West Hampstead Life

Category: Property

Foxtons starts process of moving into former post office

It’s been a persistent rumour ever since the post office announced it was moving from its site on West End Lane to St James’ Church. Now it looks like the rumour is true. Estate agent Foxtons – it of the ubiquitous green and yellow Minis – has applied to the council for a change of use for the post office site so it can open there.

Those who argue that West Hampstead already has a lot of estate agents might find it hard to come up with strong objections – taking over an empty site is always going to be an easier sell to the council. Objectors would have to hope that Camden considers the claim that “the occupation of the unit by Foxtons would contribute to the vitality and viability of the town centre” is nonsense and that instead another estate agent on a street that already has about a dozen instead contributes to the creeping homogenisation of the town centre and adds very little to what is already a crowded market.

The supporting documentation for the application can be found here, and is the most interesting read. The full application is here. Consultation runs until September 9th. If consent is given, expect Foxton’s “modern, café-style, open environment” to be appearing on West End Lane very soon.

August 20, 2014
Property News: Rental round-up

In January we conducted our first tenant survey, and discovered that 66% of tenants would prefer to rent through a letting agent than through a landlord directly. We thought it would be interesting to know what factors influence applicants when choosing agents to register with, so please select as many options from the poll that are applicable and we’ll let you know the results next month.

[yop_poll id=”3″]

Rental stock
Earlier this year we discussed how West Hampstead rents were suppressed due to reduced budgets and rising stock levels, as well as the surge in the residential sales market. Now in August we’ve seen the usual summer swelling of the applicant pool, which coupled with the current attractive rent levels has led to unprecedented demand for local stock.

Although demand is strong, we don’t expect a surge in rent prices anytime soon; rent rises will continue to be relatively modest as we progress towards autumn. This is because despite demand being strong, the market is still price and especially product sensitive.

Finance
On the mortgage front we’ve spoken to our landlords recently and discovered many are looking to change products. There’s a desire to move from current buy-to-let SVR’s to five-year fixed buy-to-let products, predominantly because rates are attractive and they want to lock rates in while they can in case interest rates increase.

Yields
One reader asked what the impact of a sudden boom of new flats in the area would be on rental prices/yields. As it stands I don’t expect there to be much of an impact as demand for property in the area is so strong. Yields are cyclical and even if they were to drop it wouldn’t disrupt the market. Buy-to-let in London is currently a self-regulating investment; when capital appreciation stagnates yields increase, and vice versa. Yield is a long-term investment vehicle and the only thing that will impact it is the price of purchase.

Rents
The HomeLet Property Rental Index highlights that average rental values in London were 9.4% higher in July 2014 when compared to last year, when average rents were £1,295pcm. Their North West London figures show that average rents in July 2014 are £1,739pcm, a rise of 11.3% on the average rent of £1,562pcm from July 2013.

Housing bubble
On a final note, John Mennis recently asked on Twitter what a “bubble” was. We did a little research and we can trace the first use of the word “bubble” in a market contenxt to the early 18th century, when it was used to describe what happens when ‘the price of assets temporarily rise above true values, only to burst and cause a sudden decline’. Before “bubble” became part of the discourse, “mania” was used to describe the same economic effect.

You’re not alone with your criticism of the word John; Peter Garder describes the word “bubble” as a ‘fuzzy word filled with import but lacking a solid definition’ in his book Famous First Bubbles: The Fundamentals of Early Manias. And that’s your history lesson over for the month!

Spencer Lawrence
Lettings Director
Paramount Properties
150 West End Lane
West Hampstead
020 7644 2314

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August 19, 2014
Property of the Month: August

This month’s property from Paramount is a one-bedroom apartment on Crediton Hill.

Crediton Hill, West Hampstead, NW6
£390 pw

A spacious one double bedroom apartment on the top floor of a Victorian property on Crediton Hill, one of West Hampstead’s premier roads. The flat has a bright reception room with working fireplace and a great view across London. The master bedroom and reception room have been furnished to a high standard. There is a luxury fitted kitchen and tiled bathroom.

The property is let and managed by Paramount, so tenants will benefit from a 24/7 management service.

Admin charge is £75+vat. Inventory is £85. There are no renewal fees if you decide to renew the tenancy.

Master bedroom * bathroom * reception room * kitchen * managed property

Paramount | 020 7644 2315
150 West End Lane London NW6 1SD | Email:
http://www.paramount-properties.co.uk/rent/search/details/1-bedroom-property-to-let-in-West-Hampstead-NW6-parrps-PAR020105

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August 12, 2014
West Hampstead’s housing bubble: Deflating not bursting

If the bubble were a balloon then it hasn’t so much burst as been untied and blown around the room deflating and losing all forward momentum and energy over the last few weeks.

