Simon Bradbury has been an estate agent for thirty years and works at Fine & Country, Cambridgeshire and is one of the leading lights in the UK property scene.

It’s arguable even from an estate agent, that prior to 2007 when the housing market turned houses very much sold themselves. But as agents and members of the public have adjusted their mind-set to the ‘new norm’, property professionals have had to adapt different strategies to secure a sale.

Here are two simple approaches that potential house sellers should look out for from an agent operating successfully in the current market place.

1. The three most important factors impacting a house sale are NOT location, location, location – the new adage is PRICE, PRICE, PRICE! Getting the asking price right the first time when it comes fresh to the market is absolutely crucial if sellers are to avoid damaging price reductions three months later.By implementing this strategy Fine & Country in my patch, Cambridgeshire, has agreed sales during April and May at an average of 98.4% of their asking prices – significantly above the national average and n  endorsement of a realistic and evidence based approach to valuations and asking prices.
2. Secondly, ensure your estate agent really knows the full profile of their hot buyers. Some agents may dazzle you with an impressive marketing plan which of course should include professional photography, a high quality brochure and a well thought out web strategy – but ask them to tell you the detail of their top 10 hot buyers. Not just their requirements for a house, number of bedrooms and price band but more. Namely:

• Why are they moving?
• What specific needs do they have?
• What really is the time period in which they must buy a home?

The answers to these questions always lead to a greater understanding on the part of an agent, which enables them to match people to property.

If you look for an agent that can offer these two strategies, your chances of success will increase greatly.

Nicola Burt is an interior designer and runs her own interior design company Finishing Touch which is based in London.

She also teaches KLC School of Design in Chelsea, London, and is a regular speaker and contributor to Ask An Expert at Grand Designs Live.

First things first. Before you start, ask you agent who they will contact for viewings. This will help you prepare your property for viewings.

First Impressions Matter  

In a tough market kerb appeal is key. There is no point in spending time or money on getting the inside of the property ready for viewings if people drive by without stopping because the outside isn’t very appealing.

Clear the path of rubbish and weeds, make sure the door handles are polished and the windows are clean. Hide the bins behind a screen and put a plant by the front door to make the property welcoming and inviting.

Light and Space

Light and space are key factors that appeal to every buyer and will influence them the most, so you need to try and maximise these two things.

Hallways

Are often dark and narrow but we can create the impression of light and space by placing one or more mirrors in the hallway. This reflects light and increases the illusion of space.

Don’t overload the coat hooks and make sure there is plenty of storage for shoes, umbrellas etc. Put the coats you don’t need upstairs and out of the way. This will give the impression that the property can cope with lots of people.

Once inside, let the viewer enter rooms ahead of you – the rooms will feel more spacious if you are behind instead of in front of them. It also shows you have nothing to hide!

Tidy Up

It might seem pretty basic, but tidy up before a viewing! Put the laundry away and do the washing up.

Storage

Be ruthless – clear away all unnecessary clutter to show the property has plenty of storage. If you have too much stuff put it into a storage facility temporarily while your home is on the market. Clever storage will also make a room appear bigger (see below).

Kitchens

Kitchens and bathrooms tend to sell a property. While the most reluctant DIY-er can cope with repainting a living room – which will look totally different with their own furniture in it anyway – installing a new kitchen or bathroom is a much bigger job.

It’s the old cliché of the kitchen being the heart of the home, so it needs to be presented at it’s best. The kitchen needs to be spotless, and that includes the inside of cupboards, ovens and fridges, as well as the outside. You don’t need to have every gadget you’ve ever owned out on display. If you have a nice coffee maker or toaster, leave it out on the worktop.

Aspirational gadgets are familiar and will make people feel that the property is right for them. They also sell the aspirational lifestyle.

Dining Rooms

If you have a dining room you use as a home office or for storage (for example) clear it out and dress the dining table for a party. If you don’t have posh dinner table cutlery, dress the table with a centrepiece such as a vase with flowers in it rather than leaving the table bare.

This gives the room a purpose and again sells the aspirational lifestyle. Never leave a room empty if you can help it. Empty rooms look smaller, as buyers cannot visualise the scale of furniture within the space, and dressing the room gives it a function.

Bathrooms

It goes without saying that bathrooms, like kitchens, should be spotlessly clean.

It doesn’t do any harm to get some nice new colourful towels, and put out some nice posh soap instead of the supermarket budget one. Tidy away the toothpaste and deodorant – we all know we have them, but we don’t need to see them!

