Message to our Landlords

Dear Landlords,

May we start by saying thank you.

Thank you to all of the landlords who have taken the time to contact us and to discuss as best we can, the plans for the future.

We have all come to terms with the reality that in this uncertain time, rent arrears may be a possibility, but we want to reassure you that we are encouraging our tenants to work with us in order to minimise the risk of these happening. We are actively helping tenants get the help they need from the government and local councils to minimise arrears.

We will continue to be here for you and your tenant throughout the coming months, however we do all have a part to play in ridding ourselves of this dreadful virus, and it starts with us minimising physical contact.

All members of staff have been given the provisions to continue working securely from home. Our phone lines and emails will continue to operate as normal however we are taking precautions to protect you, your tenant and our staff.

As of this week;

1.       All property inspections are being postponed.

2.       We have contacted the Gas Safe register for information pertaining to the gas safety procedure, at this time they have advised to carry out “investigations” but have said they will respond separately in regards to “inspections”. As soon as we have an update for this we will let you know.

3.       For properties currently on the market, understandably viewings are now not possible. We are actively discussing properties with potential tenants still and providing them with video tours where possible.

4.       Essential maintenance will be the priority for all members of staff here, ensuring boilers, water supplies, electricity etc remain uninterrupted.

5.       Should rent arrears occur we will work with you in order to best resolve them with your tenant.

Our service to you will continue through this difficult period, and if you have any questions or concerns please do call or email us.

We continue to be available by phone and by email Monday to Saturday.

Our best advice during this period is that if your enquiry is urgent to please email team@orchards.co.uk to ensure an available member of the team receives it.

Please continue to call our normal landline number of 01525 40 22 66.

Kindest Regards

The Whole Team at Orchards

The End of a Decade! A Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2020

Every year we like to take a look back over the past 12 months at our areas performance and try to forecast what we believe will happen in the coming year.

This year though is a little bit special for us. It may be the end of a decade, but it is the start of a new era for Orchards Estate Agents, I’ll come on to that more in just a few moments.

A Year in Numbers – Area Averages

Approximately 800 properties Sold STC in the last 12 months with an average asking price of £375,000 in MK45.

The Average days to secure a buyer for South East (Excluding London) is the second lowest it has been since 2012 – 51 Days

The Average days taken to reach completion after becoming Sold STC has increased from 95 days in 2011 to 115 days in 2019

Bedfordshire house prices have on average grown 35.55% in five years up to Q3 in 2019 however Bedfordshire has seen a decrease in values first three quarters of 2019 compared to 2018 with prices down between 1.4% and 2.4%

New Sales Listings for Bedfordshire are 1.4% down compared to the same period in 2018

New Rental prices for Bedfordshire are on average 1.8% higher for one or two bedroom properties then in 2018.

Our Year in Numbers

70% of all new listings sold in 2019

1208 Viewings carried out in 2019 (that’s an average of 11 per property)

An increase of 19% more instructions in 2019 than 2018 whilst the areas has a whole saw a decrease of 1.4%.

The average time taken from sale agreed to completion for a property sold by Orchards is 78 days a whole 37 days faster than the area average.

Managed letting stock increased by 14% when the area average for new instructions was 3.4%

We broke the 200 managed lets target and finished the year on 215!  

This year with the help of our local community we have managed to give back over £304,100 worth of prizes, donations, sponsorships and money off vouchers creating over 175 “winners”

So What Is Next? Onwards and Upwards That’s What We Say!

We want next year to be even bigger than this year, but we can only do that with the local community’s help.

Thinking of Selling or Letting? Call us for a free valuation. They are no obligations and completely free of charge. We will provide you with the best advice at all times, including any thing we believe may benefit you to consider before you put your property on the market, and when the best times are to sell!

Already on the market? Register with us to help you find the house you are looking for. All of our properties are called out to our applicants even before they become published online.

