrant, multicultural East End neighbourhood, best known for its dramatic Victorian history of slums, serial killings, freak shows and Fagin.
This autumn the capital’s largest photography gallery, Fotografiska London — an offshoot of the popular Stockholm gallery — will open a new 89,000sq ft facility close to the Whitechapel Gallery, with seven exhibition spaces, a cinema, two restaurants, a café and bar, while in December Whitechapel will become part of the long-awaited Elizabeth line, giving it swift links to the West End, City and Heathrow airport.
“A lot of other areas along the Crossrail line have already been developed,” says Tom Kain, a buying consultant at Black Brick property agency.
“Whitechapel is relatively underdeveloped. We are starting to see new buildings with concierge, gyms, and ground-floor shopping arcades. There is no doubt that the environment is changing. If I was a betting man I would say that there are investment opportunities there.”
Whitechapel is currently by far the most affordable central London area to get a Crossrail station and on that basis it’s a go-to option for buyers seeking a Zone 1 address. Average prices now stand at £470,961, up more than 50 per cent from £312,409 in 2013, according to Savills.
For buyers in a position to purchase in E1 the rewards could be significant. New research by JLL predicts that, thanks largely to Crossrail, plus some new-homes schemes smashing the price ceiling, prices will increase by 15 per cent between this year and 2022. Growth across central London over the same period is forecast at just under three per cent.
IT’S NO BEAUTY — YET
Whitechapel’s plus points are partly its central location and connectivity, which must be balanced against its grimy streets and distinct lack of green space.
Whitechapel High Street is a messy patchwork of fine old Georgian buildings, ugly Seventies horrors, building sites, raging traffic and discount stores, while a detour down a side street is just as likely to bring you to a fine terrace of period houses as to a frankly threatening council estate.
Tower Hamlets council believes Whitechapel has the potential for 3,500 new homes to be built over the coming years, along with new shops, restaurants, cafés, offices, and schools to serve its new community, whose ranks will be swelled by the intake at a planned £300 million science research campus for Queen Mary University of London.
The first major sign of the changing face of Whitechapel is The Silk District, a £90 million development by L&Q and Mount Anvil named for the silk-weaving Huguenots who adopted this corner of east London during the 17th century.
As well as 564 homes, of which about a quarter will be affordable and earmarked for first-time buyers, there will be space for shops, cafés and restaurants set on pedestrianised streets and squares. The Silk District’s luxury credentials include plenty of residents’ amenities, including a gym, cinema room and private bar.
Prices, by Whitechapel standards, are ceiling-shattering. Currently on sale are studio flats from £465,000, one-bedroom flats from £517,000, and two-bedroom flats from £687,000. The scheme is being marketed in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur as well as London in advance of building later this year.
STARCHITECT HOMES
One of the biggest developments on the horizon will wipe away the old Whitechapel Estate, built at the end of the 19th century as part of a slum clearance programme. Intended to provide “model dwellings” for London’s poor, it was altered and extended hastily after the Second World War and gained a reputation for crime and teenage gangs that has lingered.
In February, after a two-and-a-half-year planning battle with Tower Hamlets council, a planning inspector granted permission to flatten the estate and replace it with 12 new buildings of up to 23 storeys that will reach more than 300ft, designed by PLP Architecture and starchitect Sir David Adjaye.
The Whitechapel Estate mark II has been named Whitechapel Square and will have 343 flats. Just over a quarter will be sold to first-time buyers at affordable prices, 168 will be for medical staff and students, and there will also be offices and shops.
A pedestrianised “green spine” of plant- and tree-lined pathways will run through the estate along what is now Philpot Street.
Vibrant, arty multicultural East End: street art in Chance Street, E1, attributed to German-based Claudia Walde or “MadC” (In Pictures via Getty Images)
The reboot of the Whitechapel Estate has inevitably led to talk of gentrification and local people being driven out to make room for luxury flats for affluent City workers and overseas buyers.
Another issue in this area is its clusters of magnificent period buildings and how they will be protected amid regeneration.
CITY WORKERS’ CHOICE
Sainsbury’s hopes to replace its supermarket in Cambridge Heath Road with another major mixed development, including shops, cafés, restaurants, plus almost 500 homes in a series of “mansion blocks” and a 28-storey tower.
Objections to the £200 million plan for Whitechapel Square have centred on the tower’s impact on a nearby Grade I-listed terrace of almshouses designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and it has been rejected twice by Tower Hamlets council.
