December is traditionally a quiet time in the Canary Wharf property market. Tenants and buyers tend to be on the look out for bargains. Landlords know that if they don’t get a tenant by mid December they are likely to have an empty flat until the new year. However, this year tenants have to be careful they don’t negotiate too hard since many people are staying where they are and stock levels are surprisingly low. Good quality properties are being snapped up at close to asking prices and many tenants who have put in very low offers are being surprised and disappointed when their chosen property is let to someone else who puts in a higher offer. Long term tenants are also competing with short term Christmas holiday lets who traditionally pay more to stay over the holiday period. If you have a property becoming available in December make sure you talk to Movello about short lets.
We were expecting a large increase in stock with the completion of Pan Peninsula, Ability Place and The Landmark. However, completions are taking much longer than usual due to the difficulty getting mortgage finance and valuations from surveyors coming in lower than expected. Although the Landmark is still pretty much a building site, we have seen some early completions of 1 bed apartments (starting from £320pw) which are significantly bigger than their equivalent at Pan Peninsula. More completions are expected shortly so contact Movello for early viewings.
The sales market is slowly picking up but developers still have large numbers of unsold units which they are considering letting out until the market picks up further. This has not stopped some major developers cracking on with major schemes. Barratt is progressing well with the St Andrews Development in Bow and Ballymore are moving ahead with Baltimore Wharf on the Island and plan to start work again soon on their Leamouth Peninsula development, next to Canning Town station. Consultation has also begun on the Thames Wharf site next to Wards Wharf in E16. With a network of canals and the first “Urban beach” proposed, this will be a truly innovative development.
With inflation edging up, quantitative easing coming down, it won’t be long before interest rates start to rise. Buyer should take advantage while prices are low and tenants should make quick decisions if they want to be in by Christmas.
If you have a property to sell or rent, contact Movello Managing Director, Angus Edy for a free valuation on 020 7473 9530 or visit www.movello.com.
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Wednesday 14 October 2009
New Column in London Homes and Property
I have been asked to write a monthly column in the new London Homes and Property Magazine. Over 60,000 copies will be distributed in and around Canary Wharf and the City. Please find below my first article published in October 2009.
Busy summer leads to shortage of property
What never fails to surprise me with the Canary Wharf property market is how quickly the tide can turn in your favour and against you. In early summer we were experiencing a glut of properties available for rent and a worryingly low number of tenants looking. In the space of a few weeks the tide had completely turned and we were experiencing a high number of new applicants and a fast diminishing supply of property. The summer came and we saw the completion of The Icon (now Ability Place) and the long awaited Pan Peninsula. The completion of these two major developments has failed to satisfy the still raging demand for good quality apartments within walking distance of Canary Wharf. The main problem is that despite the buildings being completed, the sale of many of the apartments has not been completed. Many investors have been caught out by the sudden fall in prices in 2008/09 combined with a similarly sudden tightening of finance available to buy to let investors. Many of the apartments have gone back to the developer to be resold or held until the market shows signs of a sustained recovery. By not releasing these apartments onto the rental market this has created pent up demand and helped maintain rental prices for prime canary wharf apartments.
Tenants now have to move very quickly to secure good quality apartments in Canary Wharf. We still have a few apartments available at Ability Place and Pan Peninsula but they are being snapped up very quickly. Ability Place is proving popular due to it’s superior gym and more spacious apartments. Being situated at 39 Millharbour Road it is a little further to walk to Canary Wharf than Pan Peninsula but prices also reflect this. Pan Peninsula is still “The Place to Live” at the moment with its’ Resident’s Cinema, Roof top bar, Six Senses Spa and close proximity to Canary Wharf. Hot on the heels of these new developments is The Landmark. Further down Marsh Wall and very close to the Riverside South Office complex, The Landmark is due to start completions next month. We already have some instructions here and are looking for more.
Corporate clients are also returning to the market. Tenants are more confident about their job prospects and are committing to new tenancies rather than letting their current tenancy go onto a monthly rolling contract. With a shortage of supply we are also seeing rents starting to increase. Traditionally we see tenants waiting until the winter to renew their contracts when they think they can negotiate the best rent. My advice to tenants is renew now while you can.
We have seen increased activity on the sales side, with many more viewings being booked compared to this time last year. Buyers are still finding it difficult to raise a sufficient deposit and lenders are still making it very difficult to get competitive finance. However, the signs are positive and we expect activity and prices to stabilise and improve over the coming months.
If you have a property to sell or rent, contact Movello Managing Director, Angus Edy for a free valuation on 020 7473 9530 or visit www.movello.com.
Busy summer leads to shortage of property
What never fails to surprise me with the Canary Wharf property market is how quickly the tide can turn in your favour and against you. In early summer we were experiencing a glut of properties available for rent and a worryingly low number of tenants looking. In the space of a few weeks the tide had completely turned and we were experiencing a high number of new applicants and a fast diminishing supply of property. The summer came and we saw the completion of The Icon (now Ability Place) and the long awaited Pan Peninsula. The completion of these two major developments has failed to satisfy the still raging demand for good quality apartments within walking distance of Canary Wharf. The main problem is that despite the buildings being completed, the sale of many of the apartments has not been completed. Many investors have been caught out by the sudden fall in prices in 2008/09 combined with a similarly sudden tightening of finance available to buy to let investors. Many of the apartments have gone back to the developer to be resold or held until the market shows signs of a sustained recovery. By not releasing these apartments onto the rental market this has created pent up demand and helped maintain rental prices for prime canary wharf apartments.
Tenants now have to move very quickly to secure good quality apartments in Canary Wharf. We still have a few apartments available at Ability Place and Pan Peninsula but they are being snapped up very quickly. Ability Place is proving popular due to it’s superior gym and more spacious apartments. Being situated at 39 Millharbour Road it is a little further to walk to Canary Wharf than Pan Peninsula but prices also reflect this. Pan Peninsula is still “The Place to Live” at the moment with its’ Resident’s Cinema, Roof top bar, Six Senses Spa and close proximity to Canary Wharf. Hot on the heels of these new developments is The Landmark. Further down Marsh Wall and very close to the Riverside South Office complex, The Landmark is due to start completions next month. We already have some instructions here and are looking for more.
Corporate clients are also returning to the market. Tenants are more confident about their job prospects and are committing to new tenancies rather than letting their current tenancy go onto a monthly rolling contract. With a shortage of supply we are also seeing rents starting to increase. Traditionally we see tenants waiting until the winter to renew their contracts when they think they can negotiate the best rent. My advice to tenants is renew now while you can.
We have seen increased activity on the sales side, with many more viewings being booked compared to this time last year. Buyers are still finding it difficult to raise a sufficient deposit and lenders are still making it very difficult to get competitive finance. However, the signs are positive and we expect activity and prices to stabilise and improve over the coming months.
If you have a property to sell or rent, contact Movello Managing Director, Angus Edy for a free valuation on 020 7473 9530 or visit www.movello.com.
Wednesday 9 September 2009
Movello Landlords Update
It's been a while since I gave you an update on how we're doing at Movello. The market appears to be picking up and we have seen a large increase in enquiries from both tenants and prospective buyers. Our corporate clients also seem to be dipping their toes back in the water with a number of short led deals going through in recent months. It will be a while before we can safely say the recession is over and many pundits are predicting a double dip recession. However, the banks seem to be recruiting again and we are seeing a steady flow of new applicants coming from the big banks such as HSBC, Citi and Barclays. If you have properties available that you haven't already told us about please give us a call.
There seems to be concensus that sales prices will not be shooting up for the forseable future so if you are thinking of selling you don't need to worry about the thought of selling just as prices start to rise. We seem to be in a fairly unique position where it is equally a good to time to buy. Even though you might not see an increase in the value of any property you buy for a while, you can be fairly sure that you are buying pretty near the bottom. The problem at the moment is stock levels. There is very little good quality property available on the market. Most developers have stopped building and many investors have been reluctant to sell at what they percieve to be the bottom of the market. As I said, there is very little benefit in delaying since prices are unlikely to increase in the medium term.
We have seen some new additions to the Movello team including Michael Evans who has joined us as Lettings Negotiator from Square Mile in Canary Wharf. Michael also has experience at Award winning agent Martin and Co in Kent. Michael is studying for his ARLA exams and is also a keen Triathlete, having competed for Great Britain. We wish Michael well in his new role.
We have also improved the Marketing and Administration side of the business with the addition of Ingrid Kaad to the team. Ingrid's main role is to ensure new properties are booked for professional photography and are presented as professionally as possible on the web. Inrgid also assists our Property Management Department in dealing with enquiries from Movello tenants and landlords.
We were very sad to see Judy Wawrzyk, our star Negotiator, leave to join a rival agent recently, having spent over two years at Movello. However, I have just been told that after a week in her new job she has agreed to come back to Movello. We will be making sure Judy is well looked after when she comes back!
The improvements to our website over recent months are now paying dividends. The addition of a development search on our home page allows you to type the name of your development into the search box to show a list of properties we are marketing in your development. This is a good way to see how your properties compare to others in the same development. We have also added a popular developments section with some additional information on our most popular developments. We are driving traffic to these pages using Google adwords. Due to the quality of our web marketing we recently let a number of apartments to an overseas company without them even viewing the properties. They searched for Docklands properties on Google, found our website, went to the popular developments section and reserved their apartments over the phone.
Other improvements to the website include the addition of Google Street View. Under each property there is either a scrollable 360 degree view of the development or if Street View is not available a standard map showing the location of the property.
The addition of a short let search has also increased the number of short let enquiries we are getting. We have also backed this up with advertising in the City Airport map, Wharf Newspaper, Docklands Property Guide, Canary Wharf Magazine and London Property. I now write a regular editorial piece in the Wharf Newspaper and have been asked to comment on the market for the Guardian and various property magazines.
I appreciate that rents have not held up well over the last year or so, so I hope you haven't been too badly affected by the market. Having spoken to a few of you recently about your mortgages it sounds like some of you negotiated some very good variable rate mortgages during the good times!
Thank you for your business over the years and we hope we can help you rent more of your properties soon.
There seems to be concensus that sales prices will not be shooting up for the forseable future so if you are thinking of selling you don't need to worry about the thought of selling just as prices start to rise. We seem to be in a fairly unique position where it is equally a good to time to buy. Even though you might not see an increase in the value of any property you buy for a while, you can be fairly sure that you are buying pretty near the bottom. The problem at the moment is stock levels. There is very little good quality property available on the market. Most developers have stopped building and many investors have been reluctant to sell at what they percieve to be the bottom of the market. As I said, there is very little benefit in delaying since prices are unlikely to increase in the medium term.
We have seen some new additions to the Movello team including Michael Evans who has joined us as Lettings Negotiator from Square Mile in Canary Wharf. Michael also has experience at Award winning agent Martin and Co in Kent. Michael is studying for his ARLA exams and is also a keen Triathlete, having competed for Great Britain. We wish Michael well in his new role.
We have also improved the Marketing and Administration side of the business with the addition of Ingrid Kaad to the team. Ingrid's main role is to ensure new properties are booked for professional photography and are presented as professionally as possible on the web. Inrgid also assists our Property Management Department in dealing with enquiries from Movello tenants and landlords.
We were very sad to see Judy Wawrzyk, our star Negotiator, leave to join a rival agent recently, having spent over two years at Movello. However, I have just been told that after a week in her new job she has agreed to come back to Movello. We will be making sure Judy is well looked after when she comes back!
The improvements to our website over recent months are now paying dividends. The addition of a development search on our home page allows you to type the name of your development into the search box to show a list of properties we are marketing in your development. This is a good way to see how your properties compare to others in the same development. We have also added a popular developments section with some additional information on our most popular developments. We are driving traffic to these pages using Google adwords. Due to the quality of our web marketing we recently let a number of apartments to an overseas company without them even viewing the properties. They searched for Docklands properties on Google, found our website, went to the popular developments section and reserved their apartments over the phone.
Other improvements to the website include the addition of Google Street View. Under each property there is either a scrollable 360 degree view of the development or if Street View is not available a standard map showing the location of the property.
The addition of a short let search has also increased the number of short let enquiries we are getting. We have also backed this up with advertising in the City Airport map, Wharf Newspaper, Docklands Property Guide, Canary Wharf Magazine and London Property. I now write a regular editorial piece in the Wharf Newspaper and have been asked to comment on the market for the Guardian and various property magazines.
I appreciate that rents have not held up well over the last year or so, so I hope you haven't been too badly affected by the market. Having spoken to a few of you recently about your mortgages it sounds like some of you negotiated some very good variable rate mortgages during the good times!
