Zoomf News

GreenMoves, the eco homes for sale website, has announced that amongst their new properties for sale two of the homes belong to celebrities.

The first house belongs to Tommy Walsh of Groundforce fame. Walsh has just completed building his eco-friendly house on a £60,000 plot for building costs of £60,000 in 60 days! This Fenland District property has an innovative contemporary design and has many unusual features such as an air source pump heat pump system, upgraded double glazed windows and solar panels. This unique property is now on sale on www.greenmoves.com

The second home belongs to former Changing Rooms presenter Oliver Heath. He is selling his fully restored, low environmental impact, 2 bedroom house in Brighton. The house stunningly combines style with functionality and even has a flexible basement with a moveable wall.

Many Britons will be disappointed by the Bank of England’s decision to keep the base rate at 5.00%. The majority of the population in the UK have been feeling the effects of the credit crunch. Food, utilities and fuel costs have all risen. The burden of the negative economy is also being felt by the housing market.

Neil Chegwidden, Head of Residential Research at Jones Lang LaSalle, stated that the ”base rate decision will have minimal impact for the UK housing market. Despite all the gloom and the endless residential column inches, UK house prices have only declined by 0.5% a month in the first four months of 2008 – a drop of just 1.9% (according to the most reliable house price index, Nationwide). And whilst there are clear downside risks for the housing market, and most notably on transaction volumes, the fact that house prices have not fallen off a cliff during this period of intense negativity should tell us something about the resilience of house prices.”

Neil Chegwidden predicts that the UK mainstream prices will fall by 7-9% in 2008, with some quarterly price rises in 2009. This is good news for homeowners in areas such as Blackheath that have been experiencing house price falls of at least 3%.

The bi-annual report issued by the Bank of England, has warned homeowners that mortgage payments could rise by as much as £230 a month. Many borrowers whose fixed-rate mortgages expire this year are having to pay rates around 2.5% higher - the equivalent of £2,748 a year on an average £150,000 mortgage.

This means that many young homeowners with minimal deposits will inevitably be forced to resort to standard variable rates as lenders raise the cost of credit.

”UK banks have markedly tightened secured and unsecured credit availability to UK households and intend tightening it further over the next few months,” was the statement issued by the Bank of England.

For first time buyers and families with a low income that are planning to buy a house, the best option would be a small house in a decent area. Many buyers could find bargains in areas such as Raynes Park and Ealing.

UK’s leading property search engine, Zoomf.com, is a premier sponsor of the Round Britain (www.round-britain.co.uk). Round Britain is a 1600 mile cruise by Nick Craddock in his boat Reel Estate, departing from Brixham marina in May 2008 with a planned 23 ports of call over 8 weeks.

For Nick, an estate agent by profession, this trip will pose a special challenge as he is partly disabled as a result of a spinal trauma. He has embarked on this adventure to raise £10,000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and to fulfill his lifelong ambition of circling Britain in a boat.

Zoomf is appealing to other businesses to sponsor this cause. Sponsors will have the opportunity to participate in PR with the local media at each port to publicize Round Britain and the sponsor’s support.

Rod Dowler, Zoomf’s CEO, commented, “Zoomf is proud to be a Premier Sponsor of Round Britain and we will be cheering for Nick every mile of the trip. The RNLI is a great charity where volunteers risk their lives to save others, and Nick’s mission will help raise much needed funds for them”.

The big attraction of buy-to-let over the past few years has been that landlords could look to getting a steady capital appreciation of around 10% plus per year while rental income paid the mortgage. With property prices now steady or dropping, the proposition looks less attractive; unless rental income can be increased, possibly difficult in the current environment.

Some predict that investors will hang on to their portfolios. Analysts Capital Economics dispute that even though house prices might fall over the next few years, investors that purchased their properties prior or in 2002 will still be winners as their investment would have gone up by 50 percent.

The number of buy-to-let mortgage products has diminished, going from 3,600 in 2007 to just 600 in 2008. This makes it harder not only for new landlords to get a mortgage but for existing landlords to remortgage in order to get a better deal. New investors hoping to get into the buy to let market might find it more difficult to do so in the future as more and more high street lenders are joining are unwilling to offer products for this type of investment in the current property market.

Individuals are not the only ones suffering. UK’s biggest property investment club, Inside Track, has suspended its buy to let ‘Become a property millionaire’ seminars. Another big name company making cutbacks is Paragon. This buy to let mortgage lender had to axe nearly 100 jobs due to falling shares and the money market crisis.

