The Local
Music
People & Community
Events
Sport What’s on in our area? Try Juicing this January Community news
Visit Family
What we love about our homes Local Feature
Nature
Property Market Update
Fun Food
Jumble Fayre Celebrations
Welcome... What ’s on in our area? Welcome to our new community newspaper, complete with a blend of the latest local property market trends, lifestyle articles and community events.
Rock Around The Sixties Sunday 8 Feb 2015 Empire Theatre, Butler Road, Halstead, Essex CO9 1LL
We hope you had a great time celebrating the end of 2014 and now a few weeks into the new-year are beginning to make plans for 2015. In this issue we bring you lots of great local events going on in the first part of the year for the whole family. Along with an insight into utilising space in your basement with Intercounty’s Sales Director Karen Johnson and a great selection of tried and tested recipes including blended fruit and veg juices to help kick start the “new you” you promised yourself as a new year’s resolution!
A Night of Dirty Dancing is coming to Braintree Thursday 26 Mar 2015 Braintree Arts Theatre, Notley Road, Braintree, Essex CM7 1WY
Don’t forget to flip over to the back of the mag to read your local property market update. If you have a local event that you would like to have advertised or a fantastic story or recipe you want to share in our next publication then get in touch with your local branch or call Natasha on 01279 713733
Mountfitchet Garden Club Glorious Canna Saturday, April 11, 2015 - 12:00pm
Soul Legends is coming to Harlow
Farmers Market 9am – 1pm in Bell Street car park, Sawbridgeworth 7th February, 7th March and 11th April
Thursday 5 Mar 2015 Playhouse Theatre Harlow, Playhouse Square, Harlow, Essex CM20 1LS
Chelmsford City Theatre Saturday 14 Mar 2015 El Llanto Se Mueve (The Cry Moves) Jairo Barrull Flamenco Company Chelmsford Civic Theatre, Fairfield Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1JG
Chelmsford Art Society February Exhibition and Sale of Paintings at RHS Hyde Hall Saturday 14 Feb 2015 and Sunday 15 Feb 2015 Creephedge Lane, Rettendon Common, Essex CM2 7DW
Bishop’s Stortford Antiques and Collectables Fair Sunday 8th March 2015 9.30am - 4.00pm Venue: Bishop’s Stortford Football Club, Woodside Park, Dunmow Road, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts, Hertfordshire CM23 5RG
Royston Picture Palace Cinema Friday & Saturday Evenings Doors open at 6.45pm, movie starts at 7.30pm. Children’s Matinee 1st Saturday of the month. Tickets available from Royston library, at the door or online at www. roystonpicturepalace.org.uk
Harlow parkrun weekly Free 5km Timed Run
Newport Amateur Theatrical Society (NATS) pantomime: “Cinderella” by David Swan
Every Saturday at 9:00am. It’s free! But please register before your first run, visit www.parkrun.org.uk/harlow
6 – 8 Feb 2015, Newport Village Hall, Station Road, Newport, CB11 3PL. Centre, tel: 01799 524002, also online at www.saffrontickets.com
Dunmow Book Fair Saturday 7 Feb 2015, Foakes Hall, Stortford Road, Great Dunmow, Essex CM6 1DG
The Sooty Show, Bishop’s Stortford Saturday, April 11, 2015 - 12:00pm Shows are at 11am and 2.30pm. Tickets: £14/£12 concs Venue: Rhodes Centre www.rhodesbishopsstortford.org.uk/events/the-sooty-show/
Coull String Quartet Concert Saturday, March 14, 2015 - 10:15am St John’s Church, Stansted Mountfitchet
Royston Market 8.30am every Saturday and Wednesday
Victorian Games Galore! Monday, February 16, 2015 - 11:00am to Friday, February 20, 2015 - 4:00pm Audley End House & Gardens, CB11 4JF
Try Juicing this January After over indulging and ‘letting go’ over Christmas with a few too many mince pies and celebratory glasses of Champagne, now is the time to seriously start making up for it and really working that healthy eating regime that most of us promised ourselves as our new year’s resolution. A couple of fantastic, quick and easy ways to eat healthily is to blend your favourite fruit and veg into smoothies and juices. All you need is a blender or juicer, both of which can be easily picked up from most electronics shops and supermarkets. Once made the drinks can be kept in the fridge for up to 72 hours, which makes it easy to get organised ahead of time. There are many other recipes that you can try, but we think the best thing is to experiment with different fruit and veg to find the perfect blend! Think you have the best recipe? Get in touch with us on our local Facebook page.
