After living 20 years in London and almost 15 of those working in the Central London Property Market, things have changed considerably.
The fact that there are so many more millions of people in the world and that London is the most wonderful multi-cultural, interesting and tolerant city in the world, makes it a compelling magnet for the global ever travelling market of busy people.
My clients are fed up of searching through endless pages of websites, that quite often can be out of date. Estate agents have an unfortunate bad reputation. There are some real gems out there, it just takes many years to find them! Often once one has been burnt, clients will come to me for refreshing unbiased advice. I do not have a stock list of properties from which I am only allowed to sell from and therefore I have absolutely no restrictions or allegiances to any one agent or seller.
We look after clients searching to buy, with budgets from £1m upwards. We source properties through our extensive network both on and off market and most often have the 'heads up' before the property comes onto the open market. This is very important, as clients are given the 'first foot through the door' in order to have the opportunity to make their bid if appropriate and be in the best possible position. We will view and consider approx. 100-150 properties before selecting a short-list of approx 15-25 options, (depending on the strength of the market), for our clients. We will arrange the property tour, driver and give in-depth advice and negotiations from offer stage through to exchange and completion. Typically this service costs between 1.5% to 2% plus vat of the purchase price.
We have a great selection of solicitors (international languages spoken), surveyors, removal companies, architects, interior designers, furniture rental companies and builders available for all your specific requirements.
We also search for rental properties, which historically commands a quicker process with the lettings market moving at a daily rate. For this we charge one months rent +vat for the search, tours, negotiating the agreed rental price, making sure the paperwork is correct - with lettings there are reams of paperwork! and ensuring the move in and inventory check-in are as smooth as possible for you.
Do get in touch to discuss your requirements. It would be very good to speak with you and am sure you feel London is a wonderful mature city and a great place to invest, whether for a pied a terre or a more permanent base.
Email Joanna Symes on: alabasterproperty@gmail.com
Press:
Article written for Anderson Harris Property Finance Specialists: http://www.andersonharris.co.uk/author/joannasymes/
Russell Lynch in the London Evening Standard: Knightsbridge is the capital’s strongest property performer, with the best homes changing hands for an average £3.83 million last month, Knight Frank said.
Jubilee, Cap Ferrat & the DVLA.....
How
was the Jubilee for you? Republican
withdrawal symptoms with a copy of The New Statesman at home or head of your
local street party committee with Kate and Wills masks at the ready? I named my silver cat Jubilee in 1977 and
whilst he is no longer with us, I remember the bunting and excitement of the
punk era celebrating God Save the Queen.
Highlights of the 2012’s long weekend included the poor singers on the London
Philharmonic barge drenched to the skin and still belting out their tunes in
true Dunkirk spirit. What other country would allow the finest opera singers to
be treated in that way with no covering whatsoever?!
I
remarked to my friend that Prince Philip was going to catch pneumonia in the
pouring rain on the top deck and within 24 hours he was in hospital with cystitis. Apparently the Queen and her consort thought
the throne seats on the Spirit of Chartwell boat far too ornate, a possible replica
of Posh & Becks wedding thrones and in order to save their embarrassment
decided on standing for the whole painful four hours flotilla. At the concert of wannabee knights and has
beens, Rowan Williams standing next to Princess Anne was waving his flag with
so much gusto, one thought that he had just spotted the second coming. Stevie Wonder was magnificent until (and I
will plagiarise this from a friend on Facebook as I thought a brilliant name) Will. WTF.I.am started singing with the blind man, who must have sniffed out this
overachiever at the very far side of The Mall.
Let’s all hope that Will.Smug.I.AM didn’t call the Queen ‘doh’ or ‘dope’
when he shook her hand and he is in danger of giving us all over kill of his
opinions and musings. He must have the
same overly keen agent as the over exposed Sarah Millican and Sir Christopher
Meyer who are everywhere you look on TV and on a loop surely on Radio 4.
There
were over 2,000 complaints to the BBC regarding the inappropriate and mindless
presenters, who did not give one historical fact or enlightened us with even a
smidgeon of cultural interest amongst the ‘OMGs’, ‘awesomes’ and ‘yeahs’ they muttered. One idiotic pundit spoke of the hat which
Nelson wore at Waterloo rather than Trafalgar.
