Property Tips

As part of the Barclays Private Bank monthly podcast, I discuss the latest and fast-changing trends in the property market also featuring the thoughts from Head of Savills research, Financial Times property journalist and Barclays Private Bank.

Property Trends and Forecasts

Full transcript below:

Whether you’re buying, selling, or investing in prime property, is now the right time? Are we headed for a downturn in prices? And which markets will remain the most resilient? Tune into Real Estate Realities, the new podcast series from Barclays Private Bank, where we give you the inside track on prime and super prime residential markets. We uncover the trends and the opportunities. As global events evolve, we analyse the data and ask the experts for their opinions and insights into what’s next for prime property.

Zoe Dare Hall (ZDH): Hello, and welcome to Real Estate Realities from Barclays Private Bank, the podcast series that gives the inside track on prime residential property through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic. I’m your host, property journalist Zoe Dare Hall and in this episode I’ll be asking the experts for their views on the UK prime markets beyond London. Joining me in our virtual studio are Lucian Cook, Director of Residential Research at Savills.

Lucian Cook (LC): Hi, Zoe, really nice to be here. I’m coming to you from our Winchester office, from the board room of our Winchester office today.

ZDH: Excellent, and joining us from his office in Harrogate is Independent Property Consultant, Alex Goldstein.

Alex Goldstein (AG): Great to be here, thank you, Zoe.

ZDH: And from Barclays Private Bank, we have Product and Proposition Director, Stephen Moroukian.

Stephen Moroukian (SM): Hi, Zoe, good to be here again.

ZDH: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us in what I’m sure will be an interesting discussion in very strange times. As far as I’m concerned, the past five months have passed by in a bit of blur of homeschooling, battles over that, and totally failing to secure any kind of holiday. But it feels like things are busy property-wise all around me, people are moving, moving home, lots them are leaving London for homes on the coast or in the countryside. Lucian, what has your experience been of things in recent weeks and months?

LC: Yes, well, I just started venturing back up to London a couple of days a week and I think that is, you know, that’s probably the most interesting thing to get your head around, doing the commute again, and, and I have to say, like I think like a lot of other people, we’ve all slightly reassessed our work-life balance over the last few months and that commute to London has, sort of, entrenched those views for me. It’s, it’s all about getting back into the swing of it.

ZDH: And Alex, what about you? How, how has it been in Harrogate?

AG: I think the Harrogate and indeed the Yorkshire market has almost gone into overdrive at the moment. It has been an incredibly, incredibly busy patch at the moment and let’s see how it all pans out.

ZDH: Stephen, what’s your experience of these recent weeks of semi-lockdown?

SM: Yes, I think living in the London suburbs as I do, I’ve got a foot in both camps and so taking advantage of some of the local recreational opportunities that perhaps I didn’t get time to because I was so busy commuting has been a really interesting experience. So, I think similar to Lucian that this particular period of time that we’re in gives a real opportunity for reflection on some of the ways that we live and work.

ZDH: Yes, definitely. That’s right. Well, before we dive in, there are a couple of themes that have been emerging in the UK property press since the real estate markets effectively unlocked, which was mid-May in England and then mid- through to late-June in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland.

It seems across all markets, mainstream as well as prime sales and lettings, agents have been reporting record numbers of enquiries as homeowners realise their need for more inside space, more outside space, and also lots of home working space. And it also seems that city dwellers are looking for their slice of the good life as a direct result of the change in circumstances during lockdown.

So, what’s the outlook for the UK as we navigate the short- and longer-term effects of the pandemic? Are people really looking for a good life in the country and if so, where are they hoping to find it? So, let’s begin by talking about what’s happening in the market generally. Lucian Cook, you must have some good numbers that can paint the picture for us. What’s the Savills research telling you in terms of transaction numbers and property prices?

LC: Yes, well certainly the resurgence in deals which are being agreed has taken us all by surprise. We got a hint of it back in April. We did a survey of a number of our clients and we were quite surprised at that point, just as we’d gone into lockdown and were experiencing it, that the experience of lockdown had made people marginally more committed to move than they were prior to the pandemic.

By the time we got to June, that balance of opinion was strongly positive, so really I think the experience of lockdown, trying to work from home, being on top of other family members over that period and probably that reassessment of work-life balance that we just talked about has been a major driver for moving and in that respect, I think that’s slightly overridden a fairly sobering economic backdrop.

So, whilst we saw during lockdown, unsurprisingly, a very significant fall in transaction levels, pretty much unprecedented, that’s reflected in both sales that were agreed in that period and the transaction figures from HMRC, the rebound has been quite staggering.

HMRC is always a bit lagged, so we had some figures for July, they showed that month on month transaction levels across the UK were up 20% but they were about three quarters of July for the previous year, but those are a bit lagged. They are completed sales that have gone right through to completion and a stamp duty return has been made for.

If you look at sales actually agreed, then the figures are incredibly strong. In reality, in the first two weeks of August, those sales agreed were 76% higher than the same period last year across the country as a whole and the market which has performed most strongly has been the top end of the market where I think people have got pretty stable incomes.

They’ve got quite strong financial security and a lot of equity behind them, and the levels of deals being agreed in those markets are double, are more than double, there have been 113% first two weeks of August than we saw in the same period last year.

