July/August 2023 GROUNDS FOR OPTIMISM NAEA report an upsurge in activity as four home-hunters chase every property THINGS are looking up — at least according to a survey of National Association of Estate Agents members who say there are grounds for optimism after the crippling slump in the market. A third of agents who…

  July/August 2023: Healey the new Housing Minister JOHN HEALEY MP has succeeded Margaret Beckett as Housing Minister in the latest Government re-shuffle. JOHN HEALEY MP He is the third incumbent of the post in nine months, with Margaret Beckett having succeeded Caroline Flint as Housing Minister last October. Mrs Healey is MP for Wentworth…

  November 2010 NAEA in licensing breakthrough A LICENCE for estate agents has been introduced in a major push to raise standards in the industry. The licence has been launched by the National Association of Estate Agents, who say more must be done to protect consumers from unprofessional agents. A licensed estate agency branch means…

December 2023/January 2010 Will soaring student debt knock on door of housing market? STUDENT debt now stands at £28 billion and is set to soar if university vice-chancellors get their way. The Government is currently debating whether to allow universities to raise tuition fees, forcing students to take out even higher loans, inevitably curtailing their…

Where there’s a wheel — or two… THORNLEY Groves of Manchester has introduced a fleet of bikes for employees to use when getting about the city centre for appointments. The branded bicycles have been brought in to help reduce the company’s carbon footprint and save precious time and money in a challenging market. Letting consultants…

A Frank summary of the state of the market ‘It does appear the worst is behind us’ —KFR chairman KNIGHT Frank Rutley is not a publicly-quoted company; it’s a limited liability partnership — but its full year results, published recently, and the group’s comments, provide key pointers to the way global property markets are performing….

Connells’ sales and profit boost By MIKE GOODMAN, City Correspondent CONNELLS, the country’s second-biggest estate agency group, have reported a 23 per cent rise in sales during the first half of this year, a rebound in profits, while its parent Skipton Building Society believes the housing market has bottomed out. Connells’ group chief executive Stephen…

  October 2023 Agency expelled by TPO ‘claimed to still be member’ Chairman issues warning THE Foundations estate agency in Ilford has been expelled from The Property Ombudsman scheme, still owing a £2,000 award made against it — but the company later passed itself off as a TPO member when the organisation checked on it…

HomeBuy delays bring collapse of chains THE Government’s HomeBuy scheme is a serious attempt to help get the housing market moving and to encourage first-time buyers onto the housing ladder through shared ownership. However, it has become a victim of its own success, with funding running out in parts of the country just weeks into…

What’s in store now — revolution or evolution? By KEVIN HOLLINRAKE Kevin Hollinrake is managing director of Yorkshire-based estate agency group Hunters. Ten years ago this month, his article in EAN about the future of estate agency (see below) predicted sweeping changes. Here he reflects on how his predictions have fared over the last decade…

Stuart’s geared up to provide a Taylor-made children’s tale WHAT is an estate agent to do when the housing market slows down? Stuart Taylor, director of The Property Shop in Chatham, Kent, has found his own answer, with the help of a talking car! Austin the motor car is the title character in a charming…

‘Accidental landlords’ return to sales market THE flurry of ‘accidental landlords’ who joined the lettings market in the summer as their homes failed to sell, are now giving up on ‘riding out the slump’ and are returning to the sales market with more realistic price expectations, the Cluttons agency have reported. Thousands of vendors found…

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Spicerhaart online launch set for New Year THE Spicerhaart group is moving ahead with its new online estate agency business which will launch in the first half of 2010, subject to market conditions. The branding of the project, which is codenamed Indigo and has made headlines through a link to supermarket giant Tesco, has yet…

A DELIGHTED Manning Stainton Client… A Delighted Manning Stainton client, Mrs Pat Jagger, was invited to officially unveil the company’s new removals van proudly sporting the Manning Stainton logo and operated by long-established removal and relocation experts White & Co. Happy client Pat Jagger celebrates with Jill Landale of Manning Stainton’s Horsforth branch and White…

September 2023 Going, going, gone — why homes under the hammer is getting some hammer COMMENT by DAVID PERKINS AUCTIONS are suddenly back in vogue. However, many of the recent spate are solely selling off homes where the original owners have been evicted by their mortgagees – presumably due to substantial and growing arrears. This…

Lets move with times… BPF call to emulate US and Europe as rentals surge and ownership falls HOME ownership has fallen to its lowest level in 20 years – and the number of rented homes is rising, prompting a call from the British Property Federation “a more professional rental market”. According to the English Housing…

