Property prices « Property News from Saint Property

Saint Property Dispatch 4 November 2010
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

Property Prices

· There continues to be conflicting reports on the state of the property market with some reports advising a rise in property prices and number of sales, whereas the latest report from property website “zoopla “ states that 36.4% of sellers in Great Britain have reduced the amount they are asking for their property at least once since August, with the average person knocking 6.1% off their original asking price, the equivalent of nearly £16,000.

· The reductions are being made in response to a shortage of buyers, as many people adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach until the outlook for both the property market and the wider economy become clearer. But sellers are continuing to come to the market, creating a mis-match between supply and demand and putting downward pressure on prices in certain sectors.

Rural

· Scotland’s Environment Minister, Roseanna Cunningham, announced on 3 November 2010, that she proposes an amendment to the Wildlife and Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill (WNE) to introduce “vicarious liability”. This would mean that Estate Owners could face £5,000 fines or jail sentences from the persecution of birds of prey.

The amendment would, for the first time in the UK, make landowners directly liable for wildlife crimes committed by their employees, after confirmed cases where rare birds of prey have been allegedly deliberately killed to protect grouse stocks on shooting estates.

The Scottish Rural Property and Business Association (SRPBA), which represents many of the countries largest landowners, will loby ministers on 5 November 2010 and warn such legislation could cut investment in grouse moors, an industry worth £23m a year to Rural Scotland.

· A new initiative to help Scottish livestock farmers fully realise the economic and environmental potential of their woodlands is being launched next week by Quality Meat Scotland and the Forestry Commission Scotland. Both organisations want to investigate how the economic benefits of woodland can be maximised while stock numbers are maintained on Scottish farms.

Focus meetings, starting on 9 November 2010, will offer the opportunity to view real-life examples of managed woodlands and discuss with the farmers and specialists the successes and challenges of combining forestry with stock keeping. The meetings will be of interest to farmers, foresters, advisers and rural policy staff.

The initiative, which is being facilitated by SAC, will also look at technical issues such as the potential animal health benefits of putting woodland barriers between neighbouring stock, assessing where shelter woods should be located to benefit livestock, as well as any other woodland or livestock farming topics raised by attendees.

Renewable Energy

· In addition to Scotland’s renewable electricity target for the next decade being raised from 50 per cent to 80 per cent, which First Minister Alex Salmond announced at the end of September, it was agreed on 2 November 2010 at the Renewable UK Conference in Glasgow that the Scottish Government were launching a £70m fund to help support the offshore wind industry over the next four years.

The money has been diverted from other priorities of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It will be used to improve ports and help companies testing, manufacturing and supplying materials for turbines.

The Scottish government hopes the investment will help Scotland realise the potential of creating 28,000 direct jobs and generating £7.1bn for the economy over the next decade.

· Siemens, the leading provider of off-shore wind farms in the UK, has joined forces with REpower and Weir Group to launch the UK’s first wind turbine apprenticeship scheme to tackle the engineering skills shortage in this area.

· This increase in the amount of wind energy generated in Britain will have a significant effect on buyers of rural property in Scotland.

· Future planning for wind farms can have a positive or negative effect on property values, depending on the types of property, with some buyers desperate to avoid having their views obstructed, while others are looking for opportunities to take advantage of new renewable energy targets.

It is crucial for those looking to avoid purchasing a property in the vicinity of a planned wind farm that they carry out thorough research first or seek expert advice.

Edinburgh Properties

· Previous reports suggest that the average property price in Edinburgh is circa £230,000 with average earnings at approximately £28,000 equaling a P/E ratio of 8.2. Current UK P/E ratio is reported anywhere between 5.5 and 7 with the long term average being 3.5.

· With the first-time buyers market struggling: lenders requiring a minimum deposit of 10% and the most competitive deals achieved with 30% deposit, the ESPC have advised that the majority of first-time buyers are relying on financial assistance from their parents to get them onto the property ladder with many parents enquiring about the possibility of remortgaging their own homes in order to provide their children with a deposit.

Dispatch. News and Views from Saint Property. 23rd April 2010.
Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Election Focus

Saint Property is seeing a sharp increase in property coming to the market. This is in part due to the oncoming spring, but is also in part due to buyers and sellers looking to avoid any potential uncertainty in the market following the election.
Currently, 70% of our market is being handled privately.
With the General Election race now underway, with the main three parties level-pegging and no clear leader according to most polls, the result is impossible to predict. Pundits suggest a clear Tory majority is increasingly unlikely, but the final picture is far from clear. At this stage, Saint Property’s general observations remain:
Political uncertainty can be expected to effect confidence in the housing market after the election.
A clear majority for any party is looking increasingly unlikely.
House prices at this time should remain realistic in response to the uncertainty in the market.
With all these factors in mind, we expect to see more top end property coming to the Scottish market with a resulting downward pressure on prices.

