Notting Hill

Eco Home Innovations

Our increasing concerns over climate change has meant there is more research than ever being done on ways we can reduce our energy usage, especially in our homes. We all know about solar panels, heat-pumps and wind turbines, but what else is there out there? We take a look at some of the latest innovations coming our way.

Mixergy

This is a smart, app controlled hot water tank that only heats what you need, making it both quicker and more efficient than a conventional hot water tank. It can be used with most existing systems, including gas, electric or solar. The manufacturers claim it delivers hot water up to 5x faster and will save you 5%-20% on your hot water bills. As an added bonus, it will also tell you if there’s enough hot water left for a shower!

www.mixergy.co.uk

Themocill

Thermocill is an innovative new product that helps reduce heat loss through windows. It replaces any existing window sills that are located above radiators and directs the warm air towards the glazing.  This reduces both the amount of cold air coming into your house and the amount of warm air leaking out. It’s claimed you’ll use 14% less energy to heat a up a room and it will happen 19% faster. It should also substantially reduce condensation.

www.thermocill.com

Q-bot

If you’ve got one of the  estimated 8 million homes in the UK that have suspended wooden floors, then you could seriously improve your house’s thermal performance by using a Q-bot. A Q-bot is a robot that can be dropped under the floor where it will spray insulation onto the underside of the floor. Not only will it reduce your heating bill by up to 16%, it will also cut down on those unpleasant draughts.

q-bot.co

Magnetocaloric Refrigerators

Coming soon, this revolution in fridge technology uses magnets rather than the standard gas compression for cooling and will reduce your fridge’s energy consumption by over 25%. It also does away with fluorinated gas, which is used in most conventional cooling systems and is a powerful greenhouse gas. The same technology could be used for air conditioning, which consumes huge amounts of energy – approximately 10% of all global electricity.

Pee Power

Believe it or not, you can generate power from urine. It’s not some future concept, it’s available now and is already being used at Glastonbury. Here’s how it works - urine is passed through a series of Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs). The microbes then feed on it, releasing electrons and generating electricity. No, I don’t understand it either, but before long, it might be coming to a toilet near you.

https://info.uwe.ac.uk/news/UWENews/news.aspx?id=3790

Generating electricity from thin air

 Although this seems an even more unlikely source of electricity than urine, it’s generating a great deal of excitement. Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a device that uses a natural protein to create electricity from moisture in the air. The technology, they say, could have significant implications for the future of renewable energy. Unlike solar power, Air-gen does not need either sunlight or wind and can even work indoors. Watch this space.

https://phys.org/news/2020-02-green-technology-electricity-thin-air.html

Thermoslate

For those who consider solar panels unsightly, there’s now a far less visually intrusive option - Thermoslate. Thermoslate uses the properties of natural slate to help convert the sun’s energy into hot water. The outer layer of the solar panels is made of natural slate, so it will blend perfectly with many of the UK’s traditional buildings.

https://www.cupapizarras.com/uk/thermoslate/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwrsGCBhD1ARIsALILBYp2LlNHBaP9j-zymnkXyEKVT8oBWCslWfgC51vSONioo1c3RvJdmgkaArOvEALw_wcB

Battery technology

One of the main disadvantages of both wind and solar power is the unreliability of supply and the lack of decent storage solutions. Currently, most systems use lithium batteries, but their ability to store energy over prolonged periods is limited. There are, however, lots of new battery types being developed that could provide uninterrupted power from the wind and the sun.

Bladeless wind turbines

Vortex Bladeless may look uncomfortably phallic, but they are at the forefront of harnessing the power of the wind. Instead of using spinning blades to generate electricity, they vibrate. It means they are more-or-less silent, pose no threat to birds and wildlife and take up considerably less space. They may, however generate some smirks from your neighbours, as their odd shape has already led to them being dubbed ‘skybrators’.

https://vortexbladeless.com/

by adam

Are You Satisfied?

We may have the reputation of being a nation of grumblers, but what do we really think of our homes and the places where we live? Do we love them or hate them? And do we all think the same, from the young to the old? The rich to the poor?

