Our colleague Lizzie Burt has been promoted to Associate Director. Here, Chinneck Shaw’s Managing Director Neil Shaw offers his personal congratulations:

“It gives me huge pleasure to announce the promotion of Lizzie Burt to Associate Director at Chinneck Shaw.

“Initially she joined the firm on a part-time basis almost 20 years ago and her role has developed over the years, resulting in her managing the sales side of our operation.

“Lizzie’s warmth and generosity of spirit have charmed both customers and the team and she has overseen significant growth in sales during the past five years.

“I’ve always been really impressed by the way Lizzie draws the team together and she loves nothing more than to organise breakfast sales meetings and cocktail evenings in the office garden, which her green fingers have ensured is a little oasis for us all.

“She was the main driver behind our recent rebrand and development of the website.

“She remains focused on ensuring our new look is reflected in everything we do and she employs the latest technology and analysis to ensure we are always ahead of the game.

“When the pandemic struck, Lizzie helped manage our reaction to Covid, interpreting Government guidance so that we were able to function in a safe way, while still following the guidelines and operating within the law.

“Put simply, Lizzie has been central to Chinneck Shaw’s success. She helps us all to enjoy the working day, forging genuine relationships with our customers and I’m pleased to call her a valued work colleague and friend.

“Congratulations on your promotion, Lizzie – it is richly deserved.”

Chinneck Shaw is celebrating a double helping of awards success in a prestigious rating scheme for estate agents across the UK.

We have been officially rated excellent in both the sales and lettings categories of the 2022 Best Estate Agent Guide.

Compiled by independent industry experts Property Academy with the support of the UK’s largest property portal, Rightmove, the guide assesses more than 25,000 estate agents on criteria such as customer service, marketing and results.

Recognition

Our excellent rating puts us in the top ten per cent of agents for sales and lettings nationally.

This is both fantastic recognition for our team and a further source of peace of mind for our clients.

If you are a property owner, landlord or prospective buyer or tenant, you have the reassurance that you are officially working with one of the best estate agents in the country.

As well as rewarding the success of quality agents, Best Estate Agent Guide helps consumers to identify and instruct the best agent in the sale or let of their property.

Only those agents who perform to the highest standards, such as ourselves, gain the recognition that they have been rated as among the best in the country.

Independent

The aim of the listing is to provide a useful, credible and independent indication of the quality of the agent, which can help when choosing who to value your property and instruct.

To create the guide, Property Academy and Rightmove check and rate every estate agency branch in the UK.

These are scored against a unique set of performance and customer service criteria using a combination of data analysis and mystery shopping.

To inform the guide, Property Academy surveys thousands of buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants each year to better understand their opinions and expectations of the home buying, selling and renting process.

The guide considers hyper-local factors are deliberately rates branches as well as estate agency companies.

This is to recognise differences in service standards between different branches of the same company, as well as disparities in regional property markets.

Guide background

On its website, Property Academy says: “With an estimated 25,000 estate agency branches in the UK, we know it can be difficult to choose and there is a lack of independent and trustworthy information to help you compare agents and find the best in your area.

“This is why we decided to produce the Best Estate Agent Guide.

“After twelve years of listening to the voice of the consumer and using the insights to inform estate agency businesses of the latest trends, opinions and opportunities, we decided to compare estate agents in order to provide the millions of people who sell or let their property each year in the UK with an independent and credible source of information to help them find the best estate agent for them.”

Needless to say, all here at Chinneck Shaw are naturally thrilled with this prestigious industry recognition.

We are proud to be displaying the Best Estate Agent Guide mark across our marketing literature and you can watch a short film about it on our YouTube channel.

If you are looking to sell your home, we can help you through every stage beginning with a detailed expert valuation. For more information on our support for sellers, visit our sell pages. And for buyers, landlords and tenants, we have a range of really useful information on our property search pages.

You can also stay up to date on trends in the property market by receiving our quarterly newsletter.

Summer is the ideal season for appreciating the great outdoors.