Fancy yourself a writer? We are doubling our magazine distribution from 5,000 houses to 10,000 houses in the new year and are looking for budding writers to provide content. Do you have a passion for saving money or for being thrifty and upcycling? Do you run a business and you want to share information with the local community? Get in touch and help us create the best content!

What’s more, we want to ensure we continue to give back to the local community we love so much. So we are excited to be launching the following initiatives.

Our mentoring scheme for local start-up business including £15,000 worth of funding, office space and one to one mentoring.

A fight against Homelessness. In 2020, working with our landlords, investment buyers and other local charities we are striving to prevent homelessness. We want to create better communication channels with local government in order to make it easier for people on benefits to be able to let property, we are working with providers to find alternatives to 5 week deposits to enable more people to afford to move and perhaps most importantly we are going to be putting more man hours in to helping the local communities and charities by volunteering at local events, foodbank and more.

Everyone at Orchards wishes you a great 2020 and we thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Should you have any questions, want to help on our new initiatives, or are just thinking of selling or letting in the area call us on 01525 40 22 66.

Kind Regards

Adam Barker

Director

Orchards

OUR PRIZES THIS YEAR

£300,000 of Money off vouchers                        

£105 to British Legion                               

74 Easter Eggs

£60 of Smyths Vouchers                                         

52 Bottles of Cava                                

31 Bags of Pick n Mix

5 Lunches from Ampthill Nutrition Kitchen       

5 Chocolate Hampers                 

4 Tickets to Woburn Safari Park

4 Tickets to Go Ape                                                

2 Tickets to Lego Land  

2 Tickets to Amp Rocks

Meal for Two at the White Hart                            

1 Zumba Class

Body Composition Scan

1 Cut & Blow Dry                                                

1 Set of Gel Nails                      

Russel Lower PTA Ball Sponsorship

Winner of the Best Agent Guides Excellent award for Sales and Lettings (Top 10% of Agents in the country)

The Tenant Fee Ban

The Tenant Fees Bill sets out the government’s approach to banning letting fees for tenants.

Ultimately there are no fees that can be charged to the tenant, nor can the tenant be forced to sign up to any third party providers.

The key measures of the bill include:

• Security deposits must not exceed the equivalent of five weeks' rent.

• Holding deposits will be capped at no more than one week’s rent. The Bill also sets out the proposed requirements on landlords and agents to return a holding deposit to a tenant within 28 days

• A fine of £5,000 for an initial breach of the ban with a criminal offence where a person has been fined or convicted of the same offence within the last 5 years. Financial penalties of up to £30,000 can be issued as an alternative to prosecution

• Trading Standards will enforce the ban and will make provisions for tenants to be able to recover unlawfully charged fees via the First-tier Tribunal

• Landlords are prevented from recovering possession of their property via the section 21 until they have repaid any unlawfully charged fees

• Enabling the appointment of a lead enforcement authority in the lettings sector

• The Consumer Rights Act 2015 will be amended to specify that the letting agent transparency requirements should apply to property portals such as Rightmove and Zoopla

• Local authorities will be able to ring-fence any money raised for future local housing enforcement

Alongside rent and deposits, agents and landlords will only be permitted to charge tenants fees associated with:

• A change or early termination of a tenancy when requested by the tenant

• Utilities, communication services and Council Tax

• Payments arising from a default by the tenant such as replacing lost keys.

What does this mean to me?

Ultimately as landlords you are unable to charge extra security deposits for the likes of pets or poor credit histories.

Landlords also will need to be aware that due to there being less deposit held ultimately there will be less monies available for reparations or arrears.

As such we would recommend considering investing in some type of rent guarantee insurance or legal cover.

Orchards offer additional legal cover for £10 per month. Call for more details 01525 40 22 66

Fitness for Human Habitation

Arlesey tops list of the most popular Bedfordshire commuter towns with cheaper house prices than London and good schools

Blink and you would probably miss the tiny town of Arlesey, famous for its bricks from five factories until their closure in 1992, and now with a claim to fame as the most popular commuter choice in Bedfordshire.

