Writing in The Times this week, Black Brick Founder & Managing Partner, Camilla Dell shares her thoughts on the recent trend of listing properties for sale on social media.

“This week alone I must have been sent a dozen invitations to champagne-fuelled property launches. The last time I was being sent this sort of invitation was before the financial crisis.”, she revered.

“The properties I see pop up on my social feed are often overpriced or compromised, or both. Sometimes they have been on the market for long periods, with various agents pushing them on their feeds with slightly different shouty loud music.”

Read the full article here.

No matter which party comes out on top at the next election, the property industry is gearing up for a stamp duty hike for overseas buyers.

Featuring in The Times this week, Black Brick Founder & Managing Partner, Camilla Dell shares that whilst she believes foreign homebuyers will soon have to pay more in stamp duty, she doesn’t think it will be as high as people fear.

For foreign buyers currently, the top rate of stamp duty is 17%. Labour say they would increase it to around 20%, which would mean a hike of between £15,000 to £30,000 for a £1.5 million property. “I don’t think Labour will end up doing it,” Camilla said.

As a buying agency that regularly deals with overseas purchasers, at Black Brick we believe that a rise of 1% point would be “tolerated”. Camilla added: “I don’t think [that] would be too harmful. Some people would think it’s too pricey but in the prime market people can meet the extra costs. It could slow the market, maybe, lead to some softening in prices. Some buyers would say, ‘I’ve got to pay an extra three percentage points, I want 3 per cent off [the asking price].’”

What would be “unacceptable”, Camilla argued, would be the introduction of “draconian measures” like those in place in other countries, such as Canada, which has banned foreigners from buying properties until the end of this year. “[That] would kill the market.”

Read the full article here.

Writing in The Times this week, Black Brick Founder and experienced prime property buying agent, Camilla Dell shares her advice to those who are looking to out-bid cash buyers for their next property purchase.

“My first piece of advice is to be organised. Hire a credible solicitor, ideally one that is used to conveyancing in the area or development you are buying in. This gives comfort to the selling agent and vendor that the deal won’t be let down by a poorly performing lawyer.”

Read the full article here.

For many sellers at the moment, the price of their property is just too high for it to ever peak the interest of the right buyers.

Melissa York has written in The Times this week that, “Buyers are sitting on their hands waiting. Waiting to catch that mythical sweet spot between interest rates falling and property prices rising. And as they wait, sellers are left competing for a dwindling pool of potential buyers.”

Reflecting on this impact on the property market both in London and the wider UK, Black Brick’s Founder, Camilla Dell shared how half of the properties our buying agency found for clients last year were not publicly advertised – and that has grown by 55% this year as the market becomes even more price-sensitive.

“Sellers can test the market. The more expensive the property, the higher the likelihood it won’t be openly available for sale. According to industry database Lonres, there are currently four properties for sale in London above £50 million and three of them are off-market.”, she said.

Read the full article here.

With the next UK general election coming up soon, we’ve shared our insights into how the housing and property market make be impacted in The Times this week.

Reacting to the possibility of Labour’s pledge to scrap non-domiciled tax status taking place, Black Brick buying agency Founder Camilla Dell said:

“If members of this small but economically significant group decided to vote with their feet and exit the UK, it could have a disproportionate impact on the very top end of the housing market,”.

Read the full article here.

Financial instability in Turkey seems to be drawing residents to buy up property in prime central London, in an effort to secure the safety of both their families, and money.

Camilla Dell, founder of buying agency Black Brick, shared in The Times that the currency crash means some Turks can only afford to rent in London at the moment, but the wealthier ones are keen to get their money out of the country.

“Many Turks fear the longer Erdogan remains in power, the worse the country’s economy will become. They have lost all hope that he can turn it around. His handling of the earthquake disaster [in February] has only cemented this thought in the mind of many Turks, both locally and Turkish expats,” she said.

Read the full article here.

For two years now house prices have only gone in one direction – up. But now, things seem to be changing.

In this week’s article for The Times, Black Brick Founder Camilla Dell shared her insight into how the calming market has affected sellers in prime central London.

“There’s a lot of international money swirling around. Most sellers are just really bullish at the moment in prime central London,” she said.

Read the full article here.

“In prime central London, it’s open season for wealthy investors from abroad with dollars to burn”, writes Emanuele Midolo in The Times this week.

Sharing her insight as a property expert of over 20 years and worldwide respected buying agent for premium London properties, Black Brick’s Founder Camilla Dell provided her input for the piece, reflecting on our own experiences as a buying agency in recent times.

“Our client list looks a bit like it did in 2007 and 2008, before the great financial crisis,” Camilla said. “[Other than the Americans], a lot of them work in the oil and gas industry, and a lot are from west Africa. I think that we will see a ‘flight to quality’ as we did in 2007. Buyers looking to diversify their wealth will be drawn to best-in-class assets.”

Read the article here.