Edinburgh & Scotland House Prices

According to Savills, prime central London was the quickest property market to recover from the recession with a price rise of 8.9% in 2009.
Edinburgh was the first to recover in Scotland with country properties and Glasgow now following suit. Scotland has seen a modest growth of 4.4% annual price increase (Savills).
Sales of property in Scotland over £1 million are seeing momentum build, with over two thirds of transactions taking place between June and December 2009.
Savills expect to see prices in Scotland rise by 9% by 2012.
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) reports the number of houses on the market in March to be the highest in more than two years.
Expect to see continued supply of £1m+ properties throughout the year.

Sporting Estates, Farmland and Forestry

Liberal Democrats press Scottish Parliament for lower fuel duties for rural and island communities.
According to the Canadian Wheat Board, wheat stocks are set to hit highest levels for decades, prompting a drop in market value and a drop in plantings of the grain.
Scottish crop planting delayed by two to three weeks due to worst winter weather in decades. Arable prices may be affected but alternative markets of cheap cattle feed could provide some compensation.
7,500 Scottish beef farmers starting to receive EU payments in respect of the 2009 Scottish Beef Calf Scheme (SBCS). As of 14 April, payments are being made for over 406,000 animals.

Saint Property

Saint Property offers advice to buyers looking to purchase property in Scotland.
We advise on residential & rural property ensuring a property purchase decision is made with sound advice.
We offer a pre-property purchase consultancy service for those who have found a property but need a second on opinion. We evaluate all aspects of a property on the purchasers behalf and report with an unbiased view of our findings.
Please forward this to anyone who may be interested in the Scottish property market.
Contact usfor advice on +44 (0)131 478 4533if you are considering purchasing a Scottish Property.

Coast Property. Back on the Market. By Oliver Bennett. December 2009
Friday, February 26th, 2010

Now could be the time to take the punge and buy that seaside home. We’ve done the research on the towns that have become affordable.

Two years ago, when house prices were at their peak, buying a home by the coast seemed to be a dwindling dream - unless you had a lot of money to spare. Property values had soared and that elusive whiff of ozone merely added to the bill. Estate agents Savills recently found that the average cost of a home near the coast in England and Wales had risen by 115 per cent since 2001, compared with 96 per cent across the country as a whole.

Now, of course, thanks to the credit crunch, the gap has closed and has brought house prices a little closer to reality. ‘Affordability in all seaside towns has improved since the middle of 2008,’ says Lucian Cook, director of Savills Research. As housing economist Nitesh Patel of the Halifax adds, ‘Property in many seaside towns is still at a premium, but affordability has improved most in Wales, Northn England and East Anglia.’

Also, while last year’s ‘barbecue’ summer may not have delivered on the weather front, it lured hearts and minds back to the British coast. Indeed, property search engine Nestoria concluded that the ’staycation’ factor influenced house prices. ‘The market appears to be coming back up.’ says Javier Etxebeste of Nestoria. ‘A lot depends on the area, but there’s been a return to form, boosted by the summer.’

Des res discounts

So can the British coastline recover the ascent it has enjoyed since the 1990s? It certainly looks possible. A survey by Halifax Bank of Scotland shows that in the decade up to 2008, most internal migration involved shifting to coastal areas.

Lucian Cook of Savills Research has identified a ’super class’ of 14 top seaside destinations, including Sandbanks, Salcombe, Aldeburgh and Padstow, which have developed what he calls ‘micro-climates’: coast hotspots with average prices of more than £300,000. But even in these covetable parts, there’s been price movement. ‘Padstow prices have dropped around 20 per cent in the past 18 months,’ says Moira Hall of Padstow agent Stratton Creber. ‘For the first time in years, we’ve got plenty of properties under £250,000.’ A lot depends on supply, however. At yachtie Lymington on the Solent, the recession’s impact has been confined to about ten per cent. ‘It’s because Lymington always has more people looking to move there than sellers.’ says Kevin Allen of local agents John D Wood & Co.

This, at the top end, prices haven’t always fallen far. For example, the more established South Devon hotspots such as Dartmouth, Kingswear and Salcombe may be ‘a bit more affordable’, as Martin Lamb of Savills in Exeter puts it, but they’ve also had a boost because of the crunch. ‘These places are very lettable and many of our buyers would rather have their money in property than in a bank.’

The second home factor has stopped values falling on the Scottish coast too. As property finder Matthew Sinclair of Saint Property says, ‘The market in coastal towns is much affected by demand for another property. Prices have fallen by ten per cent but not far enough to lure locals back.’ Indeed , the Scottish market remains relatively buoyant, particularly on the islands and scenic west coast.