Pricing is a bit different, actually. I think just that economic backdrop has made people fairly cautious around pricing. So, whilst demand has come back into the market pretty quickly, I don’t think, and certainly there isn’t the evidence to date, that we’ve had the sort of same upward pressure on prices.

Indeed, if you look at the number of price adjustments which are being made relative to the number of sales, that’s pretty much in line where it’s been in the period since 2016 when we started talking about Brexit, something we’ve almost put to the back of our minds of late.

ZDH: Well, it’s clearly a positive story in terms of activity and a kind of dramatic rise in transaction numbers there but not such a significant upward trend in prices then, and I imagine the backdrop of the UK’s now declared status of recession is another filter we’ll need to apply to any property outlook. Stephen Moroukian, how does this picture align with what we’re seeing in terms of lending activity?

SM: Yes, thanks Zoe. Look, banks always have to be balancing in environments like the one that we’re in at the moment and that can be very difficult. Clearly, looking at what has happened and trying to understand what will happen is something we’re all trying to do in a very dynamic market. I think if you look at the period between April and May, that was really peak concern, peak uncertainty as we went through the true effects of COVID in the market.

What Lucian referred to in terms of those transaction levels I think is really encouraging and it’s really great to hear. We don’t know what that looks like for the next six, 12 and 24 months but clearly there’s a pattern of a trend emerging, potentially. We had the effects of the government schemes such as furlough and the mortgage holidays. Those are beginning to come to an end and what will occur after them remains unclear but the backdrop of the macro economic environment that you’ve alluded to is bound to have an impact.

ZDH: Yes. I mean it seems that there is something of a honeymoon period right now and the data seems to suggest that. What about buyer behaviour, what are serious prime or super prime buyers looking for right now and Alex Goldstein, are you seeing increased interest in the North from London-based buyers?

AG: Very much so, Zoe. I think if we go back well before lockdown to 2009, say, there were already gentle rumblings that 1% of Londoners and those in the home counties were looking to leave and head northbound. We then had the BBC jobs, they all moved to Salford in Manchester in 2011 and 2012. Channel4 more recently, they’ve got a footing in Leeds.

Harrogate is another example, consistently voted as one of the happiest places to live and you jump forward ten years to 2019 and that figure of people leaving London and home counties has crept upwards to 13%. So, the impetus was already there.

Also, pre-lockdown, what was quite interesting is that employees were lobbying their employers for more flexible working and better lifestyle-work balance and I think companies have now realised that there is a significant cost saving and lifestyle benefit to their workforce and I think all of these were significant catalysts, really, in propelling and rebalancing the property market and as I see it, the North-South property divide has been rapidly shrinking.

ZDH: That really is quite a striking rise in the number of Londoners moving North in the last ten years. It certainly seems that people are less wedded to London living at the moment if they can make it work elsewhere. So, Alex, what are your clients looking for? Is it the acres of green space, the sense of village life as a lot of recent surveys seem to indicate?

AG: I think it’s very much all the things that you would expect. Yes, of course, it’s bigger properties and greater amount of outside space. Self-contained offices ideally that are away from the house and set in the garden, again for obvious reasons, is a very high priority nowadays as indeed is having children’s play and study spaces and it’s almost going to this multi-functional space and the options, more importantly, to provide that flexibility, as is to having the easy connections back to the major cities, London, Leeds, York, Manchester and Sheffield.

Recently I helped a younger client, it was a daughter of a longstanding client of mine and the daughter was based in Shoreditch with her new husband and they were looking to start a family. They were toying with the idea of moving to the home counties and were considering heading to Hertfordshire but as they had a family link back in Harrogate in Yorkshire, they decided that they could get far greater value for money as first time buyers by heading northbound and that’s what they decided to do.

ZDH: Plus the free babysitting that often comes with moving near your family, I suppose. So, it seems that the country lifestyle is very alluring but people don’t want to cut their ties totally with city life or the need to be near cities. Lucian, is it a similar story from Savills?

LC: Yes, I think so. I mean, I think you’ve got various types of buyers, actually. I think you’ve got those who remain quite committed to London and what they’re tending to do is to move along the wealth corridors, the established wealth corridors of London. So, the most obvious of those is the one that probably starts in Fulham, runs down through to Wimbledon and ends somewhere just the other side of, of Guildford.

In addition to that, you have those who are thinking about working from home more often but still working in a London office two, three days a week, perhaps. Some of those have moved out to the commuter zone. I think the term probably best that describes where they’re looking is accessible countryside – so, they want a reasonable commute on the days that they do commute, but they also want some of the benefits of the additional space, garden space and just sort of outdoor living that comes with countryside living.

I think community for those people is also incredibly important and the feel of the community, and the amenities that are available, particularly if they’re looking towards village locations.

ZDH: I’m interested in the idea of accessible countryside locations – what do you mean by that?

LC: So, when we talk about accessible countryside, one of the things that’s really important there is the commute into London and that is not just about the straight travel time, it’s about the reliability of the trains, the frequency of the trains and the number of people who are commuting on those lines.

ZDH: Stephen, on the subject of trains, HS2 obviously springs to mind… let’s touch for a moment on how these types of big infrastructure projects might impact the commercial property market.

