Why viewing a house should really take you only about 10 seconds: Property news

The Home Front: A rundown of the latest property statistics

Friday 19 February 2016 12:00 GMT

This seven bedroom detached house in Nobold, Shrewsbury is a former farmhouse dating back to the mid-18th century. As well as a guest suite, the property has brick outbuildings and an outdoor swimming pool

One in six home hunters says they take only 10 seconds to decide whether they like a property from the outside. Figures from Barclays Mortgages show a third of buyers make their decisions purely on a home's exterior and will not even bother to go inside if they are unimpressed, and nearly half would offer up to 20 per cent off a property's asking price if an exterior were unappealing. The top exterior features that buyers look for are a well-manicured garden followed by double glazing. Overall, new-builds were named the favourite property type, followed by Victorian and then Georgian houses. The report shows that the most favoured front doors were either white or black rather than more garish colours. The biggest turn-off was spotting vermin control nearby…

Buying vs renting

First-time buyers in the UK are on average £865 a year better off with their own home compared with renters, according to Lloyds Bank. The average monthly buying cost (including mortgage payments and household maintenance) for a first-time buyer with a three-bedroom house is £672, around 10 per cent lower than renting the same property. This saving has jumped £105 over the past year and is more than double the saving in 2010. The only region bucking the trend is the South-east of England, where average monthly buying costs are £965, £65 higher than rental ones. Overall, the number of first-time buyers last year is estimated by Lloyds to be 310,000, similar to 2014's 311,700. The number of first-time buyers accounted for 46 per cent of all house purchases made with a mortgage in 2015, up from just over a third in 2007.

Who owns a home?

Analysis by the independent Resolution Foundation think-tank indicates that people aged over 65 now account for a third of all home owners, up from less than a quarter in 1998. Meanwhile, just 10 per cent of home owners are aged 16-34, down from 19 per cent in 1998.

South-facing vs river views

A new study by Direct Line Home Insurance suggests that despite the traditional attraction of a south-facing garden, analysis of property asking prices reveals homes with south-facing gardens command just a 0.37 per cent premium compared to properties with north-facing ones. River views, however, offer a 9 per cent premium compared with identical properties. The research also indicates that if you live higher in a new development in many cities, you pay significantly more for the privilege.

Million-pound properties

The number of UK properties worth at least £1m is expected to be at least three times higher by 2030, according to Santander Mortgages, at more than 1.6 million. In the next 15 years, a quarter of homes in London are expected to be valued at £1m or more, while only 7 per cent of homes in the South-east of England are expected to fetch £1m, and less than 1 per cent in the North-east, Yorkshire and the Humber, the North-west, Scotland and the East Midlands.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

Show all 15

1/15Outrageous property deals in pictures

Outrageous property deals in pictures

The Park Lane townhouse set to become one of the UK's most expensive student flats at £4,000 a week

A town house situated in Park Lane, one of the most affluent places in London, is about to become the capital’s most expensive student residence. Most of London students usually live in halls of residence before moving on to house-share. For this reason it is fair to say few will able to afford the 3,540 square foot three-bedroom flat, which is available for £4,000 a week, £16,000 per month or £192,000 per year.

Wetherell

Outrageous property deals in pictures

London's most expensive flat goes on sale at Buckingham Palace near Buckingham Palace priced at £150m

A luxury flat in London’s historic Admiralty Arch, which overlooks Buckingham Palace, could sell for up to £150 million. If sold for that price, the 15,000 sq ft apartment will become London's most expensive flat, topping One Hyde Park, a flat which sold for £140 million in 2014.The Grade I listed property boasts 12 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms

Outrageous property deals in pictures

‘Little White House’ inside the US embassy complex in London goes on sale for £2.5m

A luxury home inside the US embassy complex has gone on sale for £2.5m. The property is said to be the most “protected home in Britain” and any visitor is asked to carry an identity card at all times. The complex has patrolling US marines, a 24-hour British police presence, checkpoints, anti-tanks blocks and CCTV.But potential buyers looking for a fortress should not get their hopes up as all the security will disappear once the US embassy moves to a new site in Nine Elms in 2017. The home, located at 4 Blackburne’s Mews near Grosvenor Square, dates back to 1732 and owes its nickname to its white façade, grand entrance and sweeping staircase as well as its proximity to the US embassy. It provides nearly 3,000 sq ft of living space and benefits from access to communal gardens.

Wetherell

Outrageous property deals in pictures

First London luxury flats to contain their own private art gallery with prices going from £3.8m up to £7.7m

The first private luxury apartment building in London with its own private art gallery has been unveiled in March. The Chilterns at 24 Paddington Street contains 44 luxury residences, the majority of which were sold in 2013. It contains a signature restaurant, a 24 hour-hotel style concierge service, a gymnasium and sauna and a private cinema. The new art gallery, with original pictures of the area by David Bailey, is part of the lobby of the building and is “one of the most exciting and unique features of the Chilterns”, according to Stephen Conway, CEO of Galliard Homes. With prices going from £3.8 million up to £7.7 million for a three bedroom flat, the residence is located between the local shops of Marylebone High Street and Baker Street.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