Thankfully, those busy little bureaucrats down at the ONS (Office of National Statistics) have done a survey that tells us exactly what we think! And it makes for some interesting reading. So, let’s start with the areas in which we live. Do we really like them or are we just living there because it’s the best compromise we can afford? Surprisingly, it seems we may not be such a bunch of grumblers, after all, because 88% of us are at least reasonably satisfied with the location of our homes.

However, the biggest variation in overall contentedness is between the age groups. The least happy are those under 24 – although 82.9% are quite satisfied, just 46.7% are very satisfied. On the other hand 70.4% of those over 75 are likely to be very satisfied and a whopping 91.8% are at least fairly satisfied. It doesn’t make a lot of difference what sex we are, nor our income or ethnicity, which is good to know, because we do have a tendency to believe the lives of those richer than us are far better than our own. When it comes to dissatisfaction, however, money does count. 9.9% of those on the lowest incomes (£10,000 p.a. or less) are dissatisfied with their area compared to 3.8% for those earning over £50,000p.a. Ethnicity also appears to have an effect, but not a huge one. The average dissatisfaction levels for Caucasians are 6.5%, whereas the dissatisfaction rates for other ethnic groups are just in double figures.

And then there’s the question of whether the area we live in has got better or worse since we moved there? This time the roles are reversed, with the optimistic nature of the young shining through, because they have the highest percentage of people believing the area has improved (15.9%) and the lowest who thought the area had deteriorated (18.2%).

This compares to 24.6% of over 75 year olds who think the area is going down the plug hole and just 10.4% who believe it’s doing the opposite. The one thing most of us agree on is that it has stayed the same (+/- 65%) - and that’s across the board.

Then there’s our houses themselves. Surely we all want something a bit bigger, grander or maybe even just different? Well, I can tell you that, across all the age and ethnic groups, 89% of us are either satisfied or very satisfied with our accommodation. Now that doesn’t ring true when it comes to my household, because the size and location of the house is a regular topic of conversation. And, every time we get together with another family, they seem to be saying the same thing. However, that may be because we are relatively young and have children. The younger you are, the more likely you are to be pining for a new home. 75.3% of over 74 year olds are very satisfied, which is almost twice as many under 24 year olds (41.3%). But, it’s those households with children that are the least happy, because space is always at a premium - 8.2% are dissatisfied with their accommodation and 15.4% of single parents.

When the ONS combined our satisfaction levels for both housing and location, the average figure was 80.5%. Interestingly that figure has hardly changed in over 20 years, so the idea that our areas are going downhill may not be entirely accurate.

One thing’s for sure, though, Covid-19 has meant many homeowners are now looking for some more space. So, if you’d like a new home somewhere in Notting Hill all you need to do is give us a call.

by adam

Stamp duty to be extended

Stamp duty to be extended – more reasons to put your property on the market with Homesite

About 300,000 property purchases in England could benefit from a three-month extension in the stamp duty holiday, it has been estimated, as reports suggest the chancellor could be set to prolong the tax break in next week’s budget.

The tax saving - which cuts the bill entirely on properties costing between £125,000 and £500,000 and reduces it on homes costing more than that - was announced last summer and is due to end on 31 March.
However, Rishi Sunak is understood to have decided to extend it for three months in line with other measures to support the economy.

It is not clear if the extension would apply to all purchases, or would be on a tapered basis and apply just to those agreed before an earlier day, as lobbied for by some in the mortgage industry.

The rush to take advantage of the break, which amounts to a tax saving of £15,000, combined with lockdown restrictions across the country has led to delays and backlogs in the homebuying process, and calls for the deadline to be moved.
The property listing website Rightmove has estimated that if it is not changed, about 100,000 buyers who agreed a purchase in 2020 will have to pay the tax, which will add up to £15,000 to their costs.
It said that figure combined with sales that could be completed before a June deadline, could mean an additional 300,000 transactions escaped the tax, at a cost of £1.75bn to the Treasury.
In recent months the tax break seems to have led to a boom in transactions and prices, with official figures showing prices climbed by 8.5% in 2020.

