News
by KerryOAK | Mar 11, 2024 | News, Landlord
One thing you learn quite quickly as a new landlord is the steps you need to take to protect yourself, your property and your tenants. Insurance is clearly one such measure. But standard home policies won’t cover rental activities, and your mortgage lender will...
by KerryOAK | Feb 26, 2024 | News, Seller
One of Britain’s biggest lenders, Halifax, recently reported that house prices rose 2.5% in the year to January, representing the strongest performance since the start of 2023, as potentially lower mortgage rates and eased inflationary pressure boosted confidence...
by KerryOAK | Feb 20, 2024 | Block Management, News
The government is working to transform the leasehold system and, as outlined in its manifesto, ‘crack down on unfair practices’ in this area. This has certainly been on the cards for a while; the government first committed to leasehold reform back in 2017. The plan is...
by KerryOAK | Feb 13, 2024 | News, Landlord, Tenant
Deposits can often feel like barriers to taking on a tenancy. In the UK, tenants typically pay up to five weeks’ rent as downpayment, plus a month rent upfront. Initially you will charged a holding deposit of up to a week’s rent, payable in advance, to secure a...
by KerryOAK | Jan 30, 2024 | News, Seller
The latest Halifax data shows that UK property prices went up for the third month in a row in December 2023. Meanwhile, some major lenders are already cutting mortgages in expectation of a sooner-than-expected dip in interest rates. And, according to the Guardian,...
by KerryOAK | Jan 10, 2024 | News
If you’re determined that 2024 will be the year you finally move house, you could well be on to a good thing. After all, there’s been more movement in the market than you may have realised, despite some gloom-laden mutterings in the media. It’s also a great time of...
by KerryOAK | Dec 21, 2023 | News
Despite some seemingly ominous predictions in the media, it’s fair to say that the UK’s housing market has actually held up pretty well during 2023. It certainly hasn’t crashed as some said it might. And while house price indices from some lenders including Halifax...
by KerryOAK | Dec 18, 2023 | News, Charity
As always with our monthly charity donations from our Community Pledge we aim to utilise the funds so that they can make the most difference. This month we reached out to Warming up the Homeless, one of our chosen charities very close to our hearts, regarding their...
by KerryOAK | Dec 14, 2023 | News
It’s hardly news that summer is the most sought-after time of year to move house. In the south-east, for example, according to one removal services comparison website, August is the most popular month for removals. Meanwhile, nationally, winter is traditionally...
by KerryOAK | Dec 14, 2023 | News, Charity
This week Izzy our Lettings Manager in our Eastbourne branch went along to Holding Space to help out with their Christmas Wrapping Fundraiser. These events are arranged over a number of days are an opportunity for people to bring in Christmas presents and for a...
by KerryOAK | Dec 7, 2023 | News, Charity
Last week Charlotte and Kyla from our Bexhill branch had the pleasure of visiting Demelza Hospice centre for East Sussex, based in St Leonards on Sea. The ladies loved decorating the centre full of Christmas decorations, lights and trees. They also took a huge...
by KerryOAK | Dec 1, 2023 | News
This autumn we have seen rents start to settle after three months of rapid price rises across England. As reported by one industry website, average rents on fresh tenancies did not seek the same hikes we had for the previous quarter. Normally, we’d expect to see a...
by KerryOAK | Nov 29, 2023 | News, Charity
As part of our Community Pledge this month, we are delighted to have been able to fund the training for a new Volunteer Coach with RunningSpace. Their coaches really are the beating heart of their organisation – they’re almost always ‘home grown’ and have often been...
by KerryOAK | Nov 14, 2023 | News, Buyer
What is a leasehold property? With a leasehold, while you own your property, you don’t own the building or land on which it sits. That means you’re obliged to pay ground rent to the freeholder every year, either at a fixed or variable rate. (Although the government...
by KerryOAK | Oct 31, 2023 | News, Charity
On Friday 19th October a group of team members from across our branches and departments got together for a team building day, volunteering at Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare. This amazing charity was started over 70 years ago by Miss Raymond-Hawkins as a small set...
by KerryOAK | Oct 30, 2023 | News
Rising interest rates (albeit cushioned to an extent by climbing rents) are clearly a concern for many buy-to-let landlords, but you can still make the market work for you. According to the Property Reporter website: “Investors can take comfort in the fact that the...