And if you are lucky enough to have a garden, you can spend many a happy hour relaxing in it especially when the sun is out.

While you may well take the chance to simply read a book or chill out, you might also enjoy getting stuck into those gardening tasks that bring the space to life.

Hanging baskets, window boxes, potted plants on your patio and blooming flowers in the soil of your beds and borders – they all combine to create a riot of colour that, with proper care, can extend from now right through until the first days of autumn.

However, with growth and dry weather, comes the need to water.

An eco-friendly move

One of the most eco-friendly ways to provide a continual water source for your garden, while saving on cost, is to install a water butt or two.

At this time of critical cost-of-living pressures, coupled with acute concern over the climate emergency, making better use of water is a no-brainer.

And what’s more, if you are looking to improve your property ahead of a sale, a water butt is a relatively cheap addition that clearly demonstrates sustainability to a prospective buyer who in turn can expect to save on their water bills when they move in.

Water butts are containers that help you collect, store and reuse rainwater. They come in different sizes, colours and materials, some with overflow taps.

Installation can sometimes require a new or repositioned down pipe so that rainwater flows easily from your guttering for collection – but generally they are easy to locate and operate.

Natural harvest

There are so many advantages to having a water butt.

The website Original Organics cites the prospect of saving money on your water bills if your home is run by a water meter, and adds: “Filling your buckets and watering cans with naturally-collected rainwater also means that you will avoid the use of chlorinated tap water, which can be toxic to plants. The water collected will also come in handy in the event of a drought or UK hosepipe ban.”

The UK’s water companies also highlight the benefits of water butts when it comes to avoiding the use of drinking water for gardening.

Severn Trent Water, on its Wonderful on Tap pages, makes the rather obvious point that while we often complain about the great British weather equalling endless amounts of rain, very few of us actually take advantage of that by harvesting rainwater.

Severn Trent says: “In fact, when the summer comes along, most of us use hoses to water our gardens and clean our cars, washing away thousands of litres of clean drinking water.”

Better for plants

There is an argument that harvested rainwater is better for plants, lawns, flowers and fruit and vegetables.

That’s for two reasons.

First, it has a similar ambient temperature to the surrounding environment.

And second, it is packed with the same plant-friendly nutrients that are specifically taken out in the treatment process to create drinking water that is safe for humans.

On a national scale, there are estimates showing that if everyone in Britain collected a water butt full of rainwater, it would save about four billion litres of fresh water each year.

That is the equivalent of 660 million toilet flushes or 42 million ten-minute showers or 15.6 million baths.

And from the property management and investment point of view, if you have a big water butt to collect rainwater it can reduce the risk of flooding and subsidence on your property.

Now that’s a reason to celebrate your garden all year round.

For more information on property management and how best to prepare your home for sale or rent, contact us here at Chinneck Shaw.

You can also stay up to date on latest developments in the property market by receiving our quarterly newsletter.

The residential property market is showing remarkable resilience despite the economic turbulence we see.

Average house prices – traditionally considered the bellwether of market health – are still rising.

The national figure rose 1.1% in April and now stands at £286,079. In Portsmouth the average is a little higher, at £293,173.

As well as prices, there are other positive signs. Housing transactions and mortgage approvals remain above pre-pandemic levels and there is continued growth in new buyer enquiries.

But can this comparatively bright picture last during the current period of rocketing inflation, the highest for 40 years, and rises in interest rates?

Running costs

Albeit from a long period of low borrowing costs, rate rises will see mortgage payments go up for millions of people on variable rate deals.

And the impact of inflation at 9% and set to rise further, coupled with soaring energy prices, will only add to the pressure on household budgets.

As a result, prospective buyers or tenants will be especially focused on the running costs of a home, perhaps like never before.

Homeowners looking to sell or let their properties can take it for granted that the squeeze on the cost of living will increasingly focus minds.

Energy performance

One key recommendation in the midst of all this is to ensure the energy performance of your property is as good as it can be.