Get a new shower curtain – a plain white one is really inexpensive, and there is nothing more off-putting than a (even slightly) mouldy shower curtain.

Dress for Success

If you don’t have, or want to spend a lot of money preparing your property, see to the remedial jobs first – fix the dripping tap, and fill in the cracks in the walls.

Then do some shopping. Replace tired flat cushions with new plump ones. Plump silky cushions, together with throws on sofas and beds, create the impression of comfort and luxury. They also add colour, and pull a room together.

Don’t forget, you can always take them with you.

Colour

Use colour effectively – keep large areas like walls, floors and ceilings neutral and use accessories and soft furnishings to add ‘pops’ of colour.

Paint

A fresh coat of paint gives the impression that the property is in good condition and has been well cared-for, and this will make potential buyers more likely to make an offer.

Lighting

Consider investing in some new table lamps for the bedroom or living room. There are many stylish, inexpensive options on the high street, and they can help to ‘finish’ a room (see below).

Garden

After kitchens and bathrooms, the garden can also help to sell a property. Remove any dead or wilting plants and weeds, and put out your garden furniture. On a nice day put some cushions on the furniture and put a pot of coffee on the table, to show how nice it can be to sit out there.

Budget

How much should you think about spending to get your home ready for sale?

Spend the minimum amount to make the maximum profit. There is no point in spending £20,000 if you only increase the value of your home by £10,000.

As a rough guide, if you are including large items like redecorating and new carpets, you should spend between 1 – 2% of the asking price.

And lastly . . .

Ensure your property is dressed and ready for presentation when the agent takes the photos for the website – not afterwards. This is the first place people will see inside your property and you want it to look its best.

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David Adams, managing director of Mayfair-based estate agents John Taylor turns his attention to the health of the London market and what the Greek crisis could mean for property prices at home and abroad.

Why are Central London property prices booming and will this continue?

House prices will continue to rise in central London in the first half of 2012.  There is an investment bubble growing with some unsustainable price rises occurring.  Last week in Mayfair someone who had had an offer accepted at£ 6.5 million was gazumped by an offer of £8.5 million.  So this increase must level out and may fall back if prices continue at the same rate for another year.

There are strong market forces sustaining this price growth.  At the heart of the market, there are too many international buyers and not enough properties to go around.

Why have prices increased?

1. Many of those who make their money trading in stocks and bonds tell me they are now wary of buying over valued stock levels, and so need to divest a percentage of their investment portfolio into bricks and mortar.

2. With interest rates destined to remain at record low levels until 2014 or 2016 it makes sense to buy property, which will also act as an inflation hedge

3.Property in London is a good currency hedge against the Euro.  If the Euro does devalue, or break up, money in pounds sterling in bricks and mortar (not the bank) is a good risk

4. Alternative safe havens against the Euro such as the Swiss franc and gold are horribly overvalued by historic comparison, whereas central London property is only just passing 2007 value levels

5.London presently has a lack of a wealth tax on property compared to many European countries, and while wealth taxes are very much a part of socialist ideology in the Liberal camp, no one believes that a Conservative led coalition would seek to damage London as a destination with such a fundamental change to the tax system.  Not during difficult economic times anyway;

6.Many see London property as a useful investment.

Why is the market outside London so different?

The market in central London is driven by international cash.  With the exception of some small enclaves of interest to international buyers such as Ascot, Sunningdale, the Wentworth Estate, and St Georges Hill, the rest of the English market is reliant on English buyers and their cash.

Sales volumes have been at record lows because there is limited cash and many banks do not what to lend buyers outside of areas of international interest, unless the buyer has substantial equity to offer.

What will happen to the property market if Greece defaults?

A Greek default is already built into the financial market and in my view this needs to occur to allow Greece to recover from a downward spiral.  The risk is whether a Greek default triggers another default elsewhere.

A Greek default would be good for Greeks who presently own London property!  If the new currency devalues by 50% the value of equity in property in London comparatively doubles.  It will instantly become a lot cheaper to buy property in Greece.  More importantly Greece’s tourism industry on which it depends should pick up because it will be cheaper for us to go there.  This should be good for their long term recovery.

What will happen to the property market in England if the Eurozone breaks up as a result of the Greek default triggering a larger sovereign default?

Following the Greek default the Eurozone should continue, but in recession or very low growth for many years.  Worst case scenario is is sovereign defaults, reissuing of currency, and bank failures across Europe, but this is highly unlikely.

Even if the Eurozone did break up, my French colleagues still see central London luxury property as a safe haven against devaluing new European currencies.