SM: Yes that’s right Zoe, big infrastructure projects have always been used as an effective lever by central governments to drive investment and confidence and therefore ultimately jobs, and that’s happened all over the world. Now, we’ve already seen form the 2020 budget a signpost of unprecedented billions to big infrastructure, whether that’s’ roads, railways, new homes, schools, and so forth. But I think the dynamic will be different this time, there’ll be much more local and regional government influence expected.

I think if we look at the commercial real estate assets for a moment, let’s specifically look at retail, we’ve got large shopping centres all over the country and we’ve got our beloved high streets. Those assets will have to find their price in the market, that’s natural. At this point there’s a lot of uncertainty in terms of what that will actually look like, and it will really only be over the next months and years that we’ll see what the true impact of the Covid overlay will have been.

ZDH: Yes, it definitely sounds like there are a lot of question marks around what’s going to happen in the market in the coming months and years. But let’s focus on what’s been happening recently. Alex – tell me about some of the deals you’ve been seeing since the market opened up again.

AG: Well, I think, overall, Zoe, the Yorkshire market has performed very strongly.

Just recently, in the last few days actually, I’ve just exchanged and completed on a sizeable family home and this was about 5,000 square foot, detached, you went up a drive and it was essentially set in about an acre of land.

Interestingly, the husband, he worked in central Leeds, he’s got a secure financial job but it was the family wanting the lifestyle and the outside space but in particular, this property there was a small annex and a small range of out buildings and that gave them a lot of flexible usage.

So, when it was friends of family, or indeed the grandparents coming up to stay and indeed plays into the whole work from home theme as well, very much in a superstar village. It had a couple of amenities with it, so there was a village shop and a very good pub.

Quite importantly as well there were easy connections over to York, Harrogate, Leeds, and indeed sometimes down to London just for the husband as well and again, that was secured off-market.

Another very interesting property that I’m involved with at the moment is actually a converted historic chapel right here in central Harrogate and that’s got six bedrooms and five bathrooms and an orangery, and really is perfect for home, flexi-living.

Very unusually, it’s actually got a passive income stream because it sort of partly operates as a guest house, could easily become a wedding venue, but has also been fairly prolific on the creative side and it’s being used regularly by high end magazines for photo shoots and indeed some filming as well and again, because of these points, the property has got, I feel, London and indeed international appeal. You’ve got the whole life-work balance and indeed the income generating option as well.

In addition, there’s been some interesting ones in central Harrogate in the duchy and this is a very prestigious area right in the centre of Harrogate and again, I’ve been involved with a few sizeable deals and transactions on family homes ranging from between one and a half million up to three million.

ZDH: So, definitely some good value for money deals for the right buyers there and I have to say, I love the idea of superstar villages, that sounds like a theme in its own right. Lucian, what other kinds of deals are on the table and what else are you seeing demand for?

LC: Yes. Well, I think some of it’s location and some of it is about the property. When it comes to property, it’s a lot of the things that we’ve already talked about. So, it’s garden space, separate space to work from home. I think the other one that people have realised has become critically important not least of which is apparent as we were preparing for this recording, is the importance of good Wi-Fi and I think increasingly people will be paying attention to that when they look to buy their new home.

But, when it comes to the areas that we’re looking at, just backing up some of the stuff that Alex has said, if you go to Yorkshire and the Humber and you look at where the demand has been strongest, we’ve taken some data from a data provider called 20CI and they look at all of the properties marked as sold subject to contract each week across the country and the three local authorities that have performed strongest in that area of Yorkshire and the Humber have been Rydale, Harrogate and Hambleton.

So, very much the more affluent markets which give you all of those lifestyle benefits.

In reality, though, the markets that have even out-performed those have tended to be those within the commuter zone of London. So, very strong demand for the likes of Guildford, Saint Albans and Winchester.

I suppose what’s interesting about those areas is in the period, essentially, since the credit crunch, what we saw was the prime urban living in those areas became slightly more popular than buying your village or country property and I suspect the experience that we’ve had of the recent past means that that reverses slightly. Because we saw that trend since the credit crunch, actually, we saw the performance of those prime urban properties outside of London in the uber-towns out-perform the neighbouring villages in the countryside.

That created a bit of a value gap, so this slight rural renaissance that we’re seeing at the moment actually comes at a time when those village properties are looking pretty good value.

So, particularly that country house market has been something of a sleeping giant for quite some time now and it does mean in terms of what you can get for £1 million, £2 million, whatever the figure might be then you’re getting a lot more for your money in those locations. So, a bit of the reversal of the trends that we’ve seen, I would say over the past, over the past decade or so.

ZDH: Yes, and I suppose prime and super prime buyers will always want to have a foot in around London still. Does that interest and that investment stretch into the regions, though? Alex Goldstein, what are you seeing?

AG: Very much so, Zoe, at the moment. In the north, all the talk is currently about the football, of course, and Leeds United are back in the Premiership and it does and it has made a major different to the market and again, you look historically at the difference that that made when they were back up.

This is now driving international investors and they’d always historically focused on Manchester, obviously you’ve got the two major clubs there but you’ve now got that connection, you’ve got this whole band stretching across the Pennines from Manchester heading over to Leeds and arguably slightly beyond, and that entire area still has very good access back to London.

