As we approach the autumn with the election behind us, bank rates remain high and an Autumn Budget is to be announced on 30^th October. There are still many opportunities to buy well, with more opportunities to refurbish than we’ve seen in years.

However, premiums are still being achieved for the best villages and scarce properties that will always attract buyers, whatever the market conditions.

It is important to remember that a house is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. Just because a particular asking price has been set, it does not mean that it’s at the ‘correct’ value.

What to consider when making an offer

Considerations such as the seller’s circumstances, the location of the property, and whether or not there are major works that need doing, are all critical.

With this knowledge, buyers are in a much stronger position to make an informed offer, whether it’s at the guide price or below. Go too low however, and there is a risk of losing out entirely – which is where the benefit of having a buying agent on your side really comes in.

Our tips include positioning the offer in the best possible light, explaining the context and specific circumstances. Cash buyers, for example, are in a particularly advantageous position in the current market.

The highest offer doesn’t always come out on top

Most vendors, particularly those who need to sell quickly, are choosing the buyer who is in the strongest position to proceed over the one offering the highest price. This is because with funds ready in the bank, cash buyers can move forward quickly and there is a lower risk of the sale falling through.

Another important factor to consider is whether you are happy to be flexible on a completion date. Exchange can take place as soon as it can be dealt with, but a long completion date can give a seller the time they need to find something else to buy. This also makes them a proceedable buyer, putting them in good stead for their onward purchase.

If you’re thinking of moving home this autumn, we can help you find the best property, negotiate the right price and oversee the entire transaction on your behalf. For an informal chat, call us on 07776 452 128 or email info@propertyacquisitions.co.uk.

We were delighted to share our insights with the Sunday Times for their round up of ‘The 20 best secret villages to live in’.

In at number 4 is The Hartings, with fantastic walks up onto the South Downs, a Post Office and general store and, of course, an excellent pub – the White Hart in South Harting.

Property Acquisitions advise, “There’s an unofficial waiting list for good-sized houses here, whenever one comes on the market it’s always bought by a young family.”

West Sussex is packed with fantastic secret villages which are very sought-after locally but not well known outside the area, which is why our clients value our tips and insights, particularly when moving from another area.

You can read the full article here if you’re a Sunday Times subscriber.

We were pleased to share our thoughts with the Daily Mail on the shops and brands that really draw buyers to an area.

Everyone used to get excited about the arrival of a Waitrose or M&S, and our clients certainly still value those brands, but today it’s the independent farm shops and local producers selling from the doorstep that hold the greatest appeal.

People can get their weekly groceries order delivered, but they want to supplement that with hyper-local organic produce from a nearby farm shop or greengrocers.

The likes of Daylesford Organic and Clarkson’s Farm have inspired a movement towards high quality, organically produced food which has travelled as few food miles as possible from farm to fork. People want access to that on their doorstep, so for most of the buyers we work with in West Sussex and Hampshire, a good local farm shop is high up on the wish list.

English vineyards too are opening their doors to sell wine and local produce, and many of them also have superb restaurants alongside tours and tastings. Ashling Park near Chichester is a great example.

You can read the full article here if you’re a Mail+ subscriber.

Why are the British people obsessed with home ownership and will Generation Z continue this trend?

It is a very British characteristic to obsess about being a homeowner. European countries do not understand the fascination we have with our homes being our castles.

Generation Z faces the biggest gap of any generation between housing aspiration and reality, but the majority still want to buy. Putting affordability to one side, 81% of Generation Z would choose to buy a home if they could, compared to 93% of Millennials, according to Beresford research.

Reasons underlying our apparent fixations stem from three principal factors, which are historic, financial and social. Owning your own home has implied wealth for years, however large or small your home. Not living in someone else’s house can provide a feeling of achievement and success, doing what you would like to in your own home with financial security.

For many years we have always looked at the profit we make from property, knowing this will happen and earn us money when we come to selling. Since the millennium, some prices have trebled, so house owners have looked at this as another way to grow wealth that can sometimes be more than their year’s salary.

How will this change as we enter a Labour controlled government, with the possibility of more taxes on the property sector and the continued reduction in the number of private landlords? As the rental sector changes, the effect on Generation Z will be significant.

With no short term financial benefit or gain and no asset giving help for the longer term in the rental sector, buying a home, however hard it may seem, still could be the way forward.

How do we as buying agents understand the full complexities of a buyer’s mind?

Our job is to slip into their shoes, understand every reason for their purchase and deliver. Sometimes their brief does drift somewhat ‘off piste’.

For example, the client must have a period house – they purchased a contemporary one. The client must have a detached house – they purchased a wing of a country house. The client must have a view – they purchased with no view whatsoever, but in a great village location.

The wonderful attribute we have, being buying agents with years of experience, is we know that the wish list can change. Presenting perhaps an 8/10 house often works, as we all know there is no such thing as the perfect property.

Being professionally represented can bring huge advantages, as one of the greatest benefits of knowing a location for many years is that we instinctively recognise the difference between a good purchase and one that is not.

There are many advantages that we can provide, such as laying out the ‘pros and cons’ of a possible opportunity, especially regarding location and other factors that will affect you. Of course, we will also recommend levels at which you should or shouldn’t propose an offer.

It is important to know what you are buying and where. Location, as we all know, is an important priority, but other factors which may not initially be obvious can make the difference between a good purchase and a poor one.

