Matthew Harrop of John D Wood & Co (020 7908 1100) says. 'This south-facing property has been perfectly finished and interior designed, so I would be able to move straight away without the strain of furnishing it myself! I'd only need to buy a Christmas tree and decorations, order the food and wine and be all set to host a festive house warming. The home cinema/family room and pool rooom would keep the children and their friends entertained, while the adults could enjoy peace and quiet in the formal drawing room. Guests who stayed overnight could have their own privacy in the fifth bedroom which has an en suite shower room and a small patio.
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Given an unlimited budget, which address would you move to?
1st Dec 2011
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House of the week
Essex, £595,000
Near the seaside town of Walton-on-the-Naze, with views of Walton Backwaters, the Ashes is a Grade II listed six-bedroom former farmhouse set over three floors.
Agent: John D Wood & Co: 01245 344222, johndwood.co.uk.
They say: Beautifully renovated with a minstrel's gallery.
6th Nov 2011
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London's property market is a safe haven
Foreign investors are flooding into the capital's property market as they seek a safe haven from the global financial chaos.
Houses in Fulham selling in days? Prices rising? Families chasing each other to buy? Internationals snapping up houses in Chelsea without even seeing them? What on earth is happening in the London market? The summer months, usually so quiet, were busier than anyone could have imagined.
What is behind it? A rush of capital has been coming in from abroad as international buyers store their riches during turbulent economic times. The wealthy London heartland therefore has become a global village in which exchange rate fluctuations and wobbles on the New York stock exchange have more impact than domestic issues in Britain. The Chinese are drawn to Docklands, gambling on low-priced speculative new developments in London's East End. Middle Eastern, North African (some reacting to the Arab Spring) and South Asian buyers are interested in Hampstead, Islington and Westminster.
British buyers have responded in their own unique style by staying put and extending, digging out the basement or trade up locally. This means that equity is being recycled in the capital, driving up prices of family houses as people move and take equity with them to new areas. It is creating a whole new category in the property market, called Prime Family.
According to Jeremy Best of John D Wood, pressure for family houses in Wandsworth now is huge. He notes that the demand for state primary schools has increased since the start of the recession, causing the catchment areas to shrink and creating stiffer competition for homes within them. "We usually have 15 to 20 applicants interested in each house, all willing to compromise on their ideal home as long as they can be sure their children will get into the primary they want," he says.
Oli and Jemima Kellett are typical of young couples wanting to stay in London. Their two-bedroom ex-council flat with a balcony overlooking Wandsworth Common in St Quentin House is now for sale through John D Wood (020 8871 3033) at £260,000. They now have young baby Milo to think of. "We thought about moving to Kent because we love it there but we like being in London where it is all happening," says Jemima. "As Oli is a photographer, he has to go to meetings in town, and he can hop on his bike and get there easily, rather than have to commute by train."
They wanted something under £400,000 which they could do up. "We want a family home and a garden but unfortunately we couldn't afford it around here," she explains. "We found ourselves in Streatham, and have offered on a gorgeous Edwardian three-bedroom house which we can work on."
They have already met the neighbours and admired the local rag-and-bone man in his horse and cart.
"London is so inspiring," says Jemima, who works in marketing. "My favourite time of day is when I cross the Thames on the bus in the morning. There is so much energy in the city. We are not ready to give it up yet."
Rising commuter fares may make more Londoners stay put in the future, increasing the pressure on families to find new areas they wouldn't have considered before. Those who can't afford the Putney-Richmond corridor are turning to Dulwich, East Dulwich and Lewisham. South of the river, West Norwood and Streatham are being looked at. North of the river those who can't do Islington will look at Stoke Newington
20th Oct 2011
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Bricks & Mortar
For the foreign super-rich, a large London flat with a prime postcode is as good as gold when it comes to investment.
Imagine that you are a student moving to London for the first time. Where would you live? A bedsit in a hall of residence? A grotty flat in a gritty suburb? Or, in the recent case of one fortunate teenager, a £22.5 million flat in Belgravia purchased by the parents.
It is cases such as this that are driving up prices in a niche sector of the London property market -- big (think 1,500 sq ft or more) lateral flats in prime postcodes have increased in value by 81 per cent between April 2009 and June of this year, outdoing every other category of London property.
According to John D. Wood & Co.'s latest quarterly indices, this means that large flats have done twice as well as large houses in prime Central London. Meanwhile the FTSE 100 index rose by 51 per cent over the period, and even gold only managed a 67 per cent rise between April 1 2009 and June 1st 2011 according to the London Bullion Market Association.
