The pandemic-fuelled fashion for houses over flats shows absolutely no sign of slowing down in 2026, Camilla Dell claims.
The buying agent revealed that so far this year 77% of Black Brick clients have purchased houses.
This is a complete reversal of fortune since the same period in 2019 when 92% of its buyers were after an apartment, and an even more resounding vote for houses than back in 2021, in the early days of the race for space.
Back then, 43% of the homes secured were houses and 57 per cent flats.
FLAT MARKET
Dell says: “It is also worth pointing out that flats have had a bad press of late, from the fire safety scandal which has emerged in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster, to the iniquities of the leasehold system, to rising service charges.
“Another issue is Stamp Duty – the buying tax levied by the Government. “Stamp Duty is so high that a lot of our first time buyer clients have missed out the early rungs of the property ladder altogether, saved up for longer, and go straight into a home they can live in for ten or 15 years – and that is usually a house.
She highlighted that off-market sales were once a rarified subsector of London’s prime market, favoured by high profile owners who didn’t want the world and his wife seeing inside their homes.
Dell adds: “Back when I founded the company in 2007 almost the only homes sold without public marketing were those priced at £10m-plus. Over the years it has grown in popularity, favoured by buyers for whom security or privacy is a concern, and those who wish to test the market by offering their property without showing it on the sale portals. And it is commonplace in London homes priced from £2m.”
WILL BURNHAM BASH THE PROPERTY MARKET?
Dell also gave her view on the prospect of an Andy Burnham premiership, adding: Burnham is known to support an alternative system where, rather than paying Stamp Duty and Council Tax, homeowners will pay a single tax based on the value of their property – 0.48% per year, which works out at £4,800 per £1m.
“Critics have pointed out that the idea penalises London, where homes are worth considerably more than elsewhere in the country, and is unfair on new owners who have only just paid out for Stamp Duty.
“My feeling is that since the plan requires an accurate, annual valuation of every home in the UK it is unlikely to be rolled out, and certainly not before the next General Election which must be held by August 2029 at the latest.
“I think it will just be too difficult to introduce.”