New analysis by Savills of the county’s commuter options — with rush-hour journeys to London of under an hour — finds Arlesey property prices have soared 48 per cent in the last five years to an average of just over £313,000.

Reputed to have the longest high street in Britain, with roads spiking off it, the town is best described as “long and thin”, says estate agent Steve Bunney, branch manager of Country Properties. “There is no real defined centre to it.”

Arlesey’s success lies in its house prices compared not only to London, but also to nearby Hitchin, and its convenience. A rush-hour commute to King’s Cross takes just under 40 minutes, and an annual season ticket costs £4,000.

Its Victorian houses were built from pale, clay-heavy local bricks. A two-bedroom cottage would cost about £250,000, while a three-bedroom house built in the Eighties or Nineties would cost £325,000 to £350,000.

And while light on amenities Arlesey is large enough to have two schools, Gothic Mede Academy for primary age, and Etonbury Academy, for seniors, both rated “good” by Ofsted.

Henlow:

Another option is the satellite village of Henlow. “It is really picturesque,” says Steve Bunney. “I think it is the most desirable village in the area and it is close to the train station.”

Henlow has a huge mix of property. Budget £375,000 to £400,000 for a modern three-bedroom house to £650,000 for a barn or farmhouse.

Sandy:

Today’s research suggests small town living is in vogue because Sandy, a mini market town between Cambridge and Bedford, has also performed strongly over the last five years, with price growth of 42 per cent to an average of just under £234,000.

Matthew Drew, office manager of Kennedy & Co estate agents, says part of the reason for the price growth is the lack of property for sale, and Sandy’s good commuter links. Anything that comes on the market gets snapped up, while a rush-hour journey from Sandy to King’s Cross takes 48 minutes, and an annual season ticket costs £4,528.

Parents have plenty of choice when it comes to schools, as standards in Bedfordshire are routinely high. Sandy Upper School, Potton Middle School and Sandye Place Academy are all rated “good” by Ofsted. For younger pupils, Wrestlingworth CofE VC Lower School and Everton Lower School are “outstanding”.

Adding to the appeal, Sandy is set in pretty countryside — the Sand Hills — with the River Ivel running through town. In terms of value, you get more for your money than in nearby commuter towns in more affluent Hertfordshire, such as Hitchin and Letchworth.

Period homes are few and far between in Sandy, and the most popular option is a home on one of the leafy private post-war estates, often in quiet no-through roads and with good-size gardens. An average four-bedroom detached family home on a street such as The Avenue or Swansholme Gardens would cost about £425,000.

Bedford:

On the downside Sandy is quiet, some would say dull, light on amenities beyond a few basic shops, restaurants and pubs. For more choice — and a posh dinner — locals head to the picturesque nearby town of Bedford on the River Great Ouse, about 10 miles away.

Bedford house prices are half those in London, and it’s a 40-minute train journey to St Pancras. Merchant Square is part of Riverside North, a town centre development bringing new restaurants, bars, a cinema, hotel and beautifully landscaped square, a 10-minute walk from the station. Here 46 spacious, light flats and penthouses have uninterrupted views of the river. From £199,000, with two-bedroom homes from £299,000. Call 0121 212 2459. 

Bedfordshire’s larger commuter towns have seen slow growth since 2012. Leighton Buzzard won’t set the world alight but prices are up — just 25 per cent. However, the Luton suburb of Leagrave has seen price growth of 41 per cent as buyers flock to pick up its reasonably priced contemporary homes. The average property price in Leagrave is about £214,000.

Along with affordable homes, the secrets of its success are the other two key ingredients commuters crave: good schools and a painless commute. Leagrave to St Pancras International takes just 36 minutes, and an annual season ticket costs £4,032, while Leagrave Primary School and The Chalk Hills Academy, for seniors, get “good” Ofsted reports.