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.

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

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

JP Morgan deal shines light on Canary Wharf property

With the anouncement that JP Morgan have signed the biggest office deal in the history of Canary Wharf to take 1.9 million sqft at Riverside South, the prospects for the Canary Wharf property market looks rosy. The sales market is currently subdued and prices have fallen dramatically during 2008. However, signs that the mortgage market will start to pick up in 2009 should signal the bottom of the market. Savy investors with cash will start looking to buy during 2009, therefore sellers should be looking to market their property from early 2009.

Will house prices rise or fall?

The reality is that the market is driven by demand and supply. Only 6 months ago the government were telling us there was a shortage of housing in the South East and we needed to build more. This demand has not gone away. There is still a massive shortage of housing in the south east. No doubt demand has waned but everyone still needs somewhere to live. My prediction is that the house price crash will be short and sharp. We will see 20-30% falls from the peak in 2007. We have already seen 20% falls in most areas and up to 50% in some northern city centres. Therefore we only have about 10% further to go. The recovery will be led by London from the middle of next year when the mortgage market eases up. There will still be a dearth of first time buyers but they will be replaced by cash rich investors picking up properties at the bottom of the cycle.