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If you follow herd thinking, then the answer is a very loud ‘No!’ Professional, long-term investors may well take a different view, however. In fact, right now many are rubbing their hands together in anticipation of being able to swoop on some bargains. Robin Bowman of Property Secrets explains. So, what exactly is a ‘professional investor’? The bottom line is that if you act smart, do the research, arm yourself with facts and adopt a realistic view of a market and plan strategically, you’re a pro. If yo

The fires of leasehold reform are not, it seems, entirely dead, there are still a few hardy souls working to keep the flickering embers alive. Few people, perhaps, will have been aware of the Leasehold Reform Bill that had a few minutes life on the floor of the Commons in late February and proposed measures to provide extra rights for leaseholders. So let’s hear it for Simon Hughes MP who promoted this Private Member’s Bill. “I’ve been in this place for nearly 25 years and applied every year in the ballot

I don’t know if it’s climate change, the credit crunch or the desire to see the back of George W. Bush but this year is flying by! Not only is the year flying but as each month goes by another scam comes to light. I am going to have to reframe my attitudes because quite frankly I should no longer be shocked. However, I do still find my chin hitting the floor! The latest shockers arose from a recent site we took over the management of whereby the previous agents were making a 1,000 per cent mark up on sell

Recruiting staff can be stressful with all the legislation. Most organisations involve specialists such as Claibon to assist. For anyone handling such matters there are several considerations, starting with the job advert. Recruiters must be sure the best candidate for the job is chosen. Recruiters need a clear understanding of the requirements, responsibilities and rewards of the role to be filled together with the characteristics of the successful candidate in terms of skills, qualifications, previous

News & Information about Flats News on the Block is all about flats. Informative and practical, with each edition of the magazine you’ll get: •           articles about property management •           in-depth news coverage of the residential leasehold sector •           detailed legal articles about the law relating to flats •           feature interviews of the sector’s top names •           expert opinion and commentary Subscribe online today or call us on 08700 600 663 to receive 6 print issues for ju

Is the Vesuvius of the Leasehold Enfranchisement World about to erupt again? On 21st April 2008, Leave to Appeal to the House of Lords was granted in the Earl of Cadogan v Sportelli case. Leave to Appeal in the case has been granted in respect of “Hope Value” only.What is Hope Value? To understand the concept of “Hope Value”, consideration must first be given to another familiar valuation concept : “marriage value”. When a leaseholder is buying the freehold or extending their lease, he has to pay som

Blake Lapthorn Tarlo Lyons is pleased to announce that it successfully represented Hamptons International and Mrs Treld Bicknell in the Court of Appeal in a case which is now the leading authority on estate agents' commission. The judgment was handed down on Wednesday 23 April 2008. Mrs Bicknell appointed a firm of estate agents to find a purchaser for her house. The agents were appointed in accordance with their terms of sole agency. At a viewing in July 2005, the agents showed the person who was to bec

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February 26th 2008, London - ruralZED™, a consortium of architects and specialist manufacturers at the cutting edge of the eco house-building industry, today launched the UK’s first affordable, carbon neutral house at the annual EcoBuild exhibition. The ruralZED™ housing system is set to revolutionise the house-building industry over the coming years and has been awarded on-site Code 6 status, the highest level in the Code for Sustainable Housing, eight years ahead of the government’s targets for carbon

425,000 council tenants have exercised their right to buy their council home over the last nine years, spending a collective £15.7billion, according to research by Connells Survey & Valuation. They have benefited from discounts totalling £10.3billion. In the last year, 16,896 became home owners spending £1.15billion. The numbers are much smaller today than in the past as new rules have restricted eligibility and reduced the discounts that tenants receive. The peak year was 2003/4 when almost 70,000 fam

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has revealed it received a record number of calls from landlords seeking advice during 2007. The NLA Advice Line, offering free advice during business hours to member landlords, received an average of 2,600 calls per month last year on a wide variety of topics. Throughout the year this amounted to over 31,000 individual enquiries.* The average call took just under 13 minutes and, in April 2007 when tenancy deposit protection became mandatory, the NLA Advice Line wa

Hurford Salvi Carr’s expert lettings division is pleased to offer a stunning New York loft style apartment - the first-ever commercial warehouse to be converted into residential apartments in the UK. Converted in the late 1970s, Charterhouse Square in Clerkenwell kicked off the trend for open-plan loft apartments that swept London and New York in the 1980s. Favoured by artists for their high ceilings and studio-like room sizes, loft apartments have retained their appeal in today’s market as the average sq