Whilst January will always take a while to crank back into life, the Spring market is generally a good barometer for the year ahead for estate agents.

In recent months we have witnessed first hand record breaking levels of activity in our Sales office at Farrar.
The quarter February-April this year, represents the busiest three month period for the number of agreed sales in our 38 year history (19, 21 and 20 respectively). Similarly, the cumulative total value of our current agreed sales equate to the largest under offer pipeline since records began.

The relative dearth of new properties to market in Chelsea and South Kensington compared to the endless cycle of new and committed buyers means we’re continuously going to best/final (sealed) bids on properties that are, in some cases, on the market for no more than a few days let alone a few weeks.

Two weeks ago we were co-instructed alongside 2 other agents on a first floor unmodernised flat in Edith Grove SW10; a hype of activity and dozens of viewings (by each agent) over a 2 week period has culminated in a sealed bid comprising in 30 offers (!!) and a sale price being agreed substantially in excess of asking. Just two days later we conducted similar best/final offers on behalf of our client based overseas on a 2 bed, top floor flat in Drayton Gardens that received a dozen offers in as many days of marketing and was agreed to the highest bidder in return for a fixed period of exclusivity.

Frustrating as it is for buyers, these are not one-off cases. In the first quarter of this year we’ve conducted similar bidding processes on a first floor on Redcliffe Gardens, a probate sale in Gledhow Gardens, a modernised 1 bed in Callow Street, a portered block in Elm Park Gardens, an upper maisonette on Ifield Road, a 3rd floor lateral in Barkston Gardens as well as a six bed house in Milner Street. Another property, a 2 bed garden flat in Brechin Place that has been on the market since the start of the year has, just last week, been agreed for in excess of the asking price as a consequence of two parties going head to head to secure it. Foreign investors and first time buyers with parents assisting continue to dominate the pool of buyers in Chelsea.

Recent activity would indicate we should expect much of the same for now but with another bank holiday looming on the horizon we may witness a comparative respite from what otherwise is a frantic time for purchasers committed to securing a new home in the Spring.

WOW what a difference a couple of weeks can make! In the last fortnight we have conducted 5 sales in excess of the asking price, all within a week of coming to the market!
Of those there was a top floor flat in Harrington Gardens, a lower ground floor 2 bedroom flat in Courtfield Gardens, agreed in access of the asking price of £1,595,000, and a couple of flats in Redcliffe Gardens, both achieving new sales records for this very sought after and busy Chelsea Street. The market seems to be...

PILE EM HIGH, SELL EM CHEAP. This was the motto of Tesco founder Jack Cohen when he started out as an enterprising retailer in London’s East End over 90 years ago. Tesco is now the second most profitable retailer in the world. So does his motto work for residential property management? Not for the leaseholder.

Thankfully, Resident Management Companies (RMCs), who are the hardest to please, are starting to accept the advantages that paying decent fees brings.

As the residential property...

January has always been the bellwether for the first half of the year in our business, and I read last week in the Evening Standard and I quote:

“More than £600 million worth of flats and townhouses ranging from £343,000 for a studio to £6 million for a penthouse have been sold at Battersea Power Station in a four-day stampede. Three quarters of the initial phase of 800 properties at the project called Circus West were snapped up at what is thought to be the fastest selling property...

Happy New Year to you all! We start 2013 on a serious high having been awarded the Gold Medal in the National Estate Agents Award 2012 announced in December. As the estate agents version of the Olympics, this was a huge honour and a reflection of our continued pursuit of excellence. The judge's comment was as follows:

'Based in an extremely competitive and high-end location, this exceptional niche agency understands its customers’ requirements and more than holds its own against the other...

The Lettings market in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has, on the whole, performed well once again this year but a current theme has been a lack of available properties for prospective tenants. This has lead to an increase in those tenants who are already renting within the area quite simply staying put, and renewing their tenancies. This of course has both positive and negative points for all parties, with the tenants benefiting from the security that a long let offers, and no...

Christmas is fast approaching as is the usual uncertain property market – is December or January going to be the busiest month?

With presents to buy, houses to decorate, children to look after and family coming to stay (and in need of entertaining!), in our experience, families tend to avoid moving at this time of year and will wait until the decorations (and the extra family!) have been removed and the children back at school until starting a property search. The singles/couples...

The leaves have fallen from the trees and the sun seems to set just after lunch – a sure sign that winter is very nearly here and the Christmas market is hot on its’ heels.

The run up to the holidays is providing us with an unpredictable market: frantically busy one minute and then quiet the next – people coming into the office invariably ask “how is the market?” and at the moment it is difficult to give a conclusive answer. Generally the enquiries for properties over £1,000 a week, have...

