Lifestyle

Lifestyle relocation and desire for more space leads to surge in Dorset property sales

Lifestyle relocation and the desire for more space has led to a surge in activity in Dorset’s housing market, with more than twice as many sales over £1m in 2020 compared to the previous year.

According to Savills research using data from TwentyCI, Dorset saw a 49% increase in sales agreed across the whole market since 1st June 2020 compared to 2019. Above £1m, the figure increases to 136%.

The residential sales team at Savills Wimborne saw buyer registrations increase by 84% last year compared to 2019, with viewing numbers up 108% and 62% more sales agreed, with 53% of properties attracting multiple offers.

Almost a third (28%) of buyers were upsizing from within the area, while half (49%) were relocating to the county, with 19% of buyers coming from London and a further 16% from Hampshire and Surrey.

Ashley Rawlings, head of residential sales at Savills Wimborne, said: “Against all expectations, 2020 was an exceptionally busy year. The pandemic encouraged people to think more about where they live and the attributes they most value in a home and there has been clear demand from buyers, particularly in the family market.

“Lifestyle relocation remains a big theme as people continue to reassess their work-life balance. Those with future plans to move to the county, or to move back to where they themselves grew up, have made the decision to do so earlier, making the most of being able to work from home and commute less frequently.

“Now more than ever, buyers want somewhere with greater space, a large garden, easy access to the countryside and excellent schools. The Dorset area of course has this in abundance, with property representing good value for money when compared to London. As a result, we have seen strong activity across the board.

“This strong demand from buyers is still very much in evidence this year, though there is a clear shortage of stock following the large volume of sales agreed in 2020.”

The surge in market activity has supported prices and delivered some unexpected gains but it hasn’t resulted in runaway price growth. The wider south of England region, which includes Dorset, saw an increase of 4.6% last year, with the coastal market and country houses over £2m seeing increases of 5.6% and 5.5% respectively.

Lucian Cook, Savills head of residential research, says: “Our expectation is that this further lockdown will make people more aware of the limitations of their existing home and increase their commitment to moving, likely leading to pent up demand as seen after the first national lockdown early in 2020. At the same time, however, the pool of those able to act on their desire to move will shrink so buyers and sellers will need to continue to remain pragmatic around pricing. We’d expect sustained activity from those with secure household finances, which will help sustain activity levels in the prime market, but lenders are likely to become more risk averse which will make it harder for those requiring high levels of borrowing.

“The desire to beat the stamp duty deadline will help sustain activity in the first quarter of 2021, but it’s probably going to be harder to meet the 31 March deadline. The end of the stamp duty holiday will coincide with rising unemployment as the furlough scheme comes to an end, and this further lockdown may mean a deeper lull in activity mid-year but a stronger bounceback as the vaccine rollout progresses.

“Covid-19 will have a longer tail in the form of higher taxation. This will likely act as a medium term drag on the market, though low interest rates will help counter this.” www.savills.co.uk

Lifestyle relocation remains a big theme as people continue to reassess their work-life balance.

Go west to take unaccompanied freight by sea, says Brittany Ferries

A growing number of haulage companies are shipping goods using unaccompanied trailers. Brittany Ferries says demand is rising, and the ports it serves on the western Channel in France and the UK are best set-up to receive these driverless loads.

“Things like negative Covid tests for drivers are certainly helping drive the trend for unaccompanied loads,” commented Simon Wagstaff Brittany Ferries freight director. “However, there are other financial benefits in going driverless. We know of one large haulage operation in Ireland, for example, that has organised reciprocal arrangements with another in Spain, dropping off and picking up trailers for each other. That’s a cost-effective way of doing business.”

All ferry companies have reported reduced freight volumes in January as a consequence of Brexit fears and stockpiling by companies. However, while volumes are low, Brittany Ferries says the proportion of unaccompanied units is already much higher than in previous years. Galicia is Brittany Ferries’ newest Ro-Pax vessel, operating between Santander in Spain and Portsmouth. Since sailings began in early December, around 40 per cent of Galicia’s freight has been unaccompanied trailers.

Further evidence comes from the workhorse of the Brittany Ferries fleet, Pelican. This freight-only ship has been operating since 2016, connecting Bilbao with Poole. Designed primarily for unaccompanied trailers, Pelican’s fill rates have risen so significantly that it is now the best performing freight ship in the Brittany Ferries fleet.

“Of course, Pelican is an extremely versatile vessel which can take out-of-gauge shipments as well as unaccompanied units,” Simon Wagstaff adds. “It’s this flexibility in our fleet, combined with our ability to accommodate unaccompanied loads throughout our extensive route network, that makes Brittany Ferries an attractive prospect for the year ahead. We are pleased too that freight is flowing well through our ports, without the queues that some forecast at the start of the year.”

Brittany Ferries began as a freight-only operation in 1973. The first ship Kerisnel, was a converted Israeli tank-carrier. It had been chartered by French farmers to carry produce like cauliflowers and artichokes to the UK, a market that opened with the country’s entry into the EEC. However, the company quickly adapted. It turned to carrying passenger traffic (as well as freight) when it became clear the biggest export market was for British holiday makers visiting Brittany and then Normandy.