All of the industry heavy-weights and recent press coverage are reporting falls in asking prices and buyer demand across London; West Hampstead is no different. Rightmove has reported asking prices in London now at a virtual standstill for June and July, although it says prices are up 14% year on year. Sequence reports a month on month fall in June of 14% for new applicants whilst a Hometrack survey of Estate Agents in July tells us that house price growth in London has slowed ‘dramatically’ and is the weakest in 18 months with agents finding it “hard to push prices in the face of weakened demand”.

The Hometrack findings seem alarmist and in my opinion, simply mark the end to ‘open day frenzy’, ghost gazumping (being forced to raise your offer due to the increasing market alone) and ‘sealed bids’, which is no bad thing. It feels like the market has stopped off at the service station whilst affordability and common sense catch up.

There is no doubt however that demand has fallen significantly over the last 2 months and the question most buyers and sellers are now asking themselves is whether this is a seasonal blip or a longer term trend. The reasons for the slowdown in demand have been well documented and speculated about over the last few months; stricter lending affordability stress testing for mortgage applications introduced from the MMR, the spectre and inevitability of rising interest rates, the strong pound making London property less attractive to overseas buyers, next years’ election getting closer, press speculation over the ‘London bubble’ and strategic rhetoric from Mark Carney. All of these factors have combined to alter buyer sentiment to a ‘wait and see’ view rather than the bun fight that epitomised recent months.

There is, however, one overriding factor driving the London market and that is the supply of property and land compared to the increasing population and long-term demand, which must mean that prices will continue to rise over the long term although hopefully in a more controlled and steady way. We are anticipating a quiet summer with little or no growth in asking prices followed by a return to a more normal market in September.

In an earlier Property News this year I wondered what tools Mr Carney had available to him other than interest rates to control the UK housing market. We now have our answer and they have been very effective and imaginative tools. If we have successfully avoided the ‘boom and bust’ of previous attempts it looks like the UK housing market could be in very good hands. All we need now is to sort out the planning system.

On a separate note, I noticed that soon after the last Property News ‘Build high or fiddle while Rome burns’ Camden Council has announced plans for a 14-storey tower block at the Liddell Road site. I was surprised at the amount of objection to this proposal. A much needed development that provides a school and one- and two-bed flats close to transport links at no cost to the taxpayer seems like a good idea for West Hampstead. Surely, it is only with the increase in supply of new homes that we can hope to make London affordable for future generations of key workers? Light industrial sites close to railways make ideal sites to build high with the least impact on surrounding conservation areas or green belt land further out.

Darryl Jenkins
Associate Director
Benham & Reeves
West Hampstead
020 7644 9300
Follow @BenhamReeves

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July 29, 2014
How affordable is “affordable housing”?
Providing affordable housing is becoming a hot topic in West Hampstead. This article first appeared as part of a longer piece on 156 West End Lane, but we thought it would be helpful to split it out. Exact definitions of affordable housing are more or less impossible – they simply don’t exist, that’s not how affordable housing works for obvious reasons (lots of people working in London could afford property elsewhere, for example). What follows is an attempt to clarify the term in the context of London and Camden and there’s some links to further reading.

What’s “affordable”?

Affordable housing should:
- meet the needs of households whose needs are not met by the market and who are eligible for affordable housing, and
- be provided at a cost they can afford, taking into account local household incomes and market housing costs, and
- be affordable to future households unless arrangements are in place for subsidies to be recycled into alternative affordable housing provision.
Three types of affordable housing

Social rented housing is primarily housing managed by local councils and housing associations. The cost of social rented housing is controlled by a national rent regime. Other affordable housing providers may manage social rented housing under the same rental arrangements. This is what most people think of as “council housing”.

Intermediate affordable housing costs more than social housing but less than equivalent market housing. Camden controls the cost of intermediate affordable housing taking into account market costs and the eligible income groups. The Mayor’s February 2011 review indicated that eligible households were those with incomes of less than £64,000 per year (gross). The draft replacement London Plan indicates that he intends to raise the eligible income to £74,000 per year for intermediate affordable homes with 2-bedrooms or more.

How does income covert into housing costs? At the moment, in London, intermediate affordable housing should cost no more than 3.5x the household income threshold to buy and no more than 40% of net household income including rent and service charges.

