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Some interesting news from Findaproperty.com again this month on the state of the rental market. Being found in sought after areas such as West Hampstead and Maida Vale, Greene and Co’s rental  threshhold  has held itself steady, but with properties flooding to the market more and more Landlords have had to accept lower rental offers. So, although the rental market remained fairly stable, prices dropped substantially just to secure a good tenant.

Director of Findaproperty.com Michael O Flynn comments: “The national rental market is looking much more healthy than it did six months ago. The clear out of stock is continuing in fairly dramatic fashion as the sales market improves and a seasonal surge in demand helps mop up excess supply, particularly at the lower end of the market.

“Consequently, rents are on a clear upward trend and long term buy-to-let landlords in London and the South East in particular have reason to feel optimistic that the market is making a sustained recovery.”

The stock of rental properties on the market dropped sharply in October (-10.2%) - the most significant monthly fall in the history of the index - bringing supply back to the level last seen almost a year ago.

Rents rose marginally (+0.1%) to £830 pcm in October - the sixth consecutive month of stable or rising prices - remaining 3.8% lower than a year ago.

Gross yields dip from 4.56% in October as rising house prices put pressure on rental returns

London and the South East lead the rental market recovery while the majority of regions suffer falling rental values

Could this be the start of some better news for landlords trying to rent their properties?

3rd - 6th December

Thursday 3rd: Late night shopping
with exclusive Crouch End card promotions and christmas gift advisors on hand

Saturday 5th: A christmas prize draw @ 4pm
outside Thorntons Budgens

Sunday 6th: Festive family day 11am - 4pm
Christmas carols with the Crouch End festival chorus, Santas grotto, story telling, angels and more…

The Greene & Co team of Estate Agents in Crouch End are very excited about all the fun stuff happening this Christmas in Crouch End. They might just stop buying and selling houses for half an hour to sit on Santa’s knee and share their wish list for this Christmas…let’s hope they’ve been good boys and girls this year!

Greene & Co. were delighted to receive the award.  Owner David Pollock said:  “This is recognition for the fantastic work carried out by every member of our team. Times have been tough in our industry and commitment to customer service and excellence are even more important to ensure clients can rely on us as the authority to guide them through the challenges we face and get the best results for them and us”. These awards are evidence that having integrity and being a caring local business that focuses on local causes increases profitability. I am delighted that our achievements have been recognised by such an eminent panel of judges backed by endorsed industry bodies.”

The Estate Agency Awards panel of judges noted some of their favourite initiatives at Greene & Co.:

Best London Medium Agency - Gold Award

Best UK Medium Agency – Silver Award                                                         

“Greene & Co. is an agency in a position of knowledge and authority of their local area meaning their customer loyalty is second to none”.

“Team member’s adhere to the ’12 Golden Rules’ of service standards”.

“An impressive focus on CSR and involvement in local causes and exceedingly high staff retention shows an agency that really values it’s team and in turn are hugely respected by its clients”.                       

Best Customer Service - Silver Award

“Greene & Co. deserves this award for their vision and undistilled commitment to everything that customer service stands for. Every client receives a personal letter from the MD following completion a nice touch is the concept of the ‘mother call’ to enquire if they’ve settled in well and need any further help”.

Success at the Estate Agency of the Year Awards is not easily come by. As the only awards judged by an independent panel of industry experts, each entrant is required to go through a two step process; submission of a written questionnaire is then followed by a telephone interview with a judge. The whole process is overseen by the Arbiter for the industry Peter Bolton King as well as being endorsed by industry bodies the National Association of Estate Agents and the Association of Residential Lettings Agents.

Peter Knight, Chairman of the event organisers Estate Agency Events was delighted with the industry’s response to the awards, “Please accept my heartfelt congratulations to you all for not keeping your doors open (testimony to your strong business and sheer hard work) but also for the fact that you’re all demonstrating high level of success and growth.”

“It’s never easy to get on the housing ladder but until the summer we had been seeing a gradual narrowing of the affordability gap. This has led to a definite pick-up in first time buyer activity as people have taken advantage of improved affordability and the stamp duty exemption on properties priced under £175,000. With prices now rising and affordability  tightening again it becomes even more important that the Government retain this beyond its end date of December 31st.” Michael Flynn, Director of FindaProperty.com offers his opinion on the findings.

Read the report in detail here.

The energy saving clock - a cool little feature on their website gives you some great little tips for helping the planet and yourself. Or why not have a look at Dave’s tip’s for saving a bit of dosh and keeping toasty this winter.

If you want to get involved or just want some more energy saving tips, have a look at their website…I promise you’ll be brimming with ideas after a few minutes on there!

Primelocation.com takes a look at the pros and cons of mansion block living, a little bit of history and some advise on buying one for yourself. Read the article on Mansion blocks here.

I found this great little article on the Energy Savings Trust website which offers all sorts of easy little tips to help you do your bit and save a few hard earnt pennies along the way, including:

Hold meetings online rather than in offices

If your company has several different office, think about using video conferencing facilities instead of sending staff to meet face to face. If your company can’t justify the expense of a packaged video conferencing suite, think about using the free Apple iChat or Microsoft Netmeeting web conferencing software. Your IT team (or an IT contractor) should be able to set it up easily.

What a brilliant tip - not only saves money on travel, but saves time too…something we’re all a bit short of.

Read the rest of the article here for more tips.