James Wyatt, the head of John D. Wood & Co.'s valuation and surveying department, puts the price surge down to strong overseas interest -- and cash-rich foreign buyers in search of a safe haven simply don't do stairs.
Robert Green, who is based in John D. Wood & Co's Chelsea office, has recently been assisting househunters from Singapore, Thailand, China, India, Russia, the Middle East, Italy, Greece, Scandinavian nations and Australia. "Buyers are normally between 40 and 60 years of age, often with children who may be at boarding school in the UK. The property is usually an additional home, and so won't be occupied full time," he says.
Most of Green's buyers hanker after a period building, particularly on a garden square -- although a modern block by a cool architect will also cut the mustard. This stratum of buyers demands 24-hour security, a concierge and car-parking facilities so that they don't have to fight for an on-street space. Air conditioning is a must, and extras such as cinema rooms, temperature-controlled wine stores, built-in music systems and home gyms all go down well.
Unsurprisingly, developers are responding to demand with new developments of large lateral flats -- think One Hyde Park -- or creating them by joining two or three flats together across several buildings.
Nonetheless Green feels that demand will continue to outstrip supply. "It is likely that prices for the best lateral flats will continue to rise while London remains such an important world city," he says.
9th Sep 2011
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Market Guru
Alex Oppenheim manages the Battersea branch of John D Wood & Co. and confirms the market is buoyant.
Back in 2004 people wouldn't cross the river from Chelsea to Battersea but since then, they've come to realise that Battersea gives them almost twice the space for half the price. The park and private schools are also a massive draw.
During the past four years, there's been a huge rise in interest in the mansion blocks overlooking the park on Albert Bridge Road. Many of these properties have been snapped up by Europeans, thanks in part to the collapse in the pound.
Battersea Square has seen great improvement: lovely bistros have opened, and tired pubs have been revitalised-driven by the influx of young professionals. Buying pieds-a-terre is popular thanks to easy access into Clapham Junction.
During the credit crisis, Battersea fell by about 30 per cent, but we're now already beyond the 2007 peak, with prime properties 10 per cent above the top of the market. Its due to lack of supply and to new arrivals in the area. Looking forward, there are exciting prospects on the horizon. The power station has potential, but more importantly, the arrival of the American embassy will have a huge impact. Diplomats and their families will need property and will expect good amenities, which will shape the area's future. There's even a possibility of a Tube connection into Central London.
1st Aug 2011
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Hot Property Staff Quarters
Cuttlebrook House, Wantage, Oxford, UK, £1.3m
Where Charlton Village, part of the market town of Wantage, around seven miles from Didcot station where trains to London take 45 minutes.
What A 17th-century house with seven bedrooms and three bath/shower rooms, arranged around gardens of half an acre landscaped by John Brookes. The house was considerably extended around 1860 at the rear with a neonclassical facade. The original oak carved doors and pannelling remian, along with many other period features. There is also a detached office in the former coach house of 1,873 sq ft (174 sq m), together with garaging, garden room, kitchen and workshop/store.
Why Staff quarters in the form of a brew house were connected to the main house in 1878 with a two storey link to form a seperate annexe. The distinct area has two bedrooms, a bathroom, sitting room, study, kitchen and utility room.
Who John D Wood & Co., www.johndwoood.co.uk, tel: 44 (0)1865 31152223rd Jul 2011
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The house that rocked! This £2.59m Twickenham villa played host to The Stones and Phil Collins
The studio in the then home of Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett has hosted jamming sessions involving Phil Collins's band, The Rolling Stones and Queen's Brian May. Hackett and his now ex wife Kim Poor, a Brazilian-born jeweller and artist whose clients have included Diana, Princess of Wales, bought the five-storey early-Victorian house in 1984 after moving, reluctantly, from Holland Park. ‘We'd been looking at houses in Holland Park, where all our friends were, and had been gazumped twice - the market was booming back then - and then we were sent details for this house, which was on the market for £180,000,' says Kim, of the villa just a few hundred yards from Richmond Bridge. As soon as I saw the garden I knew I wanted the house even before I'd been inside, but I didn't want to leave our friends, so Steve said we'd try it for a year.' Now, 27 years on, and three years after the couple divorced, Kim is selling up for £2.59 million through John D. Wood & Co.‘The previous owners turned a lot of rooms into bedsits which they let to students, so we turned it back into a house,' says Kim, who divides her time between her shop in Belgravia, a flat in Rio de Janeiro and a beach house in the Brazilian resort of Buzios.