And if you haven’t already, it’s time to start thinking about that right now.

It is your legal responsibility as a seller or a landlord to organise what is called an EPC, or Energy Performance Certificate, for any residential property that is to be sold or let.

If you don’t provide one, you could be fined up to £5,000, a figure the government is proposing to raise to £30,000 from 2025.

But aside from the mandated requirement for a certificate, we strongly believe it is a good thing in itself to ensure robust energy performance. It is better for the environment and makes living in the property more affordable.

EPCs explained

An EPC is designed to provide information about current energy use and the estimated costs of heat, light and hot water for the next three years.

Certificates have to be completed by qualified assessors who calculate scores based on efficiency. As well as a current rating, the assessor gives a potential score that could be achieved if recommendations for improved energy use are implemented. These might include measures such as a more efficient boiler, solar panels, better loft insulation or the installation of a heat pump.

Grades go from ‘A’, the most efficient, with 92+ points, down to ‘G’, the least efficient, with between one and 20 points.

The main criteria informing the scores are the amount of energy used per square metre and the level of carbon dioxide emissions from the property in tonnes per year.

It’s important to note that an EPC is not the same as an energy bill. That’s because an EPC specifically excludes the energy used for running appliances such as a fridge, freezer or cooker.

In the rental market, Buy to Let purchasers should be aware that they cannot rent out a property that has an ‘F’ or ‘G’ grade.

From 2025, that will change to ‘C’ grade for new tenancies, followed by all tenancies in 2028.

EPCs and property value  

The good news is that most commentators, including MoneySuperMarket, agree that a higher EPC rating will generally correlate with a higher house price.

At a time of such huge pressure on personal budgets, a high EPC score makes the property more attractive to prospective buyers or tenants because it offers reassurance that energy is being well managed and costs can be affordable now and in the future.

If you would like more information on how best to prepare your home for sale or rent, contact us here at Chinneck Shaw. You can also stay up to date on latest developments in the property market by receiving our quarterly newsletter.

The experience of a happy landlord is a prime example of why Chinneck Shaw is the agency to come to for all your property requirements.

James McGuire bought a three-bedroom house in Kingsley Road, Southsea, we were marketing in the summer of 2021.

Having honed his renovating skills on properties he had previously lived in, James was keen to turn his new acquisition into a really desirable family home he could put on the rental market.

“When I bought the house, I could see the potential,” James explains in an article in the magazine Southsea Lifestyle. “I used to live in the next road up and I knew the area well. I knew it was a nice place to live in with schools and a park nearby and only a short distance to the beach.”

James, who comes from an electrical career background, did around half of the renovation work himself. For major works such as knocking a wall through from the dining room into the small kitchen, he had help from a friend who has a building company.

“I must admit I did get quite a kick out of seeing the transformation,” James said.

When the work was finished and the house was ready, he decided to turn to Chinneck Shaw to help him find a tenant.

In fact, he was so pleased with the service he received from us when he was buying Kingsley Road, he asked us to look after his wider property portfolio.

“They are the best estate agents I have ever dealt with,” he said of Chinneck Shaw. “I get along with them all so well. That’s why I asked them to manage my properties and help me find tenants for my houses.”

Discussing his move from DIY expert to property portfolio holder, James explained: “I started off with my own houses. I renovated the first one and sold that and then did that a few times until I built up a substantial fund when I sold my house in Drayton. That allowed me to invest in the Kingsley Road property and I’m now on the lookout for more properties.

“I’m doing this for the long term. I don’t want to have to work until I’m 70. When it comes to my retirement, if I can get half a dozen properties that then allow me to chill out somewhere with a glass of sangria, then that’s what I want to be doing when I reach a certain age.”

Our Property Manager Joe Rocks told Southsea Lifestyle: “We are really proud to be working with James and to share in this journey with him, from him buying a property and seeing the progress as he renovated it, right through to the end result and us finding him a tenant.