by KerryOAK | Oct 11, 2023 | News, Buyer
According to the latest House Price Index for this month on one major online property portal, the average asking price for homes which are new to the market has declined by an annual percentage of 0.4% to £366,281, the biggest dip since March 2019. Asking prices are...
by KerryOAK | Oct 9, 2023 | News, Charity
Charlotte Diamond and Zoe White both from our Lettings Accounts team took on the ‘Walk 30 Miles in September Challenge’ to raise money for Cancer Research UK! The challenge was to walk 30 miles each in September but between them they walked a huge 133 miles which was...
by KerryOAK | Sep 28, 2023 | News
The Building Safety Act 2022 (Section 77, as approved in April 2022) says high-rise residential buildings 18 metres or higher, or at least seven storeys tall, and incorporating two or more residential units, i.e. higher-risk structures, must register with the Building...
by KerryOAK | Sep 14, 2023 | News
We’ve all scrolled through the major online property portals looking at houses – perhaps wishing we could live in some of the places featured, maybe crossing others immediately off the list. But, probably without even actively realising it, you’re almost certainly...
by KerryOAK | Sep 11, 2023 | News, Charity
Yesterday some of our Sales team members went along to support one of our charities, Running Space on their ‘Midnight to Midnight Relay’ to raise awareness of World Prevention Suicide Day and to raise money for their amazing cause. The event started at midnight on...
by KerryOAK | Aug 28, 2023 | News
Britain’s housing market is never far from the headlines, and recent weeks and months have proved no exception. But, as the Guardian reported this month, house price falls have actually been pretty modest, not least given the background of rising interest rates and...
by KerryOAK | Aug 21, 2023 | News, Charity
With our donation from our Community Pledge to Warming up the homeless this month, Casey and Charlotte from our Bexhill office headed to the supermarket with a shopping list of essential items which the charity were in urgent need of. They Managed to fill two trolleys...
by KerryOAK | Aug 16, 2023 | News, Charity
Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare in Lewes is one of the six amazing charities we support. They care for over 2,000 animals a year, rehoming over 1,000 animals across East Sussex and providing sanctuary to even more at their 43 Acre site. They also educate pet owners...
by KerryOAK | Aug 15, 2023 | News
Alongside mortgage rates, food costs and energy bills, rents are on the march UK-wide. According to a report from one major property portal, typical UK rents in April were a full 10% higher than the year before, standing at £1,126 on average, with London remaining the...
by KerryOAK | Jul 31, 2023 | News
With house prices inevitably affected by a string of interest-rate hikes, the outlook for the UK’s property market remains potentially uncertain. So it’s perhaps not surprising that many who are looking to buy, sell, rent or let out a property may be tempted to cut...
by KerryOAK | Jul 11, 2023 | News
Energy bills may be starting to come down, or at least rising less rapidly, but they’re likely to remain high. Indeed, one energy boss has warned that prices could spike this winter. But help is available in the form of the year-long Energy Bills Discount Scheme...
by KerryOAK | Jun 24, 2023 | News
The Renters Reform Bill, brought to Parliament this May, brings sweeping changes to the rental sector for England’s 2.3 million landlords and 11 million private tenants. It was first discussed in 2019, before being expanded on in 2022’s ‘fairer private rented sector’...
by KerryOAK | Jun 16, 2023 | News
According to the charity Mind, research published last summer showed that more than seven million Brits have taken up gardening since the Covid-19 pandemic, while over three million report improved mental health after moving away from an urban area to have access to a...
by KerryOAK | May 27, 2023 | News
How much does it cost to move home? It’s something we do, according to MoneySuperMarket, more than five times during our lifetimes on average. And it’s likely to be one of the most expensive things you’ll ever do. So it’s no wonder that people often ask us how much it...
by KerryOAK | May 17, 2023 | News
It can be easy to forget that not every landlord is in the property sector through choice. It may be, for example, that you have struggled to find a buyer yet need to relocate for work. Or you may be keen to move in with a partner. Or you may have a new baby and...
by KerryOAK | May 11, 2023 | News
If you’re currently renting and starting to wonder if you’ll ever get on the housing ladder, one lender has come up with a potential answer in the form of a new mortgage deal which requires no deposit or guarantor. The Track Record Mortgage from Skipton Building...
by KerryOAK | Apr 27, 2023 | News
A new government funding scheme for cladding remediation for medium-rise buildings (i.e. those between 11m and 18m tall) is set to open in the near future. This follows the launch late last November of a pilot Medium-Rise Scheme (MRS) by Homes England, the...
