BREAKING NEWS – top 5 stories 16/02/2021
NAEA PROPERTYMARK THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
Following the resignation of the NAEA Propertymark president Kirsty Finney who was six months in to her yearlong presidency, Propertymark are now being very tight lipped about what has happened.
What is clear is something internally in Propertymark is possibly causing many to leave. In July 2020, David Cox Chief Executive of ARLA Propertymark resigned, then CEO Mark Hayward announces his retirement effective in December, then weeks later Christopher Hamer the Chair resigned.
Surprisingly, then within two months a new CEO Tim Balcon is in place with zero real estate knowledge, then Mark Hayward instead of leaving stays on under a new title to guide the new CEO, and now Kirsty Finney the newly elected President has ‘left’ in clearly mysterious circumstances. This whole situation is making the membership very uncertain as to the value of paying subscriptions to an entity that resembles a circus act, rather than being the paragon of professionalism it always purports to be.
Maybe Tim Balcon will make a statement and add clarity to the latest situation, he has been keen of late to extol the virtues of Propertymark, part of the job of being a CEO is to deal with difficult issues, and clearly an ever-revolving door of personnel is one of them.
RACHMAN RIDES AGAIN?
Notorious in the 1950’s and 1960’s Peter Rachman was a landlord with no heart, who exploited his tenants leading to the term Rachmanism becoming a word to describe not looking after tenants and the buildings tenants inhabit.
The director of Property Ladder London, Mohammed Bhatti has recently pleaded guilty to a dozen charges regarding lapses in let properties under his governance in Leyton, including not having at least one HMO licence in place. It resulted in him being fined tens of thousands of pounds, but is a sadder reflection that 70 years on – tenants interests are still not being properly addressed.
HOUSE SALES FALTER
It has been reported that new sales in February, and new housing stock coming to the market are faltering, driven in part by the uncertainty around the stamp duty holiday. Clearly with the end of March only 6-weeks away, fresh sales will not be completed in time, meaning that the housing market is now on a go slow – not great news for agents already affected by Lockdown 3.0
HAMPTONS ANALYSIS SHOWS A NEW LANDLORDS ENTERING LETTING ARENA
According to recent analysis by Hamptons, in 2020 there was a significantly higher amount of Landlords buying properties to let using finance rather than cash, indicative that first time landlord’s or landlords looking to buy a second property were in the mix.
Traditionally professional landlords tend to buy inventory with cash, which means in recent years around 60% of stock bought for letting has been sourced in this way, in 2020 this figure dropped to 50% which meant buyers of housing inventory for letting was availing itself of more finance, the reserve of new landlords whose pockets are not as deep.
TWENTYEA DATA SHOWS THAT BRANCH CLOSURES CONTINUED IN 2020
Data compiled by Milton Keynes based TwentyEA, shows that the estate agency pool contracted by over 2.5% last year with the closing of 339 branches. Some could be from mergers, acquisitions, and retirement, but the biggest sector affected seems to be hybrid/online agents accounting for around 8% of the closures.
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