A major initiative in the Queen's speech will radically change the way buyers and sellers transact their sales in the near future.

We currently have the most inefficient system of property conveyancing due to the time lag between an offer being made and exchange of contracts being effected. 28% of all transactions fall through before the deal is signed. Another constant complaint of the English sales system has been the re-emergence of "gazumping", due the time delay between deal arranged and exchanged.

Peter Wetherell, Managing Director of Wetherell and also Chairman of the National Association of Estate Agents Central London Branch, recently held a lunch for the Housing Minister, Nick Raynsford to talk about the government's results of the Seller's Pack pilot scheme in Bristol. The Seller's Pack is expected to become law in 2003 and will require the vendor to prepare all aspects of information required for the sale prior to placing the property on the market. Mr Raynsford told Peter Wetherell that "a key part of the package of government proposals aimed at making the home buying process easier, faster, more transparent and consumer friendly, and more certain".

The Seller's Pack proposals will not be such a major change for central London agents, as we tend to ask for copies of leases, service charge provisions and advise solicitors to undertake searches prior to placing the property on the market. However the most dramatic proposal is the preparation of the survey to be supplied by the vendor.

The latest results from the Land Registry, makes interesting reading for both the national figures and central London. Sales volume for the three months July - September 2000 in England & Wales shows 239,114 sales down from 258,263 in July - Sept 1999. But sales volume at the top end of the market, £1million+, was up by over 50%. There were 58 sales in the City of Westminster over £1m, but Kensington & Chelsea leaped ahead with 105 sales!

The Mayfair market at present is starved of a good property, in volume, so those for sale are achieving substantial prices. Prime property in Mayfair has risen 25% over the last 2 years with prices still lower than other prime areas of central London.
Mayfair is still a growth area for capital appreciation.