“The transformation of Kingsley Road had to be seen to be believed. James worked really hard and the quality of work and attention to detail is amazing. It really paid off and a tenant was found quickly.

“As managing agents, we share the values of our clients and work with them to ensure their property portfolios achieve the best results.”

For more information on how Chinneck Shaw can help you as a landlord, visit our ‘Let’ pages. You can also stay up to date by receiving our quarterly newsletter.

We have begun the rollout of digital QR codes on our physical property advertising boards, the first agent in Portsmouth or Southsea to do so.

Feedback from prospective buyers and sellers has been really positive.

Buyers say it is so helpful to be able to simply scan the code and receive all the essential property details they need right there and then on their phone.

Sellers say it is a brilliant way to share information about the property as part of wider marketing activity.

A QR code, the acronym standing for ‘quick response’, is increasingly common in marketing.

It is basically a very powerful barcode but unlike the simple horizontal strip you see on, say, supermarket products, it has a horizontal and vertical display of black and white squares that can hold more than a hundred times more information.

As well as being commonly used for paying restaurant bills, QR technology came into the mainstream during the pandemic because of test and trace.

We are really proud to be championing the use of QR codes in the residential property sector.

It’s all about making it easy for buyers and sellers.

Prospective buyers walking or driving past a property they are interested in simply stop and scan the code. They can find it very easily, fixed to the same post as a standard sale board.

Once the code is scanned, the technology returns instant access to all the details shown on the property listing.

The download includes the physical description, pricing, floor plans, photos and location information.

The enquirer can then contact us straight away as the agent and arrange a viewing.

We have introduced the technology in association with the property search portal OnTheMarket and smartboard supplier Kremer Signs.

Pictured putting up a smartboard in Portsmouth is our Associate Director Lizzie Burt.

QR codes are just the latest of many ways we are innovating in the process of property search.

Their rollout follows the recent introduction of another great facility to our website.

Locrating, added earlier this spring, shows all kinds of super-helpful, geo-referenced information on essential considerations about the surrounding area when you are searching for a property.

They include transport connections, school catchment areas, neighbourhood amenities, sold prices of other homes and, very importantly these days, the availability, connection type and recorded speeds of local broadband. For more about Locrating, read our blog.

To begin your property search, visit https://www.chinneckshaw.co.uk/property-search/. You can also stay up to date on trends in the property market by receiving our quarterly newsletter.

Here at Chinneck Shaw, we sell properties throughout the year.

While often important, seasonality is only one factor when it comes to an owner’s decision to instruct marketing.

Your personal circumstances and intentions will generally top the list of reasons.

Competition from other available homes locally can also be something to consider.

But, in our experience, there are two compelling reasons why selling a home in the spring can make perfect sense.

First, buyer activity.

As winter fades and spring comes into being, buyers are more prepared to go out house hunting. It’s human nature. People generally feel more upbeat and so are more likely to venture out in milder weather.

Finding a buyer

Even with web research often being a first step, the longer days make it more convenient for in-person viewings. Buyers can visit properties after work when it is still light.

Families with young or teenage children are a particularly active group searching for homes in the spring.

People in this category may want to plan ahead to be settled in a new home in time for September when the new school year starts. Searching in the spring gives time to achieve that. Some will also want to complete a move before the summer holidays.

Marketing in the spring also gives you the confidence of knowing you have some potentially good selling months ahead.

Unlike the autumn, you don’t have to rush before the onset of Christmas brings market activity to a stop as it tends to do. As a result, your negotiating position can be that bit stronger.

Looking your best

The second reason a spring sale makes sense, and very much linked to the idea of an  upbeat mood after winter, is that your home is likely to look its best to a buyer.

The longer daylight and lighter evenings can make your interiors look more airy and attractive.

And if you have outdoor space, the warmer weather boosts your al fresco appeal too. Your gardens and grounds are typically blossoming again. The colours and scents of flowers offer the prospect of a more engaging first impression of the exterior.

When gardens are full of colour, this is the ideal opportunity for photography to show off your property at its most tempting – especially on a sunny day.