The supermarket has already agreed to scale down its ambitions: under the current plan the tallest building on site is nine storeys.
But in February Sainsbury’s was thwarted once more over a lack of affordable housing in the modified proposals for 470 flats in eight blocks. An appeal has been lodged and a decision is expected after a hearing in October.
Whatever the result, Black Brick’s Tom Kain sees a smartened-up Whitechapel becoming a hugely popular option for City workers who might previously have preferred a “City-fringes” home in Shoreditch or Spitalfields. “It is going to be fantastically well connected,” he says.
WHAT CAN I BUY IN E1? FROM GEORGIAN TO NEW BUILD
Much of Whitechapel’s period housing was lost in the Blitz but a handful of Georgian terraces survived and are now much better value than similar properties elsewhere in central London, with some split into flats.
For buyers who want to be as close to the action as possible, Keatons estate agents has a large two-bedroom flat of more than 900sq ft in a converted pub in Whitechapel Road, at £650,000.
From £465,000: studio flats and one- and two-bedroom apartments at The Silk District. Whitechapel’s first Crossrail-inspired scheme will also have cafés and bars
The Silk District is Whitechapel’s first major Crossrail-inspired scheme and about two thirds of its homes have sold. A one-bedroom flat, with great views, is on sale with developer Mount Anvil for £589,500.
For between £350,000 and £500,000 you could find a two-bedroom ex-council flat or one in a slightly tired purpose-built block. Or you could spend the same money on a one-bedroom flat in a period conversion or a jazzier development.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF WHITECHAPEL
In the ancient past Whitechapel was a tiny, rural village, a staging post on the way for travellers between London and the Roman town of Colchester in Essex. But its urban story really begins in the 16th century when it developed as an industrial centre to serve the City.
Tanneries, breweries, slaughterhouses and metal foundries were set up and, amid these noxious trades, lived impoverished workers and their families.
This is where the Elephant Man, Joseph Merrick, was exhibited in a shop on the Whitechapel Road before coming to the attention of Dr Frederick Treves who worked across the street at the old Royal London Hospital, where the site is now earmarked for a new town hall for Tower Hamlets.
Picture this: the capital’s largest photography gallery, Fotografiska London, opens this autumn with seven exhibition spaces, a cinema, two restaurants, a café and bar close to Whitechapel Gallery public art centre (Fotografiska London)
It is also where serial killer Jack the Ripper butchered at least five of the area’s many prostitutes during 1888.
Whitechapel was London’s first slum and it is said that Charles Dickens, a regular at the area’s music halls, based Fagin in his novel Oliver Twist on a real-life 19th-century “fence” who operated in the area.
Racial and ethnic tensions have been deep-rooted in a district that has been adopted by waves of immigrants.
In 1936, thousands of poor mainly Jewish protesters converged on Cable Street and used homemade barricades to prevent the jackbooted British Union of Fascists marching, an event now commemorated in a mural in the street.
Offer too much and you’ll overpay; offer too little and you’ll miss out for ever. Here’s our top tips for handling this one-shot opportunity
It’s enough to make a buyer’s heart sink: just when you think you’ll make a killer offer on your dream home, the seller asks for sealed bids. This means all interested buyers are requested to submit a bid in a sealed envelope by a set date. It’s a one-shot opportunity: offer too much and you’ll overpay; offer too little and you’ll miss out for ever.
It’s made worse because sealed bids — also known as “informal tenders” — are one-sided affairs. The vendor and agent have all the information on the property, its condition, rival offers and the deadlines and motivations behind the sale. The buyer has… well, not much at all.
Does this process only happen when the local market is strong?
Not always. Sealed bids often crop up for “really high-quality, best-in-class properties”, says Caspar Harvard-Walls, a partner at Black Brick buying agency. “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.”
In a buoyant location, sealed bids can be used to heighten attention and offers. Yet Jeremy Leaf, who runs the north London estate agency Jeremy Leaf & Co, sounds a note of caution: “The whole process could be a bluff in a slower market by owners and agents trying to fool the few prospective purchasers that demand is stronger than it really is.”
Can a buyer find out who they’re bidding against?
It’s not easy, but if you push an agent or seller, you might wheedle out vital intelligence. “For example, if you’re only bidding against one other party who needs a mortgage, you may decide to make a slightly lower bid,” Harvard-Walls says. “If you’re bidding against five others who are all cash buyers, you may choose to go higher.” Canny bidders will seek out the vendor’s social-media accounts to see if they’ve blabbed online about why they are moving.
