Passage 3　　The message in London’s singles flat market is clear if you can find anything you like then buy now, Dixie Nichols writes.　　London is seeing “a vibrant and wealthy singles flat market” according to David Salvi of the Clerkenwell agents Hurford, Salvi and Carr. The middle market flat agents Douglas & Gordon and Chestertons both say prices in the sector are up 20 per cent on a year ago, both say this sector has improved by 20 per cent in the past 12 months, and both have a backlog of buyers.　　Melissa Carter, of Douglas & Gordon’s Battersea office, says: “What was a good offer two months ago looks about right now the deals are holding and valuers (who had been acting as a brake) are now prepared to follow.”　　Buyers in the singles market come wielding big deposits (up to a third of the price is not unusual), and frequently leapfrog the studio and one-bed flats starting in at two beds. Often the second bed is let to a friend to take the sting out of the mortgage.　　Although agents complain of there not being enough stock, there is a steady influx from the commercial block conversions. The new wave of developments is hitting the market now.　　The market is hungry and snaps up anything well priced. The Ziggurat Building in Clerkenwell, north London, sold all 34 units in its first phase within an hour of opening its doors, but the price was exceptional—￡140 a sq ft when most schemes hover at 2200 to 2250.　　The developers’ headline price may not have shot up in the past year but the amount of space you get for your money has been shaved. When Sapcote’s Beauchamp Building in Hatton Garden, central London was introduced last September, the shell sizes of 1, 200 to 1, 400 sq ft were said to be far too small. When launched in January the market was impressed by their size.　　London fiat agents have no problem in forecasting a 10 per cent rise over the next 12 months despite election wobbles.It may be better than that. . Simon Agace of Winkworth says: “The top of the flat market has already followed the house market’s summer spring and the middle range will follow.”　　1. What is implied in the message “If you can find anything you like then buy now”?　　2. Why do buyers often choose the two-bed flats?　　3. What does the example of “Sapcote’s Beauchamp Building in Hatton Gardon, central London” tell us?

发布日期：2022-07-04

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