The company still moves quickly when opportunities arise. It opened a sea route connecting Ireland with Spain for the first time in 2018, predominantly for freight traffic. More recently it has brought forward the opening of a Rosslare Cherbourg connection, as Irish, French and Spanish hauliers seek an alternative to the UK land-bridge, with the cost, time and administrative burden that this now brings.

Plans are in progress to open further freight routes, connecting Roscoff and St Malo in Brittany, with Ireland. The aim is to finalise schedules as soon as possible and to commence operations in early February using Ro-Pax vessel Armorique.

In a normal non-Covid year Brittany Ferries carries around 210,000 freight units. Its twelve ships serve Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, SaintMalo and Roscoff in France, Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth in the UK, Santander and Bilbao in Spain and Cork & Rosslare in Ireland. www.brittanyferriesfreight.co.uk

Saffery Champness category winners announced in the Dorset Tourism Awards

The winners of the Dorset Tourism Awards were celebrated in an online awards event. Saffery Champness LLP, sponsors of the Hotel of the Year and Business Events & Wedding Venue categories announced their winner, for both categories as The Marsham Court Hotel.

Nick Fernyhough, Senior Partner at Safferys said, “The annual Dorset Tourism Awards showcase businesses and organisations from across the county and demonstrate the quality and depth of the county’s tourism offering. “It goes without saying that this has been an extremely difficult year for the tourism industry but it is great to see how so many businesses have innovated to make the best of the situation. The positivity coming through from all the finalists was impressive and we offer our sincere congratulations to them all. “We are delighted for our category winners, Marsham Court Hotel who also won ‘Dog Friendly Venue’ and the ‘Winners of Winners’ Award. They deserve their amazing run of success and accolades.”

Marsham Court Hotel Directors Rosie Radwell, Jane Swift, Russell and James Dixon-Box said, “We are thrilled with our wins, especially after such a difficult year.

“We have invested heavily in the aesthetics of our event spaces over the last few years and are proud of what we have achieved, but without a strong and passionate team behind us we would not be able to deliver the exceptional Marsham Court service to match. It has given the whole team a huge boost and is great recognition for all of their hard work. “Winning the Hotel of the Year category is a great testament to the resilience that has been needed during the last year. We have continued to plan and invest in the future of the hotel and are hopeful for a strong recovery when the time is right. This award will give the Marsham Court great kudos with our guests past and future and I am so pleased that they have been able to go ahead this year, in spite of the difficulties that the industry is currently encountering.”

Awards organiser Robin Barker of Services for Tourism added: “The past 10 months have been a challenge for everyone – to survive let alone prosper. Having considered abandoning the Awards I’m so glad we persevered, adapting and changing along the way. The delight we witnessed amongst finalists on being told of their success makes it all so worthwhile!” www.saffery.com www.dorsettourismawards.org.uk

At a time when Cash is King, a cash injection of this magnitude can be a matter of survival for a business. A frequently misunderstood government funding mechanism is available for businesses that have been innovative, potentially in any industry. One sector that often falls short of maximised claim benefit is the Digital sector. Rob Sowden, innovation tax incentives specialist at Business Cash Enabler reports a case study where a business benefited greatly:

“Just two years after I met the managing director of this business for the first time, they have benefited from £260k cashback under the HMRC Research & Development (R&D) tax credits scheme. This was an incredible cash boost for the business that develops secure web-based apps running on mobile devices. Many businesses and their advisors haven’t associated the R&D tax credits scheme with software development, however, innovation including writing APIs, algorithms, coding, Big Data analytics and app development, can all potentially meet the scheme criteria. Apart from costs incurred via payroll, this business also incurs costs from offshore developers. They still qualified for a rebate of a proportion of these costs because the costs were incurred by the UK registered entity. On the cautionary side, there is a risk that if a business tries to self-claim or via their accountant, without a specialist advisor, they may claim for work that is ineligible, such as out-of-the-box solutions or well known development techniques. There is the potential that HMRC could subsequently claw back any benefit paid.

“A trading company that carries out any form of unique innovation may qualify for a year-on-year cashback from HMRC under this very generous scheme. A company can claim back two accounting periods, or must have at least their first set of trading accounts, if it is an eligible startup. A business does not have to be profitable to get this tax credit or cashback, in fact a loss-making company may obtain an enhanced cashback, up to 33% of qualifying costs incurred can be rebated. Some businesses have claimed and received small amounts, maybe £10k or £15k, which may be much less than they are entitled to. What catches many businesses out is that they believe this claim opportunity is an accountancy work-stream, whereas it is really about technology. The claims management service I introduced this business to required a specialist software analyst to identify all of the qualifying activities permitted within the government’s scheme rules.

HMRC have remained operational throughout the pandemic to process claims, usually paid out around 45 days from a claim being filed.”

Business Cash Enabler provides a free service to businesses to check eligibility for innovation tax incentives. All stages of a claim can be managed remotely by phone, videoconference and email.

For more information visit www. businesscashenabler.co.uk

To arrange a free eligibility check email Rob.Sowden@businesscashenabler.co.uk or call 07732 627085.