Blogs

We welcome our new staff member Tushon to his administration role in our Uplands office. We had nearly 200 applications for the job position, but we were won over by Tushon's customer service skills, energy, education and recent experience. After completing his degree in Human Resources Management Tushon also gained great work experience at a top London jewelers, Apple customer service in Cardiff and a role through Swansea University with Fujitsu Talent Bank. We wish Tushon all the very best for his future employment with Fresh supporting our Swansea Estate Agent service on all things property related. 

Two ‘commisery’ TV adverts for Purplebricks must not be broadcast again in their original form after the advertising watchdog ruled that they did not make it sufficiently clear that sellers pay a fee whether their property sells or not. The Advertising Standards Authority said the fact that the fee was always payable was material information which would allow consumers to make an informed decision about using Purplebricks. It described the original advertising as “misleading”. Purplebricks will now have to ensure that it points out that the fee must always be paid in all future advertising which compares its offering to other fee models. This morning, in a statement issued to the London Stock Exchange, Purplebricks made it clear that the ‘commisery’ campaign has already been updated and will continue. However, Purplebricks CEO Michael Bruce expressed astonishment at the ASA’s ruling, saying Purplebricks is “far more transparent” than high street agents who do not publish their…

Land transaction tax (LTT), which comes into effect on 1 April 2018 in Wales, replaces stamp duty land tax, which is currently applied in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. Under the new system, the starting threshold for paying property tax will be £150,000 – compared with £125,000 at present. In the latest UK House Price Index for July, the average price of a property in Wales was £150,846 – just above the new property tax limit. Under the new rules, announced as part of the Welsh government budget for 2018-19, all buyers of residential properties costing up to £400,000 will pay the same or less tax than they currently do, with the average buyer paying almost £500 less tax than they do under stamp duty land tax. However, buyers looking for homes on the upper band rates between £400,000 and £925,000 will pay more than at present. For example, a buyer purchasing a property in…

– by ex-Ombudsman Christopher Hamer  A current major debate in the property world is whether online agents (that is those that only provide a service through electronic channels) will have an impact in the market place.  Looked at objectively, such a new service provision is simply another way for consumers to buy and sell properties.  However, any new concept in the market place should improve or develop what is there so that service to the consumer is enhanced, and the debate is mostly about whether online agents can improve the process of selling property or whether they bring some reduction in service to consumers.  It seems odd to me, given my experience of consumer dissatisfaction over the past nine years, to introduce to the process of selling people’s most valuable asset (with the associated emotion and difficulties that can arise) something which does not give the consumer an advantage over what is already there –…

“Our business has expanded in every department with particular growth in the residential sales arm of our business. This has meant we have more staff out on the road at all times. To cope with the expansion we have taken delivery of four brand new Citroen’s all in white and had them put through a fantastic makeover. You can see from the picture that they look great and really catch the eye”.

Fresh Estate & Letting Agents are pleased to announce the opening of their new Morriston showroom. After purchasing the prime location premises in Woodfield Street towards the end of last year the company spent a number of months re building the office to create a bright and modern showroom that was officially opened on the 1st February 2017. The Fresh Directors had been running their successful Uplands Branch for the past 6 years. The Uplands office was formed from a standing start and evolved into a very successful business covering sales, residential letting and the student market. Director Dean Brain comments “We had always wanted to open a second branch however, we committed to only doing so when the Uplands branch growth had been fully tamed. We had overseen phenomenal growth year after year both in terms of increased business and the amount of staff required to deliver our high standard of service. We started…