Archive for the ‘Estate Agency’ Category
Friday, November 13th, 2009
Figures from various sources confirm that the Scottish House market is changing a little, with prices stabilising and even starting to increase slowly again.
The Registers of Scotland – where every Scottish house transaction is recorded – state that prices have gone up in the third quarter (July to September) by 6.1% from the second quarter. That leaves the average price of a residential property in Scotland at £154,453. The national average figures of course disguise significant regional variations, and in six local authority regions prices were still shown to be falling. The biggest rise was in Perth and Kinross at 15% and the biggest loss was in Renfrewshire with a loss of 3.7%.
The picture therefore remains very mixed but at least after two years of bad news clearly there are some signs of a market returning to health. Solicitors and estate agents, however report that trading volumes are still down and this is confirmed by the Registers who state that five thousand less house transactions took place in the third quarter this year compared with 2008.
Kirsty Jack, Property Manager at Caesar and Howie and who works closely with the Kupdom Project states “There are clearly some positive signs but our sales volumes remain at about half the level of two years ago. I would say however that there are many people who would wish to buy but who still cannot get mortgage finance. The house buying culture is still strong in Scotland and as the financial world slowly returns to normal I predict a slow improvement in prices and sales volumes over the next few years. People buying a house now, I think will look back in a few years and think they have got a bargain”.
Tags: Buy a house in Scotland, House Prices, housing market
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Monday, September 28th, 2009
The last few months have seen first time buyers back in the house market with a bit of a vengeance. After over a year when first time buyers were almost an endangered species many more have taken the plunge recently.
Three issues have favoured buyers in this category. First there has been a ready supply of first time buyer properties, mostly flats, with sellers anxious to sell and willing to do a deal on price. Secondly the LIFT mortgage programme solved the funding problem for many first timers – with the government though housing associations – effectively providing and interest fee loan for the deposit. Thirdly the stamp duty “holiday” granted by the chancellor cut the cost of buying flats at the entry level to the market. All in all for the last several months first timers have had things pretty well there own way.
All good things must come to an end as they say and the signs are first timers are not going to enjoy these advantages going forward. Kirsty Jack senior property manager at Caesar and Howie has noticed prices firming up in the flat market. “Sellers have quickly reacted to the increase activity in flat sales, with less now desperate to do a deal at any price – in fact some closing dates are even creeping back in with there being more buyers around”
On the mortgage and stamp duty issue things are changing a little for the worse. Sandy McFarlane long time mortgage advisor at Caesar and Howie warns “ I think the ready supply of Lift funds is beginning to run out in some parts of the country – especially in the Lothians. With that and the Stamp Duty holiday ending in December I would say first time buyers need to move now to take advantage of Lift and not having to pay stamp duty. These benefits are not going to be around much longer – so first timers need to move now to make the most of them whilst they last”
Tags: First-time buyers, housing market
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Monday, July 20th, 2009
Caesar and Howie property experts report increased activity in the Scottish Property market. For over two months now transaction levels have increased following the firm noticing increase viewings from April this year.
Managing Partner David Borrowman reports “we are now beginning to see the increased viewing levels of four months ago turning into actual offers and sales.
Whereas in the last six months of last year our transaction numbers were down to 30% of normal levels they are now back up to 60% and look to go even higher in the coming months.”
There are two principal factors helping the recovery – the first is the increasing availability of mortgages. Sandy MacFarlane Caesar and Howie’s most experienced mortgage advisor comments “Whilst mortgages are still a little tight to get – they can at least be got now – whereas at the end of last year there was virtually a moratorium on mortgages. Also the Lift mortgage initiative has also helped bring first time buyers back into the market for the first time in nearly two years. That’s a big change and of course every time first time buyer snaps up a property the person that sold that property usually buys another – so the whole market is stimulated. To be honest I have never been this busy in years – and it is mostly with Lift mortgage applicants.”
The flexibility of the Lift scheme is another benefit continues Sandy. “Some buyers think that you can only buy houses built by Housing Associations – but that is a complete misconception. You can of course buy from an Association but you can buy on the second hand market too and you can even buy a new property from a private builder – so all areas of the market are covered by the scheme”
Another feature which is helping the market move forward is a new realism in the approach of sellers to setting prices. Property Valuer John Renton has noticed a distinct change here. “When the recession first struck, the property market pretty well seized up. At first sellers did not respond to the new conditions and kept trying to price their property as if a boom was still on” says John. “But at last things have changed and most sellers are realising that it is the keenly priced properties which are shifting, and prices have of course gone down in the last 18 months. If you are buying on, of course the house you buy will have gone down too – and folk in the market are beginning to respond to that. As well as that there is no doubt there are some bargains to be had out there”
The experience of Caesar and Howie seems to be shared elsewhere and whilst it is never safe to predict too much in the property world the consensus among the professionals seems to be that the worst is over.