Property affordability v bank unpredictability… HOW the housing market performs this year depends on availability of mortgages. Last month’s UK bank bailout is supposed to unlock the credit market and allow more mortgage lending. As David Adams, head of residential at Chesterton Humberts explained: “The level of interest in properties has increased but both buyers…

NEW CALL TO SCRAP STAMP DUTY A PROPERTY sector coalition is urging the Government to abolish the “anachronistic” Stamp Duty Land Tax, which it views as “a tax on aspiration”. According to the ‘1808 Coalition’, of which the National Association of Estate Agents is a prominent part, Stamp Duty should be reformed because its ‘slab’…

After the winter of discontent — a brighter summer? THE recovery of share prices in estate agency and property service businesses seems to have escaped under the radar, amid all the Budget coverage. As of late April, Rightmove nudged above 300p, while shares in Savills and LSL Property Services traded within striking distance of their…

November 2023 How the mighty have fallen! COMMENT by DAVID PERKINS TWO recent items of news crossed my ken at almost the same time. Both were stories critical to our industry: both indicative of significant changes in the market. The first was confirmation of a widely-reported story that the once-mighty Halifax, now little more than…

DIY estate agencies: outlook gloomy VIRTUAL estate agencies are having the door shut in their faces as sellers scurry for the security of the established version during the current difficult economic climate. According to research undertaken for Spicerhaart, the public are moving away from cheap DIY sites because they feel nervous about the future and…

October 2023 Bill celebrates 50 years in estate agency BILL McCLINTOCK, chairman and chief operating officer for The Property Ombudsman board, is celebrating his half century in the property industry. He started with Henry Duke in Dorchester in September, 1959, so has seen many changes during the intervening years, both in attitudes to property ownership…

‘A WATER PISTOL TO PUT OUT A FIRE’ ALISTAIR DARLING‘s Budget has been slammed by the National Association of Estate Agents as “largely inneffectual” and an instance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer using “a water pistol to try to put out a fire”. The NAEA had made a five-point plea to Mrs Darling in…

March 2023 A COOL £MILLION! That’s how much the Stamp Duty threshold would rise to if the Government reacted as they did in the last major UK recession… THE National Association of Estate Agents has highlighted research from a leading ‘think tank’ as evidence of the Government’s flawed stance on Stamp Duty. The Centre for…

Lets join forces, say ARLA chiefs past and present THE president of the Association of the Residential Letting Agents and its immediate past president have joined forces to launch a new lettings agency. Residential lettings and management agency Jordan’s McMaster will create several new jobs in the region, covering the East Anglia region from its…

April 2023 Countrywide loss as ‘market is shot to pieces’… I CAN understand why investors in Castle HoldCo4, the holding company of Countrywide, devised the debt-into-equity Scheme of Arrangement which was first announced in mid-February, and why it has gathered overwhelming support. Castle HoldCo4 revealed its 2022 results to investors last month. There was an…

April 2023 OEA’s record payout THE Ombudsman for Estate Agents has made the highest ever award to a complainant in the 20-year history of the Scheme, it is revealed in the OEA’s latest annual report. The estate agent involved was ordered to pay out £23,880 after conflicting advice had been given by staff and the…

April 2023 Why do estate agents think they are so different? By DAVID PERKINS WHY is is that estate agents think they are so different from any other business activity and therefore exempt from any law they dislike? It strikes me that whenever new Orders or Regulations come out, unless they say ‘estate agents’ in…

Does the ‘W Effect’ have to spell ‘Woe’? I AM enthusiastic to see the first signs of economic Spring and it brightens my day to hear the media using the term ‘green shoots’ more and more frequently. However, we have to be realistic and accept this could just be a short-term bounce. Let’s suppose the…

April 2010 But where’s the joined-up thinking? Budget comment by Robin Clarke Exempting first time buyers from stamp duty  on transactions under £250,000 will obviously benefit the mass housing market , but does not smack of joined up thinking. There was a near three-month hiatus between the announcement and  the end of the Stamp Duty…

February 2023 NAEA — slivers of better news amid the gloom ESTATE agents across the UK reported a slight increase in activity at the end of 2022, according to the National Association of Estate Agents. After 12 months of misery, the NAEA’s monthly market survey for December – traditionally a quiet month – revealed some…

Rightmove aim to help agents target bargain-hunters RIGHTMOVE have launch ed a new free service to help agents marry up their best buys with the cash-rich and mortgage-ready bargain hunters they claim flock to the site in search of a good deal. The service, known as Property Deal Weekly, will allow homemovers to see price…

