Posts by Andrew Stanton
BREAKING NEWS – 5 top stories 17/12/2020
STAMP DUTY EXTENSION – 77,000 MORE SIGNATURES REQUIRED At present over 23,000 have signed a petition calling for the SDLT holiday to be extended, it needs another 77,000 signatories before parliament will debate it. Seven days ago the government stance was and still is … ‘The SDLT holiday was designed to be a temporary relief…
Read MoreBREAKING NEWS – 5 top stories 16/12/2020
95% MORTGAGES LOANS ARE GOING, GOING WELL ALMOST GONE In what is perceived to be shades of the 2008 stranglehold on high loan to value lending there are now is in December less than a dozen mortgages which only require a 5% deposit. Eleven-months ago the figure was topping out at 400 mortgages to choose…
Read MoreProptech, Science-Fiction for Estate Agents
I first wrote this article over a year ago, the pandemic if anything has made it even more relevant than in November 2019. Back in the mid 1980’s, I became an estate agent (broker) and was at that time an avid reader of science fiction. My favourite book was ‘Machines that think’ a compendium of…
Read MoreBREAKING NEWS – 5 top stories TUESDAY 15/12/2020
CLOCK IS TICKING FOR NON-DOMS BUYING From the 1st of April there is another deadline looming, the imposition of the new 2% extra SDLT being imposed on property bought in the UK by those living outside the UK. The headline figures, well if are non-domicile and you are buying at 500K, and complete in April, you…
Read MoreCash buyers who needs them?
If I had a fiver for every time, I had a buyer who said they were a cash buyer over the past 30-years, well I would have an awful of of extra cash myself. The amount of times I have witnessed that triumphant smile when a prospective buyer looked me in the eye and said,…
Read MoreBREAKING NEWS – 5 top stories
LSL IN THE MONEY? David Stewart GPE of LSL reports that LSL’s recent performance is in many ways a ‘curates egg’. Revenue levels dropped by nearly 20% in the last period, not surprising as they have been closing a number of branches. But a following wind, or Rishi’s SDLT holiday windfall has helped potential unexchanged…
Read MoreBrexit & The Property Market
Hard of soft, not Boris Johnson’s choice of boiled egg, but how Brexit unfolds will have an affect on the property market. As Carol Lewis writing in the Sunday Times recently summed it, ‘The average UK homeowner made more money from their home in the first ten months of this year than in the preceding…
Read MoreProperty 2021 Feast or Famine?
In three and a half decades in property, 2020 was for me and I am sure you, the most exciting, devastating white knuckle ride that I can remember. Like a badly mixed cocktail, with shots of alcohol/events that should never share the same glass, and two cocktail umbrellas, one Brexit the other Covid-19, it is…
Read MoreOffice-space experience in 2021
Things have changed in the office, first how the commercial model of real estate, the securing and buying or leasing of offices is performed, the second is how technology allows us to experience the actual environment. In 2021, the landscape will be rapidly changing, the landlord is not a traditional landlord anymore, flexibility now reigns…
Read MoreIt is a Cliff
A fortnight before Christmas and there are more cliff-hangers than reindeers on Santa’s sledge, let us go through the seasonal pre-Xmas list. Countrywide PLC – a tug of love between Connells, a proven model of profitability and other factions that ‘have a plan’ but have not had their mettle tested. In truth needing the backing…
Read MoreRegulation or Education – What is the best for Real Estate?
I believe in education, qualifications and developing yourself, as everyone now is very much their own person and own brand. Being a consultant for real estate and proptech I fully support the argument that property professionals – need to keep up with industry changes. But there are two camps of thought, on one side Baron…
Read MoreDeal or No Deal- Why the Sale of Countrywide Matters
As I write this I must declare an interest before I start, I am grateful to Countrywide as I started my agency career with them in the 1980’s and in my first year, I earnt five-times my previous salary pre-agency, and became a manager with a brand new BMW. Back then graft, service and esprit…
Read MoreIf it’s not broken, don’t fix it!
Prior to my epiphany with Proptech a few years ago, try saying that with a few seasonal drinks inside you; I was a traditional property man, a stalwart of the status quo, and slow to adapt to change. Not quite one of the ‘if it is not broken don’t fix it’ brigade but close. Now…
Read MoreAre you a Punk Rocker?
Back in the mid 1970’s, as a youth I spent much time wearing a black bin bag, bondage strides and listening to the Sex Pistols, I was trying to be alternative – me and half the country. In time I found myself all grown up and wearing a conservative suit for over three decades, selling…
Read MoreManaging client’s expectations
In late August 1988, when the world was young and I was a fearless negotiator, I was on the way to my first million, or so I naively thought. Having agreed industrial amounts of sales due to my brilliance – in reality due to the tidal wave of activity caused by Nigella Lawson’s dad the…
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