Recipe-Power Gulp This great green potion is packed full of goodness by sneaking in some iron and vitamin K - a must for our blood and bones! The ingredients should make about 2 cups. •
1 cup of sliced Kale (3 large leaves)
•
1 cup of seedless green grapes (about 28 should do)
•
1 cucumber, thickly sliced
•
1 small Granny Smith apple (4-6 ounces) cored and cut up into chunks
•
1/2 cup of water
Community News
Come and enjoy the best films this Spring at your local community cinema. Royston Picture Palace hosts performances on Friday and Saturday evenings, occasional Sunday afternoons and Saturday matinees. Don’t miss out on the sell-out Children’s Saturday Matinees on the first Saturday of every month – in recent months we’ve enjoyed Paddington, Frozen and Book of Life. February’s film is Night at the Museum.
There’s plenty of films for adults too, with the Theory of Everything and Unbroken, and many, many more. To keep in touch with our programme and book online, visit www.roystonpicturepalace.org.uk or Find us on Facebook – Royston Picture Palace. Town Hall, Melbourn Road, Royston, Herts
Tannery Drift School Local Royston school hold lots of events throughout the year which we are honoured to support and join in with the fun of fund raising. “I just want to pass on my thanks for Intercounty’s involvement with Tannery Drift so far. The Summer Fayre was a big success and the medals for Sports Day were perfect! We have had the largest number of responses ever to the parent questionnaire based on the chance to win a bottle of champagne! Thank you very much.” Anna Greetham, Headteacher
Our club is for all abilities. Whether you can reach 1st post or 4th post, rounders is a fun sport that can help you, your family and your friends keep fit and healthy.We have weekly coached outdoor sessions near The Heath Sports Club, Royston from April to September and train indoors at Royston Leisure Centre from October to the end of March from 7pm-8pm. Keep an eye on Facebook for the most up-to-date information, particularly if it looks like rain will stop play! Club Secretary: Mike Bygate 01763 243529 Email us at: roystonrounders@hotmail.co.uk
What we love about our homes...
Turning your extension upside down – considered renovating or building a Basement? With local house prices seemingly always on the rise adding value to what you already have has never seemed more relevant. Most may have considered extending their living space or even converting unused attic space into rooms, but have you ever thought about the space under your home? Not only can adding a basement help provide a new space for your family to enjoy, but also improve the square footage and in turn value of your home. First things first, check out local building restrictions by getting in touch with your local planning authority and also consult an experienced architect or structural engineer as there are many things that need to be taken into consideration when building a basement space. A big factor to consider is light. One of the best ways to increase light is by incorporating multiple light wells or even a sunken courtyard with windows. A staple in most new build designs, making the basement space as open plan as possible is a fantastic way to make the space feel as light and spacious as possible. Houses which are built on a slope have a particular advantage as they often open up at a lower ground floor level, enabling that space to be used as art studios, bedrooms, kitchens, dining rooms and bathrooms. If like our Sales Director Karen Johnson you are lucky enough to already have a basement then there are some really nice ways to turn it from a dark utilitarian space into a bright gym or fancy home cinema. The choice of how to re purpose your basement space can be endless, however you will need to consider lots of different factors, and consult an architect before developing your space. The top five ways in which people use their basement spaces in the UK include creating an extra family space, or adding a laundry room, media room, games room or building an extra annexe.
Karen Johnson, Intercounty Sales Director
“I live in the centre of Bishop’s Stortford and there are lots of parts of my house that I love but my basement is one of my favourites. Its a fantastic place to hide the washing machine and drier, out of sight out of mind.”
Local Feature
Royston Hockey Club Hockey was first played on Therfield Heath in 1957 and the big plan is to now play here again, having been away for nearly twenty years this time the surface will be Astroturf.
them ready for playing in our senior teams. This cannot happen unless you have qualified coaches and enthusiastic helpers and drivers for away matches on every Sunday morning.
Including our Vice Presidents and growing junior section we have nearly 350 members. We field 8 sides every Saturday across both men’s and Ladies. We actually broke our own club record and had 80 U’18’s training at Meridian School last week and that is down to our continued focus on youth development.
Ultimately our goal is to play hockey again at our home club on Therfield Heath; all outdoor sport should be played here. We are well on our way for an astro turf to be built on what used to be called the “top pitch” above the tennis courts, and we are working with the local authorities to secure this, subject to the usual planning and the small matter of finding £500k.
Improved coaching and player development have been the key measure of success. As a club we continue to look to expand and we still look to recruit new players from both senior and junior levels, this reflects the popularity of Hockey in Royston and the excitement generated by the Olympics when over 650k people watched Hockey at the Riverside Stadium. Our junior sessions are held on the 3G surface at Meridian School on Sunday mornings and started in September. With such a great level of attendance we now run two sessions each of two age groups due to the popularity from both boys and girls from 5YO to 13YO. This has borne fruit in developing some excellent talent and this year we will be attending more club events to further develop the juniors and get
We introduced “back to hockey” sessions last year in the evenings, which in part has generated a small group of mums who are now the core of the ladies 4th team; these sessions have also given new players and some returning dads an opportunity to give it a try. We continue to train every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday in both St.Neots and Bassingbourn Village College a constant challenge for both players and coaches, not ideal, however it means we keep our fitness and skill levels high to meet the demands of this fast moving game.