Bring back the Dimblebys I say with their sense of occasion and
formality, rather than the Fearne Cotton’s of this world, trying to interview random
runts that they meet in the road who look like they have smallpox. Oh well at least we all had a better Jubilee
than I can imagine Baroness Warsi had.
Or of the saga of the Jubilee jobseekers from Bristol who were duped of
their work experience and shunted under a bridge for shelter until their lunch
or dinner as they called it at 11am.
Of
course, all this jubilation was viewed from the South of France! I had been invited to the Grand Hotel du Cap
Ferrat and was I going to forego this splendid invitation to get stuck in the
Battersea bridge traffic, no siree. The
hotel had the foresight to have BBC1 & 2, ITV & SkyNews so almost home
from home. Whilst part of me found the
luxury almost obscene as I was reading about Syria in the International Herald
Tribune, (which also featured a front page article on a couple of my deals
which was quite cool) we decided not to feel guilty about the outside world for
the four days we were there at least. Who
could believe that Robert Mugabe had just been appointed the UN’s ‘tourism
envoy’ which is the sickest joke since Gaddafi was appointed to the UN’s ‘human
rights’ commission. Or that Jeremy
Paxman upset his viewers after he compared Greece to a ‘bad kebab’. I read the pillow menu with such upset and
asked for two Vitamin E anti-aging pillows, it was the least I could do in the
situation of the world news I had just read and prayed that the housekeeping
boy had a fabulous six pack.
The
service was impeccable, the pool and spa superb and the chicken goujons from
room service out of this world and so they should be for 36 euros! I had a blast around the roads of Monaco
& Monte Carlo in the hired white Fiat 500 which still had the Pirelli and
other signs up from the previous weekend’s Grand Prix, although the Fiat didn’t
quite match the dizzy speeds achieved by Mark Webber.
There
is nothing more effective in bringing a girl down to earth from the splendour
of resting your head against an oligarch’s chest whilst dancing at Jimmyz, than
a visit to the DVLA centre in Wimbledon.
It has to be said that the staff were efficient, one was a complete
saint as I was the only English speaking person there and he went around with
his clipboard busy being amongst the unprepared throng, asking them questions
that they needed to be ready for before they got anywhere near a desk. One chap from the Far East transpired that he
didn’t even have a car and had obviously got off too many stops early on the
train, as he should have carried on to the Home Office in Croydon. The wait was only 20 minutes, in which time I
scanned the previous week’s Spectator and ES Magazines for good measure. My only complaint was that the place was
FILTHY. Aggie & Kim please go to Government
departments and give them a good scrub.
Why is that the case and why does the Government allow it? Cultural
and not so cultural treats to look forward to in 2012, aside from the blasted
Olympics - book your seats now:
1. Open
Square weekend June 9th & 10th impress your friends
with your knowledge of London’s topiary: http://www.opensquares.org/
2. Elizabeth
Street Party – Wednesday 13th June – fun annual mix of aristos,
artisan bakers & perpetual wasters;
3. Royal
Court Theatre – seems that 9/10 plays are fantastic – last seen Love, Love,
Love;
4. Anthony
Caro at Chatsworth House & Joan Miro at Yorkshire Sculpture Park;
5. Table at La Bodega Negra – like gold dust;
6. TV
– Grayson Perry on Channel 4 – like him or hate him, the tapestries he created
are amazing http://www.channel4.com/programmes/in-the-best-possible-taste-grayson-perry/4od
7. Margate:
Tracey Emin ‘She Lay Down Deep Beneath The Sea’ at the Turner Contemporary;
8. Sunrise
Celebration at Gilcombe Farm near Bruton, Somerset June 21-24, this year’s
alternative to Port Eliot;
9. Book - Midnight in Peking: The Murder That Haunted the Last
Days of Old China by Paul French;
10. Death
to the Kindle – as they say at Hay Festival – books are much sexier and the
only reason anyone would need to use a Kindle is to read Fifty Shades of Grey
on!
London will thrive, whatever the Chancellor throws at it.
http://www.andersonharris.co.uk/blog/
In our guest blog, Joanna Symes of property search company Alabaster Property writes about the implications of the Budget for the top-end of the property market.