Where is the greatest capital gain to be made in property?

The greatest capital gain to be made in property is to buy property which is sought after by an international buyer (which restricts areas in England considerably) and in which the property can be converted to a higher and better use.  For example buying a commercial property at low commercial rates, and gaining planning to convert to residential.  Or buying a leasehold property with a very short lease and extending the lease.

There is little money to be made in refurbishing property without doing something else to increase value, unless you are at the multi million pound end of the market.

What should I do if I need to sell a property, and cant because it isn’t near London or in one of the small country enclaves sought by internationals?

You can convert your property to a higher and better use.  Are you able to add more bedrooms within the existing floor space?  Are you able to add land easily?  Can you extend the lease or gain the freehold?  If you can’t sell or improve, you could rent it out and move into a smaller property within the area that you need to move to.

Which other international markets offer the potential for good capital gain?

The French part of Switzerland, and particularly Geneva is a good bet.  Again the currency is separate from the Euro, as is the pound.  There is more demand for property than there is supply and Geneva is a sought after destination by international buyers because it is a safe haven with good access to other parts of Europe.

The Cote D ‘Azur is also a good bet. Properties with a sea view didn’t drop in price through the last recession.  Limited supply and worldwide demand also helps.

Monaco is also a good investment because there no more room there to build more property which means supply is limited. There is a lot of Eastern European money and non-domiciled English money pouring into property here which has helped Monaco achieve Europe’s highest prices per square foot.

For sale – an unfurnished home featuring a single, open plan room, large front door, few (if any) windows, no central heating or running water and a single light.

The property is not ideal for human habitation, but would be the perfect bolt hole for someone with a throaty voice who likes leather and drinks petrol.

Prime central London estate agency WA Ellis is asking suitable buyers to jump start offers at £525,000, a record asking price for a garage, says a partner at the firm, Robert Lewis. “It is very rare to get a freehold garage in Knightsbridge, so it is exceptionally valuable,” he says.

“We anticipate interest from those already living within a two-three minute walk of the garage, for example the large houses on Walton Place, where there is no off-street parking.”

The garage (pictured, above), which costs three times the national average house price, is on Rybrack Street, a few minutes’ work from Harrods, and measures 6.4 metres by 4.75 metres.

Such high prices for garages in London are surprising but not rare – demand is strong among wealthy homeowners for garages, this is because many of them own central London homes without off-street parking and, therefore, need somewhere to park their valuable cars.

At the moment there are only a handful of garages for sale in the capital’s central districts, including a garage and lock-up on Holland Park Terrace, close to Holland Park tube station, currently for sale at £250,000.

One cheaper alternative might be to buy a one-bedroom flat locally and then buy a bike – Foxtons has two one-bedders for sale locally at under £500,000.

As the recession bites and towns and villages are left to fend for themselves so a rash of name changing has broken out as some attempt to move upmarket and attract more prime visitors, residents and shops.

Most recent is Staines in Surrey, home town (most famously) to comedy character Ali G and which added ‘on-Thames’ top its name recently. And in a few weeks’ time the Oxfordshire town of Abingdon is following suit when it asks permission from its district council to adopt ‘on-Thames’ too.

Let's reflect on the river: Abingdon in Oxfordshire is trying to change its name

Others are further behind. Conservative MP Dan Byles, who represents North Warwickshire, is waging a largely failed campaign to have his constituency’s name altered to include ‘and Bedworth’ to reflect geographic (rather than political) reality.

And residents of a south Wales village, Sully in the Vale of Glamorgan, want to alter the recently created alternative Welsh version of their locale – Sili – because it sounds “silly”, a spokesman said.

Changing moniker is not a new trend, of course. A quick look at the names of Britain’s 44 cities, 928 towns and 4,520 villages reveals how often they have changed theirs over the decades, centuries and even millennia.

Many alter ‘organically’ as the English language develops (Swindon was once SwineDun meaning Pig Hill) but in more recent times places have changed their name more abruptly for a variety of reasons.

The London borough of Greenwich, which is now very Royal.

The most common is when monarchy comes knocking. Last month the London borough of Greenwich gained ‘Royal’ status, the first local authority to win the Queen’s approval in more than 85 years. And in October last year the Wiltshire town of Wootton Bassett, famed for its silent tributes to soldiers killed in war as they pass through its high street, was also renamed ‘Royal’.