Recent data from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) shows the number of new tenancies being signed has dropped year on year.

As our seasoned Landlords will know, the end of the summer is traditionally our busiest time of the year for the volume of new tenancies commencing. A contributing factor to this usually busy time is the start of graduate job programmes in August and September.

This is in contrast to the number of transactions completed with sales offices...

What with the abysmal weather this summer coupled with Wimbledon and the Olympics keeping everyone rooted to their TV sets, it has not been the best time for home owners to try and sell their houses in Chelsea and South Kensington in a rather unstable market. So, now that summer has passed, what’s the best approach to sell your house during the autumn months?

1. Choose the right Estate Agent.
Get in touch with at least three estate agents and ask them to value your home. Ask them to show...

Outside of the truly exclusive areas such as Belgravia, Chelsea must rank as one of the top addresses both in London and the UK. The properties in this area are extremely desirable and the area is stocked with the well-heeled, the rich and occasionally the famous.

The huge range of property available in the Chelsea area is mostly unified by the one fact that it all costs a great deal. There is, however, still some council property here - the world famous World's End estate. But properties...

What a summer!!

The 2012 Olympics was a huge success which started with the amazing opening ceremony which showed everyone that we can create something unique and totally different from any other opening ceremony before which I think has set the bar very high for Rio 2016.

London was presented to the world in a very dramatic and wonderful way with all the events being held in specific locations with beautiful backdrops like Horse Guards Parade, Lord's Cricket Ground, Earls Court...

As would be expected, the summer months have precipitated a fairly dramatic slowdown in activity whilst our clients and prospective purchasers alike, take time out to sun themselves in warmer parts of the world.

Activity in this part of Chelsea, is nearly always cyclical and it will come as no surprise that the July and August ‘school holiday months’ will usually represent one of the quietest periods of the year. Having said this, our flat and house sales departments at Farrar have been...

As you read this I will hopefully be sunning myself on a beach whilst enjoying a well earned holiday with my family. However, as it is, I am typing this, before I leave, in similar weather on “The Beach” in Chelsea. While the weather and the name are currently the same, the location could not be more different.

Here, instead of parasols we have Prada, instead of flip-flops we have Ferraris and instead of banana boats we have “Eclipse”, Roman Abramovich’s $1billion yacht -soon to make an...

Well, its official, July is upon us and the seasonal slowdown has begun in Chelsea.

At this time of year, I often find myself begrudging my perennial lack of holiday planning, whilst most of my colleagues regale me with stories of their overseas adventures during the sure-fire lull in our otherwise busy year.

‘The Beach’ continues to attract a range of bronzed ‘café’ dwelling itinerants, but focus on purchasing property along the ‘golden mile’ of Chelsea becomes secondary to the...

As the euro zone lurches from crisis to crisis and Greece teeters on the brink of default and exit from the euro, the number of wealthy European property buyers in London has surged. Greeks, Italians, Spaniards and even the French are desperate to convert their euros into bricks and mortar in the Capital.

London has always been popular for its liberal legal and tax regimes. Continued interest from Middle Eastern and Asian, in particular Chinese, investors in central London is also pushing...

We are often asked what areas we cover at Farrar & Co. We specialise in the main part in the The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, but we have also enjoyed some considerable success further afield. For example, we have just sold a beautiful family house in Wandon Road, SW6, one of Fulham’s premier streets for a record price. We are marketing a glorious family house south of the river in Clapham, SW4 on Lessar Avenue, moments from the Common, Abbeville Road and with tube links into The...

While the rest of Europe is under a cloud of economic doom and gloom, we are casting aside all our worries for the moment, in anticipation of the Diamond Jubilee which is about to get into full swing. The mood is buoyant and London is filling up with people from all over the globe preparing to join the party! Well known roads in the Royal Borough are starting to get dressed up for the occasion and there seems to be a real buzz in the air for what should be a brilliant bank holiday weekend. ...

When the exciting news was announced that London was to host the 2012 Olympic Games I think many home owners rubbed their hands together at the prospect of renting out their homes for huge rents during the Olympic period.

Since the beginning of the year we have had an enormous amount of enquiries from potential Landlords in the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea looking to cash in on the Olympic letting market whilst they escape London to one of their country (or European) homes. Some...

It is evident to see that the summer months are on their way, what with the Diamond Jubilee and the exciting 2012 Olympic Games closing in on us. I can imagine that it is going to be a fun and busy time for London with many visitors taking advantage of staying in the area. As a keen viewer of major cycling events, I am thrilled to hear that the Men and Women’s road cycle races are passing through passing between our Sales and Lettings offices on the Fulham Road, on the weekend of 28th/29th...