‘This is one of only two houses in this street that haven't been converted to flats.' That will certainly help it sell, says Ian Boardman, of John D. Wood & Co's Richmond office. ‘We have seen a lot of demand for large family houses in the area - so much so that we've had bidding wars and selling prices have gone above the guide,' he says. ‘As long as a house has got off-street parking and there isn't a train line at the bottom of the garden, there is little to hold this sort of house back.' Kim set about restoring the early-Victorian features of the house, which now has six bedrooms, three bathrooms and three reception rooms. ‘The style is very English and we've kept all the original features, including the cornicing and marble surrounds for the fireplaces - there's a fireplace in every room,' says Kim. The home is furnished in a country- house style, with cream walls and elegant sofas, and on the walls hang dozens of her paintings. ‘When I was a student at Central St Martins School of Art, Salvador Dali came to an exhibition we'd put on - he said he didn't understand my paintings,' says Kim.
The large farmhouse kitchen and the dining room are on the lower-ground floor and have doors to a patio and the garden beyond. On each of the three upper floors are two bedrooms and a bathroom. ‘I need somewhere smaller and more manageable because I am away so much and because I need to be nearer the shop, so I'm going to look a bit closer to town,' says Kim. It was the garden that stole Kim's heart almost 30 years ago and it remains one of her favourite places to sit and paint. Although it's just less than 50ft long, it packs a lot in. ‘It doesn't look as big as next door's, but we have a little secret garden at the bottom and the light is wonderful to paint in. We have an apple tree, pear tree, fig and a vine.' Although the house is just a few minutes' walk from the hustle and bustle of Richmond, it is in a quiet street overlooking a bowling green and has the benefit of off-street parking in an area where a place to leave your car is expensive.
Although Kim and Steve, who lives nearby, were divorced in 2008, their split hit the headlines a year later when he claimed Kim, who designed stage sets and album covers for Genesis and for Steve's solo career, wanted royalties on half of Genesis's songs. Kim always denied the claim, saying she wanted to protect her interest in a company the pair had set up after Steve left the band to go solo. The dispute has been resolved, but the studio no longer reverberates to the sound of live music. ‘It would make the perfect room for teenage children - they can make as much noise as they want and you can't hear a thing,' she says.
John D. Wood & Co., 020 8940 661112th Jun 2011
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Long-term thinking
As buying gets harder and rents go up, lengthier leases are becoming more popular. Sunday Times investigates this new property trend
It is the call every tenant dreads: the landlord saying he's decided to sell the property and won't be renewing the annual rental contract. It can be equally annoying for a landlord to hear that the people who've been dutifully paying the rent for the past 12 months have decided to move on. Yet could the short-termism that has prevailed in the housing market since the introduction of Assured Shorthold Tenancies (ASTs) in the late 1990s be about to change? Are we about to go all continental? That's certainly the message from the rental market. We may still be a long way from the situation in Germany, Italy or Belgium, where people will stay for years in the same rented home -- usually unfurnished -- but tenants and landlords alike are increasingly looking for something more substantial than a one-year furnished let. What's causing this shift? Ian Potter, opoperations manager at the Association of Residential Letting Agents, puts it down to the fact that tenants are getting older -- not surprising, given that the average first-time buyer is now in their thirties. "It's going back to what it was 30, 40 years ago," he says. "In the 1970s, if you wished to buy a property, a 25% deposit was expected." This meant people either stayed in the family home or rented for longer periods -- a popular and stable option before the introduction of ASTs, which tend to be for a year, typically with the chance for both sides to give notice after six months.
In the past month, John D Wood & Co has let a three-bedroom maisonette in Richmond, southwest London, for three years at £700 per week; a three-bedroom house in nearby Twickenham for £575 a week on a two-year let; and a £300-a-week cottage in Thames Ditton, Surrey, for three years. "Lack of rental stock and rising rental prices mean it is a landlord's market, and there is a noticeable movement for tenants looking to lock in multi-year tenancies as a hedge against rising rents," says Nik Madan, the agency's lettings director.