So, for example, and it’s the journey that I do if I go to London, York, direct down to London, you can do that in under two hours quite happily. Leeds down to Kings Cross, that’s just over two hours and you can even now go direct from Harrogate to London Kings Cross and that takes about two hours and 55 minutes.

ZDH: So, still looking at lifestyle trends, I imagine many of our listeners will also think about how we live in the future and lockdown has certainly emphasised the need for those who can to be close to family. Alex, you mentioned earlier the demand for annexes and outbuildings, can we extrapolate from that that people are looking more at multigenerational living?

AG: Very much so. I feel that there is a, a cultural shift that’s coming full circle precisely because of the pandemic. A, a couple of recent examples I’ve had where, where families are actually combining, they’re coming together with grandparents who are living on-site but they’re in a separate cottage and they can be there now for childcare, sometimes sort of school work and equally, they can be looked after and feel secure themselves. And, again, it plays into this demand for larger family homes with outbuildings that are very attractive.

Generations are combining their funds and reducing their risk and another trend that seems to be emerging is just this sort of gentle move away from urban living and this want and need for having everything on one’s doorstep. I think let’s be clear, in a post-COVID environment, I think it’s very clear we all want the good life at the end of the day, we want to be self-sufficient in our own little bubble and happy.

Now, to drive the twenty minutes or so to the nearest urban centre, I think it’s very much the driver of wanting and having that space and the openness, the views and having that key, flexible lifestyle at home both in terms of how your rooms are actually utilised within the house but also how that combines with your work lifestyle as well Again, it’s having that need to quickly get back over to wherever the major city is that the employer is in.

I’ve had an interesting recent example, one client of mine he runs a fairly major IT firm, he’s the managing director and he’s currently got offices in Edinburgh, Leeds and London and one over in the United States and it’s only really just dawned on him in the IT business that he can run his business remotely and very efficiently indeed.

Now, he was going to buy a second property, a bolt hole in London to be close to the office for whenever he was down there but he’s now put a complete hold on that and he’s actually investing back in Yorkshire.

ZDH: Interesting that it’s taken lockdown for that mindset shift. Stephen, from a lender’s perspective, if interest rates are going to stay lower for longer, do you think this could potentially have a positive effect on transaction numbers and the knock-on effects on the wider property economy?

SM: Interest rate reductions have been off the back of two shocks in the market – the global financial crisis of 10 years ago, and this current crisis we’re in. Rates in general show no sign of increasing, and therefore the cost of borrowing remains incredibly low compared to the 30 years that preceded the global financial crisis.

The opportunity for some borrowers, of course, is to then buy that bigger property in the cycle, or making an existing asset work a lot harder for them. I think in terms of the wider economy, that question remains one that’s related to what happens after the government schemes transition.

ZDH: I think a lot of people would agree with that cautious outlook. But what are some of the other factors that are likely to have an effect on the market in the coming months? Like stamp duty. Lucian?

LC: Of course, we have a stamp duty holiday coming to an end in March of next year, I think that will support the market in the first quarter of next year, as is always the case when people can see an increase in stamp duty on the horizon, they will do pretty much anything in their power to avoid paying that, even if that means paying a little bit more for the property that they’re buying.

I think thereafter, the recovery in prices from 2021 onwards, I think it’s more likely to have sort of sustained upward traction from in 2022, interest rates remaining low, economy back on its feet.

Again throughout that period, I think what you’ll see is some of the lifestyle changes that we’ve talked about playing out in which properties in which locations are in the most demand. And so, when we talk about some of those lifestyle drivers, it’s also important to remember that’s not just about people who are upsizing and looking for more space.

One of the things that we’ve found is that, increasingly, that older population who have been quite reluctant, historically, to downsize, the experience of the pandemic has made them much more open to that and that is supporting some of the prime urban markets, particularly some of the new-build property in some of those areas and areas such as the likes of Clifton and some of the markets in, similarly, somewhere like Bath.

ZDH: A lovely part of the country, and Alex, I hear you’ve been involved in a deal recently in another very pretty spa town, Ilkley in West Yorkshire.

AG: I have indeed and it was a property for a client actually relocating from Los Angeles over in the States and they needed access down to London and Manchester as they were in the media. And Ilkley just seemed a very obvious choice with all its amenities and equally, very well connected on the train so it’s pretty easy to get down to London, across to Leeds and Manchester as well and there’s some very good, outstanding even, schools locally.

What was interesting as well on this one, this was conducted again off-market but we also had to go over guide price in order to secure it.

ZDH: I suppose I can’t really ask you how much your client’s paying, Alex, but I wonder if there are some relative bargains outside of London. Lucian, can you share any examples?

LC: Yes, I think perversely, actually, you almost need to look to the very top end of the market to see where some of the bargains are. So, we’ve suggested that that top-end country house market has been something of a sleeping giant for a number of years and we’ve also talked about the prime central London market where values have been off somewhere like 20%.

Because the profile of buyers in, say, the likes of Saint George’s Hill, Saint George’s Hill in Wentworth, sorry, it often is a bit more reflective of that prime central London market than some of the other prime country house markets. That market also is looking relatively good value, particularly in terms of the square footage which you’re getting comparable to some of the other locations they might look at such as sup-, such as central London.