What counts in a bid? Is it just down to price?
Obviously, the amount offered is crucial, but in a difficult market where a third of agreed sales fall through, costing an average of £2,899 in wasted fees, according to Market Financial Solutions, you should also use the bid to convince the seller that you’re ready to go, without complications.
Remember, there is no obligation for a vendor to choose the highest bid. Agents often advise that a lower offer is preferable if the sale that follows has fewer potential pitfalls.
So what should go in the bid letter?
Anything that gives you the edge as a buyer. Specify if you’re chain-free and/or a cash buyer (and how long it would take you to draw down the money), and provide a copy of the in-principle loan agreement should you need a mortgage. Give your conveyancer’s details and tell the vendor what stage your own sale is at.
Don’t be afraid to pull at a seller’s heartstrings. In America, it’s common to include a letter, with pictures of your family, to demonstrate how much you love the house and how it would be great for your kids/dependents/dog. Estate agents in catchment areas for sought-after schools say the idea is catching on over here, too.
Any clever tricks?
If you’re super-keen, commission a survey of the house you want to buy before bidding. If no horrible problem surfaces, you can make an offer with the genuine promise that it’s not subject to a survey — another advantage over rival bidders. Instruct your solicitor to begin basic searches on the property, too, and let the seller know to emphasise that you’re willing to move quickly.
Vendors should be thinking ahead, too. Leaf says they should make some legal information available to would-be buyers during the process and have replies to conveyancer inquiries ready to go as soon as an offer is accepted. “After all that effort, owners would not want to be responsible for a sale falling through.”
What price should a buyer offer?
This is the trickiest bit. The property portals Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket will give you an idea of other asking prices in the area, while websites such as nethouseprices.com and mouseprice.com show what has been paid in the recent past — but that may be some months or even years earlier, and the market will have changed in the interim.
Obviously, you should put forward a sum you can afford — and remember, if it’s far more than a home is worth, your lender may not advance as much as you want. Mortgage firms make their own valuations, and you could be left high and dry if you bid wildly and can’t borrow enough.
The National Association of Estate Agents recommends avoiding round numbers so that you don’t find yourself making the exact same bid as someone else — you could bid £500,025 instead of £500,000.
And if I don’t win, that’s it?
Not necessarily — if you’re determined to get that house, keep in touch with the agent in case the successful bid falls through.
The windows need replacing and there’s a big crack in the drawing room ceiling, but this won’t deter the growing number of buyers seeking distinguished but dilapidated properties to make their own.
In central London and other popular spots, where a buyer’s search radius can be as specific as one or two streets, distressed homes are extremely sought-after, says Noel De Keyzer, the head of Savills in Knightsbridge. “In particular favour are those which require full refurbishment because they allow super-prime buyers to tailor it to their own design and taste,” he adds.
These faded glories are an ideal opportunity for buyers to make money. “We recently sourced a property in Marylebone [northwest London] for a client that was for sale at £1,200 a square foot,” says Camilla Dell, the managing partner at Black Brick, a buying agency. “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.”
Camilla says that as sellers seek to release capital, there is an increase in suitable properties coming on to the market. “Many of these properties are in need of renovation,” she says. “They are often family properties owned for several generations and have gone up in value considerably since they were originally bought. Therefore, sellers are willing to take a deal.”
Outside of the capital, Marcus Gondolo-Gordon, a search expert at Incognito Property, a property consultancy, says that an increasing number of people are selling in London and looking for large properties to renovate, rather than build from scratch. “Adding their own design to a place comes without the pain of seeking planning and finding a suitable plot, plus the stress of bringing in services and drainage to a site,” he says. “Crucially, finding a well-priced ‘doer-upper’ has the additional benefit of saving a large sum on stamp duty land tax. Buyers can add value by renovating, extending, modernising and improving, using the funds they have saved by not paying as much in purchase tax.”
What can home improvers on more modest budgets learn from these grand renovators?
Get on the radar
The most promising renovation properties are snapped up immediately. Many don’t even make it to the open market, so are not advertised. “Make sure that you are front of the queue,” says Gondolo-Gordon. “Strike up a good relationship with agents and keep in touch to make sure that you are top of their list when new and interesting options come up.” You should ideally be pre-qualified, with your finances in place, so you’re ready to swoop. Cash buyers in rented or “under offer” situations are seen as “hot” and are more likely to get first refusal.
