FACT FILE

Back in the 1980s, I used to write a regular property column for The Sunday Times. The article that attracted the most attention by far was entitled, “Beware False Prophets.” It was a warning to the public about how to avoid being caught out by estate agents who overvalue their property in order to gain…

The consolidation of the letting industry continues at a frenetic pace and hardly a week goes by now without a story of yet another independent agent being snapped up by a larger competitor. However, we are approached on a regular basis by people who want to retire but do not want to sell their business…

Everyone agrees that money laundering needs to be stamped out and the recent sanctions against Russia have drawn further attention to the problem. However, the current rules are cumbersome and inconvenient for customers to comply with. They are also expensive for companies to implement, and I am becoming increasingly doubtful about how effective they are…

The recent results achieved by Connells/Countrywide are nothing short of astonishing. They were of course helped by the impact of Covid and the stamp duty holiday but even after allowing for this, the improvement in the underlying results of the Countrywide business are way beyond anyone’s expectations. So, how did they achieve this? Let me…

A week is a long time in politics and a month is a very long time for a columnist. I can hardly believe that only last month I wrote a piece about how positive the outlook was for the housing market following Covid. Since then, dark clouds have returned with a vengeance. The war in…

Over the last few days, several events have caused me to think about the madness of our VAT regulations. The problems started when the builder who has done all the work in my private home for the last twenty-five years told me that he could not carry out the latest repairs for me because he…

Now that the Negotiator magazine is back in print again, I must write my monthly article a couple of weeks before it is published. This makes me a little nervous about covering fast-moving topics but this month I am going to make an exception because this article is too important to delay. After two years…

The recent problems at Purplebricks are a sharp reminder of how easy it is for letting agents to incur enormous fines for technical breaches of compliance rules. According to The Telegraph, Purplebricks could be facing costs of up to £30 million for mistakes made by their Letting Divisions which contributes less than 10% of their…

House prices go up and down all the time but usually the fluctuations are quite gentle. In most years, the change is just a few percent up or down. A boom such as we are having right now means a 10% rise and a crash such as the one that followed the 2008/2009 financial crisis…

After thirty-three years, Adam Walker has announced that he will not be running any more training courses. Commenting on his decision, Adam said, “Since 1987, over 150,000 people have attended my training courses. I have enjoyed running them enormously and I have met some wonderful people along the way. However, with great sadness, I have…