Tags: housing market, Scotland
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
The Low Cost Initiative for First Time Buyers is proving an attractive option for some first time buyers – and is bringing more activity to the housing market – at least that is the view of Caesar and Howie property experts.
Experienced mortgage broker Sandy McFarlane of Caesar and Howie comments – “I have never been busier on the mortgage front – mostly with LIFT cases. We have learned everything there is to know about LIFT mortgages and provided you know and understand the criteria you can access LIFT funds as a deposit for first time buyers. This will help meet the continuing demand for young couples in particular to get on to the housing ladder”
The scheme which is operated through housing associations effectively means you are gifted a percentage of the purchase price as a deposit – provided on a future sale the same percentage is repaid. But with no interest payable this is an attractive proposition for many first time buyers who might struggle to save up the deposits now required by lenders.
There is a price limitation however – as the scheme is intended to stimulate the first time buyer sector of the market. Experienced property consultant at Caesar and Howie Vivienne Malcolm explains that the limits can sometimes be restrictive but do work. “The key thing is to know the price range in your local area – you can get these on the LIFT section of the Caesar and Howie website. Once you know the range you can concentrate on finding a property within it – and with lots of properties going under the asking price you would be surprised what can be bought under the scheme. And another benefit is that the scheme covers second hand and new properties – and some developers with the reduced prices they are seeking – have available new properties which qualify. I think with sellers willing to do deals – it can be win win for some first time buyers using the LIFT scheme.”
With sixty million pounds available to be lent under the scheme maybe up to 2000 purchases could be carried out using these funds. Managing partner David Borrowman comments “This is clearly a help to the market at this time – it has been the lack of first time buyers over the last 18 months which has slowed things down. If this group were to get buying again it would get everything moving since the sellers to this group would presumably also purchase.”
To find out more please contact 0845 855 4411.
Tags: First-time buyers, housing market, LIFT
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Friday, March 6th, 2009
Caesar and Howie managing partner David Borrowman is so concerned at the adverse effect of the new property sales law that he wrote to every MSP in the country. The new law, in force since 1st December means sellers must obtain a Home Report before marketing their house or face a swingeing £500 fine.
Mr Borrowman comments. “This legislation is badly thought out, provides no benefit I can see to anyone, and effectively acts like a great big tax on selling your house. For example on a flat worth around £105, 000 a seller could have to pay nearly £600 before even putting the property on the market then maybe another £180 or so to update the report when a sale is actually achieved – with much higher fees for higher value properties. To lump this extra cost on to sellers in a slow property market is simply daft in my view. ”
Mr Borrowman’s letter sparked some press, radio and TV interest, with BBC staff descending on Caesar and Howie’s offices to obtain an interview for the Scotland Today news programme.
“I’ve seen the comments the Minister for Housing and Communities made in response to my letter but I’m afraid I am totally unimpressed. Sellers hate these reports, hate having to pay for them and worse than all of that I don’t think purchasers are going to trust them either. We have done a deal with a large surveying firm to ensure that Home Reports obtained through Caesar and Howie are probably the cheapest on the market but still I think this is all an unnecessary expense.
I don’t see why Home Reports could not be voluntary – if a seller wanted to get one that’s fine, but to force them to get one at a cost of hundreds of pounds with a further fine of £500 if you don’t get one is quite ridiculous in my view. But the Minister for Housing and Communities minister doesn’t agree – he thinks it is good that sellers have to pay all this money and right for them to be fined if they can’t or won’t pay for a report. I sometimes wonder if the Scottish Government cares much about ordinary Scottish folk”
Tags: Home Reports, housing market, Sottish buyers
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Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
From the 1st December all properties sold in Scotland will require to have a Home Report made available to prospective purchasers.
Caesar and Howie have no particular issue with the concept of Home Reports – if someone wants to produce a report in the belief that it will help a sale that is fine. However we do object to the compulsory nature of these reports and to the fact that sellers will be subject to criminal charges should one not be produced by the seller.
This seems grossly unreasonable to us. The effect of this legislation is to ensure that sellers will have to incur several hundred pounds of costs before even being able to market a property. This seems wrong and unnecessary to us and we note with interest that the English equivalent of these reports have been seen as a resounding failure – with many now calling for the legislation requiring them to be repealed.