Establish priorities
“Picking a property, with ‘good bones’ and lots of daylight is far more important than looking for specific features,” says Charles Bettes, the managing director of Gpad London, an architecture and interior design company. “A well-proportioned space can be made to feel homely and is enjoyable to spend time in, but an odd-shaped room with low ceilings can be hard to make beautiful. Somewhere without enough daylight will never be comfortable.” Before you make an offer, visit at different times of the day to see how the light falls.
Financial facts
Don’t let your imagination run away with your budget, warns Harry Gladwin, a partner at the Buying Solution, a buying agency. “When you’re preparing to make an offer, you need a full picture of faults and challenges. Key areas of focus will be the ecology of the property, such as whether bats inhabit the main house or outbuildings, and the use of hazardous materials such as asbestos; we were recently able to negotiate £150,000 off a £7 million country manor house because of asbestos.”
Planning permission
Beware of restrictive covenants, ancient light, access or easements rights, and listing and conservation area restrictions, any of which may scupper or escalate the costs of an ambitious renovation plan, according to the London-based architect Neil Tomlinson, who specialises in high-end refurbishments. “With any older building, you should also check at the outset for any structural defects, often betrayed by settlement cracks,” he says. “A slow descent down a dilapidated mineshaft might mean the best bits of the property have to be demolished.”
Let it breathe
The smell of fresh paint in a renovation sale puts David Shaw, an architecture specialist at Savills, on high alert. “It’s worth checking further for signs of damp and water ingress that have been hastily covered up,” he warns. “The mechanics, electricals and ventilation are key aspects in any renovation and one of the most expensive to rectify. Inspect the boiler room and electricity circuitry and make sure all are compliant. And if you suspect the garden has been back-filled over the years, check that no air vents have been blocked — this is a main cause of damp.”
Now it begins
You’ve completed the sale and the project is yours. But where to start? Rather than running amok with the sledgehammer smashing down walls, plan your restoration in elements. “Mentally break the house down into manageable sections that will not overwhelm you,” says James Nason, who recently renovated his home, the 16th-century, 60-room Pitchford Hall near Shrewsbury in Shropshire, turning the west wing into holiday lets (cottages.com). “Invariably, there will be problems, but taking it room by room reduces stress and eases cash flow.”
Make an entrance
If you still don’t know where to start, focus on the front door, says Caroline Takla, the director of One Point Six, a London developer. “Sweeping drives, historic entrance gateways and lovely heavy front doors, with vintage door-knockers, give the feeling of grandeur,” she says. “Borrow this by paying close attention to the entrance hallway and space around the landings. These are the areas that ultimately give an air of space and elegance. Wide staircases in particular can add instant splendour.”
Look up
If your property is across multiple levels, see if it presents an opportunity to open up floors, volumes and voids to create imposing double-height rooms and mezzanines. This approach is guaranteed to add the wow factor, says Jonathan Ashmore, the founder of Anarchitect, an architectural practice. “You can create a more open, connected series of living spaces that reflect modern living needs and allow you to retain the heritage, such as original fireplaces.”
Inside out
An ambitious but achievable trick is to bring together indoor and outdoor spaces. “You might consider an inner courtyard or light well at the centre of the property,” Ashmore says. “The beauty of this is the deep natural light penetration, but also that the space has the potential to really feel like an extension of the interior space, either as a winter garden or open to the sky in the summertime.”
Access accessories
The interior designer Karen Howes, founder of the luxury interior design company Taylor Howes, favours the “designer shoes and handbags” approach. “This is when you couple particular pieces with an M&S T-shirt, meaning that you spend your budget wisely, accessorising in the right places,” she explains. For instance, quality flooring throughout creates an impression of being seamless. A large, signature piece of art can cut back on acres of expensive wallpaper, or obviate the need for a crushingly expensive “statement” light fitting in a room.
Be bold
While state-of-the-art gyms and infinity swimming pools may remain the preserve of those with limitless budgets, be bold, Ashmore says. “Even in a more modest project, rather than adding excessive bedrooms, think about incorporating areas that you will enjoy and use, such as a yoga studio, an artist’s retreat or en suite bathrooms in the children’s bedrooms, which are incredibly practical, too.”