Property Market Update people | moving | property Winter 2015
Property Market Update Welcome to the Property Market Update The property market has always generated a lot of interest from all quarters, not least because it affects so many of us in a whole raft of different ways. Personally I have always felt that the strength and weakness of our economy is built on the back of the property market. Property, as with most markets, is affected by sentiment and how people are feeling will be largely affected by whether the value of their home is going up or down. Strong markets breed a strong sense of optimism, which in turn breeds consumer confidence to go out and spend. It’s therefore hardly surprising that in a year where we have seen the largest percentage growth in house prices, the sale of new cars hit an all-time high. The property market is always eventful and 2014 certainly delivered. We saw an unprecedented resurgence of buyers into the market, largely fuelled by the governments Help to Buy scheme being widened to the whole of market up to £600,000. Supply remained about the same with enquiries from buyers up 220% and 300% with tenants -all in all the perfect storm to stir house price growth. Just as things were reaching boiling point the Mortgage Market Review was introduced making it harder than ever for borrowers to secure loans based on a series of affordability measures and stress testing. Inevitably this impacted on the market and we saw a cooling off over the summer. However, prices remained strong and nationally homes achieved on average 95.8% of their asking price. At Intercounty we performed ahead of the market achieving on average 98.8% of asking price for our clients. I am the first to criticise the government when it comes to decisions that affect the property market as during my 32 year career every time they seem to get involved it has a negative effect. We were all surprised however to see them change the rules around stamp duty, which has made buying a home cheaper or no different for everyone buying below £937,500. Whether you agree or not with the new structure I must applaud the government for making the changes over night. Historically they would have set a date in the future for changes to take affect, which would have caused a surge of buyers to the market stimulating a further boom in prices only to be followed by a bust.
Greg Young
Managing Director
Did you know ?
Introduction of Mortgage Market Review in April 2014 added caution and preparation time to lending
Agents using new portal are reducing their clients home exposure by half, check your agent is using Rightmove and Zoopla
First Time buyers up 22% in 2014 to the highest level in 7 years
Legislation changes in pension funds taking effect in April 2015 could influence the investment and lettings market
Housing Experts predict that UK house prices expected to grow by an average of 4% in 2015
Help to Buy now available to everyone buying a home under ÂŁ600,000
Stamp duty change in December 2014 makes buying cheaper for any house under ÂŁ937,500
Sales Annual Property Value Increase
4.1%
9.6% ROYSTON
M11
7.6%
STANSTED MOUNTFITCHET
8.3%
9.7%
BISHOP’S STORTFORD
SAWBRIDGEWORTH
8.8% OLD HARLOW
SAFFRON WALDEN
7.2%
Stansted 11.5% Airport A120
BRAINTREE GREAT DUNMOW A130
8.6%
CHELMSFORD
Information collected on Zoopla Zed Index value change between January 2015 and 1 year ago.
Thinking of selling your home? As we know House prices rocketed in the first half of last year as cheap mortgage deals plus a larger number of loans for borrowers with a small deposit encouraged more buyers into the market. London and the South East recorded double digit annual price rises in July – 10% according to the Halifax and all regions across the UK experienced a rate of growth not seen since before the financial crisis. The price rises slowed in the second half of the year, but what does this mean for 2015? We still don’t know all the final figures for 2014, but they will certainly be well ahead of all the predictions from this time last year. However, most of the experts are taking a far more modest view for 2015. RICS, The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors expect to see modest price rises around an average of 3%. Economists have indicated that they feel supply and demand will be broadly in balance so price rises are expected to drift backwards over the coming months. Any price rises will be driven by: the recent reforms to stamp duty which will cut the tax for the majority of buyers, high and rising employment as well as low mortgage rates. House prices will be kept in check by stretched house-prices-to-earnings ratios, strict lending criteria imposed on borrowers and the prospect that interest rates will eventually start to rise in 2015. This is a view shared by the lenders Halifax who predict 3-5% price rises and add “the prospect of higher interest rates at some point in the year and reduced affordability are expected to be key factors curbing housing demand. A looming general election next May could also raise uncertainty, resulting in a lull in activity in the early months of the year.” So we believe the number of house moving transactions are likely to be the same as 2014 and house prices may shift a little this year, but the longer term view still looks very promising over the next 5 years.
