Christmas is nearly upon us, one by one houses are lighting up and trees are taking pride of place in our windows!
2014 has been a good year for property aided by a positive press and media through the year combined with the Chancellor spreading more good news for the regional market with changes in Stamp Duty.
Our region has seen steady volumes and steady prices through the year, the main area for growth in prices has been at the entry level buy to let market where demand has and continues to exceed supply. This trend is likely to continue in the New Year as the changes in pension regulations begin to take effect.
Our last few Auctions have been standing room only; our November Auction was unique in our room reaching capacity for the first time and a record number of lots being sold.
New and existing landlords will be following with interest the licensing proposals being submitted by Liverpool City Council, currently this is sitting at an upfront fee of £500 for a five year period with a view to improving the city’s housing stock. As a regulated agent most of the checks the council are carrying out are already completed by any regulated agency. Wirral MBC are rumored to be planning to follow suit. We have formed a partnership with our major competitors to contest this and have a provisional agreement that the charge will be significantly lower if the properties are managed by us and we have an audit process agreed with LCC. We will keep you posted however the new regulation is due to take effect in April 2015.
I hope you enjoy the rest of our Newsletter and if you have any comments to make, please do send us an email and we'll ensure we get back to you.
We wish all our clients and readers Season's Greetings and look forward to a continuing improving market in 2015.
Rob Farnham Chief Executive, The Venmore Group
Financial Services - Where to go...
A Mortgage is probably the largest financial commitment you are ever going to make, so getting the right advice is imperative.
You could speak to your own bank or building society.
This is certainly not a bad idea but then you are limiting yourself to the products that they offer from their own range.
You can speak to a mortgage adviser within an estate agent or a mortgage broker.
Some advisers will operate from a panel of lenders, so again you will be limited in what’s available to you.
Some advisers are independent; giving you access to the widest range of lenders. clearly speaking to an independent mortgage adviser could be the best as they will have access to the widest range of lenders.
Other things to consider are that some lenders will not deal with the public direct so you can only access their products via a mortgage broker.
Should you choose to speak to your own bank of building society they will not charge a fee for their advice. Most mortgage advisers will charge a fee and this could be a flat fee or a percentage of loan you require.
We feel that our clients should benefit from the best of both worlds, so we offer a service of being independent and not charging a fee for our advice.
This year we saw inception of the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) one of the key outcomes of MMR is that lenders need to check client’s affordability. All the lenders vary in how they look at affordability and by using an independent mortgage broker they will know the lenders criteria and how their affordability rules work.
We believe that a mortgage adviser is for life not just your initial mortgage! We offer a review service which means that we will continue to find you the best mortgage for your circumstances all the time that you have a mortgage and we still will not charge any advice fees for this.
Our team of mortgage advisers are experienced and qualified. Your no obligation meeting can be out of normal office hours during the week or on a Saturday.
We don’t believe in using high pressure sales tactics as finding the best deal possible speaks for itself. You can buy your property from anyone and still use our mortgage service.
To arrange a meeting with one of our independent advisers please call Jane on 0151 342 1755 or email jane.bflmortgages@hotmail.co.uk
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage of any other debt secured on it.
Venmore Mortgage Services and Bradshaw Farnham & Lea Mortgage Services are a trading style of BFL Mortgage Services Ltd which is Authorised & Regulated by The Financial Conduct Authority. Registerd in England & Wales Company number 06734055. Registered office 7 Pensby Road Heswall Wirral CH60 7RA
Busiest Auction since 2008!
Venmore Auctions held their busiest Auction for over 6 years raising to date over &4,750,000, selling over 83% of lots with post auction sales still going strong. Buyers packed the Council Chambers in Liverpool town hall with the auction having to be halted at one stage for five minutes to accommodate everyone in the room!
The varied catalogue made for an exciting auction with demand high for all types of lots and reserve prices being well exceeded in most cases. Star performers included 52 Huskisson Street, a 7 bed HMO in the Georgian Quarter which achieved &357,000 from a guide price of &300,000. Smaller investment properties were also in strong demand from both experienced investors and new investors alike with 18 Blossom Street in Bootle achieving &51,000 from a guide price of &40,000.
Yields well in excess of 10% can be achieved from commercial properties and with the economy picking up this is giving a real boost to this sector of the market with sales much stronger than 12 months ago. Demand was high for both mixed use premises and commercial only units with nearly all selling on the day.
We are now taking instructions for Merseyside’s first property auction of 2015 to be held on 11th February. If you have any type of residential property, commercial property or land you are thinking of selling then please contact one of the auction team on 0151 236 6746 to book a free market appraisal.
Let’s shout about it!
Liverpool and the wider region is uniquely placed with strengths that we don’t shout about often enough. We forget multinationals such as Barclays Wealth, Jaguar Land Rover, Maersk, Novartis and Sony are but a few internationally known companies who have all chosen to locate in the region. Cost-competitive property in the region is a key driver.
To put matters in perspective Liverpool is at the centre of a population totaling over 1.5 million people. That drives an economy estimated to be in the region of &20 billion a year. We are a significant contributor to UK plc.
We should therefore be proud of where we work and live. The property markets are a key part of this success, not only providing excellent accommodation but also an attractive environment to work and live. The relatively low property costs allows for exciting opportunities for business’s.
I do admit we are somewhat in the doldrums compared to the activity seen in Manchester. For example the office take up for 2014 in Liverpool city centre is estimated at roughly 300,000 sq ft,, this compares to an estimated take up in Manchester which is in excess of 1 million sq ft.
However we should not look in dismay at activity east of the M6 but draw upon the positives that the region as a whole is doing well. Actually we should look at the motorways and feel a bit sorry for all those poor commuters trying to get into Manchester during rush hour!
Although the office markets continue to show low activity we are seeing record levels of investment in the university, hotel, leisure and student markets. Liverpool is rapidly becoming the destination of choice for city breaks.
Standing on a roof top of a development opportunity near Hope St the other day, it struck me how many cranes I could see across the Liverpool horizon. In fact the numbers are quite startling. &1.81 billion worth of development is currently on site!
If you actually want to look at how many development sites there are in Liverpool you can download the “Liverpool Development update” produced by Liverpool Vision. This is available at http://www.liverpoolvision.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/PMD-595-DEVELOPMENT-UPDATE-June-2014-FINAL-VERSION-amended.pdf
Looking ahead to 2015, Venmore Commercial is excited by the levels of regeneration and inward investment. We expect continued increases in commercial activity and it is a great time to engage with the markets, whether it be investors or occupiers.
If you have any queries regarding commercial property please contact Tim Garnett on 0151 243 5325 or email t.garnett@venmores.co.uk