The fun in fund-raising WOODS Estate Agency of Devon have launched a Spring Appeal following the success of their Christmas fund-raising effort to help local children. In the lead up to Christmas, over 250 fluffy Woody Bears and more than £80 in cash were shared between children’s charities. For every valuation carried out by the…

December 2023/January 2010 Agent websites are so vital for instructions Foxtons and Spicerhaart offer great examples SOMETIMES I feel I have been banging my head against a brick wall when I talk to agents about the importance of their own websites. So it has been refreshing to talk to two agents who really do take…

July/August 2023 ‘Slowly but surely’ as recovery looks on course WE will have to wait until late August and September to find out how the present recovery in the market has fed through to the bottom lines of the major corporates. Countrywide’s holding company Castle HoldCo4, promises some half year figures in late August, while…

April 2010 Picture this! Arun launches unique image optimisation system If a picture says a thousand words, then the 111-office Arun Estates Group have just about cornered the entire dictionary, thanks to a unique new image optimisation system that promises to deliver professional-quality property photography, every single time – at no extra cost to the…

Iain’s silver service Connells’ regional land and new homes director Iain Berry has celebrated 25 years with the country’s second-largest estate agency group. Iain joined Connells in November 1985 and worked his way up the career ladder to area director on the residential sales side of the business. He took over responsibility for the company’s…

February 2023 Townends: lets celebrate a record! TOWNENDS residential lettings have announced their most successful bankings month and year since they started trading in 1991. December 2022 showed an increase of 38 per cent on banked business against the same period in 2021 and, for the year as a whole, an increase of 11 per…

OFT’s first ban over redress rules THE Office of Fair Trading has issued its first ban on an estate agency for failing to join a redress scheme — a year after the stipulation came into effect. Prohibition orders have been made banning Wolfgang David Dunn, Sean Allen Wren and Astons GB Ltd, the Southampton estate…

September 2023 Consumers show confidence over prices — survey MORE than three quarters of consumers are confident that UK house prices won’t fall any further this year. That is the key finding of the latest consumer confidence survey from Rightnove and is in sharp contrast to the same survey carried out in January, which revealed…

Portal traffic declining overall as Rightmove launch Premium service AT a time when there are some increasing signs of activity in the sales market, the latest figures by marketing data specialists ComScore show a decline in overall traffic to property websites. The figures are for unique users visiting property sites in April compared to the…

December 2022 / January 2023 Gearing up for marketing yourself in ’09 THE ESTATE AGENCY THERE is frost on the ground and the bitter wind of recession is blowing, but at The Frost Partnership, with 13 offices in the Thames Valley, the Chilterns and Middlesex, managing director John Frost and his staff are busy warming…

October 2023 Look out — a Stamp Duty stampede is on the way TAXES — we all hate them, but we all have to pay them. What a shame then that just as the housing market is showing good signs of recovery, we’re now the sector that is going to be used to help plug…

Team in MIG plea to Chancellor ‘Why not bring the guarantees back to boost loans?’ asks open letter THE Team Association is calling on Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling to introduce a Government-backed mortgage indemnity guarantee scheme. Phil Irving, finance director of the Association and managing director of its Home Information Packs and conveyancing…

April 2010 Picture this! Arun launches unique image optimisation system If a picture says a thousand words, then the 111-office Arun Estates Group have just about cornered the entire dictionary, thanks to a unique image optimisation system that promises to deliver professional-quality property photography, every single time – at no extra cost to the seller….

Rightmove still rule a changing roost THE portal comparison world has changed quite considerably over the last 12 months — mainly due to the consolidation of the Digital Property Group and the Property Finder network. A year ago, individual figures were produced for Primelocation, Findaproperty, Hotproperty and Propertyfinder but no longer, so a year-on-year comparison…

March 2023 How Countrywide suffered from the crash By MIKE GOODMAN,City Correspondent COUNTRYWIDE plc posted an operating loss of £47 million in 2022, compared with a profit of £85 million the previous year, according to the annual report to bondholders and shareholders in its holding company Castle HoldCo 4.  The report also shows   Castle HoldCo4 …

LSL top 550-office mark as they buy Halifax EA for £2 By MIKE GOODMAN City correspondent LSL Property Services is overtaking Connells to become the country’s second-largest estate agency chain, following its bargain basement deal to buy Halifax Estate Agents. Lloyds Banking Group, which inherited the Halifax Estate agency when it acquired the Halifax, agreed…

September 2023 Savills’ profit slashed By MIKE GOODMAN,City Correspondent SAVILLS, the international property consultants and upmarket UK residential estate agency suffered a crash in pre-tax profits to £200,000 for the first half of this year, compared with £33.8 million for the same period of 2022. The announcement, on August 27, reversed the upward trend in…