Percentage Increase Property Value Current Average vs Average Last 12 Months Detached 21% + 18% 15% 12% 9% 6% 3% Bishops Stortford
Braintree
Chelmsford
Great Dunmow
Harlow
Royston
Saffron Walden
Sawbridgeworth
Stansted Mountfitchet
Bishops Stortford
Braintree
Chelmsford
Great Dunmow
Harlow
Royston
Saffron Walden
Sawbridgeworth
Stansted Mountfitchet
Bishops Stortford
Braintree
Chelmsford
Great Dunmow
Harlow
Royston
Saffron Walden
Sawbridgeworth
Stansted Mountfitchet
Semi detached 21% + 18% 15% 12% 9% 6% 3%
Flats 21% + 18% 15% 12% 9% 6% 3%
Lettings Tenant Demographics
12.3%
1.0%
Self employed
Others
84.8%
Employed
1.8%
0.1%
Retired
Maternity
Average wage of tenants £35,261
Saffronwalden
£34,161
Bishops Stortford Royston Sawbridgeworth
£33,818 £33,323 £30,410 £30,340 £27,783 £25,252
Based on the available tenant reference information collected in January 2015.
Great Dunmow Stansted Chelmsford Harlow
Facts up front Lettings Market As I look back at 2014 it really did turn out to be a year of 2 halves in the lettings industry. The first 6 months saw an exit of the “accidental” landlord, with sales prices increasing and aggressive media coverage of the spike in the market lots of landlords decided to take advantage of favourable conditions and sell up. With many tenants priced out of buying and therefore staying in rented accommodation, combined with a reduction of rental properties due to landlords selling has led to a severe lack of rental stock forcing the rental prices up. With the sales market seemingly cooling by the mid part of the year and the introduction of the Mortgage Market Review, coupled with increased rental values, many landlords decided to expand their portfolio and re-enter the market due to investment properties which are seeing some fantastic returns. Whilst more one and two bedroom properties have become available, the family market still suffers from a significant shortage of three and four bedroom properties.
Richard Durrant Lettings Director
So what will 2015 bring? I imagine that tenant demand will remain consistently strong as the gap between house prices and earnings continues to widen, which in turn will force tenants to rent for longer creating a bigger shortage of available stock for “first time “ renters. With the legislation changes in pension funds taking effect from April 2015, I predict a proportion of these will invest in property and become new landlords taking advantage of better returns than other forms of investment may currently be producing. To conclude therefore I would stick my neck out slightly and suggest we will see an increase of rent between 4-6% in 2015.
Rent Arrears
Void Periods
To keep this low we: Have strict referencing process Continually monitor Prioritise good tenant management Understand and comply with all legal obligations
Void periods can wipe out profit To keep these low we: Prioritise accurate and effective property Marketing Attract the right tenants Sustain timely notice serving
2015 4.6 Days per year
2015
1.2
6.6
Intercounty
National Average
2
1
3
Landlords staying past their initial fixed term
Percentage of asking price achieved
This is a great indication of the quality of our customer service We achieve this by: Treating our customers investments as if they are our own Team of specialist Property Managers who care Prioritise Tenant care and retention
A clear indication of our market understanding Ensures void 3 periods maximising investment profit potential 2 minimum 1
98% Figures based on available system information collected in January 2015
SOL
2
1
3
2
1
3
99%
SOL
Branch Network Bishop’s Stortford 21 North Street Bishops Stortford Hertfordshire CM23 2LD Sales: 01279 757250 Lettings: 01279 504079
Braintree Market House Braintree Essex CM7 3HG Sales & Lettings: 01376 328288
Chelmsford 6 Duke Street Chelmsford Essex CM1 1HL Sales: 01245 251442 Lettings: 01245 347040
Great Dunmow Barclay House 1 - 3 High Street Great Dunmow Essex CM6 1UU Sales: 01371 878322 Lettings: 01371 874005
Saffron Walden 57 High Street Saffron Walden Essex CB10 1AA Sales: 01799 522641 Lettings: 01799 513224
Sawbridgeworth 1 Bell Street Sawbridgeworth Hertfordshire CM21 9AR Sales & Lettings: 01279 600333
Stansted 8 Cambridge Road Stansted Essex CM24 8BZ Sales & Lettings: 01279 814400
Old Harlow The George Old Harlow Essex CM17 0AN Sales & Lettings: 01279 639666
Royston 17 Melbourn Street Royston Hertfordshire SG8 7BP Sales & Lettings: 01763 242528
IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER AGENT INSTRUCTED ON A SOLE AGENCY AND/OR SOLE SELLING RIGHTS BASIS, THE TERMS OF THOSE INSTRUCTIONS MUST BE CONSIDERED TO AVOID A POSSIBLE LIABILITY TO PAY TWO COMMISSIONS.