Name changes can be controversial, too. A councillor in the village of Kenardington, Kent, got into trouble in 2009 when she asked for a thoroughfare to be changed from Church Road to ‘Lane’ to prevent confusion with an identically named road in a nearby (and similarly named) village. Locals, however, thought her proposal largely an attempt to make Kenardington sound (and look) more ‘middle class’ and to ‘boost property prices’.

And then there’s the ‘simples’ PR opportunity. Insurance website comparethemarket.com recently claimed to have persuaded Market Harborough in Leicestershire to change its name following a Facebook campaign. The town was known Meerkat Harborough for a day.

While the nation cracks at the foundations as rainfall continues to avoid our isle, so it has emerged that Maldon in Essex is Britain’s driest place to live. Something to consider if you like sprinkling it around.

This nugget of local information comes from a yearly survey conducted by lender the Halifax, arguably one of the best and yet most ignored pieces of research about the nation.

Maldon, Essex is Britain's driest place - one of many spots measured for their highs and lows by lender the Halifax.

The bank’s ‘Quality of Life’ survey is a fascinating peek each year at where you really should live but probably don’t. Or if you are lucky enough to have an address within its list of ‘top 50’ feted areas, it’s more likely to be by mistake than by design.

Because for years research has repeatedly shown that we reluctantly stray from familiar territory –  half of us move less than five miles from our original address. And only 14% of us move 100 miles or more.

Some of the measures that the Halifax holds up to each of our towns, cities or rural parishes are very worthy, including how large primary school classes are, quality of GCSE results, life expectancy and a population’s health, employment levels and earnings. Also, it marks where the cheapest property is to be found. It’s in Pendle, Lancashire.

Its other measures are more surprising . The place to move where  employments is highest? The Shetland Islands – so get your fishing gear out. The highest wages are in the Chilterns (at £857 a week) so get  your pin striped suit dry cleaned if you aim to move there.

But if you hate traffic jams then, as well as a sturdy removals van to consider, there’s also devolution. Lowest traffic flows in the UK (as it exists today) are in the Highlands, Argyll and Bute, Orkney as well as Shetland Islands and Dumfries and Galloway – home to Gretna Green, which nevertheless gets a bit busy on Saturdays.

The greenest place to park your environmental concern is either in East Cambridgeshire or South Derbyshire, where the per-person carbon dioxide output is two tonnes – which sounds like a lot of car exhaust to us.

Lastly, wandering lonely as a cloud – or more accurately as a Scot – is the joy of Western Isles inhabitants, where just 23 people live per square mile, compared to the capital of cheek by jowl, the borough of Thanet where 3,312 people live in each of its square miles.

Readers of the PrimeLocation.com Prime Blog are being offered a special deal to gain entry to this Spring’s Grand Designs Live Show at London’s Excel from 5th to 8th May.

As featured in press adverts running at the moment (see below), instead of paying up to £15 to get in on the day, you can get in for free. So you’ll enjoy the show’s seven different ‘shows within a show’ including Build, the UK’s largest self-build event. Others include colour coded areas covering kitchens, interiors, gardens, bathrooms, technology and village, the show’s eco-homes hub.

To claim your free weekday ticket to Grand Designs Live sponsored by Direct Line now, Quote ‘PL2012FW’ on the booking page at www.granddesignslive.com*

*Terms and conditions: tickets valid for one day only for standard admission between 8th and 11th May 2012 and are subject to limited availability on a first come, first served basis. Tickets must be booked in advance by 15/4/12. Tickets are print at home tickets and subject to a maximum of 2 tickets per household. Tickets are non-transferable and all tickets will be checked and verified on entry.

The horses are being prepared, the ground is good to firm and Liverpool’s Aintree Race Course is full with onlookers, betting folk and party goers as the 2012 Grand National fillies and geldings wait to begin.

That will be the scene this Saturday if you are one of the thousands clutching a betting slip at the course – or on the edge of your sofa – and if you win big then we have a house for sale ideal for the recently enriched equine enthusiast.

It’s in Bredons Norton, north of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire and has, as well as a small paddock and stables, a very strong and winning connection to the nation’s favourite horse race.

Because for the last eight years of its life chestnut gelding Royal Athlete (pictured, above), the horse that won the 1995 Grand National, lived after the property’s owners Mr and Mrs Chugg were given the horse after the race by his trainer, Jenny Pitman.

Royal Athlete was a favourite with the betting fraternity, but probably not with the bookies. Entered reluctantly by Pitman after the racing horse’s owners insisted he run, Royal Athlete attracted odds of 40-1 on the day – the 8^th April 1995 and the 145^th Grand National – mainly because he had fallen during an earlier race and was expected to be rested for the Scottish Grand National two weeks later.

