Tales from the Front Line

First over the line.....

by Sarah Daly
on August 25, 2010 in Rental Property

As early as it may seem, I have just received the first information for a short letting near to Dorney Lake in preparation for the 2012 Olympics. It has long since been the case that local property owners have rented their houses for large tournaments or events such as Wimbledon but I do not recall, as a local resident myself, events in Windsor and Maidenhead which would encourage inventive short-term Landlords to rent. If my prediction is correct, competition will be fierce to achieve the best rental prices for a short-term letting in the summer of 2012 and agents will be overrun with properties to be considered by potential Tenants and possibly competitors. The race is on.....

Dreamers or Buyers?

by Nigel Hindle
on August 18, 2010 in Buying in France

It never ceases to amaze me, how many different languages one hears while travelling around the hotspots of the South of France. Whether it is Monaco, Nice, Cannes, Antibes and St Tropez or the inland towns of Provence such as St Remy, the number of different nationalities is quite extraordinary. The diversity of language is equal, I suspect, to the diversity of wealth. On the one hand there are the billionaires with their private jets, yachts and villas, on the other are those with more modest means who might choose a campsite as their chosen holiday venue. Irrespective of wealth or nationality, the one thing they all have in common is a love of France and all that it offers. In fact, in an average year France expects to receive about 70 million foreign visitors. The most visited country on Earth.

‘Now what has this got to do with the property market?’ I hear you ask. Well you just have to stand near the shop windows of some of the better known agents or look at the readership of the local property magazines to see that many people love the idea of owning property in France. Some people will be dreamers, others will be ‘tyre kickers’ but some will undoubtedly buy... Crisis, austerity measures, double dip recession, eurozone worries…? Sure, these issues do weigh on people’s minds and influence their short-term decisions. Nonetheless the world’s love affair with France continues and if only a tiny fraction of the 70 million annual visitors purchases a property the prosperity of the market here will be maintained.

Team PV

by Alison Loewe
on August 11, 2010 in Service

A few weeks ago we all met up for a game of rounders in a hidden valley deep in the beautiful Somerset countryside. What? Yes, rounders, that cousin of softball and baseball without the gum shields, protective headgear and a lot less lycra. Something that we probably all played as teenagers back in the 20th century. 

No captains and no picking your friends or someone who looked “useful” to be on your team. A tap on the back and number 1,2 or 3 would suffice, town and country mice thrown together, with a sheepdog happy to cover the outfield for whichever team happened to be fielding. What a roaring success. Shouting, screaming, tears of laughter, but most importantly teamwork. Something that Property Vision prides itself on.

Discretionary or non-discretionary?

by Nick Ashe
on August 4, 2010 in Country Search

The market feels fragile at the moment. At the bottom of the mainstream market we hear of over supply (one local agent in Salisbury said he had more for sale now than at any time in the past 25 years) and fewer buyers registering.

In our market, the top end prime, we have more potential clients who have to sell before they employ us. Few people are prepared to buy first and risk a bridging loan. One of the main selling agents has more property for sale over £5 million than in 2008 and 2009 combined and a stagnant list of applicants. The same agent mentioned last week that very little is selling over £6 million.

But, one or two houses are attracting competition and selling for 2007 prices and above. These are prime, and are pretty bullet-proof trophy assets. The best long-term investment.

The thing is whether the purchase is discretionary or not. If you have sold in London and your children are starting school in Winchester or Oxford in September, you have to find a house. Whereas a holiday home in the West Country or a country estate is discretionary and it may be cheaper tomorrow.

Damned Statistics

by Stuart Baldock
on July 28, 2010 in Buying in France

The well-known quotation about lies and statistics has never been more relevant than when trying to decipher commentary on the French property market. No-one really believes us when we say there are no reliable numbers to show if the market is going up or down and in what proportions. This is especially incredible to Anglo-Saxons, used to being able to obtain accurate information about almost everything.

Statistics are available. The problem is that they come from different sources, using different parameters, often reflecting what the author wants to prove rather than reality. Individual agents have far too small a view of the market to be a valid source, and the kind of multi-office agencies found, for example, in the UK just don’t exist. There are several professional organizations, the best known being the FNAIM (French Real Estate Federation) and many franchises such as Century 21 and ORPI. There are also the Notaries, through whom virtually all transactions must pass.

The FNAIM asks its members to provide statistics, but it is not obligatory. It is obligatory for agents who wish their property to be listed on the main FNAIM website – but so few potential buyers consult it that agents are not motivated to provide the information. The result is that only 5 – 10% of overall transactions are available to the statisticians of the FNAIM. Too small to count, really. The other professional bodies are even less representative.

Franchisees are again encouraged to upload details of transactions to their administrators – and this is one source of statistics but again it is too small to be meaningful. Often these statistics are not qualified: unusual transactions (outstandingly high value, or property in need of total rebuilding, for example) may be included in the overall averages, thus skewing the statistics. If there is a sudden ‘run’ on studios (which have a higher value per square metre than larger apartments) average value statistics may be false for that period.

The Notaries should be a good source and to an extent they are. The problem is that their statistics are at least three months behind the market (the average time from conditional exchange – for which no statistics are gathered - to completion) and don’t provide a day-to-day snapshot. Also their statistics are quite bald. It is not easy to know the condition of the property sold, which floor it was on, sunny or facing north… For houses it’s even more difficult to judge.

The only people who really know what is going on are the Property Registrars; they collect all the information – and the taxes – for the fisc. The fisc says it cannot provide statistics as everything comes jumbled together – residential, commercial, land…  It would just be too expensive to sort it all out and provide accurate statistics. However, when the taxman thinks he is due more tax because a transaction has taken place at an unrealistic price (and this is not unusual) he soon manages to dig out and analyse the requisite statistics! “Damned Statistics” indeed for the buyer who has his conveyancing costs hiked by 30% or his Wealth Tax reassessed!