The Clapham Property Blog

As our lives become increasingly entangled within the digital sphere, it's becoming even harder for various market sectors to exist exclusively in a physical space. Whilst online transactions, and web-based trade are now commonplace, the companies that immediately adapted to this shift remain at the helm of their respective industries. This is a particularly accurate statement in reference to the property market as Zoopla and Rightmove have consistently lead property portal usership with the backing of agents country wide. However, the dominance of the previously discussed businesses has triggered accusations of a stagnant market, some critics even claimed that Rightmove and Zoopla Property Group had become a ‘duopoly’. Expanding OnTheMarket These sentiments fueled the launch of a competing portal owned by agents called OnTheMarket. Although, the site was established as the weaker party, OnTheMarket have now acquired a substantial share of the market within an equally

Clapham homeowners will be among those affected by the latest rise in the Bank of England interest rates. The first increase in 10 years; they have just been raised from 0.25 percent to 0.5 per cent. This uplift comes as inflation hits a 51-month high of 2.9 per cent whilst the national unemployment rate is at an all-time low of 4.3 per cent. Interestingly, the Governor of the Bank of England has indicated that the interest rate is likely to increase again over the next couple of years, but Mr Carney said mortgages and savings would not be affected in the short term. However, look at all the big banks and just about all of them have increased their standard variable mortgage rate.. The average Clapham mortgage is £393,521 I have to ask by how much Clapham homeowners (on variable rate or tracker mortgages) will see their repayments increase? In the SW4, SW8, SW9, SW11 and SW12 postcodes there are 21,080 homeowners with a mortgage, of which 9.056 have a variable rat

20% of landlords are registered with Rent Smart Wales, the mandatory licensing scheme for landlords in Wales. They are looking to roll this scheme out nationally under the “National Landlord Licensing” scheme. RSM has proven rather ineffective with only 3 prosecutions to date, so here it is - I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “enforcing existing legislation is more (cost) effective than further legislation.” The PRS has a lot going for it, low rents and long tenancies galore, providing the tenant behaves. Automatic rights for tenants to stay a long time are nonsensical, simply because landlords will not risk being stuck with a terrible tenant for a long period of time without the safety net of the ability to evict. So what next? Compliant landlords are frustrated at increased taxation and legislation when “rogues” next door get away with beds in sheds and the like. With the prosecution rate low it’s a risk rogues continue to take, with the burden of tax and legislati

I had the most interesting conversation the other day with a local Clapham accountant, who asked me about my articles on the Clapham property market. It was quite humbling to be given praise by such a professional, when he commented enthusiastically on the articles I write. He was particularly interested with the graphs, facts and figures contained within them – so much so he recommended his clients read them, as most of them were either Clapham homeowners, Clapham landlords and a lot of the time - both. However, one question that kept me on my toes was, “With so many House-Price-Indices, how do you know which one to use and how can you calculate what is exactly happening in Clapham?” To start with, there are indeed a great number of these Indices, including the Land Registry, Office of National Stats, Halifax, Nationwide and LSL to name but a few. The issue occurs when these different house price indices give diverse pictures of the state of the UK housing market. Whilst some indi

As the winter months draw in and the temperature starts to drop, keeping one’s home warm is vital. Yet, with the price of gas and electricity rising quicker than a Saturn V rocket and gas, oil and electricity taking on average 4.4% of a typical Brit’s pay packet (and for those Brit’s with the lowest 10% of incomes, that rockets to an eye watering 9.7%), whether you are a tenant or homeowner, keeping your energy costs as low as possible is vital for the household budget and the environment as a whole. For the last 10 years, every private rental property must have an Energy-Performance-Certificate (EPC) rating. The property is given an energy rating, very similar to those on washing machines and fridges with the rainbow coloured graph, of between A to G (A being the most efficient and G the worst). New legislation comes in to force next spring (2018) for English and Welsh private landlords making it illegal to let a property that does not meet a certain energy rating. After the