The credit referencing agency Experian said there were 12% more applications in February than in the same period last year, even though the chance of completing before the March deadline is low.
Lisa Fretwell, Experian’s managing director of data services, said: “Extending the deadline will help ensure these people get their deals over the line and provide a welcome boost for the mortgage market.”
However some in the industry have said that the chancellor will just delay the inevitable “cliff edge” if he simply extends the holiday, and that a new hard deadline would mean buyers continuing to attempt to complete ate all costs.
Hedley Adcock, a director of property law firm Adcocks Solicitors, said buyers were “taking high-risk strategies to speed up the process”, such as skipping property searches and valuations.
“If an extension is announced next week, it is essential that a tapering-off period is also granted, such as a paperwork deadline,” he said.
“In other words, buyers who have either exchanged contracts but not completed, or those who can demonstrate they have started a transaction before the deadline and have incurred solicitor costs, for example.”
He added: “Our worry is that if the deadline is simply extended, we can expect to see buyers continue to take unnecessary risks to aid the moving process in a few months’ time.”

by adam

What will happen to house prices in 2021

It’s hard to believe now, but this time last year, all the talk was about how resilient the housing market had been in the face of Brexit uncertainty. And, with Boris Johnson’s election and his unexpected success in renegotiating terms with the EU, it all ended with a rising sense of optimism. Commentators were even promising ‘a far brighter, smoother year in 2020’. Little did they know.

By January, the market was beginning to feel the effects of the much anticipated ‘Boris Bounce’. Rightmove reported asking prices had risen by 2.3%, their biggest ever rise for the month. In February, asking prices rose again, this time by 0.8% and, according to Rightmove’s Miles Shipside:

“Owners coming to market this spring face their best selling prospects for several years.”

Even London’s market, which had been lagging behind the rest of the country, was showing signs of improvement. In February, prices in inner London rose by 3.5% and by 3.1% annually.

And then in March we had lockdown and house sales fell off a cliff. In an effort to prevent the market from crashing, the government slashed the base rate to 0.1% and introduced mortgage holidays for cash-strapped homeowners. Even so, many were predicting house prices could fall by as much as 15%.

Unable to buy or sell, the housing market was forced to tread water until May, when it unexpectedly reopened. After months of being confined to our homes, many were desperate for some extra space, especially those living in flats. With the weather improving, we also wanted gardens and easy access to open spaces.

All that pent-up demand meant, just two days after the reopening, there were 5.2 million visits to Rightmove’s property portal. It was a different story for first-time buyers, though. The crisis had made lenders wary of exposing themselves to those with smaller deposits and a huge number of high loan-to-value mortgages were withdrawn from the market. As a result, demand was far higher for houses than for starter flats, especially for those in less urban areas, as we sought refuge in the country.

In July the Stamp Duty holiday was announced and things really took off. Buyer inquiries rose by an astonishing 75% compared to July 2019. Activity didn’t even quieten down for Christmas. With delays in many parts of the sales process, buyers and sellers rushed to get deals tied up before the Stamp Duty holiday ends on 31st March 2021. In the midst of it all, our Brexit deal was finally signed off, although it no longer grabbed the headlines like it once did. By the time the year ended, prices were up by an impressive 7.3% (Nationwide).

So, what about 2021? After 2020, only the very brave would claim any real certainty, but the general consensus is that, despite the latest lockdown, the rush to beat the Stamp Duty will keep agents busy until the end of March. New sales activity, however, may be reduced from February, as deals agreed beyond January would be very unlikely to make the cut. As has happened with previous changes to Stamp Duty, there is then likely to be a significant lull.

What comes next is not yet clear but, by late spring, large numbers of people will have been vaccinated, which should bring about a feel-good factor. If we then see a rapid economic recovery then house prices will rise with it. If, on the other hand, the economy fails to recover quickly enough or unemployment rises more than expected, prices could come down. The uncertainty means experts’ predictions for 2021 are even more wide-ranging than usual, varying from -5% to +4%. Even if the most pessimistic of predictions came true (-5%), it would still not wipe off the spectacular and unexpected gains made in 2020.

2020: The facts

Nationwide: Dec 19 to Dec 20: National £230,920 +7.3%. London £486,562 +6.2%
Halifax: Dec 19 to Dec 20: National £253,374 +6.0%.
Land registry: Oct 19 to Oct 20: National £245,443 +5.4%. London £490,936 +3.9%
Hometrack: Nov 19 to Nov 20: Top 20 cities £259,900 +3.5%. London £485,100 +2.8%
Rightmove: Dec 19 to Dec 20: National £319,945 +6.6%. London £620,986 +3.5% (asking prices).