Arming estate agents with online advertising tips to fight the house price fall was the aim of the April’s ‘Capturing online leads’ seminar, hosted by Zoomf.com.

Second in a series of 2008 seminars focusing on effective online advertising for agents, the event was moderated by Zoomf’s very own property blogger Poppy Dinsey. Guest speakers included Zoomf’s Mike Carter, prominent online classifieds expert, Duncan Dunlop from Oodle, and a guest speaker from Homeflow.

The speaker from Homeflow kicked off the event with an overview of the online advertising market. The presentation illustrated that property marketing spend continues to grow yet property price trends look bleak. Agents were advised to devise a specific marketing strategy and focus more of their advertising and budget spend on search engines rather than portals.

Duncan Dunlop provided the audience with a step by step guide to online classifieds sites such as Oodle. He explained Oodle’s revenue model where posting listings are free, consumers can pay for increased visibility and the ‘ad-sense’ Oodle provides for listings.

Mike Carter, Co-Founder of Zoomf, briefed the audience about Zoomf’s new advertising product-Zoomf Boost. He highlighted the importance of a pay for performance model and his advice to agents was to become aware of advertising models that are cost efficient, especially when compared to the costly subscription model used by property portals. By using Zoomf Boost, agents will be able to monitor where their money is going and will see the breakdown of the results.

Thus the key message to agents from the April seminar was to make every advertising £ count by targeting where advertising could help generate leads and the budget spend could be monitored and evaluated. Above all, the results of advertising should be measured and tactics adopted to get the best value for money.                                                    

According to the survey by property consultancy Hometrack, house prices have continued their decline in April. Prices fell 0.6% in April from March, the biggest decline since December 2006. Hometrack commented that estate agents had reported a minor increase in applicant numbers and sales agreed over February and March, but this did not continue through to April. This month saw a decrease in house sales and a decline in applicant numbers.

The Centre of Economic and Business Research have predicted a 23% rise in home repossessions this year. This is an increase in comparison to last year as repossessions will rise to 33,400 for the year.

Even Londoners are in for a slowdown of the property market as prices have decreased by 2.2% over the past 6 months. Those looking to rent instead of buying, can still find affordable options in areas such as Greenwich and Putney.

The number of house mortgages approved has fallen to a record low in March. A report by British Banker’s Association (BBA) shows that just 35,417 new mortgages were approved over March, the lowest number since it started collecting figures this way in September 1997.

When comparing mortgage approvals this year to the previous one, there is quite a substantial difference. Approvals for house purchases were 46% lower for March last year, and well below the previous six-month average of 44,879. The BBA’s figures showed a decline in the value of mortgages advanced in March, and a steep fall in the number of mortgages approved is set to have a further negative effect on this.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at Global Insight, said: “March’s BBA data indicate that mortgage activity is being pummeled by a toxic combination of stretched affordability and very tight lending conditions. The low level of mortgage activity is not only a consequence of slowing demand for houses due to the elevated affordability pressures facing potential house buyers, but also increasingly due to very tight credit conditions leading to markedly fewer and more expensive mortgages being available”.

Rooftop, the UK’s sub-prime lender, is closing down. Rooftop Mortgages is the specialist lender owned by Bear Sterns. Rooftop is a lender specialist in mortgages for borrowers who don’t fit a standard mortgage profile. Rooftop works with professional financial advisors.

Ginny Dorrow, Rooftop’s CEO, stated that due to deteriorating market conditions the company’s origination business has become unsustainable. She promised that Rooftop’s employees will be treated fairly and looked after in light of recent developments.

This does not bode well for first time buyers interested in applying for a mortgage. They might be forced to look into renting instead of buying a property. Areas such as Lewisham and Brixton could offer fair rent deals on two bedroomed properties.

In the current property market, few people can afford a small house, let alone a penthouse. Penthouses have always represented the ‘high life’ - the most extravagant, luxurious and exclusive lifestyle that few people can afford and that most desire. Here are a few interesting facts about penthouses:

• A penthouse is usually on the top floor, with fantastic views, terraces and balconies
• A penthouse will have high tech features such as security systems and touch pad electornic controls
• It will have a vast amount of space and is preferred by artists and designers
• Some penthouses will even have concierge services

Penthouses are very popular in the UK, especially in London. Canary Wharf and Docklands are amongst the most lucrative areas where to buy a penthouse. These areas offer panoramic views of the river and some even have their own heated swimming pools.