London Property Consultant Archives | London Property Consultants

Long distance commuting

Simon Barnes advises on the growing trend of long distance commutes.  

The last decade has seen a vast improvement in Internet and mobile communications, and as a consequence the growing reliance on email as a secure and acceptable form of communication has changed the way we live and work.   Working from home several days a week has become the norm rather than the exception, and subsequently, owning a primary home overseas at a commutable distance from the UK is now a feasible option.

The increase in budget airlines has also made living and working from abroad more popular.  There are several things to bear in mind when considering the logistics of such a lifestyle change. [Read more…]

by Simon Barnes

Mews houses

Mews houses are certainly not to everyone’s taste, unless they are unusually large, or have the benefit of parking facilities. Mews houses have this image of being “cool” bachelor pads, but the reality is quite different, largely they are small quite cramped and with little natural light. They can command premium prices, where the buyer owns the main house (originally attached to the mews) which by connecting to their house, creates a better living space with integrated parking.

by Simon Barnes

Prime London Property: Off-market sales

A short Interview with Simon Barnes about off-market sales

1. Is the concept of an ‘off-market’ sale good or bad from the seller’s perspective? Does it, for example, give their property a ‘mystique’ which can add value to the property?

Good, in that it enables a quiet sale without everyone knowing your business. In the current economic climate, where often assumptions are made that sales are forced for financial reasons and therefore can be bought at well below the advertised price – selling off market, usually prevents this. Also if the property doesn’t sell, it can be withdrawn and re marketed at a later date as a fresh property.

Do buyers get a disservice from off-market sales, because presumably many will not know of the properties being on sale? [Read more…]

by Simon Barnes

Phone signals and broadband access

I’ve never across anyone in central London who was worried about mobile phone signals or broadband access; I would seriously doubt their seriousness about buying if they chose to reject a property on those grounds. After all, there are technical solutions readily available to improve broadband speeds and wifi if you wish to improve a service and money have the budget.

by Simon Barnes

Is there an off market ‘kipper season’?

I was recently asked if summer is a quite time for the London Property Market.

I would say 90% of the business I do is off market, where time and budget are not important and so the timescale of a sale can be much longer. As a result, those properties that are sold off market are often done so because the owners do not want to be seen to advertise their property for six months or longer, which can often be how long a property takes to sell at this level of the market, due to different motivations amongst the buyers.

At the very top end of the market, say over £10million, most of the activity is conducted in this way, but the way buyers operate is very different from the conventional market.

[Read more…]

Contact H. Barnes & Co – Tel: 020 7499 3434