Most intermediate affordable housing in Camden has been provided by housing associations. Intermediate affordable housing can include a range of tenures such as: rented housing, shared-ownership housing (where occupiers buy a share and rent the remainder) and low cost homes for sale.

Affordable rented housing means rents up to 80% of market levels, although the individual housing associations that manage this sort of affordable housing set their levels. Clearly, 80% of market levels is still far too high for many people. The Valuation Office’s October 2013 data put the average monthly rent of a 3-bed house in Camden at £2,976, 80% of which would be £2,380 – well beyond the reach of many.

Affordable rent was introduced as the grant available for affordable housing development for 2011-15 was halved from its previous level. It allows social housing providers charge up to 80% of market levels, and use the increased rental income to support additional borrowing to compensate for reduced grant.

Housing associations operating in areas with high land and market rental values such as West Hampstead will often have to manage affordable housing developed as part of private developments rather than developing their own – as is happening at West Hampstead Square, for example.

The associations have to cover their costs, so in expensive areas, they may be forced to charge the maximum 80% level, even though that is still a high absolute amount.

What does it mean on the ground?

Camden has changed its affordable housing quota recently. It used to be 50% of floorspace in any development of more than 10 units had to be “affordable housing”. It’s now moved to a sliding scale so 50% of any development of more than 50 units must be affordable, 40% of developments of more than 40 units, and so on.

In terms of the split between the various types of affordable housing, this has changed to 60% social rented and 40% intermediate housing, down from 70/30. This is, says Camden, because it believes that just over half of Camden residents in need of affordable housing could afford intermediate housing.

Further reading

No-one would pretend this was a simple topic to understand, and with national, city and borough policies to take into account, it’s impossible to say “affordable housing = x thousand pounds”.

If you want to delve into more detail, then I suggest
Camden Housing Strategy 2011-16 , which is the most accessible document and sets out more of the context.
Camden’s Planning Guidance goes into more detail
The 2011 London Plan on housing explains the Mayor’s position
Camden Core Strategy CS6 (Housing) is the official policy document
July 23, 2014
Property of the Month: July

This month’s property from Benham & Reeves is a two-bedroom apartment with a garden on Mill Lane.

Mill Lane, West Hampstead, NW6
£600,000
Sole agent

A beautifully presented 2 double bedroom garden apartment forming part of a period building conveniently located on vibrant and up-coming Mill Lane. The property offers spacious and modern accommodation in ‘ready to move into’ condition. Of particular note, and unusual for this location and size of property, is a lovely south facing courtyard garden which can be accessed directly from either the master bedroom or reception/kitchen. Mill Lane provides easy access to the many transport links, cafes, restaurants and shops of West Hampstead. Early viewing is advised.

Master bedroom with en-suite bathroom * second bedroom * shower room * large reception room * kitchen * cellar * rear garden * private off-street parking for one car

West Hampstead Sales Office | 020 7644 9300
106 West End Lane London NW6 2LS | Email:
http://b-r.co.uk/property/details/100134294

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July 23, 2014
Property of the Month: June

This month’s property from Benham & Reeves is a two-bedroom apartment with a garden in Fawley Road.

Fawley Road, West Hampstead, NW6
£1,300,000
Joint agent

A stunning 2 bedroom garden apartment arranged over the raised ground floor of a period house on a quiet, treelined road only moments from the shops, restaurants and excellent transport links of West End Lane. Presented in excellent internal decorative condition, the flat has been lovingly refurbished using the finest materials and successfully blends modern interior design with original period features. The large reception room leads directly out to a paved area ideal for entertaining, which in turn leads to a generously sized rear garden mainly laid to lawn.

Private off street parking for one car adds convenience and further value to this ‘must see’ property.

Master bedroom With en suite bathroom * second bedroom * shower room * large reception room * kitchen * cellar * rear garden * private off-street parking for one car

West Hampstead Sales Office | 020 7644 9300
106 West End Lane London NW6 2LS | Email:
http://b-r.co.uk/property/details/300220261

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June 5, 2014
Property News: Rental Standard gives tenants confidence

Boris Johnson has recently launched London’s first rental standard, a ‘city-wide badge of accreditation’, to help Londoners rent with confidence and ensure landlords are complying with the law.

We’ve known for a long time that tenants in London want to rent property through an accredited Lettings agency (in our 2014 tenant survey 80% of respondents said they would rent only through an accredited agency) but with several industry bodies in operation there’s a need for a unified body.