Margaret Thatcher's Belgravia home is up for sale for £30m

Margaret Thatcher’s six-floor townhouse in Belgravia is on the market for a cool £30 million. The Grade II listed building on No. 73 Chester Square, one of London’s most prestigious addresses, now boasts a lift, a newly constructed mews house with a roof terrace and a private garage after a three-year refurbishment by Leconfield, a development and construction company. Some features from Thatcher’s time at the property remain. The layout and design of the formal dining room and interlinking study on the ground floor has been reinstated exactly as the Iron Lady had it during her 22 years at the property, from 1991 until her death in 2013.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

Tiny London house that is just 10ft wide goes on market for £800,000

A tiny terraced house that measures no more than 10ft wide has gone on the market in south London for a staggering £800,000. The house, generally labelled "unique" by estate agent Foxtons, looks all the more unusual because it is sandwiched between two regular-sized homes. It doesn't even have a proper back door - images of the interior suggested renovators had sought to maximise the property's space by including a folding aperture to the similarly narrow back garden.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

The Mayfair penthouse that sold for £30 million

A Mayfair penthouse on Albemarle Street, one of Mayfair's oldest roads, sold to a mystery buyer for £30 million in December. The 5,845 sq ft, three-bedroom family home is thought to be one of the most expensive properties sold in the capital this year, and comes with an annual service charge of £61,000.

supplied by Estate agent Peter Wetherell

Outrageous property deals in pictures

The dilapidated pre-fab 'shed' sold for nearly £1 million

A pre-fabricated bungalow in south-east London has sold at auction for just under £1 million. The 1950s property in Peckham comes with 0.6 acres of land, is in need of renovation and has no fitted bathroom, but still sold for £950,000. A guide price of £590,000 was initially set, but increased rapidly during the bidding.

Google Maps

Outrageous property deals in pictures

The starter home flats that went for a combined £60 million

Some 215 “affordable” starter homes, specifically designed for first time buyers, sold out in just three hours in November, after dozens of aspiring homeowners camped overnight and queued in bad weather to get their hands on the flats. The starter home flats at Trinity Square by Galliard Homes went for a combined £60 million, or an average of £700 per sq ft. Londoners looking for affordable housing did not hesitate to camp out for up to two days to snag a flat, despite the fact that the project will not be complete for another two years.

Galliard

Outrageous property deals in pictures

The longest lateral flat where H.G wells hosted a book club: yours for £3.65m

The 2,200 square foot apartment in Chiltern Court in Marylebone was also home to author Arnold Bennett and political cartoonist David Low. Now on the market for £3.65 million through Rokstone agency, the four-bedroom flat has been refurbished into a luxury apartment, providing an exceptional 40 meter window frontage and depth. It claims to be the longest and most outstanding lateral flat - ones that stretch the full width of a building, or sometimes across two buildings - currently for sale in London’s West End.

Rokstone

Outrageous property deals in pictures

Gatti House: the flats with celebrity links and private "pizza" lift that sold for a collective £16.5 million

Celebrity links, a famous history and a private “pizza lift” has helped set a new record for price per square foot for a block of flats in central London. The four flats have sold for a collective £16.5 million at Gatti House on London’s Strand. Gatti House, a magnificent grade II building built in 1867, was sold as four separate apartments priced from £2.95 million to £5.95 million by CBRE Residential and Beauchamp, which has completed the last remaining sale.

CBRE Residential and Beauchamp

Outrageous property deals in pictures

London’s most expensive office

A newly refurbished office in the heart of Mayfair measuring 6,000 sq ft was unveiled by Enstar Capital in October. At £500 per sq ft, it is set to be the most expensive commercial fit out ever undertaken in the West End, according to the developer. The workspace on 54 Brooks Mews features gold-plated executive washrooms inspired by Armani-hotel in Italy, timber flooring imported from a 16th century monastery in Tuscany and an Art Deco entrance restored with a new “54” entrance logo replicating Steve Rubell’s famous “studio 54” nightclub logo from the seventies. While the director’s floor include a rooftop terrace dressed with loungers and an outside meeting and dining table.

Enstar Capital

Outrageous property deals in pictures

Former garage in Mayfair become world’s most expensive mews house at £24m in Mayfair

In September, the world’s most expensive mews house, in Reevews Mews, sold to a Qatari buyer for an eye-watering £24 million.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

A penthouse where you canoe from your front door, yours for £16.95 million

London luxury dockside complex located on Chelsea creek is due for completion by the end of 2016. But its luxury flats are already on sale including this penthouse yours for £16.95 million. It’s future residents will be able to slip down the river for a work out on the water at anytime of the day.

Outrageous property deals in pictures

The only property in London too expensive for the city’s super-rich property buyers

A 45 bed-room mansion near Hyde Park, previously owned by a Saudi Prince, received a private bid for £280 million. If accepted this would have made the property he most expensive single home ever to be sold in Britain. It was originally listed with an asking price of £300 million –more than double the price of the UK’s second most expensive home.

Mortgage repossession

Fewer than one in 1,000 mortgages ended in repossession in 2015, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. At 10,200, the total number of repossessions in 2015 was less than half the number in 2014, down from 20,900.

Buying-process issues

More than six in 10 people believe the process of buying a home is too confusing, a poll from Tepilo reveals. Around a third said that it is simply far too expensive, and more than one in 10 worries about the risk of a sale falling through before exchange when they have already spent money on legal and survey fees. A third believe that sellers should be responsible for paying for the survey on the house they are selling. Top of the list of the most stressful elements of buying a home was “moving day”, closely followed by deciding how much to offer on a property.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies