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