Optimising value

A spring marketing campaign can of course be less relevant for flats or homes without gardens or outdoor space.

In these cases, and depending on your personal circumstances and the local market conditions, it may be wiser to choose a time of year such as autumn when the desire to be outdoors is less.

And some properties, because of their look, feel, angle or location, can simply be more attractive in winter months.

But the headline message for serious sellers, and indeed property investors looking to sell ahead of their next acquisition, is certainly to consider seasonality.

Whether spring, autumn or another time of year, tapping into seasonal trends can help you optimise your selling price.

Landlords should take note as well. The same arguments about seasonal factors and human behaviour apply to the marketing of properties for rent just as much as those for sale.

Like sellers, landlords should always try to secure a positive first impression and make sure they understand the dynamics of market demand at the time they want to highlight a property.

If you are looking to sell your home, we can help you through every stage beginning with a detailed expert valuation. For more information on our support for sellers, visit our sell pages. And for buyers, landlords and tenants, we have a range of really useful information on our property search pages.

You can also stay up to date on trends in the property market by receiving our quarterly newsletter.

Whether you are keen to buy, sell or rent a property, it’s always important to understand the nature of the surrounding area.

That’s because distances to nurseries, schools, shops, local amenities, transport links and green space – and the quality of them – all impact on the underlying value of a home.

To help you put your desired property in context, we’ve added an amazing new facility to our website called Locrating.

It’s a really useful addition to our Property Search pages where we invite you to ‘Start your search today’.

We have already been providing a range of filters at this point beginning with your choice of Buy or Rent, the town or postcode you want to search under and a geographic radius going from +¼ mile to +30 miles.

You can also choose a minimum and maximum price in a series of bands, specify the number of bedrooms you want and say what kind of property you are interested in such as a new home, a flat, a detached, semi-detached or end-of-terrace house, a retirement property and so on.

Once you have identified a property, you can find a full description including floor plans and image gallery and take a virtual tour.

Then, if you think it’s for you, you can simply click to get in touch with us or book a viewing straight away.

Now, with the additional Locrating facility, available on the right-hand Nearby tab, you can check out the local area too.

It shows all kinds of super-helpful, geo-referenced information on essential considerations such as transport connections, school catchment areas, neighbourhood amenities, sold prices and, very importantly these days, the availability, connection type and recorded speeds of local broadband.

Lizzie Burt, Associate Director at Chinneck Shaw, says: “Locrating is a really marvellous, highly intuitive way to get the feel of an area without even leaving your armchair. It’s so easy to use and we’re confident it will prove extremely popular with people looking for homes both to buy or rent. And from the point of view of sellers who list their properties with us, it’s an ideal platform on which all the benefits of a property can be shown.”

To begin your property search, visit https://www.chinneckshaw.co.uk/property-search/. You can also stay up to date on trends in the property market by receiving our quarterly newsletter.

Growth in the housing market in Portsmouth, Southsea and nationally has continued to be healthy after the record rises we saw last year fuelled by the stamp duty holiday.

Even though the tax break period has finished, the picture in the first months of 2022 represents one of the strongest starts to a year we have seen for a long while.

Strong demand has influenced all the usual indicators including sales prices, transaction volumes, mortgage approvals and remortgaging activity.

And in the rental market specifically, investors will welcome a 2% year-on-year increase in private rents nationwide with all regions in England reporting a rise in average values.

We’ve posted the latest monthly market report from the analysts at Dataloft which incorporates intelligence from both the Office of National Statistics and the Land Registry.

Prices and transactions

Dataloft’s figures show that over the last 12 months, house price growth in Portsmouth has averaged 4.5% and in Southsea, 6.5%. In both areas, growth over the past five years has averaged 24.7%.

Breaking this down by property type, Portsmouth average prices work out at: £515,417 for detached properties, representing 21.9% of the market; £339,527 for semi-detached, representing a market share of 20.5%; £259,333 for terraced properties, which account for 39.3%; and £169,636 for flats and apartments, representing 18.3%.

