Ask the Experts Sarah Beeny Answers Your Questions

Date Published:

12/11/2009

Sarah Beeny’s one busy lady – when she’s not filming or working on her new website, she’s looking after her four children or tending to her property investment business. We caught up with her to ask her your most urgent questions about investing in property, the housing market and a whole lot more.

By Andrea Dean

Have We Reached The Bottom Of The Housing Market?

Sarah: ‘I think we are bouncing along the bottom, I very much doubt that we are going to see a big zoom back upwards. There’s a little bit of an upturn – it’ll probably jump back down a tiny bit then up and down. We are going to have little tiny movements for, I suspect, a number of years, but around the level we are now.’

What Will Kick Start The Housing Market?

Sarah: ‘What’ll happen is that it’ll continue to be a bit slow until people accept that today’s prices are the way it’s going to be, rather than holding their breath waiting for it to go back up to the top again. It’ll start moving as soon as people accept that today’s values are the values they are going to have to sell for and get on with selling rather than thinking “well I’ll wait for it to bounce back up”. People will have to move on with their lives and eventually they’ll get bored of waiting.’

How Can We Adapt To The Market?

Sarah: ‘Before the internet, estate agents were the only way you’d know who had a house on the market, but now that we’re used to finding homes online it’s a bit illogical to pay thousands of pounds for an estate agent to value your house. I think one of the ways to adapt is that once you’ve taken that money out of the equation, you are then able to sell for a bit less and you can buy for a bit less and so it smoothes the process over a little bit more because it does save. Many thousands of pounds are spent for someone to show people round your house. I think people will be selling their properties privately in the future.’

Is Now A Good Time To Get Into Property Development?

Sarah: ‘A lot of people have a slightly bizarre view on this and feel that when everyone’s doing it, then it’s a great time to do it and when no one’s doing it, you shouldn’t. However, it’s more important then ever to get your figures right and if there isn’t a 20% profit margin, it’s not worth doing, Before, people were able to weather having completely inaccurate figures because the market was rising and whatever you did you’d make money – nowadays if you get them wrong, you won’t. I’ve been preaching that for a very long time!’

What’s The Best Way To Finance Property Development?

Sarah: ‘In terms of obtaining finance for developing properties, although things have tightened up a bit, there are a few products available if you look hard enough. However, this sector at the moment is not prescriptive and therefore the terms and amounts available will vary dramatically from project to project, dependent upon the property itself and the amount of works that need to be done. A simple "tart and turn" could be done via a traditional buy-to-let lender, providing you can get a rental income initially to support the loan. Something requiring more work that is not habitable initially will mean more specialist commercial finance. It is worth discussing with your own bank first and speaking to an independent mortgage broker to get a feel for the market. Generally, lenders offer more favourable terms to those with a good track record and experience in this type of project and you would be expected to put in a sizeable deposit initially, around 40%. There are other methods involving initial bridging finance whilst the works are being done but this can be expensive and you need to make sure there is a lender in place to take out the bridge when the work is done.’

For More Information

Find more from Sarah and our other TV experts on our Ask The Experts pages
Property Development: advice and help
Buying & Selling: essential advice and tips