So, we’ve seen a real resurgence in demand in some of those markets, and then really that I suppose is also representative of a number of micro-markets. Another good example then would be the market, say, down at Sandbanks, down in the Bournemouth Pool conurbation, a market where location is of course absolutely paramount and all important but which commands some very high values, but nonetheless is looking relatively good value as things stand.

ZDH: Well, we’ve covered a lot of ground there. Final question to all our guests, if you could move to the country tomorrow, where would it be? Alex, if we could pry you away from Harrogate.

AG: That’s an easy one, I’m going to see you on the East Coast over at Whitby for some proper fish and chips.

ZDH: Great, okay, and Lucian, where’s your dream country property?

LC: Well, I already live in the countryside. I am very much a rural boy, I grew up in deepest, darkest Somerset, but I’ve managed to migrate to Hampshire. Both of those I have affinity for. If I was having to move, though, I think I would probably go back to that area of North Somerset, access to Bristol and Bath, access to some exceptional apple-based cider and equally, not a million miles from the Mecca for me, which is Taunton and the county grounds where I can go and watch my beloved Somerset county cricket club.

ZDH: I love it, Taunton as the Mecca, and Stephen, your escape to the country, where would that be to?

SM: Yes, well I probably should say Windsor because that’s where my in-laws live but of course, I’m a fan of the sea, as is my family so I think we’d have to be on the coast somewhere and that really probably looks like the South Devon coastline.

ZDH: Yes, I’m with you there, Stephen, it would have to be coastal for me, too. I think I’d like to do the impossible and transplant my leafy London village of Blackheath and put it somewhere lovely on the South Coast and then obviously hope there are some fast trains to get me back to London if I need to. So, thank you to all our guests for your expert insights. Just say goodbye to all of you, Lucian Cook, Director of Residential Research at Savills.

LC: Thanks, Zoe, it’s been my pleasure.

ZDH: Alex Goldstein from Alex Goldstein Property Consultants.

AG: Thank you, Zoe. Great to take part.

ZDH: And Stephen Moroukian, Product and Proposition Director at Barclays Private Bank.

SM: Thank you very much, Zoe, see you next time.

ZDH: I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of Real Estate Realities. Join us next time when we’re going to be taking a virtual trip to the sunny south of France to check in on the prime property market in the French Riviera. Thank you for listening.

Richard Christian of BluSkills is a former Royal Marine Commando and now runs his own security services business. Pulling on his years at the top of the military, Richard discusses personal and home security and what to be aware of. Equally how estate agents, vendors and purchasers all merge together and if you are security conscious, how to go about securing your home and ensure your family are safe.

Full Transcript below:

Alex: So welcome to the Alex Goldstein Property show and this time we are talking with a very high-profile security expert Richard Christian from BluSkills who is a former Royal Marine Commando and now has his own security business, which helps private individuals and indeed companies and those in the public eye. Richard, great to have you on board today.

Richard: Hi Alex thanks very much for having me. I’m not sure about high profile maybe not yet but working on it.

Alex: I’m glad to hear, I’m glad to hear it but it’s very much a hot topic at the moment and I think there is an increasing mindfulness out there in the in the public domain of personal security and certainly when it comes to banking and finances and it just seems to be in the media more and more and certainly when you integrate that into the property sector. I certainly from what I see in my role I dare say. Will be very interesting to hear your thoughts when we overlay it from your perspective that I think there are a number of shortcomings or areas that people just don’t think about when it comes to property. I mean what’s quite interesting at the moment given the lockdown and the way that technologies come about is the whole sort of virtual tour and you can now look in online and have a viewing round of property but I think there are risks involved with that but what’s your take on it all.

Richard: Well that’s right Alex it’s why it’s so good to speak to you as I think you’re a very security-minded individual. What we’re seeing is tech moving at a very fast pace that’s allowing people to use fantastic new features but often the implications of those features and services are overlooked the ease of them is appealing to people but the security considerations and the security implications may be coming a little bit behind that so in terms of virtual tours is a fantastic selling tool for estate agents but for the person selling the home there’s probably no real security implication perceived. However, if the home doesn’t sell they should be aware that that video could still remain in the public domain if it isn’t removed and for someone buying I think they should be looking at ensuring that if there was a video tour done then it’s a timely removal by the by the agents. And they should be mindful that people may have recorded that video and people have used it for electronic surveillance if they were interested in the property. And they’ve done the kind of electronic surveillance of the property. They may have recorded that video. They may have it stored. They may have been able to work out plans of the layouts of the building and observe any security measures that are in place. So there’s a lot of information given there, and you have to be mindful of that.

Alex: Yeah hugely so. I think from my perspective on the property side of things virtual tours are, almost you could argue, a bit of a gimmick at the moment and of course you’ve got a sort of camera drone footage going through your property. Obviously, it’s a security risk because if there’s any sort of valuables. Or it’s notification where the main alarm panel is or any alarm sensors for example are as well. But equally, and this is the one of the big things I always say is, as soon as information goes online, whether it’s a virtual tour or it’s imagery. It’s stored, it’s archived and it’s the whole spider’s web effect that you have no control of that information. It very quickly gets dispersed and if you’ve got a virtual tour of a property circulating around. I say websites generally again you can run into issues down the line if someone does an historic search for example.

