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Alexander Leon

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About Me

my expertise in the industry

Alexander's Recent Activity

A clear case of pot and kettle.

From: Alexander Leon 08 February 2022 09:11 AM

Unless you shoot with a relatively wide angle you end up with a picture of a sofa rather than the room. A case of unrealistic buyers especially given that particulars all come with floor plans as well.

From: Alexander Leon 15 October 2021 15:12 PM

I can't imagine there is a single agent out there who didn't already know all of this. The government never listen, and so the predictable pointless tax continuum goes on...

From: Alexander Leon 17 August 2021 09:08 AM

The impact on what are presently loud and dirty roads will be interesting as transport goes cleaner and quieter. Agents should be quick to point out the investment opportunities there.

From: Alexander Leon 30 March 2021 09:03 AM

We can't visit a relative or neighbour but we're allowed to take strangers to strangers houses... Applicants are staying away or are trapped in their home countries and cannot fly to UK. None of my clients want me anywhere near them let alone in their houses with total strangers, so this latest government directive is completely moronic and puts the older agents' lives at risk. Yet another government clusterf**k.

From: Alexander Leon 05 January 2021 09:19 AM

SDLT has become a farce. It's no longer a duty and has now become a not very straight forward outright tax. The government (then George Osborne) meddled with the property market and killed what was working just fine. To reignite the market now, the SDLT needs to go back to being a duty, with rates no higher than 5% (pre Dec 2011). Sales volumes will increase again resulting in earning the government more money, including all of the associated trades with VAT.

From: Alexander Leon 15 July 2020 12:05 PM

Master Bedroom has nothing to do with slavery. It's because a householder, if male, was known as the Master, the abbreviation for which is Mr. His wife the mistress of the house has the abbreviation Mrs. The master bedroom is the one used by the Master or the Master and his wife. ... The “master bedroom” was used in architectural plans to mean the owner's bedroom. This has gone too far and is total nonsense.

From: Alexander Leon 06 July 2020 10:57 AM

Mr Hannah's rather parochial views here are wildly out of step with London, the engine of the country. London's property market was stagnated by the SDLT rises six years ago, punishing developers, downsizers and buy to let investors. The government should have left what was not broken alone.

From: Alexander Leon 02 July 2020 11:02 AM

Boris as ever the congenital liar.

From: Alexander Leon 10 February 2020 16:39 PM

However most people don't know the difference between being gazumped and out-bid.

From: Alexander Leon 21 November 2019 09:21 AM

Left RM in March and business is perfect without. RM is a form of "Ransomware" that we will not be held to.

From: Alexander Leon 12 November 2019 10:05 AM

Still the cheapest in the free world!

From: Alexander Leon 28 October 2019 09:35 AM

If the last twenty years of government would just stop meddling with the property sector, the open market might just have a chance...drop SDLT back to 3% on all transactions over £500,000 and be done with the whole stupid issue.

From: Alexander Leon 03 September 2019 13:23 PM

"AS MUCH AS"?? Estate agents in the UK are the cheapest in the world!

From: Alexander Leon 26 July 2019 09:13 AM

We, in South Kensington kicked the drug of Rightmove in February and have had no dip in either sales or lettings and life has carried on without a hitch. As James quite rightly points out, biting the hand that feeds you is no way to behave in business. Rightmove has become a form of ransomware and we will not be held to ransom. This entire scenario reminds me of Blackberry, or Crackberry as some called it, and where is that now? Perhaps all agents with this habit should join AA (Agents Anonymous) to discuss their Rightmove addiction and find a way to ween themselves off it. There is a future without Rightmove!

From: Alexander Leon 17 July 2019 09:45 AM

The rot set in with Mr Osborne's intervention 5 years ago; Brexit is cherry on cake.

From: Alexander Leon 24 June 2019 13:29 PM

Vyomm have the sum total of 4 properties listed on their portal in SW3 and SW7 and their stats are equally unimpressive.

From: Alexander Leon 06 June 2019 09:56 AM

The losses are completely due to London property, the country's biggest SDLT revenue earner, and that is completely due to the prohibitive expense of the raised SDLT. This downward spiral started in 2015 and every agent of any standing in London has lobbied the various MPs who apart from Greg Hands and a few others, are frankly asleep at the wheel. Brexit is merely the cherry on the cake.

From: Alexander Leon 02 May 2019 09:12 AM

Philip Nunn is delusional.

From: Alexander Leon 27 February 2019 09:41 AM

Another referendum for those who errrrrrred!

From: Alexander Leon 19 February 2019 13:34 PM

This is madness...SDLT needs to drop not increase yet further. Little Britain will be out in the cold on it's own with no one left in the world wanting to come here. This will be the final nail in the coffin.