The London Rental Standard will automatically allow members of the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), National Approved Lettings Scheme (NALS), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and UK Association of Letting Agents (UKALA) to receive their badge. By bringing together several landlord accreditation schemes, one badge will be awarded to all letting agents and landlords who meet the London Rental Standards, making it easier for tenants to identify transparent agents.

We often hear that London is a market in itself and this is true for lettings as well as sales. Currently more than 25% of London’s households live in rented properties, and that’s expected to increase to 40% over the next ten years. With that in mind, anything that makes renting in the capital safer has to be a step in the right direction.

By signing up to the London Rental Standard, lettings agents and landlords will agree to meet some ‘significant core commitments’, including transparent fees, better property conditions, better communication between landlords and tenants, improved response times for repairs and maintenance, and protected deposits.

In numbers
40% – expected London households living in rented homes by the mid-2020s
85% – landlords unaware of the core legislation that protects renters
61% – landlords with no professional management training
100,000 – target of London Rental Standard accredited letting agents and landlord by 2016

I think the London Rental Standard can only be seen as a real positive, and it’s a step towards regulating the entire lettings market. However there are a few unanswered questions that I’d like to see addressed, including what will happen to agencies that don’t comply. I’m also conscious that the London Rental Standard needs to raise awareness by continually pushing it in the press, so more consumers are aware of what they are doing.

Paramount is celebrating 25 years in West Hampstead this week, so I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of the lettings market when I joined the company in 1998. Back then there were no deposit schemes or EPCs, and rules and regulations weren’t the same as they are now. Lettings has come a long way and smartened its act up, and perhaps in a few years time a London Rental Standard accreditation will be as mandatory as a Gas Safety Certificate.

Spencer Lawrence
Lettings Director
Paramount Properties
150 West End Lane
West Hampstead
020 7644 2314

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June 3, 2014
Build high or fiddle while Rome burns?

In my last Property News article I extolled the virtues of a rising London property market and the benefits to the economy of foreign investment via the ‘multiplier effect’. Some of you may be surprised to learn that I’m not a capitalist at heart, but I suppose I was just getting fed up with all of the constant talk of housing bubbles and ‘where will it all end?’. It was more a case of: there’s very little any of us can to do change it, so it may be better to embrace the positive aspects of it. But is that true and what might be the long term consequences?

Clearly, opinion will be divided based on whether you are a property owner or not. But don’t we all have a responsibility to future generations to consider the very serious situation that London and the UK finds itself in? The harsh reality is that we are not building enough homes to satisfy the ever increasing population. A mixture of red tape planning bureaucracy and policy, NIMBYism and economic conditions mean that we have very little hope of making this any better without serious reform and a change of policy and attitude.

The Barker review highlighted the severity of the situation back in 2004, and the Department for Communities and Local Government now estimates that we need to build 232,000 new homes in the UK every year between now and 2033. At the moment, only 120,000 homes are being built each year. The Greater London Authority’s 2012 Round Projections of population growth for London shows an increase of 2 million residents between now and 2034. This doesn’t account for the changing way in which we now live; more single person dwellings or for our longer life expectancy.

The numbers don’t add up and it really cannot be any surprise that we have double digit growth in the London property market. What is more concerning is that we don’t seem to have any policies that are directly addressing this problem.

The last Labour government’s response to the Barker report was to introduce a regional level of planning under which each region had to file its own plan outlining policy for development within its region. By the time the coalition government came to power, very few of these regional plans had been filed and approved and the new government decided that these only created more red tape and that the answer to our planning problems was to decentralise planning policy by empowering local communities and increasing permitted development rights.

The grand plan is to let local residents decide on what’s best for the area and to free up buildings and sites for development by removing red tape. The regional tiers were promptly abolished and the Localism Act became law in 2011.

Nick Clegg declared that the Localism Act was “a move from big government to Big Society”. He went on to say “It marks the beginning of a power shift away from central government to the people, families and communities of Britain”. Great sound bites at a time when trust in government was at such a low point.

The Localism Act allows for the creation of Neighbourhood Development Forums (NDFs) which can formulate a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDPs) outlining policy for the designated area and identifying sites for development. The potential problem with such plans is that they must be approved by the local authority and also comply with the local authority’s planning policy and the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). In London, they also have to comply with the London Plan.

It seems to me that actually nothing is being decentralised, as all plans have to comply with central policy to be approved. In fact, West Hampstead’s NDP, which was one of the first, is still awaiting final approval from Camden.

Another worrying aspect of these plans is that they cannot actually veto any planning decisions, but they do present another layer of statutory planning guidelines that developers must adhere to and that objectors can cite in any attempts to delay or block proposals.