Richard: That’s right and I’d say it’s important to think about anything that you’re putting onto the internet into the electronic ether is to think that you’ve put that out there and then that’s permanently going to stay out there. Now there are things that you can do to reduce how easily it is how easy it is to find that information and data a later date and third parties play a big part in that but I would say approaching the mindset that that information is out there for good and are you happy with that.

Alex: No, indeed. I mean when it comes to actually buying a property how should one and how do you actually evaluate the security of a property and what should people actually look out for at the end of the day?

Richard: So from my perspective and probably because I’m kind of security minded and because we provide these services, I would I would advise people, certainly your type of client Alex, to be looking at conducting a pre-purchase security assessment and I would say that much as you would do a home buying survey or a detailed survey to find out the state of the physical property, the foundations, the windows, etc. and what the associated costs might be, I’d say it’s probably wise to do that pre-purchase regarding security as well. You may be buying a property where you’re going to have to spend a great deal of money investing in security measures post-purchase and it’s good to bear that in mind when you when you come to purchase the property. I would say for an individual who doesn’t want to go down that route and wants to do it themselves, there’s a number of things that they can do. I would say firstly, look at the electronic footprint for the property. So as you’ve mentioned virtual tours and what images are available for the property. What links are there to the property? So companies house, what businesses are linked to it? So that’s the electronic side of life and then we look to the kind of the physical side of life. So we work from the outside in when we look at properties. Is there a boundary in place or is access to the site open? Are the gates to the property to restrict vehicle access? So access control is one of the key phases. Then we work through towards the outside of the property looking at any other measures there. So a layered security approach. Are there other gates? Is there planting which screens from view or planting which obstructs? So you know your real thorn bushes and things like that. Yeah what kind of vulnerable points are there. And then we’re looking at the outside of the property and cameras, CCTV. You know does that give a good view of the of the property? Does it cover vulnerable points? And then through to basics kind of the real basics which is do we have good solid locks on doors? Locks on windows? Have we got door contact sensors? And then inside which are the impassive infrared motion detectors linked to your armed systems. And then finally we’ll be looking at things like creating different zones within the house and detecting movement throughout the house so should someone get into your home, they’ve bypassed all your security measures, can you trace their movements around the home and slow them down until the police can get there? And when you trace them, they may have had to go through at break windows and therefore to bypass the locks. But we’re introducing other elements, so we’ll have internal locks on doors and that just slows them down. So certainly doors to key areas, people coming through windows we  can we keep them in rooms rather than allowing them access to stairwells. So we’re restricting them going up through the property. So let’s say you’re in the property that buys you time, you can lock yourself in your room ring the police and hopefully they’re going to get there way before the burglar can get access to your valuables or worst case scenario to you.

Alex: Right and when you look to a point if you’re doing this yourself and you’re looking to select a security company, whether it’s alarms or CCTV what sort of things, should one look for?

Richard: I think this is probably one of the biggest areas people don’t necessarily pay enough attention to, this area when you think a security company is going to come to your home they’re going to know your home and your security intimately. Whether you engage with them or whether you decide not to, so I think one of the first things that we’re going to look at is reputation have you have come about that company, what’s their online reputation? But then also who can we speak to? How can we verify the level of service that they’ve given? How long have they been established? All those kind of background things. We should be looking for them to be accredited so what that’ll mean is that they’re working to a quality management standard so they’re going to give high levels of service and they’re also going to have good processes and procedures in place as recommended. Through things like British standards and also that they’re working to those kinds of British standards. We’re then looking for things like good measures to have in place so engage with them and see the staff and the installers and the people that they’re employing. Have they done background checks on those people which they should have done working in the security industry? And then finally we can look at things like the financials of the business. So go to sites like Companies House. Check the directors. Who are they? Are they entitled to be directors? They’re not struck off? And check the financials.

Alex: Interesting point as well I know you’ve mentioned companies house and especially if it applies to if you’ve got your own business as well and again, I think a lot of people sort of forget that you can register the company at your accountants and I think a lot of people sort of inadvertently fall into the trap of registering their business at their home and again it just forms another layer of information whereby those looking for phishing, scamming or indeed worse, can use that information to their advantage.

Richard: That’s right. Yes, the thing with online data is in isolation it probably doesn’t give too much away. It’s the compounding effect of lots of different sources of information that can be pulled together. So as you rightly allude to, people do register businesses  to their home address. I think that’s a decision that that needs to be made based on levels of risk. Kind of what type of business is it. Is it customer facing or is it just something that you might use for your property for example. But yes, a Company’s House very searchable feature is very high on Google so if you’re looking for a Director, it’ll it will link you to your home address very very quickly. We’ve also seen that with electoral roles as well they provide exactly the same information. The public ones are searchable with a little bit of information given up but unfortunately removing yourself from things like the electoral role causes other implications around things like finance where they use the electoral information to confirm your identity. But yes it may be wise to disassociate your business from your home. The last thing you want is a disgruntled customer turning up at your gate or your home and challenging you face to face.

Alex: No, no I quite agree. I mean I think the other hot area is there I say social media because again I think a lot of people are unaware of the implications of  anything that they put onto social media, photos for example and videos, and that those have all got sort of  metadata behind the scenes which again provides another avenue to source information.