The predictions:

Please note – where possible, comparative figures for 2020 are from the commentator’s own indices.

Nationwide
Nationwide’s indices recorded growth of 7.3% in 2020. Last year, they predicted prices would remain flat. This time around, they haven’t given a precise figure but say:

”The outlook remains highly uncertain. Much will depend on how the pandemic and the measures to contain it evolve as well as the efficacy of policy measures implemented to limit the damage to the wider economy.”

Halifax
Halifax didn’t give an exact figure for 2020 but expected prices and transaction volumes to rise. In the event, they did, but – but by an unexpectedly high margin – 6%. This year, with unemployment likely to be on the increase, they expect prices to fall between 2% to 5%

Hometrack
They were one of the few to get things just about spot on with their prediction of +3% against a final figure of 2.8%. This year, they expect house price growth to slow to +1%

Rightmove
Rightmove are another who underestimated growth in 2020. Their 2% prediction was some way below the 3.5% reality. They are one of the more optimistic about 2021, forecasting growth of 4%, with housing remaining a priority on people’s life agendas.

RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors)
RICS predicted prices would rise by 2% in 2020, which was some way short of the average 6%-7% reported by the larger lenders. They are yet to make a prediction for 2021.

ARLA Propertymark (National Association of Estate Agents)
Last year, more than a quarter of member agents (28 %) were expecting house prices to fall against 56% who expect them to remain the same. Only 25% got it right, expecting prices to rise. They have yet to make their predictions for 2021

A selection of other predictions
CEBR expects house prices to fall by 3% in 2021
EYITEM expects a fall of 5%
Capital Economics is also predicting a fall of 5%

by adam

What will happen to the rental market in 2021?

At the start of 2020, supplies of rental property were plunging and rents were rising. In January, Homelet’s Rental Index showed average rents were up by 2.3% and by 4.4% in London. Despite a raft of upcoming tax and legislative changes, landlords’ confidence remained surprisingly high - 25% were expecting rents to increase, and 32% were expecting property prices to rise (source: Paragon Mortgages). Then, just as with the sales market, March came and everything ground to a halt. Afraid of mass evictions and tenant hardship, the government allowed tenants to take a three month rental holiday and banned evictions.

Pent up demand ensured there was plenty of activity when the market re-opened in May, although COVID restrictions made viewings more complicated than previously. Just like the sales market, demand for inner city properties was markedly lower than for other areas, with tenants searching for more open spaces, resulting in a market that was operating at two different speeds.

As we moved into summer, landlords, unable to evict tenants, were becoming increasingly concerned about tenants’ arrears, although rents continued to rise - up by 2.1% between July and August. In the autumn, there was a brief window of opportunity for landlords to evict problem tenants, but with such large backlogs, only the most serious cases were heard. The extension of the furlough scheme until April 2021 did offer some comfort, providing vital financial support for both companies and their employees.

By the time the year ended, rents had risen by 2.7% across the country but had fallen by 4.5% in London. The average rent (excluding London) is now £838 and £1,556 in the capital (source: Homelet).

Commenting on the outlook for 2021, Andy Halstead, chief executive at HomeLet & Let Alliance, said:

“Whilst overarching optimism remains strong for 2021, with vaccines being rolled out for COVID, we can still expect a year that will be disrupted by the impact of the virus. With the new national lockdown and the prospect of additional restrictions to help curb the impact of the virus and new variants, we can expect the demand for certain property types and locations to grow, pushing rents up further.”

Our eventual return to commuting may also lead to increased demand for properties in city centres, especially if, as expected, the cost of commuting rises substantially as transport companies try to make up for their substantial losses.

As ever, there are some legislative changes to watch out for this year - electrical safety tests will be required for all existing tenanted properties by April 1st, although, the government is being lobbied to extend the deadline for another 12 months. The eviction ban has just been extended for another 6 weeks and may well be extended again. And, finally, the Right to Rent checks on EU citizens will change from 30th June 2021 to take into account the new Points Based Immigration System.

by adam