From: Alexander Leon 12 February 2019 12:30 PM

Central London has been decimated by Osborne's SDLT hikes and other tax reforms. This is old and obvious news, and the government should have seen this coming; enough of us lobbied them at the time, but as usual, they failed to listen and now they're out of pocket by a lot more than just SDLT revenue. £802m less then last year will only get steadily worse and all the VAT (20%) attributed to each transaction lost on top, and then the fact that those foreign buyers are no longer spending here like they used to. What a chump Mr Osborne was/is!

From: Alexander Leon 04 February 2019 13:21 PM

Thrillingly got shot of Rightmove yesterday, leaving us on just Zoopla, PL and OTM...they didn't care that we were leaving them and frankly we feel the same about them. Companies that abuse their customers, hello Apple, get straight talking feedback that hits them in the pocket. So Whilst RM is number one, I wonder for how long they will keep the crown. No one, especially the rich, likes to be ripped off.

From: Alexander Leon 01 February 2019 10:15 AM

I think the combination of all the negatives from the outrageous taxes, stamp duty, the idiot Mark Carney and Brexit all contribute to the general malaise in the market, in London anyway.

From: Alexander Leon 11 October 2018 09:23 AM

Sounds like a rather chippy parochial comment that is neither educated nor constructive.

From: Alexander Leon 04 October 2018 15:43 PM

I lay the blame fair and square at the government's feet for the stall in the Prime Central London property market. The open market was fine until they interfered and shot themselves in the foot. London is the financial engine of the rest of the country and when it is starved of oil, it stalls, which in turn then has the obvious knock on effect across the rest of the country. The tax hikes have made the city a far less attractive place to invest, allowing foreign investors to look elsewhere for better returns. The market is a self valuing living breathing animal that will always adjust accordingly, so I have to disagree with Mr Walsh above as to the "overvaluation of the market". The bigger picture across what is now a small world, is that London "was" a competitively priced and favourable place to live with a relatively low corruption rate and fairly stable government. Foreign investment was and still is a crucial part of the UK's economy, and the xenophobic attack on that source has proved to be a savage own goal. With transactions down by as much as 75% and associated losses (20% VAT on every facet of those transactions) far outstrip the tax revenue now garnered by the Inland Revenue. There is of course the subject of certain vendors being slow to react to the price adjustment and all of those I know are foreign!

From: Alexander Leon 04 October 2018 10:27 AM

Having spoken to the on line sheep agents about Prime Central London, they were completely clueless about the market here, so I doubt they will get any headway into the £2m plus market. Short leases, big estate leases, and trust leases would leave the on-liners bewildered and floundering in a self satisfied pool of incompetence.

From: Alexander Leon 05 September 2018 12:09 PM

I would like to add to Toby's comments as to the reasons why the Prime Central London market is in the doldrums. Added to Brexit and SDLT are the implications of no tax relief on buy-to-let investments, killing off those who might have put their pension in bricks and mortar. Mortgage interest tax relief will gradually be cut back to 20% between 2017 and 2020. So after paying fees and service charges it has become a near pointless exercise. Another case of the government attacking pensions. As for when you die, they want another 40% and in the case of Prime Central London property, foreigners domicile has now been reduced to 15 years from 17, which whilst only a difference of two years has added another reason to stay away. The government is losing 20% (VAT) on every single transaction connected to the sale of a property in Central London and as trades are down 75% that is not insignificant. The changes to domicile law will affect investors in other ways, too. Currently, foreign nationals in the UK are not required to pay tax based on their foreign assets for their first five years living here. During this period of time, they are described as being ‘on remittance’. Foreign nationals can choose to remain ‘on remittance’ after the initial five year period, but they are required to pay an annual fee to HMRC in order to do so. However, remittance can only continue until the individual has achieved domicile status – which, as mentioned, will now occur after living in the UK for 15 of the last 20 tax years, as opposed to the last 17 of 20. Again, this will affect foreign nationals living in the UK who are yet to become domicile, but could do so in the future. So that pretty much sums up the government attacking the hand that feeds this London economy, and explains why foreign investors are investing elsewhere.

From: Alexander Leon 12 April 2018 12:28 PM

...Obvious why it is not rolling out, as it's an extra expense agents can ill afford while the market stinks. Bad timing.

From: Alexander Leon 11 December 2017 09:36 AM

Now that the world is covered in twits who tweet, must everyone feel the need to be the moral police? How about just sticking to your job, and selling property WG.

From: Alexander Leon 05 October 2017 09:24 AM

Whats wrong with booking a time with an agent who walks around the property using "facetime" and a wide angle attached to the forward camera who can then discuss it live?

From: Alexander Leon 16 August 2017 13:20 PM

Hilarious now that he has hit the £50m milestone. Dragons are not always right and their dressing down of him will come back to haunt them.

From: Alexander Leon 16 August 2017 11:39 AM

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