In central London and other popular spots, where a buyer’s search radius can be as specific as one or two streets, distressed homes are extremely sought-after, says Noel De Keyzer, the head of Savills in Knightsbridge. “In particular favour are those which require full refurbishment because they allow super-prime buyers to tailor it to their own design and taste,” he adds.
These faded glories are an ideal opportunity for buyers to make money. “We recently sourced a property in Marylebone [northwest London] for a client that was for sale at £1,200 a square foot,” says Camilla Dell, the managing partner at Black Brick, a buying agency. “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.”
Camilla says that as sellers seek to release capital, there is an increase in suitable properties coming on to the market. “Many of these properties are in need of renovation,” she says. “They are often family properties owned for several generations and have gone up in value considerably since they were originally bought. Therefore, sellers are willing to take a deal.”
Outside of the capital, Marcus Gondolo-Gordon, a search expert at Incognito Property, a property consultancy, says that an increasing number of people are selling in London and looking for large properties to renovate, rather than build from scratch. “Adding their own design to a place comes without the pain of seeking planning and finding a suitable plot, plus the stress of bringing in services and drainage to a site,” he says. “Crucially, finding a well-priced ‘doer-upper’ has the additional benefit of saving a large sum on stamp duty land tax. Buyers can add value by renovating, extending, modernising and improving, using the funds they have saved by not paying as much in purchase tax.”
What can home improvers on more modest budgets learn from these grand renovators?
Get on the radar
The most promising renovation properties are snapped up immediately. Many don’t even make it to the open market, so are not advertised. “Make sure that you are front of the queue,” says Gondolo-Gordon. “Strike up a good relationship with agents and keep in touch to make sure that you are top of their list when new and interesting options come up.” You should ideally be pre-qualified, with your finances in place, so you’re ready to swoop. Cash buyers in rented or “under offer” situations are seen as “hot” and are more likely to get first refusal.
Establish priorities
“Picking a property, with ‘good bones’ and lots of daylight is far more important than looking for specific features,” says Charles Bettes, the managing director of Gpad London, an architecture and interior design company. “A well-proportioned space can be made to feel homely and is enjoyable to spend time in, but an odd-shaped room with low ceilings can be hard to make beautiful. Somewhere without enough daylight will never be comfortable.” Before you make an offer, visit at different times of the day to see how the light falls.
Financial facts
Don’t let your imagination run away with your budget, warns Harry Gladwin, a partner at the Buying Solution, a buying agency. “When you’re preparing to make an offer, you need a full picture of faults and challenges. Key areas of focus will be the ecology of the property, such as whether bats inhabit the main house or outbuildings, and the use of hazardous materials such as asbestos; we were recently able to negotiate £150,000 off a £7 million country manor house because of asbestos.”
Planning permission
Beware of restrictive covenants, ancient light, access or easements rights, and listing and conservation area restrictions, any of which may scupper or escalate the costs of an ambitious renovation plan, according to the London-based architect Neil Tomlinson, who specialises in high-end refurbishments. “With any older building, you should also check at the outset for any structural defects, often betrayed by settlement cracks,” he says. “A slow descent down a dilapidated mineshaft might mean the best bits of the property have to be demolished.”
Let it breathe
The smell of fresh paint in a renovation sale puts David Shaw, an architecture specialist at Savills, on high alert. “It’s worth checking further for signs of damp and water ingress that have been hastily covered up,” he warns. “The mechanics, electricals and ventilation are key aspects in any renovation and one of the most expensive to rectify. Inspect the boiler room and electricity circuitry and make sure all are compliant. And if you suspect the garden has been back-filled over the years, check that no air vents have been blocked — this is a main cause of damp.”
Now it begins
You’ve completed the sale and the project is yours. But where to start? Rather than running amok with the sledgehammer smashing down walls, plan your restoration in elements. “Mentally break the house down into manageable sections that will not overwhelm you,” says James Nason, who recently renovated his home, the 16th-century, 60-room Pitchford Hall near Shrewsbury in Shropshire, turning the west wing into holiday lets (cottages.com). “Invariably, there will be problems, but taking it room by room reduces stress and eases cash flow.”
Make an entrance
If you still don’t know where to start, focus on the front door, says Caroline Takla, the director of One Point Six, a London developer. “Sweeping drives, historic entrance gateways and lovely heavy front doors, with vintage door-knockers, give the feeling of grandeur,” she says. “Borrow this by paying close attention to the entrance hallway and space around the landings. These are the areas that ultimately give an air of space and elegance. Wide staircases in particular can add instant splendour.”