A recent report by ARLA (Association of Residential Letting Agents) suggested that there was a decline in the number of properties coming onto the rental market because they can't be sold, suggesting that the initial boom in 'reluctant landlords' joining the Private Rented Sector (PRS) is coming to an end.

Clearly this is a national picture and not quite what we are experiencing here in Kensington & Chelsea. We are finding more and more vendors who are not achieving a sale as quickly (or...

Our recent sales indicate that the crucial numbers of buyers in Kensington and Chelsea are our overseas friends. Chelsea is one of the most fashionable districts in London and international buyers are flocking from every corner of the globe to buy a little piece of London, be it a charming period house in Chelsea Park Gardens SW3, or a triplex with direct garden access in Onslow Gardens, SW7.

All areas of Kensington and Chelsea seem to appeal. From the easy commutability of South...

How will the Earls Court Exhibition Centre Redevelopment impact on the Kensington & Chelsea property market?

Earls Court has always been considered by the general buying public as the poor relation to other areas of the Royal Borough.

However, while it is true to say that the cheaper prices of some streets in this postcode reflect a less desirable impression than other, more glamorous, trendy or historically well known areas of Kensington and Chelsea, the majority of this area very...

The hustle and bustle of some of Kensington and Chelsea’s busier thoroughfares are not always the primary choice of buyers seeking to purchase a home in the Royal Borough.
However, in these belt-tightening days, there are many compelling reasons why you might want to seriously consider a flat or family home on one of the Royal Borough’s busier streets. For one simple reason alone; it will cost you significantly less!

Many prospective purchasers change their minds and will adapt their...

The start of a new financial year is upon us again, so I would have to ask the age old question of ‘What is in store for the market this year?!’

This is never an easy question to answer and I think that most of our predictions over the last two years have been surprisingly surpassed given where the market was back in 2009. This just reinforces the belief that the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is one of the best places in the world to invest in property due to it outperforming...

Well, spring has sprung and so seemingly has the market. We are busy, taking on some amazing properties and registering some really motivated buyers. This is historically THE time to sell and despite Mr Osbornes' attempts to quell the market and bash the rich, the Central London property market continues to motor on.

We have just taken on a sublime first floor flat in Tregunter Road that has been renovated to an extremely high standard and is bathed in natural light - its a peach of...

Not me I hear you say. Well dream on, it will. Although the new rate is only applicable to sales over £2.0 million the effect will reverberate through the housing market. In addition to this, any properties brought through a company will be taxed at 15%!!

This is a tax that unfairly penalises London. £2.0 million plus properties are heavily skewed to London and the South East. These two regions accounted for 81% of sales of £1 million plus property in England and Wales in the period from...

For many years, I have been asked this question when selling flats in Donovan Court. This fairly unassuming, art deco building houses many pieds à terre and is popular with rental investors, who favour the building’s centrally located position and immaculately kept common areas. It also happens to be a building with its own blue plaque, having been home between 1920 and 1958 to Rosalind Franklin—a pioneer in the study of molecular structures, including DNA. While this information itself might...

What an unusual month we are having. One day we are quiet, the next furiously busy. One week we agree nothing, the next we agree 10 properties. Us agents are always trying to make sense and justify quiet patches: "Oh its half term" "Half term runs for 2 weeks this term" etc etc etc. We are running around and achieving good results but there is seemingly no continuity to the trends, the City and the markets tend to have a 24 hour lag on activity for a busy or a quiet day. There I go again.
...

QR codes or to give them their full name Quick Response codes are a small barcode similar to the ones that we see everyday in supermarkets. They enable smart phone users to obtain more information about products or services and in our case, properties. QR codes are now more widely advertised in magazines, newspapers, billboards and any other places a company wishes to display them.

When you see a QR code (and they are popping up all over the place!) you simply take out your smart phone...

Those of us who drive into Chelsea from the outer environs of London spend the first 10 minutes of the day trudging through snow and scraping the ice from our cars. Once we get into Chelsea we have, each of us, observed that there is no snow; barely a snow flake or icicle to speak of! This is probably just as well, as most of our applicants would be less likely to venture out quite so eagerly to buy or rent a property if they had to deal with the snow and ice factor!

My own expertise is...

This is a common question that I am asked by Buyers and Sellers alike.

When a client is considering a sale of their flat/house, an important consideration in determining whether the moment is right to sell/buy a property will be based upon the future expectations of value. There will always be circumstances where a client is relocating abroad, has to sell to release capital for another investment or alternatively is either upsizing or downsizing. Determining the exact moment to place a...

