News & Insights
Beauty is in the eye of the householder
The market is moving onward and upward with house prices increasing and confidence growing. The latest figures show that UK homeowners are expecting a 4.5% increase in house prices by September.
It was also interesting to hear a timely reminder from planning minister Nick Boles that housing developers must make beautiful homes to encourage people to buy. Mr Boles suggested developers who invest in good architects producing good design are likely to encounter less opposition in the planning process and to sell more homes, quicker. He cited a particular development on a green field site where they “built really beautiful places, quite modern so not all pastiche and everybody loves them. What he says makes perfect sense. If a prospective buyer is comfortable where they are but considering moving, they must be enticed into the move and excited by the move.
Mr Boles told developers that building modern houses would be “worth the investment. The recovering market is still small and homes that are on the market must be attractive. Too often during the housing boom, the homes built were functional, uninspiring and dull. They could get away with it then because the market was buoyant and they knew they could sell them. But now those homes are among the most difficult to sell on.
Todays recovering market demands a little more imagination in design. Mr Boles put it bluntly. Developers should build “beautiful places to “sell more homes.
But it is also true for existing homes. Just like the housing developers the individual householder looking to move is in the business of selling. In todays market where buyers are at last stirring into action, a householder must raise their game. They cannot do anything about their location but once they have settled on an asking price, the next thing to consider is what the home looks like.
Preparing your home for sale, making it attractive so that a prospective buyer will be excited and want to buy, has never been more important.