However despite our own views we will ensure that clients are able to obtain a Home Report as part of our property sales service. The reports themselves split into three sections – the survey, the energy performance certificate and the property questionnaire. The first two sections will be completed by surveyors who have obtained energy performance assessor qualifications and the last section the government envisages will be completed by sellers themselves. The “survey” section of the report will be similar in form to the old “Type 2″ survey, giving details of construction, necessary repairs and the surveyor’s valuation. The energy performance section will give an idea of the energy efficiency of the property and potential improvements possible.
The property questionnaire is a section which is intended to give other general information about the property and its usage – including the various rights of access and servitude rights attaching to it. Effectively this last section will contain an amount of legal information which can only be accurately obtained by examining the title deeds to the property. For that reason Caesar and Howie qualified legal staff will obtain titles for clients assist them in the completion of that part of the report. We think it important if these reports are to be of any use at all that the correct information is entered into them and our legal staff will help ensuring that this is the case where our clients are involved.
Home Reports with legal input can therefore be obtained from Caesar and Howie for all houses going on the market after 1st December 2008. Credit arrangements will be available to those clients wishing this.
Tags: Buy a house in Scotland, Home Reports, Selling a house in Scotland
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Monday, September 15th, 2008
House market report
We realise how the trying times in the property market are affecting everyone in your position. It is very difficult trying to sell houses at the moment. The house market is often in the media spotlight and hardly a day goes by without some report or other making this or that prediction. Some of these reports are based on National UK data and may have limited application to the local market. I thought it might be helpful to pass on to you the considered view of our partnership on what we think is happening – and how things might develop in the future.
Current Sales
The first thing to note is that there has indeed been a big slump in the market in the Central Belt this year. Some agents and organisations are stating sales are down we understand by over 60%. Our own figures show a slump of 31% – so we seem to be doing better than many but these are still unprecedented drops. Nothing like this has been seen in Scotland before.
Number of Buyers
The reason for the slump is very clear however – it has been wholly caused by the “credit crunch” which has severely limited the ability of buyers to get mortgage funding. We have noticed no lack of willingness in the hundreds of potential buyers for whom we act to go ahead and buy – but many have been frustrated by not being able to get enough of a mortgage. Many of these buyers we believe will come back into the market when they can.
Prices Currently
If anything we think prices are certainly not going up (despite some earlier newspaper reports) and at best they are stable or trending down. ESPC is intimating their figures show a drop year on year of 6.5%. Our own records suggest that that is probably about the biggest fall we have seen.
Will prices fall badly?
The truth is we do not really know. Our feeling is that prices in the central belt will probably not fall very dramatically provided that there are no mass job losses in the region. We think that the will to buy is still there and there is pent up buying demand which has been held back by lack of mortgage availability and also by inability to sell. When buyers feel more secure and can get the money – they will come back into the market. Where there may be bigger price falls might be in particular areas where there is clearly oversupply. For example some parts of Edinburgh and Leith have a huge number of modern flats available with many fewer buyers in that sector than was expected.
Is there any positive news?
Well actually there is a lot of positive news – all of which has started to come out in the last few weeks only.
- Mortgage rates have come down to pre credit crunch levels
- Mortgage availability has dramatically improved – even 95% loans are back
- Stamp duty has been cut for house purchases up to £175,000
- Government help is available more quickly for mortgage arrears
- Further mortgage rate falls are predicted in the future
We believe all these factors coming together are going to ensure buying demand picks up again. Whether it all starts to move again quickly or gently and when exactly we see the effects, we do not know – but buyers will be back. The current market turmoil is unprecedented but people still need homes to live in. We do not believe most families would be happy to rent all their lives – and indeed rental property is quite limited in type in most areas.
What can sellers do to help?
We think there are two key issues here in this market. The first is sensible pricing in accordance with what market information tells us. The days of getting huge “over the asking” prices have gone for the moment. Be realistic and remember if you hope to trade up in the market you need only offer a realistic price also when buying. The second main thing sellers can do to help themselves is to be patient. Sales are taking a lot longer across the board and sellers have to “go with the flow” on this. The market is still operating – it is far from being completely dead – but buyers are not around in volume. But remember you only need one buyer for your house, not five or six and through time that buyer will turn up and buy the house if it suits requirements and is reasonably priced.
What’s the longer term outlook for houses?
