Roll the clock back 20 years and any self-respecting late 20/early 30 something would never say on their first date that they lived with their mum and dad. It was seen as a sign of immaturity being tied to your mother’s apron strings with as a failure to leave the family home. Yet over these last two decades, the age of leaving home has been increasing steadily from 20 years and 11 months in the late 1990’s to 22 years and 7 months today.
Read MoreDartford boasts high employment rates and a community spirit that is like no other I have seen. The town centre offers great shopping, coffee shops, bars and restaurants, it even has its own version of Central Park too. But that’s not all, it has charm and still rings dear to its heritage of being a market town from back in the day.
Read MoreGoing into lockdown in March, the Government proclaimed a ban on tenant evictions, pledging that no tenant in a private rented home, who had lost their wages due to Covid-19 would be kicked out of their private rented home until the late summer.
Read MoreThe biggest issue whenever you are selling your Dartford property is the properties that you are in competition with. Plenty of Dartford homeowners have jumped onto the stamp duty holiday bandwagon since the announcement and there are 19% more properties for sale in Dartford than there were during lockdown.
Read MoreThe Government is on track to borrow £400 Billion because of Coronavirus and that needs to be paid back at some stage. Last year alone, before Coronavirus, the Government brought in £824 Billion in taxes whilst they spent £887 Billion, meaning they had to borrow £63 Billion. In fact, the last time taxes were higher than spending in the UK was 1998, meaning since then the country has been living beyond its means.
Read MoreThe 1st July 1948 heralded a new dawn in how property was built, as the Town & Country Planning Act 1947 came into force, meaning no property could be built without the say so of the local authority. Now, Boris Johnson has announced a substantial change to that, by in effect, ending planning permission.
Read MoreThe Chancellor announced on Wednesday 8th July in his mini Budget some interesting news for Dartford homeowners and Dartford landlords. Rishi Sunak is going to give ‘The Green Homes Grant’ of up to £5,000 to cover two-thirds of the costs of environmentally friendly upgrades to your Dartford property, with the homeowner covering the other third.
Read MoreThere is no doubt that Coronavirus will affect the Dartford Property Market, but just how?
The ensuing economic challenges are going to impact the Dartford (and UK) property market, yet no one knows the real answer. The newspapers eulogise different opinions, but that's all they are – opinions and everybody's got a different opinion. The truth of the matter is we don’t know and won’t know for another few months at least, if not more?
Read MoreThe new laws cut waiting times from 16 weeks to just eight and form part of plans to modernise the current "outdated" system. Not only that but the new proposals also mean that shops no longer in use can be converted into housing without a full planning application.
Read MoreDartford Farmers’ Market began in November 2005 at the request of Dartford Borough Council and has graced our highstreet ever since. That is until Covid-19 created havoc throughout the world and everything came to a standstill.
Read MoreThis post isn’t to scare you but I do feel we should all be reminded about the importance of keeping our homes and properties safe and secure. In this post, I have highlighted my top tips that we can be put into practice to help prevent intruders and better secure our homes.
Read MoreThe British are infatuated with owning their own property and politicians know that. Margaret Thatcher used it as a vote winner in 1979 when she allowed council house tenants to buy their own home. Coming to the present day, Boris Johnson’s Conservative government have anxieties that the Brits have not been buying nearly enough homes lately and, as with all countries in the world, the British property market was put ‘on ice’ for several months to help contain the Coronavirus, exacerbating the problem.
Read MoreOne of my Dartford landlords contacted me last week from Crayford, after he had spoken to a landlord friend of his from Temple Hill. He told me they were deliberating the Dartford property market and neither of them could make their mind up if it was time to either sell or buy property following Covid-19. His friend said he would wait to see what would happen to property prices following Covid-19, yet my landlord wanted to pick my brain in order to help him decide what to do.
Read MoreAs of today (July 4th), lockdown in our towns and on our high streets will start to be reduced and local businesses can finally start the journey to recovery. In this post, I would like to highlight why choosing to shop at your local businesses had many benefits and can help the communities we live in.
Read MoreWhat have we learned in the first month?
From talking to most of the Dartford estate and letting agents and our own findings, it might surprise many of you that new enquiries from homebuyers, tenants, landlords and home sellers have been at record levels since lockdown was lifted from the property market in mid-May.
Read MoreApparently, one in 10 applicants who registered outside of London to buy a home were from the capital. This is down from the record 15 per cent recorded in April, but still well ahead of the seven per cent recorded in May 2019.
Read MoreIn 2019, the private rented sector accounted for just over four and a half million households or 19.9% of UK households, no change from the year before. Interesting, when compared to the proportion of private rented households in the 1980’s and 1990’s, when the proportion of private rented households was stable at around 9.5% to 10.8%.
Read MoreWe have all definitely been on a challenging journey over the last few months. Thankfully, it looks as if we are slowing heading back to some kind of normality. None of us know what this new normal will look like but I can honestly say that whatever happens, doing our bit within our communities will definitely help.
Read MoreIsn’t it funny that nobody boasts they are a buy to let landlord anymore? Roll the clock back to the early millennium and you couldn’t go to the local golf club or shop at a Waitrose without someone dropping buy to let into the conversation as easily and as often as the weather.
Read MoreDartford lies along the south bank of the River Thames, just east of and adjoining the metropolitan area of Greater London.
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