A four-bedroom cottage near Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, is available unfurnished for £2,900 a month on a minimum 18-month contract (pictured below; 01865 311522, johndwood.co.uk).16th May 2011
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House sales rush to beat tax rise: Frenzy in London sparked by stamp duty increase
Hundreds of millions of pounds changed hands in hours in a property scramble to beat the new five per cent stamp duty tax. Buyers exchanged and completed seven-figure deals to save themselves thousands of pounds. One estate agent pushed through £90million of transactions, comparing it to the Premier League transfer window. It came before today's "Worse-off Wednesday" tax and benefits squeeze that will cost London couples with children almost £4,000 a year. The frenzy was triggered by a rise in the stamp duty rate for properties worth more than £1 million, which increased from four to five per cent at midnight. London removal companies were fully booked and some vendors threw in their furniture to help make it easier for buyers to move. Around £200 million of sales were completed in the past week including a £27 million property in Mayfair and a £26 million home in Sloane Street. Agents John D Wood said it had seen a 60 per cent increase in properties worth around £1 million in January and February as buyers realised the significance of the looming deadline. It had 40 completions on properties over £1 million in the last two weeks alone. A spokeswoman said: "We had one property in South Kensington which was due to complete before April 6 but, because of legal and technical issues, missed the deadline. "As a result the seller had to reduce the price by one per cent to avoid losing the sale." Mark Andrews of John D Wood & Co's Richmond office said: "We needed to have sales agreed by mid-February to stand any chance of a realistic completion before April 6. Some sales were specifically agreed with the intention to complete before this deadline." One couple who beat the deadline said the £13,000 they saved in tax made their dream home affordable. Account manager Michelle Shepherd, 35, and her banker husband Duncan, 37, who have two children, were looking to move from Twickenham to Surrey. Ms Shepherd said: "We were acutely aware of the ticking stamp duty timebomb. We found a buyer who was offering £990,000 for our house. We then offered £1,290,000 on a house in Walton-on-Thames, where the asking price was £1,495,000. "Happily it was accepted, as the developer also realised the stamp duty issue. We managed to complete on both sales on April 1. Saving the stamp duty was crucial, we simply didn't have that extra £13,000."
6th Apr 2011
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Come the revolution...
How are the Middle East's elite dealing with the threat of revolution? By panic buying in prime London addresses A week ago, an Egyptian family based in Cairo exchanged on a £5m flat in prime central London without even visiting it. They agreed to pay in cash, no viewing necessary. Peter Young, managing director of John D Wood & Co. has seen many inquiries from Egyptians in the past three weeks, mostly in the £500,000-£3m bracket. "These people are effectively fleeing," he says. Other agents report buyers from Kuwait, Iran, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. King Abdullah: the Saudi royal family owns a number of properties in Mayfair (Hassan Ammar) Properties such as a house on Eaton Square, on the market for £28m, have been viewed by Middle Eastern buyers in the past few weeks. A £12.5m penthouse on Belgrave Square was bought by an Egyptian. And in Hampstead, north London, there have been inquiries for rentals of £20,000 a week from people from the region, who want to move in immediately. Senior members of the Saudi royal family have also been on a spending spree recently. A Saudi princess is believed to be looking for a £60m trophy home in Holland Park. Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Mayfair and Regent's Park remain the destinations of choice.
6th Mar 2011
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Home renovation: Spruce up to sell up
In a ruthless market, creating a good first impression is vital, says Caroline McGhie What lengths should you go to when preparing your house for sale? Extend, add bathrooms, hang chandeliers, or just give it a lick of paint and pop a plant pot on the windowsill? In today's unforgiving market, care and presentation are crucial. Buyers have taken to doing "drive-by viewings", so the exterior needs to seduce like never before. Estate agents John D Wood & Co. provides a service free to all their clients in the London, Surrey and Oxfordshire areas. Rosella Ruberti, 28, advises sellers and organises the necessary work. "It doesn't have to cost a lot," she says. "In one kitchen we put in new work surfaces, cupboard doors, floor and lighting at around £5,000, and it looked wonderful." Bathrooms?"A good house needs two bathrooms at least, so spending £10,000 on creating an extra one can add at least £30,000 to the value."
25th Feb 2011
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Rent Negotiation
Huma Qureshi asks Nik Madan how tenants can negotiate with landlords over monthly rental costs. Nik Madan lettings director of John D Wood & Co., says: You can negotiate on rent, although you're more likely to be successful if you're starting a new rental, rather than renewing one. A powerful way to negotiate is to forgo the break contract which would otherwise give you the flexibility to give notice and move out early. Most landlords will be willing to reduce rent for someone prepared to commit to a long term contract of 12 to 18 months, who isn't going to leave." Most landlords are prepared to reduce rent for tenants who can move in sooner than expected and it can be worth offering to take on the cost of repainting or fixing the premises, in exchange for money off. Madan says one of his clients has agreed to knock £200 off a tenant's monthly rent as a result of tenant's offer to repaint and update the house."
14th Jan 2011