Richard: A very good point. Social media is a fantastic platform. I think when you look at higher profile figures, they’ve got a kind of love-hate relationship with it. It’s a maybe a necessary evil. A lot of images and videos contain  metadata as you’ve rightly pointed out, which can include things like location. So you may innocently snap a photo of, I don’t know, a new watch or present or some part of your home and that will contain location data depending on the settings that you’ve got on your on your mobile phone and I’d say occupants of homes are probably more  likely to be conscious about what they’re posting but what I am seeing a lot of is photos posted on social media by contractors so people who visited your  home doing work there and they take pictures  pictures of work they’ve done for their portfolio without permission. Which could subsequently compromise you. I think if you are using social media and you are posting images just, I’d urge you to consider what’s captured in the image. What’s in the background? What might be present that you haven’t noticed immediately? Are you taking a picture of a room that shows that you do or do not have security there? Does it show that your windows are insecure? Does it give a criminal motivation? That seems to be a strong amount of high-profile people putting pictures of high-value items on and that just that just creates motivation. You’re just telling people you’ve got things that they could steal and that they could make money.

Alex: Well now indeed and I know the obvious  one because they’re so easy and accessible is of course mobile phones but I have to say a lot of the modern digital cameras as well also store the location metadata and other information behind the scenes, such as your name and other items for that image and people take that and then they also put that online unwittingly. And equally I have seen like you, contractors. those in the property sector again just taking what they feel is something low-key. An image or a feature of a property and put it out to  say well look what we’ve seen today but again as you say, they’ve unwittingly released additional information into the ether of the Internet and again that’s all searchable. And it just provides another level of information. I think again people need to  be aware and mindful of that. So I mean when you start, when you first move into a property, there are the basics that one should do regarding security. Just talk everyone through that and what the next steps thereafter as well should be.

Richard: I mean it can vary. It depends if you’ve  had a security  survey done  prior to moving in. Then you’ll have a list of tasks that you need to undertake. And what I would suggest that there’s various things you can do, and I would look to quickly establish a baseline which is the pattern of life in your area. What does normal look like? You’re new to that area so you don’t really understand what’s going on. By tuning into the environment you’ll be able to quickly establish what normal looks like so anything suspicious or out of place will be flagged to you. People often forget that crime isn’t just the action happening. Someone doesn’t just break into a house, usually there’s a period before that the target selection and then also the  the surveillance phase. Where people will, no matter how short, will spend a period of time surveilling your home prior to breaking to make sure you’re not there. To see what security’s in place and to see how they how they’re going to undertake the  the crime. So establishing that baseline will give you a chance of spotting suspicious things early. I would say one that people often don’t do is changing the locks to your home. Very very simple, not high cost but when you buy a home how do you know that you have all the keys to that house? It’s not necessarily like a car where there’s a finite number of keys and you can track them. Neighbours may have keys; estate agents may still retain some keys. It’s hard to know where those keys are so simply changing your locks gives you control. And putting very good locks on is a great start. Changing alarm codes or gate access codes and things like that. People, contractors, you don’t know who’s got access to those. So that’s a great place to start. And then I’d say ensuring the basics are in place. So have you got locks on your windows? Have you got restrictors for downside downstairs windows to limit how much the windows can open? Are your door locks to the highest standard? Do you have access control to the site? So that’s a big one. Just controlling who can come onto your premise when you’re not there. And high value items. Simple things like making sure that high value items aren’t in sight. So cars is a big one at the moment people are targeting. People simply based on the vehicles that they’re driving. If you leave those on your driveway, you leave yourself open to being targeted.

Alex: Yeah, it’s a very valid point and that’s partly where I suppose garages are making a bit of a comeback because you can hide it all and keep it out of sight.  A garage is a very useful tool. Exactly though when you talked about external people coming on site. I mean when you say for example, have contractors in, whether it’s for security means or it’s the builders or whoever, it’s going to be what most measures should you think about or put in place.

Richard: I think it’s very interesting when you think of your home. It’s quite a secure environment simply because people don’t really know a great deal about it. It’s hard to get a lot of information. A lot of the stuff we’re talking about is just building up that information picture and anytime you have contractors into your home, you expose more information. More than would be openly available. So it’s very important when you get contractors in to consider who is doing the work. Are they reputable? Do they could have good policy and procedure in place? Are they vetting and screening the people who are working for them? How are you controlling access? Are you giving them a key to your home when you’re not there, which is obviously high risk. Are you giving them access codes? Are you supervising them while they’re there? And we would strongly recommend that you restrict access in your home. Allow them to only work in the areas that’s necessary and that you that you supervise them. You monitor what they’re up to. High-value items make sure that they’re not on display. Just temptation can get the better of people and also things like recording who’s attended the site so you get the company in, you just have to do a simple sign-in with their names and their dates so that you can trace back should an event happen and supply to the police names and addresses of people who’ve been to your property so they can eliminate them.