by KerryOAK | Apr 14, 2023 | News
At Oakfield Estate Agents, we’ve seen too many landlords take a short-termist approach to renovating and maintaining their buy-to-let properties. Their ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ view involves completing the bare minimum of repairs and maintenance so that they...
by KerryOAK | Mar 31, 2023 | News
Neil Newstead Founder and CEO of Oakfield Estate Agents is delighted to announce the acquisition of Redwell Estates. Redwell Estates a well-known local agent was first opened in 2000 by Patrick Stapleton, over this time they have built a great reputation for selling...
by KerryOAK | Mar 30, 2023 | News
With the cold snaps of the winter hopefully receding into the past, could now be the ideal time to think about selling your property and moving house? Traditionally, the weeks between March and May represent one of the year’s busiest periods for home sales, and there...
by KerryOAK | Mar 14, 2023 | News
The Guardian reported last autumn that demand for rental homes UK-wide had leapt by nearly 25% in a year, causing private rents (already at an all-time high) to climb even more sharply for the UK’s 4.4m renting households. One major property portal has said that hopes...
by KerryOAK | Feb 27, 2023 | News
In the 12 months to December last year, average UK electricity costs soared by 65.4%, while gas leapt by an eye-popping 128.9%, according to the Office for National Statistics. The main drivers behind these price hikes are the Ukraine conflict, rising demand, limited...
by KerryOAK | Feb 20, 2023 | News
Oakfield Estate Agents has secured £6.4m in funding to completely replace cladding on a prominent seafront apartment block in Bexhill-on-Sea. Oakfield are the appointed managing agents for The Landmark building, encompassing 66 flats, and have been involved in the...
by KerryOAK | Feb 14, 2023 | News
On January 23 2023, the new Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 came into force. These new rules represent the most significant changes made to fire safety law in recent years, and implement most of the recommendations of the Phase 1 report of the Grenfell Tower...
by KerryOAK | Jan 31, 2023 | News
As a private landlord (or agent), you’re legally obliged to check the immigration status of all tenants, lodgers and any other adults who may be living at your property. You’ll need to do this before the start of the tenancy, and it’s called a ‘right-to-rent’ check....
by KerryOAK | Jan 30, 2023 | Charity, News
We are always so humbled when we get to visit the charities we support as we are blown away by the amount of work that goes into running these incredible organisations. This weekend Josh our Lettings Manager from Eastbourne visited Raystede Animal Sanctuary to deliver...
by KerryOAK | Jan 13, 2023 | News
The year just gone has certainly a busy one for the UK’s housing market, with 2022 kicking off with some record-breaking hikes in values across East Sussex, along with unprecedented demand and properties changing hands like the proverbial hot cakes. But as the year...
by KerryOAK | Dec 29, 2022 | News
As we say goodbye to 2022, it’s a great time for reflection, and looking back as well as forward. Of course, the year has seen basic living costs soar, while interest rates in particular have also increased sharply. The Bank of England raised them in December by 0.5...
by KerryOAK | Dec 15, 2022 | News
Earlier this year, the Building Safety Act (as amended) gained Royal Assent, following a prolonged period of delay. One of its provisions, called Leaseholder Protections, safeguards leaseholders from the expenses of some building safety work and remediation, and...
by KerryOAK | Nov 30, 2022 | News
This month saw the highest rise in interest rates for 14 years as the Bank of England hiked them to 3%, with further increases expected next year. What’s more, of course, we’re all facing higher food, fuel and energy bills as prices and incomes struggle to keep pace....
by admin | Nov 16, 2022 | News
We’re not that far beyond Halloween, Bonfire Night and Remembrance Sunday, so even thinking about Christmas may seem a little premature. But the reality is that the festive season kicks off in earnest next month, and if you have a place to rent out and want tenants to...
by admin | Oct 31, 2022 | News
In a top location, below-par listings photos may still be able to draw some people through the door. But the best pictures will bag viewings in any area. And with the majority of house-hunters now beginning their property search online, having photos that sell your...
by admin | Oct 14, 2022 | News
Before they can move in to a rental property, tenants typically have to pay a first month’s rent up front, plus a tenancy deposit. As a landlord, if you let out a home on an assured shorthold tenancy (AST) which began after 6 April 2007, you are legally obliged to...
by admin | Sep 30, 2022 | News
Anyone who has bought or sold a property will have come across stamp duty land tax (SDLT), levied in England and Northern Ireland on house purchases above a certain value and based on the price of the home being bought. The new chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, in his mini...