We are please to say that Walmsley have opened a new office in Theale to compliment their current office in Caversham Reading Kent.  Here are a few words from Simon Walmsley, our oldest customer who we began working with in about 1998.

‘Opening a new office requires considerable preparation and foresight. There is always something that is behind and with us it was the company internet site. Fortunately Frank, who had just finished our newest version sprang into life and implemented the changes and new search facilities within 24 hours of instruction. Thanks to him all was uploaded on line the same day as the shop front signs. Great timing Frank and thanks’

So if you need to buy, sell or let property in Theale, now you can.

www.walmsley.co.uk

Announcements due to be made tomorrow will see help given to construction companies and developers to help them gain the funds required to finish building new homes that are currently in stasis.  Alistair Darling is also said to be due to announce a continuation of the Stamp Duty break for homes costing less than £175,000.  This will be extended by several months to keep it going until the end of this year.  This will form parts of a one billion pound lifeline package to help the property market in Wednesdays budget figures.

Low cost housing and council dwellings will also get a building boost as part of the deal.  However, there is no way of knowing yet if these are new items for the budget or just re-working the old money announced in previous speeches.

Slashing the interest rate and pumping money into the economy may not be working as well as Mr Brown had planned, but there is some good news for a change.

According to NATIONWIDE Building Society, house prices have shown a rise in price during March 2009, which has not happened since October 2007.  This makes the average house price about £150K.  NATIONWIDE have recorded a rise of 0.9% compared to February 2009, which changes the annual drop rate from 17.6% in February to 15.7% in March.

RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) have also recently said they are witnessing a rise in the interest being shown by prospective house buyers.  The Bank of England has also said that there have been 38,000 mortgage approvals in February 2009 which is the highest figure they have reported since about this time last year.

Countrywide have reported a loss of operating profit in 2008 of  £47 million, in comparison to profits of over £85 million in 2007 according to a report from it’s holding company Castle HoldCo 4.

Sales have crashed on Countrywide’s books by around 47% from 95,000 sales to 50,510.  Across the whole of the UK, property  sales are down by 59 per cent to 512,000, 38 per cent below the lowest point of the last property recession during 1991 and 1992.

As we all know in the business, letting seem to be holding their own in the current crisis, and this is reflected in the Countrywide Lettings profits which rose by about 24% from £8 million to just under £9 million.