Now I am not suggesting that someone would leave home with no intention of buying or renting a property only to find they return with a 4 bedroom house in their shopping bag, however I think in principal the same impulse is needed when finding a new home.

Knowing that a property needs to be presented at its best to generate the “impulse” to buy or rent, it’s always a shame when this presentation lets the property down. In most cases a small amount of decorating work, dressing of the...

Making the decision to rent your home can sometimes be a difficult one, especially when it’s been your family home that you feel attached to. Faced with the prospect of choosing an agent amongst the large choice of established estate agencies in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, could be an even harder one. It can be quite a daunting process when making your decision what with agents offering vastly reduced fees, making promises that your property will be rented within a week...

It was being widely reported by BBC News last week that the average rent fell by 0.8% in December compared with November, to £711 a month, with monthly rental falling for the first time in a year in London. The reasons for this dip were being attributed variously to renters feeling the shock of their Christmas shopping bills leading to more of them defaulting on their monthly payments at one extreme, and the annual seasonal dip that is consistently seen at the other.

Clearly, this is a...

I wonder? I am incredibly lucky to view, sell and acquire some of the finest properties in London. My department specialises in properties between £1,000,000 and £100,000,000 - this is huge range and it is important that one never becomes flippant about the numbers one is talking about (I once worked with an agent who used to be a ship broker and he told me not to think of the numbers involved - ships are a lot more expensive than houses and flats!).

At my tender age I would want a cool...

This is a question that estate agents are often asked.

In my opinion, the general rule for Chelsea is to do ‘all or nothing.’

While a quick lick of paint and some new, inexpensive carpets might shift your property in a buoyant market, the Chelsea clientele are generally used to paying a premium for more than a mediocre finish; even the untrained eye can invariably see past a basic touch up to procure a quick sale. If one chooses to do some work, it is certainly worth investing some...

If I had a pound for every time I have been asked this question over the last 24 years of being an estate agent, I would be a millionaire!

I always say the key to the answer is in the question- specifically in the word, ‘desirable’. This word conjures up different meanings to different people.

What do YOU truly want- do you desire the sort of flat that you would like to live in or do you desire a really good rental return.

Put another way; are you thinking of purchasing with your...

Background

For decades the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has been revered as ‘the’ place to buy in Central London for owner occupiers, investors and developers alike, but why?

There are a number of reasons for this which I will try and clarify in this blog but the appeal of the area is not just to UK residents but the world over which is why it hosts such a diverse community.

The city of London (Londinium in Latin) was established by the Romans around AD 43. It served as a...

1. You have a picture of Kirstie Alsop/Sarah Beaney/Phil Spencer/Kevin McCloud as your screen saver.
2. Your inbox has more emails from Estate Agents and property portals than your friends.
3. You are not only on first name terms with all your local estate agents, you are in fact, spending Christmas with one of them and have been invited to three of their Christmas office parties.
4. You spend more time talking to estate agents than your parents.
5. The only umbrellas you have are...

This is a particularly regular question that I am asked by many of our clients at this seasonally distracting time.

The pre-Christmas ‘Party Season’ in Kensington and Chelsea, offers a fair share of diversions to avid house hunters and sellers, blurring the resolve to move with the desire to socialise….understandable!

The conventional seasonal cyclicality that drives our flat and house market in South Kensington and Chelsea, has evidently detached itself, in a major way from...

I am delighted to confirm that on Monday evening, we were ‘Highly Commended’ in the News on the Block Property Management Awards in the category ‘London Property Management Company of the Year’. Our trophy is proudly displayed in our office. We know our application was strong and that is thanks for our clients, leaseholders and business partners – we really appreciate your support. We hope you in turn appreciate the dedication and hard work that our staff strive to achieve every day of the...

The volatility in the financial markets, Euro crisis and potential for a global meltdown only seem to help boost the prices of flats and houses in Kensington and Chelsea as investors continue to seek safe investment havens. Yesterday, we exchanged contracts on a flat in Penywern Road in Earls Court, SW5 at 8% over the asking price. We were instructed to act alongside a local agent to boost our client’s exposure to a more cosmopolitan applicant base. We were able to solicit four bids over the...

It has been a busy month. We have had sealed bids on 5 properties within the last 10 days: 1) An un-modernised townhouse on Seymour Walk at £2,500,000 2) A beautifully presented first floor flat in Redcliffe Square at £1,800,000 3) A great cottage in Billing Place SW10 at £1,275,000 4) An immaculate 2 bedroom first floor flat at £825,000 and 5) A perfect pied a terre in Gilston Road, Chelsea at £475,000. We have also acquired a flat in Cadogan Square for a client at over £3,100 per square...