Well so many articles are written about house prices it is easy to become obsessed by price movements. The truth is over 95% of our buying clients buy a house suitable for them and their families and not just as an investment. Also most families stay in houses for several years – which means short term house price movements don’t effect them. Even now if prices are down by a few percent many people have been in houses for a good number of years and will have the benefit of several years price increases when their sale comes through. Typically if someone bought a house a dozen or so years ago the value may have gone up by as much as 300%, so a shading of the price on sale of a few percent from last years level is not great but not disastrous either.
Our view at Caesar and Howie is that at some stage house prices must start to trend up again in Scotland for various reasons:-
- Increasing population
- Increasing immigration (in particular Polish)
- Increasing longevity
- Social change creating more family units
- Reduction in new building this year will cause a future supply shortage
- The economic cycle will move back to more growth in the future
All of these issues mean increased demand for housing over time – which must logically mean increasing prices over time. Consequently in the longer term we still see houses as a good investment. Whilst we recognise that investment issues play only a small part in families’ house buying plans – it is perhaps comforting to know that in the long term buying a house will prove to be worth it financially as well as getting your own roof over the family’s head.
If we might take a “weatherman’s” view of the market I think we’d probably be saying something like “still pretty wet and rainy but conditions will improve in time and some gentle sunshine should arrive eventually in most areas”. The difficulty we have is predicting the timing of the improvement. Some commentators say it has already started, some say it will be next spring some say even later. We just do not know – which is why for now patience and realism is perhaps the best approach.
Tags: House Prices, housing market, Market Report
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Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
Housebuilders are to set up a code of conduct and a redress scheme for dissatisfied customers following an industry inquiry by the competition watchdog, it was announced.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said its market study into housebuilders had found that while the sector was “broadly competitive”, many homebuyers experienced faults with their new property or delays moving in.
It said that while many of these faults were quickly fixed, some homeowners did suffer “significant detriment, distress and inconvenience” if there were major faults or many problems with their new home, particularly if these related to the plumbing or heating.
Read the full story at news.uk.msn.com
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Thursday, September 4th, 2008
We’ve had a year of bad news on many fronts. We all first learned of the credit crunch last July and it probably took a bit of understanding for most of us. Then gradually we saw in dismay the effects on individuals and businesses across the country – these effects are still being felt.
In the last few months however there has been nothing but good news in the Mortgage Market. First there was that odd change in banking practice which allowed the Bank of England to step in and inject liquidity into the market. Then the Libor rate came down followed tentatively by a few mortgage rates. Recently mortgage availability improved dramatically with plenty new products available and signs of mortgage providers competing for business. Now even 95% mortgages are available and amazingly rates are down to very close to what they were when the whole process started last July when the Northern Rock was forced to go cap in hand to the bank of England for money.
On top of all that we have the Government’s “help the market” package which was criticised in some quarters but still provides definite savings for buyers in the crucial “£125,000 to £175,000″ price range. Even better news for house buyers – less good for house sellers – is the fact that house prices are down in most areas – but crucially there remain huge numbers of houses on the market. This means deals can be done and buyers will steadily become aware of that. Like all market movements there will be a turning point. Have we reached it yet? Maybe not quite, but we seem to be edging ever more closely to it and it may not be very long till the “credit crunch” is nothing but a distant and unhappy memory.
Tags: credit crunch
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Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
Following on the good news of increased mortgage availability and decreasing mortgage rates, people wanting to buy a house in Scotland received another boost recently with Stamp Duty being suspended for one year on houses up to £175,000.
The Government hopes this measure will help kick start the housing market particularly at the first time buyer level, where the effects of the “credit crunch” hit hardest.
Caesar and Howie welcome the news. Senior Conveyancing partner Graham Irvine commented “it is no secret that the market is depressed at the moment – so anything which encourages buyers is a good thing. Savings of up to £1,750 on purchasing a house are not to be sniffed at nowadays”.
However, the firm feels that certain areas of Scotland will benefit much more than others. Managing partner David Borrowman feels the tax break will have uneven effects depending on where you live. “House price levels are very different across the country. For example Land register figures show that in Clackmannanshire the average house price is £130,266 whilst in Edinburgh it is £221,209. It therefore seems logical to me that in the lower house price areas a greater proportion of the houses for sale will benefit from the Stamp Duty cut. That should mean that markets where lower prices predominate will get a bigger boost than the markets where more expensive prices are the norm. From the various areas where we operate I would say Alloa, Falkirk, and parts of West Lothian, will benefit more for example than Edinburgh. But even allowing for that – we still welcome this news which should help get the market moving a little faster”.
Tags: Stamp Duty
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