Greetings and news from Down Under

Well firstly let me say that I hope you all had a great Christmas and that you are all looking forward to a great New Year.

I am currently sitting here in my friends surburban house in Sydney Australia, well firstly sorry to say but it is about 26 degrees already and only 8.30 am. Am I missing the freezing temparatures of the UK..... No, im not.

My first day here was yesterday and although ive been here before some years ago I couldnt help but look in some of the estate agents windows. Now for those of you that have been, Sydney is as you know one of the best places in the world, and no where more does the saying 'location, location, location' exist more than it does here.

My friends house is down a pleasant road in a very nice part of Sydney, nothing special but equally nothing down beat. His house is 4 bedrooms and built into a hill, so the three bedrooms downstairs that are built into the hill make them feel a little dark and damp (well in the winter anyway) Its ojnly 20 years old and has no real cutting edge design. Pleasant is the word to describe it. It has an average sized garden and no pool (which I must have a word with my friend about. Oh and there is no garage and no view.

So why am I telling you all about this, well if I picked this house up and put it next to mine, it would sell for about 300k/350k sterling (there is no pound sign on the keyboard !!!) if I were to rent it out it would get about 1200 a month. So you can now get an idea about. Well if this came on the market today here, it would sell for $1.8M thats about 1.3M sterling. Yep I fell over too and rent, well they are renting it at a mere snip of 1000 pounds a week. A bargain.

So location is still the key (in the main) I am very lucky to be holidaying here and it is impossible to not look around and think what a beautiful place to live but unless my lottery ticket comes in, I think I will remain the frustrated visitor, sleeping in the spare room.

New Year Greetings

Well I just thought I'd take this opportunity to wish all of you and your families a very happy New Year. I am currently standing in comet at Heathrow airport playing on their Ipad.
While I am away Mark, Simon Kat and Josh will be looking after things so if you need anything at all just let them know.

So from a sunny Australia I will wish you a great New Year and to all of you who have supported us in 2010 we thank you.

Many many thanks Peter

We Think House Prices are set to rise in 2011

Yep, we think house prices will inch ahead in the next year. The Bank of England want things to start moving again and their commitment to keep the base rate at 0.5% demonstrates this.

So a small rise, hopefully in line with inflation will see house prices continue to slowly rise and according to the Centre of Economics and Business Research the market will 'really' start picking up in the following years with London leading the way again.

My view is bricks and mortar will always be a safe bet, maybe the days of making a fast buck are over but as always and with all the safest bets, it is a long term play. Just a shame the banks wont open the door to the wanna be players.

Think Competition - Win an Ipad

Only two days left to win an Ipad !!
All you need to do is answer the following question and email us your answer. Click on the link below and you could be the winner

Click here to enter the think competition

Good Luck

The Think Blog goes Live

Hi everyone, in this day and age we at Think property are aiming to keep you ahead of the game.
We are aiming to send out our regular 'think blog' highlighting changes in the property sector and market.

We want to make this as interactive as possible so please give us any feedback or even let us know if there is anything you feel we can do better.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading and receiving our future blogs and tweets and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Have a fantastic Christmas and onwards and upwards for 2011
Cheers Peter and Mark

SS9 Leigh Lettings Table

Only three months after opening Think Property are already second in the league table with number of rental properties available !!

If you want the most pro-active letting agent in Leigh to let your property then call us now on 01702 470625

Essex Countryside	22
Think Property	17
Scott & Stapleton	12
Turners	11
Town & Country	7
Ashleigh Stone	7
Home	5
Coluson James	5
Jubile	4
Abbots	4
Bairstows	1

Morning Landlords.

Professional house shares – a tenant’s view.

I consider myself to be something of an expert when it comes to living in house shares. Having lived in nice places, awful places, with great housemates and,
frankly, a few nightmare ones along the way, I’m pretty well versed when it comes to waiting in line for the toilet and cleaning up other peoples mess.  So if you’re going to let out your property as a house share, there are a few things that you’ll have to think about.

Yes, you can make more rent than you would out of letting it as a whole, but it can also cause you more trouble. Some people will treat a house share as their own and take good care of it, but many more will look at your room as a short term solution. They know that if it isn’t working out then they can move without too much hassle – there are plenty of other rooms to rent on the market. That doesn’t mean that they’ll trash the place, but it does mean that they’ll be less likely to carry out maintenance and sharing the cleaning chores can become more of a battle than a responsibility.

There are ways around this – many shared houses are given cleaning rotas and helped to divide up the household chores, but this can also put people off. Most people will pull their weight, but it’s independence that they want, not to be treated like a child. But if one of your tenants isn’t pulling their weight, eventually the others might see you as their last resort. It’s a fine line to walk as if one of the people in your house is causing problems, be it through not pulling their weight, excess mess or, in worse cases, bullying then you may be forced to take action against them. If you ignore a problem tenant, you could end up losing your good ones. For this reason, whenever I’ve looked for a room to rent, I’ve always considered the people living there to be as important, if not more, than the property itself.  You wouldn’t spend time with someone you didn’t like, so why would you want to live with them?

So my advice to a landlord wanting to keep the peace in their shared house would be to make sure that any prospective tenant has the opportunity to meet their future housemates before moving in. This gives them the chance to get to know each other beforehand and will make them feel more empowered about the house they live in, rather than only knowing that somebody is taking their spare room – ooh, I wonder what they’re like.

How would you deal with tenants in a shared house? Do cleaning rotas work for you and how do manage the balance in your shared property?

Are things still looking positive ?

Sales of properties worth £1 million and over have risen by 118 per cent in the past year, according to new figures from Halifax.

It was also found that London saw the biggest percentage increase in million pound sales and that the West Midlands, south-east and East Anglia also experienced a doubling of house prices.

Although sales over £1 million represent a tiny proportion of the British property market as a whole, shares of all sales have risen from 0.5 per cent in the first six months of 2009 to 0.9 per cent in the same period of 2010.

www.thinkpropertyuk.com

Big Day at Think Property _ Do you have insurance ??

There has been a 47 per cent increase in mortgages not covered by life insurance since January 2006, according to findings by Sainsbury's Finance.

This suggests that there are over 7.1 million people with an outstanding balance of £318 billion on their mortgage who have no life insurance that would cover it in the event of their death.

Recession is thought to be partly to blame for this, as people may be focusing more on their present finances than those of the future.

Lucy Hunter, Sainsbury's Life Insurance manager, explained why life insurance is still as important as ever.

"[Insurance] is particularly important for homeowners, who should take care not to overlook life insurance as it can help to ensure peace of mind that the property is paid for upon death, allowing loved ones to continue living in the family home, and it could also alleviate any financial burden, therefore providing financial security," she said.

This news comes after it was announced by Halifax that sales of properties worth over £1 million have more than doubled in the past year.