George Osborne may not be the developer’s best friend. In the Budget, the Chancellor launched an attack on high-value residential properties and perceived tax avoidance. The changes announced in the Budget may have been popular with the electorate outside of ‘Planet London’, as it is often perceived as tax-dodging central for super rich non-doms and industry tycoons. Yet the Treasury may have shot and blinded itself in the process, potentially creating a funding hole because the property development industry in Central London generates significant tax revenues for the coffers.
For residential property costing more than £2m, a new 7 per cent rate of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) was announced. This shock announcement, as everyone in the industry waited for an announcement on mansion tax, resulted in solicitors, property advisers, buyers and vendors working until midnight on Budget day (21 March) to complete their transactions in record time.
There is an exemption from the new 15 per cent SDLT charge for ‘property developers’, provided certain conditions are met. One of these is that the purchasing entity has been carrying on a property development business for at least two years before the effective date of the transaction, which could cause problems for a number of developers. Profits on development projects are taxable and VAT is now payable on alterations to listed buildings. Development projects generate SDLT revenues by buying and reselling redeveloped properties which means that a proposed development on a fine white-stuccoed Grade-II listed Victorian square is a rather less attractive proposition than before, in the short-term at least.
This will raise barriers against new property businesses, who will find that they are unable to compete owing to their margins being slashed considerably with their acquisition costs being 8 per cent higher than their established competitors. The 15 per cent charge is problematic for those developers with more than two years in the business as well, as their financing is often from equity investors due to the lack of bank finance available for development projects.
Time will tell whether the legislation can be drafted in such a way to avoid catching innocent transactions. However, if this year’s fascinating Sunday Times Rich List is anything to go by, acquiring property in Prime Central London is a sound long-term investment for the shrewd and confident investor. Whatever the Budget did or didn’t do, there is only a finite amount of attractive London property to purchase. Meanwhile, London continues to be one of the most exciting cities in the world to live in. I have yet to meet someone who has said: ‘I wish I never bought that’. They are more likely to whisper: ‘I wish I had never sold that!’
alabasterproperty@gmail.com
In our guest blog, Joanna Symes of property search company Alabaster Property writes about the implications of the Budget for the top-end of the property market.
George Osborne may not be the developer’s best friend. In the Budget, the Chancellor launched an attack on high-value residential properties and perceived tax avoidance. The changes announced in the Budget may have been popular with the electorate outside of ‘Planet London’, as it is often perceived as tax-dodging central for super rich non-doms and industry tycoons. Yet the Treasury may have shot and blinded itself in the process, potentially creating a funding hole because the property development industry in Central London generates significant tax revenues for the coffers.
For residential property costing more than £2m, a new 7 per cent rate of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) was announced. This shock announcement, as everyone in the industry waited for an announcement on mansion tax, resulted in solicitors, property advisers, buyers and vendors working until midnight on Budget day (21 March) to complete their transactions in record time.
There is an exemption from the new 15 per cent SDLT charge for ‘property developers’, provided certain conditions are met. One of these is that the purchasing entity has been carrying on a property development business for at least two years before the effective date of the transaction, which could cause problems for a number of developers. Profits on development projects are taxable and VAT is now payable on alterations to listed buildings. Development projects generate SDLT revenues by buying and reselling redeveloped properties which means that a proposed development on a fine white-stuccoed Grade-II listed Victorian square is a rather less attractive proposition than before, in the short-term at least.
This will raise barriers against new property businesses, who will find that they are unable to compete owing to their margins being slashed considerably with their acquisition costs being 8 per cent higher than their established competitors. The 15 per cent charge is problematic for those developers with more than two years in the business as well, as their financing is often from equity investors due to the lack of bank finance available for development projects.
Time will tell whether the legislation can be drafted in such a way to avoid catching innocent transactions. However, if this year’s fascinating Sunday Times Rich List is anything to go by, acquiring property in Prime Central London is a sound long-term investment for the shrewd and confident investor. Whatever the Budget did or didn’t do, there is only a finite amount of attractive London property to purchase. Meanwhile, London continues to be one of the most exciting cities in the world to live in. I have yet to meet someone who has said: ‘I wish I never bought that’. They are more likely to whisper: ‘I wish I had never sold that!’
alabasterproperty@gmail.com
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