Election result boosts the market

Buyers are keen; vendors will benefit, say agents

WITH THE Cons e r v a t i v e s back in, prope r t y buyers are back out. With renewed confidence in t h e market and the threat of the mansion tax receding, estate agents agree that now is a good time to sell a house — especially a new house.

Planning consent has just been granted to build a luxury bespoke home in Totteridge Village, N20. It will be around 6,300 sq ft on a half-acre plot and agent Real Estates is asking £3.2 million.

Behind a screened frontage and approached via a driveway, the home has double garages and a mature rear garden. It will offer open-plan living, with the main bedroom, dressing room and luxury bathroom taking up most of the rear of the property. There will also be a cinema room and indoor swimming pool with doors opening on to the garden.

In one week, Dreamview Estates sold two properties that together were

Consent granted: £3.2 million home in Totteridge. Agent: Real Estates priced at more than £4 million. One of them, at £3 million, is a 5,625 sq ft property at Highfield Gardens, NW11, offered jointly with Beauchamp Estates. It has six bedrooms, a 35ft drawing and dining room, gardens and a 35ft kitchen with succah roof, Davenport units and Miele appliances.

The other property is a refurbished five-bedroom house on Limes Avenue, NW11, at £1.03 million. The agent has also overseen the exchange of contracts on properties in Ashbourne Avenue at £930,000 and the Ridgeway at £1.4 million and £1.7 million.

Lawrence Henry of Statons reports that the market for new homes in his firm’s area, especially around Hadley Wood, is very active with lots of new inquiries.

Currently on Statons’ books is a fivebedroom, three-reception house next to Newbury School in Radlett, from local housebuilder Griggs Homes. It has off-street parking, a 150ft garden, a games room and a cinema. Asking price is £2.495 million.

In Muswell Hill, north London, the Pinnacle is a development of new homes built by Jamm Living, offering one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and four-bedroom townhouses. Agent is Martyn Gerrard.

If youwantasuresignof thestrength of the property market, look no further than the complaints of estate agents about the planning process. “As we all know, the building of private new homes in the UK is woefully inadequate and, believe it or not, there are one third of them being built today, as compared with those built in the 1950s when the population of the UK was far lower,” says Trevor Abrahmsohn, of estate agent Glentree.

“This is a function of the strangulated planning process as much as the difficulty of funding and availability of sites to develop. Localism and nimbyism are definitely in the ascendency and pragmatism seems to have taken a back step.”