Here are a few helpful tips when looking for a home:

1. It’s always better to search at your lower end of your budget, then work up to your top end.
2. Acting alone should be avoided as it’s probably one of the biggest purchases of your life. Buyer agents will know the pitfalls, but always have a relation or a friend at your side.
3. Do you want to do work or buy a turnkey home?  How much time, effort and money do you want to spend, and is it easier to pay a premium for a turnkey home and not do the work yourself?
4. If you’re willing to consider a project, have vision! Often a probate or an unloved house can be made into something far more amazing, so always consider this option.
5. Beware of planning applications that could affect you. Always check out local planning portal using the property postcode.
6. Be careful not to offer too much. Make sure you know the market, or even better, engage the services of a buying agent to ensure you buy well.

Test driving a location by renting first is a popular tactic used by buyers who are moving to a new area, and we were delighted to share our views with The Daily Telegraph on this topic.

Relocating is such a big decision and if you’re not very familiar with the area you want to move to, jumping in at the deep end by buying a house before you’ve come to know the intricacies of the local housing market and what it’s actually like to live there, can feel like too big a risk.

Downsizers especially are less likely to be plugged straight into a new community through work and schools, so for them, joining local groups or the church and making new friends and connections is really important. They can take their time finding the right property, do viewings at the drop of a hat and are in a chain-free position with cash in the bank.

We always advise our buyers to insist on a 6-month break clause in their rental contract, so even if they find a property to buy quite quickly, they can get out without incurring major costs.

It’s not just downsizers taking this scenic route to moving home though. We’re also seeing younger buyers opting to sell and rent in the short term, giving them time to put all the jigsaw pieces together with new school and working arrangements, before committing long-term.

You can read the full article here if you’re a Telegraph subscriber.

We were delighted to contribute to an article in The Daily Telegraph, looking at costs for people selling their London home and upsizing to the countryside.

Someone selling in London for £2m – £2.5m can expect to acquire a family home with a good size garden and possibly an annexe, some land, a pool and tennis court in an edge-of-village location in the South Downs. But London leavers with £1m – 1.5m to spend are often surprised to discover they need to stretch their budget to get the kind of space they want in a small town or village location with good transport links.

The rise of home working has made living out of London a possibility for so many more people, so the competition for homes in this price bracket is considerably greater than it was five years ago. One of our clients sold in London for £850,000 and recently bought a property on the edge of Haslemere for £1.4m, close to the school and train station with views over adjoining fields. The property did require a little updating, but this enabled them to double the size of their home and hugely increase their outside space to meet the needs of their growing family.

You can read the full article here if you’re a Telegraph subscriber.

The first 100 days in power are crucial for any new government as they set the tone for their term in office and lay out their policy priorities.

We’re delighted to be included in this PrimeResi Journal article, where leaders from across the prime property sector offer their views on what those policies should be, including our own founder and director Jennie Hancock who makes the case for freeing up the market by scrapping stamp duty for downsizers.

Jennie says: “The most straightforward and effective policy the new government could introduce would be to scrap Stamp Duty for downsizers with immediate effect. After two years of stagnation, the economic benefits of kick-starting the housing market again by removing the enormous disincentive to move at the top, would be immediate.

“We have sellers moving from a £3m home to £2m who are looking at a Stamp Duty bill of over £150,000. It’s a huge deterrent. So many people are living in beautiful big houses they have owned for 25 years, which are now far too big for them, but they just can’t face handing such a large chunk of their children’s inheritance to the tax man. At the same time, there’s a multitude of frustrated family buyers looking for their forever home but good quality 4 and 5-bedroom properties are few and far between. Removing the Stamp Duty barrier for downsizers would incentivise them to move and re-energise the market at every level.

“Stamp Duty is such a prohibitive tax, and that was clear for everyone to see when the temporary Stamp Duty holiday was introduced during covid. In over 30 years of working in the housing market, I’ve never experienced such a turnaround in the market, and the wider economic benefit of all those thousands of home moves would have no doubt been significant. Whilst I would love to see the tax permanently scrapped altogether that seems highly unlikely, so downsizers would be an excellent place to start.”

You can read the full article on PrimeResi here, if you’re a subscriber.

We work with many downsizers across West Sussex and the Surrey/Hampshire borders, so we were delighted to share our thoughts on this hot topic with the Daily Telegraph.

Most of our downsizing clients have children who have flown the nest, and they want to simplify their lives and their finances by buying a more manageable property, leaving them with a nice nest egg with which to pursue hobbies and travel while they’re still fit and able.

Often, they’re using only a small part of the property, with certain rooms or even whole floors shut off, but they’re paying to maintain and upkeep the whole thing. A smaller property and garden is easier and cheaper to look after, and if it’s located closer to the local shops and amenities, or on a bus route, they have the option of giving up the car at some point in the future.

Many people have built up considerable wealth in their properties over 20 years or more, and they want to enjoy themselves by travelling to far flung places, which they might not have been able to do before. If Labour introduces VAT on private school fees, as it warns it will, we may see more downsizers gifting equity to their children to assist with those costs.

You can read the full article here if you’re a Daily Telegraph subscriber.

We are delighted to announce exchange of contracts this month on this lovely house in a village location a few miles north of Chichester.  The property is set in two acres with amazing downland views, yet with easy access to Chichester, the coast and train service to London.

Their priority for this client was to settle in this fabulous part of the world from London, in a forever family home that would accommodate their young and growing family.

Whilst this specific patch very close to Chichester is highly sought after and known for having a lack of good quality housing stock with land, we were able to source this home through our network prior to the property entering the open market.

Our thanks go to Mark Astley at Jackson Stops for introducing us to this amazing property.