For this blog post, a property is the star. We recently took on something uniquely big, which is rather nice for an independent, non-chain estate agents. This was the valuation of a very big barn, perhaps the biggest in the United Kingdom, as this photo shows. The property is very atmospheric in this picture, looking like a picture taken (via i-phone) for an on location shoot for the Hound Of The Baskervilles, but it us a very impressive property.
I can't, therefore, resist the pun that if you're good enough, you're big enough. As the Edward Ashdale Estate Agent success story (and it is) continues, we are dealing with more and more high value properties. This is despite being in a very competitive and brisk market with longer established "high marque" players. However, we know success is about delivering an outstanding service that people appreciate and tell others about, and that is what we do. That is probably exactly how many of the high marque players started to succeed and grow as well, and they earned it. Whether they all managed to keep those levels of service once they're big is another question, but we aim to keep delivering to the same high standards we cherish - or better - however much bigger we grow.
Talking of the market, as I've said before, a number of factors affecting the residential market in an upward direction throughout London from Prime Central London to suburbs; foreign investment, mortgage lending constraints, a general shortage of property and in the suburbs the costs of moving e.g., stamp duty. This shows no sign of abating, and while the remarkably low levels of interest rates we are experiencing cannot be relived on indefinitely, those pressures are continuing to mean a bouyant market.
We look forward to more barnstorming successes in 2013-14. On a final note, congratulations to the Royal couple on the birth of their son, perhaps by my next blog post we'll know his name.
Sam Samuel, MNAEA CRLM, July 2013