There will also be a concern in some areas that NDFs may not be representative of the whole community, although local authorities do require evidence that significant efforts have been made to address this before granting approval.

Preservation of the look and feel of our area is also a concern for those living within it. The rows of Victorian terraced houses in West Hampstead and the red brick properties and mansion blocks of South Hampstead are prized and protected assets of our area. But how can we balance the preservation of such areas with the need for building more homes? The Camden plan for West Hampstead says it “expects development in the growth areas to be predominantly housing and seeks to encourage high density development”. By contrast, the local NDP states

Recent development in the past decade has raised a number of concerns, particularly as the population of the area grows, more new homes are built and the population density of the area increases. For many residents the height of new buildings is a key issue. In an area largely made up of houses and buildings between 2 and 5 storeys high, new developments of six storeys or higher are likely to cause strong objections.

Such opposing views must be commonplace across most of London and highlight the difficulty of building enough new homes to satisfy demand whilst preserving the local environment and feel of a community.

West Hampstead has six potential sites identified for redevelopment and arguments over the height and size are likely to be ongoing with planners and the NDF for some time.

It is surely inevitable that we will have to give up on these principles of preserving the height of buildings in London. Sci-fi movies show a vision of future cities with buildings reaching into the clouds with a mix of social and private housing. If we want to provide future generations with affordable housing in London whilst protecting our countryside should we not be considering constructing these buildings now? Such projects would also ease the burden on transport infrastructure and improve the quality of life of key workers forced to move increasingly further out due to increased property prices. Other cities in the world have already accepted the inevitability of this.

The key objective of the NPPF is to achieve sustainable development. Sustainability means building that would not be detrimental to future generations. Isn’t it time we developed our planning policies to cope with these future demands rather than fiddling while Rome burns?

Darryl Jenkins
Associate Director
Benham & Reeves
West Hampstead
020 7644 9300
Follow @BenhamReeves

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May 9, 2014
Housing: What the parties say

Housing – we need more of it, and it needs to be affordable for more than the highest earners. Not too many people disagree on that. How and where we deliver that is a different story and one that can be written at both the national, city and local level. At the local level, councils are also of course responsible for allocating and maintaining council housing and housing services.

Labour‘s very first manifesto pledge is to build 6,000 new homes – including council homes. It won’t introduce fixed-term tenancies and 80% market rates as long as it has that power. During the current administration, Labour has been selling off assets to fund schools and housing. The most obvious examples locally are 156 West End Lane (the Travis Perkins building) and the Liddell Road industrial estate. The party pledges to ensure that “developments led by the council deliver 50% genuinely affordable housing” (50% by floorspace is the existing target for any development in the borough). It also pledges to continue its reforms of council leaseholder and tenant services.

The Conservatives pledge to make the council’s housing and repairs services more efficient. Specifically they will change how maintenance and repairs are managed including using competitive tenders and reducing red tape. They will sell the freeholds of street properties that have more than 50% leaseholders and encourage right-to-buy. The manifesto makes no mention of additional or affordable housing.

The Liberal Democrats say they will take a proactive approach to creating new social housing, taking advantage of central government schemes and using planning powers to improve the borough’s housing mix and provide homes for young people at a price they can afford. They also want to give council tenants and residents associations a more active role in the delivery of repair and maintenance services.

The Green Party says it would “pioneer innovative models of housing, such a co-housing where individual units share facilities and social space” to keep housing affordable. Such housing would be a priority for new developments on council land. It would also create a register of good landlords to incentivse high standards.

UKIP, which doesn’t have a Camden manifesto but a generic local election one, says it will oppose the bedroom tax but provide incentives to re-use empty homes and that new housing should be directed to brownfield sites. It argues that ending “open-door immigration” would reduce the pressure on housing.

The TUSC, standing in West Hampstead, says it would prioritise the building of social housing including sheltered and accessible housing. It would also push for proper maintenance of current council housing stock by selecting a company that is sensitive to occupant needs/desires and able to provide quality for money. It would also work with developers to build sympathetic private properties of various sizes and that include affordable housing. It wants a register of local landlords and proposes rent caps for private tenants .

WHL perpsective: your reaction to these is likely to depend on your own housing situation and on the sort of communities you want to live in. If you believe that mixed communities are stronger and more interesting places to live than homogenous places then consider that (re)developments in all our wards should seek to improve the socio-economic mix. If you’re a council tenant then the issue may boil down to whether you think the current Labour administration has improved services to tenants or not.

Let us know your thoughts on the policies below and on what housing topics you think the parties should be concerned with.

May 6, 2014