Recent Articles in Trading Down Property Checklists

Property market no longer a game of two halves
May 16, 2019

Normally around this time of year the market is buoyant, in fact looking back over past reports, I was often saying post the credit crunch the market was a ‘game of two halves’ with the first half of the year rising, and the second half of the year falling back. So far this year, prices have pretty much ‘limped along’ from one month to the next showing little growth. 

New legal decision to impact flat owners?
Apr 24, 2019

The Upper Tribunal has handed tenants an important victory concerning ‘common parts’ including roof spaces and airspace leases in leasehold enfranchisement. The Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) has held that a lease of the airspace above, and the subsoil below a leasehold block of flats must be classed as "common parts" of the building when deciding if they were to be acquired, in a decision that could potentially have a profound impact on the property sector. This means that freeholders may not able to sell 'air space' to people who wish to develop on top or below an existing block of flats. This is particularly important if it remains law as the Government is relaxing planning rules on building on rooftops, for example, to help create more homes in London.

Is it a miracle the property market is performing so well?
Apr 16, 2019

Standing back from all the uncertainty in the news and looking at the property market indices this month, it’s a miracle the market is still performing so well. And despite some worries and wobbles from London and the South East, and of course Aberdeen’s continued decline in both prices and rents, it’s good to see that Hometrack is reporting “All cities recording positive house price growth” up by 2.8% year on year. And there seems to be more good news on the way with London prices turning positive (+0.4%) after a poor few years.

Are volumes heading back to 2009 levels?
Mar 26, 2019

Normally in the property market, if volumes fall, then price falls will quickly follow. During the credit crunch we saw volumes slip back by 50%, on average, while property prices fell by around 20% - although some areas performed worse and others better. In some recent market presentations, I was surprised to see how far transactions had fallen back versus previous years and I even spotted that in some areas, based on Land Registry data comparing volumes from January to October 2009 versus 2018, some transactions had fallen back as far as levels experienced in 2009.

Kate Faulkner's latest property price picture
Mar 20, 2019

For the property market ‘to keep going’ ideally we need the annual rate of property price growth to lag behind wage growth. However, this hasn’t been something we’ve experienced, certainly up until the credit crunch and this trend definitely hasn’t existed since then, bar the last year or two in London, the South and East Anglia. Find out what's happening in your area.