When questioned by the BBC’s Des Lynam during a post-race interview Pitman revealed how she had tried to talk Royal Athlete’s owners out of entering him into the race, although it is assumed the £118,854 prize money she picked up helped soften the blow of being overruled.

A brass plaque (pictured) fixed to the front of the property’s stables commemorates Royal Athlete, which aged 12 won its most famous race by seven lengths ridden by 24-year-old Irishman, Jason Titley.

The property is for salt at £625,000 through Hamptons International’s Cheltenham office.

As the recession has tightened our finances most experts have assumed that Britain’s home owners would abandon expensive green ‘makeovers’.

The curious and most surprising effect of the financial crisis, though, has been to turn this assumption on its head.

Going green: a cottage in Cornwall with solar panels added.

Because it would appear that going green means, for millions of us, saving money.  A nice comparison would be washing up liquid. While during the boom times many ‘eco friendly’ washing up liquids flew off the shelves, today people are instead switching to cheaper, non-green alternatives but, instead, using them much more carefully.

And so it is with the rest of our homes. Recent research reveals that half of us are more concerned with energy efficiency  now than they were last year, mainly because it’s all about saving money.

And we have the global energy shortage to thank. Household energy bills rose by 21 per cent (or £221) in 2011 and so we’re all going green in a bid so claw back our cash.

So now we’re all running about switching off lights (87% of us), using energy efficient bults (85%), switching off appliances rather than leaving them on standby (76%), turning the heating off when we’re not in (70%) and wearing more clothes when we are (64%).

And to ram home the point the research, conducted by M&S Home Insurance, shows that 17% of those surveyed were real ‘greenies’ with the environment, rather than their pockets, in mind.

What this research really reveals is that, despite a monumental effort by governments, business (such as M&S which offers green home insurance) and organisations such as Greenpeace, the environmental cause is still only skin deep among many home owners.

This is obvious from the research results, which show that the quick-win money saving home upgrades are the most popular – loft insulation, double glazing – while the less obvious are not so popular, such as upgrading to energy efficient boilers and solar panels.

And green is old, too. Nearly 90% of 55 year olds are keen on green bulbs and turning off lights, compared to just half of 25-year-olds, somewhat contradicting the ‘young eco-warrior’ image the green movement has.

Confirmation has come in today’s budget that the government is to raise stamp duty for homes selling at over £2 million from 5% to 7%.

In an environment of government cost cutting but also tax revenue raising, Chancellor George Osborne still needs to ease the burden for the wider public to stimulate growth. And stamp duty is his political escape route. But how much will it raise?

Of the 610,000 or so recorded house sales in England last year just over 1,600 were for properties sold for £2m or more of which four out of five were in London, netting Mr Osborne approximately £360 million.

The higher rate will bring in another £250-400 million, taking the total tax take to the £600-800m million mark. This is small beer compared to the £110 billion that the government has overspent over the past year or so, but at least the number of £2 million-plus homes being sold is on the increase, providing Osborne with some hope.

Wildwood in Hampstead: For sale at £18.75m with agent Glentree International. The property could soon cost its buyer £1.31m in stamp duty.

In 2010 some 1,550 homes worth £2 million or more were sold, rising to £1,610 last year while the number of overall house purchases dropped over the same period, by 22,721 to 642,230 a year.

So it’s all down to politics. If Osborne really wanted to squeeze significant tax revenue out of the property market then increased stamp duty lower down the price bands would be more logical, although less popular.

Revenues on properties selling for between £250,000 and £1 million (3% and 4% duty respectively) account for 79% of the chancellor’s stamp duty revenue, research by lender the Halifax revealed recently. London and the South East also account for almost three quarters of all the tax’s revenue – so put the two together and you have basically the rump of the Conservative voter base, a group Mr Osborne wouldn’t want to upset.

But most experts think the extra duty is unlikely to inflict any long term damage on the prime property market.

“An additional stamp duty burden will freeze the market for at least three months, but eventually reality and acceptance would set in,” says James Geddes of Private Property Search. “Prices would also drop around the £2m mark as those currently advertising their homes for just over that drop their prices to slip their property under the stamp duty threshold.”

Miles Meacock of agent Strutt & Parker, says: “There will be a hiatus surrounding this daunting new tax bracket but that I think it will be highly unlikely our market will take a hammering.

“The London market is swelled by foreign investment, many of whom want to invest in Central London whatever the tax implications and with Italy’s comparable tax, for example, set at 10%, London should still seem a slightly less painful investment option.”