As part of their celebrations, Bassets invited locals to bring food parcels in aid of the Trussell Trusts Food Bank, which provides food to the homeless in Salisbury and the surrounding areas.

Those people that had brought a tin to Bassets during the previous week were entered into a prize drawer with the winning ticket drawn on the Saturday. The first prize was a hamper and the second prize, a meal for two at the Chang Thong Thai Restaurant in the Market Place, Salisbury. The event was also attended by fellow members of the Amesbury Chamber of Trade.

Susan Parslow, Manager of the Amesbury office Said “Our 5th birthday provided the perfect opportunity to help others in the community and that is why we chose to link up with the food bank. Anyone can bring a food parcel into Bassets office at any time as we are an official “drop off” point for them, as are our two other offices in Salisbury and Fordinbridge.”

The local company came third across the whole of the UK in the small estate agency chain category (and top in the South of England), beating off a record number of entries. The competition was based on anonymous feedback from buyers and sellers during the course of 2009.

Bassets also came top of all the Letting Agents in Wiltshire as voted for by their landlords as part of the same competition.

The award was announced by Phil Spencer, presenter of Channel 4’s Location, Location property programme at a lavish luncheon & ceremony in Mayfair, London attended by 450 of the UK’s top estate and letting agents.

Phil Spencer said “By entering the awards agents have put their reputation on the line, they’ve been brave, they’ve done what others are afraid to do. They’ve said to their customers and their competitors – that they believe in providing the best possible service and they want to prove it. They’ve been recognised for their bravery and all that hard work involved to get to the final.”

The results of the competition were determined by research carried out amongst customers who are asked a series of questions about the service they have received from their agent. Over 19,000 votes were received making the awards the most important and valuable in the industry.

David Clayton, Managing Director of Bassets, commented “We are delighted to have done so well yet again at these awards. It is the only industry related competition we enter each year because it is the only one based on direct, anonymous feedback from customers. My congratulations go to the Lettings Team who have worked incredibly hard this last year, and also to all three Sales Offices. It is the consistency of service provided by all our Sales Offices which has helped us to this stunning achievement.”

Managing Director David Clayton explains “For the first time this year, each of our offices has a Community Budget which is to be spent specifically on the local communities within which we live and work.”

As examples of the types of things Bassets supports already, in Fordingbridge they sponsor the Victoria Players and the Choral Society. And in Salisbury, Bassets plays an active part in the Rotary Club of Salisbury, including the sponsorship of two new competitions open to secondary schools. They also play an active and sponsoring role within the East Harnham Community Association, charged with building a new Community Centre just off the Downton Road.

Although the budgets themselves are relatively small, Bassets would be delighted to hear from anyone about a community related project or activity. If they cannot help this year, then they may be able to help in the future.

To express your interest, please send a letter in the first instance addressed to David Clayton at Bassets Sales & Lettings, 27 Castle Street, Salisbury SP1 11TT. Alternatively, please call him on 01722 415141.

All three Bassets’ Offices were shortlisted in the top ten for the Southern Region with the Fordingbridge Office being voted the top estate agent across Hampshire and Wiltshire. Bassets also excelled in the small estate agency chain category, being voted the fourth best Sales & Letting agency in the UK.

The results of the competition were determined by research carried out amongst customers who are asked a series of questions about the service they have received from their agent.

Phil Spencer who presented the Awards said: “This is the 6th year of the Estate and Letting Awards and I’ve increasingly enjoyed being part of the celebrations on each occasion. It’s fantastic to see agents getting the credit they deserve after all the negative press they receive. Throughout the property industry there is a constant need to improve customer service and these awards go a long way to help agents focus on keeping clients happy.”

If your Wills say something like: ‘I leave everything to you, you leave everything to me and if we both die, it all goes to the children’ – a Classic Married Will, then what
it really says is:

• I leave everything split equally between my children and their wives or husbands

• If my children’s Estates are already worth more than £650,000, then I leave 40% of my Estate to the Inland Revenue

• If I die first and my wife or husband remarries, then my children could end up with nothing

• If I die first, I leave my Estate to the Local Authority should my wife or husband need Long Term Care

If any if these are not what you want, then you need an Estate Planning specialist!

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In March, there was a slow but marked increase in the number of buyers registering, although many of these were effectively only ‘window shopping’. Over the Spring period, the press started to report that prices were stabilising, which in turn led to a number of news articles suggesting that the recession would soon be behind us and that the housing market was on the mend. Spring was however relatively quiet.

By contrast, May and June saw a large increase in the number of first time buyers and other buyers with nothing to sell looking to buy while the house prices were arguably at their lowest. On the reverse side however, there has been a significant lack of new properties coming onto the market as house owners themselves (particularly those who have bought in the last four years) continue to struggle to come to terms with the value of their property, with the reduced amount of borrowing available to them and therefore
with their inability to move. The shortage of supply in property, combined with the increase in serious buyers, has resulted in owners achieving much closer to the asking price. It is still a buyers’ market, however prices have certainly stabilised and in some situations, buyers are having to enter into competitive bidding to secure the property they want.

The outlook for the remainder of 2009 is reasonable with prices dropping perhaps marginally as we approach the year end. Much depends, however, on the interest rates on offer for those wishing to borrow money. The rates for those borrowing between 80% and 90% are still exceptionally high and we must wait and see whether lenders make the rates more attractive, and equally whether they start offering 95% mortgages again. That said, many first time buyers continue to be out in the market looking for a bargain – as are the buy to let investors, many of whom have put off investing their money until now.

2009 was always going to be a year of recovery for the housing market, which it has been. 2010 by contrast should be the year that consumer confidence returns and the housing market starts to get going again. We expect a brisk start to 2010 with plenty of activity and some increases in prices early on in the year.

David Clayton
Managing Director

Although May to August has seen significantly higher levels of tenants wishing to rent, rental values remain low and are unlikely to increase much, if at all, during the rest of 2009. Whilst interest rates stay low, and therefore borrowing cheap, this drop in rents will not concern most Landlords too much. However, if the cost of the borrowing increases over the next six months, I would expect to see a good number of Landlords either looking to increase their rents or to sell their properties.

Our prediction for 2010 is that a large number of reluctant landlords who have been letting out their properties over the past 18 to 24 months (because they couldn’t sell), will put their properties back on the market in the Spring. With the expected increase in activity in the sales market, it is likely that many of these properties will sell next year and thereby reduce the supply of rental properties. This, in turn, should push the rental values up over the course of next year, though probably by less than they have come down!

As a final word, we would continue to recommend rental guarantee and legal expenses insurance for all Landlords in what is still an uncertain economic environment.

As you can see from the table, Amesbury consistently provides the highest rental yield within the local area.

For more information, call us on 01722 415141 and ask to speak to David Clayton. Alternatively, ask to book a time to come and see us at our next Buy to Let evening in our Salisbury Office on Tuesday 6th October.