Look up
If your property is across multiple levels, see if it presents an opportunity to open up floors, volumes and voids to create imposing double-height rooms and mezzanines. This approach is guaranteed to add the wow factor, says Jonathan Ashmore, the founder of Anarchitect, an architectural practice. “You can create a more open, connected series of living spaces that reflect modern living needs and allow you to retain the heritage, such as original fireplaces.”
Inside out
An ambitious but achievable trick is to bring together indoor and outdoor spaces. “You might consider an inner courtyard or light well at the centre of the property,” Ashmore says. “The beauty of this is the deep natural light penetration, but also that the space has the potential to really feel like an extension of the interior space, either as a winter garden or open to the sky in the summertime.”
Access accessories
The interior designer Karen Howes, founder of the luxury interior design company Taylor Howes, favours the “designer shoes and handbags” approach. “This is when you couple particular pieces with an M&S T-shirt, meaning that you spend your budget wisely, accessorising in the right places,” she explains. For instance, quality flooring throughout creates an impression of being seamless. A large, signature piece of art can cut back on acres of expensive wallpaper, or obviate the need for a crushingly expensive “statement” light fitting in a room.
Be bold
While state-of-the-art gyms and infinity swimming pools may remain the preserve of those with limitless budgets, be bold, Ashmore says. “Even in a more modest project, rather than adding excessive bedrooms, think about incorporating areas that you will enjoy and use, such as a yoga studio, an artist’s retreat or en suite bathrooms in the children’s bedrooms, which are incredibly practical, too.”
The property guru on learning from her dad, making groundbreaking deals and having the right values
CAMILLA DELL is managing partner and founder of Black Brick Property Solutions. Having worked for two of London’s largest and most successful estate agencies, Foxtons and Knight Frank, Camilla set up Black Brick in January 2007. Since then, the firm has grown from a two-person start-up to become London’s largest independent buying consultancy.
Camilla lives in north-west London with her husband and two daughters, and in her spare time sits on the committee for Norwood, a leading charity supporting vulnerable children, families and people with learning disabilities.
What was your first job and first pay?
Working as a sales and marketing executive for a hotel company. My salary was £16,000 per annum.
How did you get into the property world?
My late father was a successful London property developer. He worked on some iconic developments such as The Colonnades in Bayswater. Sadly he passed away when I was nine years old, but they say the apple never falls far from the tree, and so I like to think in some spiritual way that my career path is linked to him.
Even at a young age, did his interest in property rub off?
Sadly, I was only nine years old, so no. He did used to film me showing the house we lived in — home video recording was all the rage then — so I guess you could say I learned the art of how to show a house from a very young age.
Were you motivated by making money?
Absolutely — I was extremely driven and motivated by making money in the early days of my career. You don’t survive five years at Foxtons if you are not highly sales-driven. However, as time went by, I decided that I didn’t want to sell to people any more. I knew there was a market out there to be a trusted adviser and provide independent advice, and help to people that are looking to buy. Buyers traditionally have no one helping them or fighting their corner.
Is property the easiest way to make money?
Not necessarily. I think property professionals often get a bad reputation for this, but nothing is ever easy — particularly in today’s market. There is increased competition from online agents charging little or no fees, high taxes have shrunk developer margins, and the market generally in London is depressed right now, with fewer transactions happening, so I think most estate agents today will tell you it’s far from easy.
How do you stay positive?
I am a firm believer that markets are cyclical. We had a bull run up to 2014, and now we are in a downturn. With that comes opportunities.
What was the first big property you sold?
An apartment in One Hyde Park for almost £16million back in 2007. At the time the development was a hole in the ground but we saw the potential to own something unique. At the time, One Hyde Park was truly groundbreaking — it was the first super-prime new-build development in central London.
What was your first financial indulgence?
Stupidly, a car. The ironic thing is that I don’t actually like driving — but I did treat myself to an Audi R8, which my husband loves more than I do.
Are you a spender or saver?
A bit of both.
Is money vital for happiness?
I think a certain amount of money is essential — enough to have a roof over your head, pay for schooling, the odd holiday and to eat out in nice places. However, I think other factors have to be right also — having the right values in life is just as important, if not more so. I meet many people with millions and I wouldn’t say they are any happier.
What would you love to buy?
I think my children would love for me to buy them a dog. But my husband says no until we have a proper care plan in place, which is sensible.
What has been your biggest waste of money?
The Audi R8.