Alex: Yeah I think it’s a certainly a very valid point that last one and certainly I suppose when estate agents show people around property, there’s various measures you can, I suppose, put in place up to a point but at the end of the day from an estate agent’s perspective it’s just a few phone calls sometimes with an individual but I suppose it’s thereafter with regard as we previously talked about. The images and the rights to those and the virtual tours and where those have gone and it’s this sort of legacy, if you will. What should one consider or/and indeed estate agents consider with that data and how to also vet people?

Estate agents play a huge part in safety and security and I guess when people are selling a home, they’re probably less concerned. It’s probably people buying a home that are inheriting any potential problems or information control. From there I’d say with when you’re engaging with an estate agent, you should be looking for someone who’s aware. So when you when you speak to them and you speak about how they’re going to promote the property, you should also ask how they’re going to control that information. What’s their process for removing that information? So when we do security assessments and surveys, we’re doing an online trawl and regularly we’ll find legacy images on third-party websites, so not the estate agents directly necessarily but the third-party websites are still left on there and on our clients behalf we’ll speak with them and we’ll get them to remove those images and that legacy data. From an estate agent point of view, as I mentioned, they’ve got a big part to play and I think there’s a lot that they can do and you should be asking them what their policy and procedures are and I know you’re very swept up with this Alex but that qualifying leads is a huge one for me. Especially when you move to the higher end stuff and there was a great piece of research done by a company called Perpetuity Research and one of the offenders that was interviewed in there a convicted burglar was quite candid about how he would visit high-end properties that were for sale on the market, pretend to be interested in purchasing and then go back months later and burgle them. So qualifying those leads, confirming the identity of the people who are going to visit the property, credit checks. I mean it’s in their interests as well. Why waste time with people who can’t and won’t buy the property as well as put your clients or the new purchaser at risk.

Alex: Indeed and it’s a very very fine balance because sometimes, certainly with the higher end properties, people, as you’ve just said, should be private and restricting what information you give. You fall into GDPR which most of the agents fully comply with as well and again it’s just getting that. It’s just striking that balance but I think it’s very much an evolving frontier and a lot of agents say, indeed myself, can sign up to all the various governing bodies and there’s ways and means to go about these things but I have to say I always play on this, it comes back to its experience. At the end of the day, you know there’s a sort of a sixth sense as an agent when you’re speaking with someone and just how they’re answering or not answering sometimes relevant questions or are they forthcoming with information, you can instantly tell and I have to say it’s becoming more and more at the front of agents minds that if you’re not quite getting the right answer or not quite that right feel, then you put a stop on proceedings and you don’t allow people around. Equally just going back momentarily to the virtual tour side of things, agents are now, not necessarily putting those on the website. They’re using that as a tool so that if a buyer is mindful of the virus situation or they’re at the other end of the country or abroad, they can view it online via a shared computer screen if you will with the estate agent. And again that helps retain that element of control which I think more and more agents are aware of.

Richard: That’s right and  I know from speaking to you as well you’re seeing a great increase in people wanting to sell homes off the market out of the public eye completely. I thoroughly understand why people would want to do that especially when you get to the higher levels I know it’s not necessarily pertinent to the general market, but I know with bigger, more expensive homes I can understand that people really want to maintain privacy of that that home.

Alex: I know. very much so. And in some circumstances because it’s  a rare or a more unusual property, you can apply a bit more of a premium for that and it’s offering the exclusive. So it’s almost a win-win situation by trying to sell something off market. You can get a higher value but equally as you said not everyone wants their property and their name all emblazoned in lights and again it’s just having that insight and a sensible judgment call on it all.

Alex: Richard it’s been really useful to talk everything through with you and if people want to get in touch and talk through their security measures and go through things in a bit more detail, what’s the best way to get in touch with you?

Richard: I’ll say the simple way is to visit our website and get in touch with the website. So it’s www.bluskills.co.uk or you can drop us a line on 0333 3056615.

Alex: That is super Richard. Really appreciate your time and insight and look forward to speaking with you soon.

Richard: Thanks Alex. Great to speak to you.

Homeowners often believe that they can cut legitimate corners with their home whether it comes to builders, solicitors or estate agents. However, what are they losing sight of and why shouldn’t they do this?

Don’t Cut Corners with your Home!

Full transcript below:

Alex: When it comes to our homes we form such an emotional connection and for many of us we work very hard over numerous years to be able to afford the property in the first place so when it comes to selling our beloved home, many homeowners lose sight that it’s our most sizeable financial asset. So why do some choose to cut a corner? It defies all logic to instruct a conveyancing solicitor because they were cheap, or an estate agent who will sell your home for £50 for the same reason, or have that extension done because the builder could get lower-quality materials. My absolute top tip is to never cut a corner when it comes to your home. It is the one asset that has been historically proven to be the safest investment you can make over the medium to long term. So, if you’re going to add value with an extension get it done to the appropriate standard. A cheap estate agent or solicitor will only cost you down the line. Value for money does not mean the cheapest or indeed the most expensive deal, it’s about getting the job done for the best result at the right price. As with everything in life you get what you pay for, so don’t make it at the expense of your most valuable asset.

It’s an age-old question – who should show people round when selling your home? Should you do it, as you know your home best, and you’re familiar the local area? Or is it better to leave it to the estate agent who has no emotional ties to the house? Should the buyer ever meet the owner and if so when? Property consultant Alex Goldstein discusses this issue and shares his advice on this often debated topic.