Thank you for your business over the years and we hope we can help you rent more of your properties soon.
Thursday 26 March 2009
G20 Summit and Michael Jackson prove popular for short lets
With the impending arrival of 37 world leaders and their entourages to the Excel, Dockland's Award winning Estate Agency, Movello has been busy helping TV companies including the BBC secure apartments to film the events taking place for the G20 Summit. Movello Managing Director, Angus Edy commented "The TV companies had specific requirements such as elevated views of the Excel Centre as well as line of site to the O2 where most of the outside broadcast facilities will be based. There was only a couple of developments that met the criteria and we have been working hard to secure the right apartments. Another interesting enquiry we had this week was from the sound engineers who will be working on the record breaking run of Michael Jackson shows at the O2. They are looking for an apartment for the full six months of the shows and may be able to get hold of some free tickets to the shows as part of the deal! We have a number of corporate clients with requirements in Canary Wharf at the moment. Interested landlords should contact Movello. " Short lets work well for both landlords and corporate or professional tenants. For landlords the rent received is significantly higher than for a long let and for tenants the cost can be significantly less than an extended hotel stay and offers more spacious accommodation. Contact Movello for more information - 020 7473 9530 www.movello.com
Thursday 12 February 2009
New Year Shows Signs of Green Shoots
Despite endless bad news stories about the economy and the property market in general, Movello Managing Director, Angus Edy, reports a strong start to the year both in terms of property sales and rentals.
“Despite a very different market to this time last year, there are an increasing number of buyers coming into the market and a high number of rental applicants looking to move. Prices have dropped dramatically during 2008. Unusually this has affected both sales prices and rental prices. The general consensus among investors is that sales and rental prices will continue to drop for another 6 months and will then start to rise. It is notoriously difficult to judge the bottom of the market so buyers are advised to look now while finance costs are so low. Many of our applicants are coming from West London and are looking to save money at the same time as improving the size and quality of their accommodation. We are also seeing a high number of existing Docklands tenants looking to renegotiate the rent on their current property or move within the area. Most landlords are able to negotiate on the rent due to the massive reductions in the base rate. Tenants still need to be realistic about the level of discount they can expect because many landlords are still on fixed rates and don’t have the flexibility to negotiate as much as others. Sales applicants are coming into the market but are looking for bargains. Only the most realistically priced properties are selling. We have a lot of investors who have bought off plan in the soon to complete developments of Pan Peninsula and The Icon. We have pent up demand to buy and rent these apartments when they complete, but applicants will be negotiating hard for the best deals. These developments are setting new standards for luxury living in Canary Wharf and existing tenants in nearby developments will no doubt be looking at these developments for their next move".
If you are looking to move or have a property available please contact the Movello team on 020 7473 9530 or visit www.movello.com
Editorial published in The Wharf Newspaper 12/02/09
“Despite a very different market to this time last year, there are an increasing number of buyers coming into the market and a high number of rental applicants looking to move. Prices have dropped dramatically during 2008. Unusually this has affected both sales prices and rental prices. The general consensus among investors is that sales and rental prices will continue to drop for another 6 months and will then start to rise. It is notoriously difficult to judge the bottom of the market so buyers are advised to look now while finance costs are so low. Many of our applicants are coming from West London and are looking to save money at the same time as improving the size and quality of their accommodation. We are also seeing a high number of existing Docklands tenants looking to renegotiate the rent on their current property or move within the area. Most landlords are able to negotiate on the rent due to the massive reductions in the base rate. Tenants still need to be realistic about the level of discount they can expect because many landlords are still on fixed rates and don’t have the flexibility to negotiate as much as others. Sales applicants are coming into the market but are looking for bargains. Only the most realistically priced properties are selling. We have a lot of investors who have bought off plan in the soon to complete developments of Pan Peninsula and The Icon. We have pent up demand to buy and rent these apartments when they complete, but applicants will be negotiating hard for the best deals. These developments are setting new standards for luxury living in Canary Wharf and existing tenants in nearby developments will no doubt be looking at these developments for their next move".
If you are looking to move or have a property available please contact the Movello team on 020 7473 9530 or visit www.movello.com
Editorial published in The Wharf Newspaper 12/02/09
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