We’re unable now to hold on to your money – not that we ever did!! – but you can have peace of mind that you’re legally & financially protected to receive money that’s rightfully yours.

This is due to become a legal requirement in the industry soon, but you are now safe in our hands!

Every company now has to be GDPR compliant – meaning your personal data is now so much safer than before.

Rest assured, we here at S John Homes are fully compliant with this new legislature – further details can be found under our privacy policy found at the bottom of our website.

For more information on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), look here… http://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-gdpr-uk-eu-legislation-compliance-summary-fines-2018

Over the last Year:

– Total sales completed in SL3 – 551

– Average price paid – £352,960.00

– Change in value – 9.15% / £33,201.00

Relatively impressive figures we’d say. From our opinion, we’d put down the increase mostly down to the Demand heavily outweighing Supply. What with the Government’s incentives towards First Time Buyers (5% Deposit, Help 2 Buy ISA etc), and a surge of a well educated & well paid generation coming onto the Market, Vendors are able to achieve a faster sale & are also able to choose the strongest buyer out of a high amount of interested parties.

It definitely is a ‘Sellers Market’ at the moment. With flocks of buyers keen to view properties, and a large handful of offers on each property sold, Vendors are able to achieve higher prices, due to the fierce competition, indirectly forcing interested parties to increase their offers, and also allowing the Vendors to choose the most reliable Buyer, rather than being forced into accepting the one and only offer.

One last Statistic that is closer to home… The Highest Turnover of properties sold in the WHOLE of the SL3 region in the last year is St. Thomas Walk, Colnbrook! With a whopping 51.9% turnover…

I wonder what 2016 will bring for us all!

Heres a little advice for you:

Getting the green light for a mortgage has been tougher in the years following the credit crisis. But since April 2014 when the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) was introduced by regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the screws have been tightened even further.

Here are five takeaways to prepare yourself for the (not-so-brave) new world of mortgage applications:

1. You’ll need to take advice. This can be from a financial adviser, mortgage broker or even the bank or building society you are applying to direct. If you are not paying for the advice, they will need to tell you how they get paid and how much. If you are applying for a mortgage online or by post, you may not need to take advice. But you’ll still need to demonstrate you understand the process and the mortgage deal.

2. The process could take longer. Most mortgages are now sold on an ‘advised’ basis, which MMR rules are very prescriptive about. An advised sale involves a face-to-face or telephone interview, which can take two or more hours, so get comfortable.

3. Your finances will be under greater scrutiny. MMR rules require a detailed assessment of whether your mortgage is affordable both now and in the future. This means that ALL of your monthly expenses, not just household bills, will be gone through with a fine-toothed comb. This includes gym memberships, TV packages, grocery bills and even nights out on the town.

4. The amount you can borrow could be capped. As lenders are required to ask more probing questions about what you spend each month, the cash left over to fund your monthly mortgage repayments may be less than if you’d made the application before the days of MMR. The impact of this could simply mean you are offered a lower sum of cash. Difficult if house prices are rising!

5. Interest-only mortgages are the exception, not the rule. It’s still possible to take out an interest-only mortgage – but these deals are now a niche offering. You will also be asked to show proof of a full plan of how you will repay the capital when the loan matures. And you’ll be called on at least once during the interest-only period to give an update of how this is going.

The purpose of MMR is to ensure borrowers know what they are getting into when they take a loan, and can comfortably afford to pay it over the full term according to the lender’s forecasts and calculations.

But inevitably, this also brings more admin. So plan and get all your paperwork in order (that’s bank statements, payslips, accounts, and household bills) in plenty of time. In a fast moving property market, being prepared like this could make the difference between getting a property and losing it.

As of the open of business tomorrow, we have offers galore on our services!! So if you are thinking of Selling or Letting your home, give us a call to take advantage of this!

We’re open from 09:00-18:00 tomorrow; contact one of us to arrange a valuation of your home.

Remember… If there’s no Sale or Let, there’s no fee! You have nothing to lose!

Give us a call: – 01753 683000 / 01753 868388

Offers are exclusively tomorrow only – Terms & Conditions apply.

A big Thank you goes to Montana Bakeries of Poyle & the Handmade Cake Co. of Maidenhead for kindly donating cakes, as well as a few individual guests who kindly donated their homemade goodies! We’re so pleased with the amount we raised, thank you to everybody who came along, and everybody who supported the charity!