Andrew Scott Robertson, Chartered Surveyors & Estate Agents, Wimbledon

The law of supply and demand dealt the lettings market an unseen blow last year. Home owners who were unsuccessful in selling their properties offered them to the market to let instead. This dramatically increased the supply with the inevitable result that saw rent values fall in some cases by as much as 15%.

As we approach May the pick up in demand by potential purchasers to buy has given vendors new hope of selling their homes instead which has also helped stabilise the rental market Landlords with a superbly-presented product at the right?rent can get new tenants in quickly.

 

 

 

 

A Quinton Scott client offered a lovely house in the exclusive enclave of Lordell Place SW19 for ?5,500 pcm last month and it was let within a week.? This has secured ?99,000 of rental income for the initial term of the tenancy.? The house was only empty for a fortnight, just long enough for a deep clean and a bit of maintenance.? The new tenant is not from the financial sector, needless to say. He’s an oilman from Texas.

This is the fourth recent letting agreed to this petro chemical giant.

There is a branch of Barclay’s Bank opposite our office in Wimbledon High Street with a lovely statue over the front door. Dating from Victorian times, it shows the Spirit of Banking.

Ms Banking (her name is carved on the globe she is standing on) has a cash tray on her lap. A cherub representing savers pours money into it, and she doles out the cash to another cherub, representing entrepreneurs. A simple model ? she gets in money, and lends it out. When the cash tray is empty, lending stops. When it fills again, loans resume. No derivatives, no securitisation, no subprime or self-certified mortgages.

Let’s hope the G20’s new world order involves a return to the old, robust model.

We just love Google Street View. The cameras have created an incredibly rich panorama of London’s streetscape in unbelievable detail. They have even captured a group of? the horseriders that add so much colour and interest to the Wimbledon scene as they clipclop past our office from the stables to the Common.

Google Street View allows people thinking of moving to tour areas to identify places they might want to live, and it also gives them the power to look up and down the street round houses they see on estate agents’ websites. No more will over-enthusiastic agents be able to conceal the nearby electricity pylon or factory by carefully angling their photos ? and a good job too. It only generates bad feelings when they discover the truth only after a long journey to visit the property.