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If you're thinking of selling or your struggling to sell, have you given much thought to staging your bedrooms? Probably not, at least when you look at the thousands of images on the on-line property portals. When your buyers visit, they want to envisage themselves living their future dreams in your bedrooms - when in reality they may be faced with a "make-do" office, laundry strewn everywhere, your wedding photos, the children's' toys, glaring coloured walls and so on. So l

New government measures to boost the construction industry were introduced last week. In short: planning permission deadlines will be extended (they usually expire after 3 years if no work has started). This will affect those sites which had an expiry date between 23 March 2020 to 31 December 2020. Planning consent is now extended until 1 April 2021. planning appeals will be speeded up permanently. This will grant the Planning Inspectorate the right to use more than one

Since the housing market re-opened on 13 May, all the signs continue to show that confidence is returning as pent up demand continues. Industry Insight from Dataloft Dataloft are property market experts, specialising in market intelligence. Based on their recent research, 95% of all sellers who were planning to move before lockdown, still plan to do so. This echoes what other industry professionals have shared. On 8 June 2020, Dataloft launched Dataloft Demand Index for the

Rightmove has indicated that the average asking price in England has increased by an average of 1.9% (+£6,266) in June, compared to March data. The average house price in England is now valued at £337,884. Rightmove’s statistics cover 95% of the market and these latest results indicate far more resilience and bounce back than had been expected. Their monthly June House Price Index also highlights the following: There were over 175,000 sellers that could not put their home f

The May edition of Halifax's House Price Index identified that: on a monthly basis - in May prices were 0.2% lower than in April on a quarterly basis (March to May) - prices were 0.5% lower than in the preceding 3 months (December to February) on a 12 month basis - prices were 2.6% higher in May compared with May 2019 The net impact of the above, is that the average house price fell by 0.2% to £237,808 in May. Source: Halifax Source: Halifax Russell Galley, managing directo

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has issued its latest monthly survey for the month of May. This survey polls estate agents and surveyors in England. This survey confirms that the housing market continues to improve since lockdown was lifted specifically for housing on 13 May 2020. The survey reports that near term sales expectations are now broadly neutral while the 12-month outlook improves slightly. In isolation, the metrics reported don't read well, h

Since the housing market re-opened on 13th May 2020, buyer activity has steadily increased. #TwentyEA report that that they have seen 3 continuous weeks of growth for both new instructions (increasing from 10,000 to approximately 24,000) and sales agreed (increasing from 5,000 to approximately 16,000). This is equivalent to around 73% of the 2019 level of activity. #NewInstructions Image: TwentyEA #SalesAgreed Image: TwentyEA Based on the last two weeks of data, TwentyEA

Buyers do not buy houses, they buy homes. Put yourselves in your buyers shoes so you can maximise the chances of your buyer falling in love with your home and putting in that all important OFFER! Here's how to do this: Take a fresh perspective As homeowners, we have rose tinted glasses when it comes to our home. We're also very likely to overlook those long over due jobs that need tackling - the tap that drips, children's hand marks on the walls, the chipped woodwork because

We're going behind the scenes to explain what virtual staging is about and the value that this brings. Virtual staging is about digitally adding furniture and accessories to your property photographs so it brings a room to life. It's a very cost effective and swift way of transforming any space within a home or development. Buyer Attention Span Since Covid-19 our world has completely changed - all buyers are searching on-line for their future home or investment. Buyers make

Prior to Covid-19, the housing market revolved around viewings. Since the lockdown was lifted, viewings are now permitted, for those that are not in the vulnerable category. The government guidance to date, is that first viewings, wherever possible should be done virtually. We are constantly in touch with estate agents to understand how the housing market is evolving. Since the housing lockdown has been lifted, it's evident that some sellers and buyers remain reluctant abo

“Necessity is the mother of invention” Plato, Greek philosopher. And, that is how the collaboration came about between sort style and stage and Property CGI Ltd (PCL). What challenges did Covid-19 present for sort style and stage and how are you overcoming them? Since 23 March 2020, our world has been turned upside down and inside out. The lockdown brought sort style and stage to a halt as we could no longer provide our home staging service. So with a little creative thinking