In Southsea, the average price for detached properties, 2.7% of the market is £596,776. For semi-detached, which are 6% of the market, the average is £405,519. For terraced, 64% of the market, the average is £263,173 and for flats, 27.2% of the market, the figure is £169,332.

Most transactions in the local market were in the £100,000 to £200,000 price band with the next biggest category being £250,000 to £500,000. London Road in the postcode area PO2 was the street with the most transactions.

Rental market indicators

For lettings, the latest figures for Portsmouth show average house rents of £1,006 a month with flats at £799. Overall rental values went up five per cent over the past 12 months.

In Southsea, lettings currently average £986 a month for houses and £753 for flats, representing a rise of 3.5% in the last 12 months.

In terms of the ages of tenants you can expect, 61% of Portsmouth tenants are aged between 18 and 29, with Southsea registering 73% for the same age group.

On our website we provide further detailed analysis for both Portsmouth and Southsea to help your understanding and decision making when it comes to buying, selling or renting property.

We hope such market intelligence is of help to you if you are considering a residential property transaction or investment.

To discover how Chinneck Shaw can help you as a landlord, visit our ‘Let’ pages. If you are thinking of buying, we have a range of really useful information on our property search pages. And if you are looking to sell a property, we can help you through every stage beginning with a detailed expert valuation. For more information on our support for sellers, visit our sell pages.

You can also stay up to date on trends in the property market by receiving our quarterly newsletter.

We have had historically low interest rates for some time now, but the latest rise in the cost of borrowing has come amid a cost-of-living crisis already involving higher energy prices, national insurance contributions and other financial pressures.

While it may be a justifiable move to try and tame inflation at the macro level, any rise in the Bank of England base rate means that servicing a standard variable rate mortgage just becomes that bit more expensive for homeowners around the country.

Many variable and tracker rate borrowers – around nine per cent of all mortgage holders – have already been facing steeper repayments from the last base-rate rise in December.

Now, depending on what their lender does, they face the prospect of paying an extra £12 a month per £100,000 of mortgage.

At the same time, there are mortgage holders on fixed rates whose current deals will be due to end sometime this year and who will then be hit if they switch to a variable option.

If you are in either of these camps, there are some options open to you to manage your repayments.

Firstly, shop around. It’s not automatic that all lenders will pass on the latest rate rise so you may be able to find a lower repayment deal by moving elsewhere. It’s at least something to discuss with your current provider.

Secondly, you could investigate what scope there may be to pay off your mortgage early. Not all deals have early repayment charges attached. It’s an important decision which depends on factors such as how far through the mortgage you are and what fees may apply.

Thirdly, if you are on a fixed rate due to end in the coming months, you could try and apply early for a new deal. Some lenders let you apply up to six months before you need to switch, so on the assumption that rates will only go up, you could cushion yourself by making an agreement now.

As a general piece of advice, it’s good to have a plan. While going from 0.25% to 0.5% may not be a seismic rise, we can anticipate that further, consecutive increases may be on the cards to damp down on inflation and navigate the economy out of the impact of the pandemic.

Based on your current mortgage, you could start by working out what level of increase you can safely absorb in the future and create a savings or budget cushion to help you prepare.

We are of course an estate agent rather than a mortgage provider or adviser but we’re always here if you want to have a chat about the financial side of homebuying or selling.

Most homeowners in Portsmouth and Southsea can at least be cheered that relative to their mortgages, the underlying value of their asset is still generally on the up.

In Portsmouth, the average price of a house is £296,371, up 6.3% in the past 12 months and 26.8% over the last five years.

It’s a similar picture in Southsea where the average price, £244,208, reflects a 6.6% rise in the last 12 months and 27% in the past five.

For more information, we highlight a range of essential indicators about the local property scene on our website that you might find useful when you’re looking at mortgage options.

You can also stay up to date on trends in the property market by receiving our quarterly newsletter.