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Just a follow up to Redwine's last post, here's an extract from Landlord Today on-line with regards to Foxtons :-

'.......June 2023 saw almost 35,500 new listings, which was over 4,000 listings more than last June, according to Foxtons’ analysis of Zoopla data. Over 20 per cent of new instructions, year to date, were within Westminster and Tower Hamlets.'

The article in full :-

https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2023/7/foxtons-figures-show-rents-and-demand-dip-slightly-in-london

Remember these guys, well quite a few market commentators have either forgotten about these lot or maybe just haven't bothered to look into their latest offerings of late.

Over three years ago Foxtons announced a tie-up with this on-line auction company and whilst it helped sales initially albeit slightly there wasn't a great deal of coverage especially as the property market was pretty flat back then, interest rates were near rock bottom and it was only the first-time buyers were keen in the market hoping to take their first step onto the proverbial property ladder.

Here was the announcement :-

https://thenegotiator.co.uk/foxtons-online-property-auctions-bidx1/

Now fast forward to July 2023, there are currently over 70 properties listed for the next auction later this month so far, last month around 27 properties were listed with over half of them sold. And these properties are not your 'rack and ruin' properties of old that some people think of when you talk about property auctions and hoping to bag a bargain, these are 'quality' properties that you would normally see in an estate agents window.

Take a look :-

https://www.foxtons.co.uk/properties-for-auction/london#map=51.49504090104112,-0.15784800000000931,11|layers=|location_ids=1

Okay, so what does this tell us ?

Well firstly, there are now sellers out there that want a quick exit and are prepared to pay the hefty auction commissions rather than waiting for potential buyers trickling in one by one over the Summer months which is always a very quiet time for the market in general but also want out before the inevitable downturn come the Autumn and Winter months and the inevitable rush which we will see once people are back from their holidays.

Secondly, the amount of properties going to auction has more than tripled since last month and judging by some of the pictures on the Foxtons website, there are quite a few 'empty' looking properties being advertised to sell, which to me suggest that they could have been rental properties as I mentioned a few weeks back. I.e. Landlords looking to exit the rental market !

Again all good for Foxtons.

And as the Summer months are here once again there will be a new flock of overseas students looking for rental accommodation whilst they study in London from September/October onwards, expect more good news from Foxtons on the rental front as well.

Its ching, ching all the way !!

Agreed, and for those whom clearly still have their heads firmly buried in the sand, here's a great explanation of what's being planned for next month (click to play commentary) :-

https://kingworldnews.com/weekly-wrap-with-alasdair-macleod-07-15-2023/

Agreed, its all about to get tasty in the next few weeks !

I called the low for Gold last week on 07/07/23 and said its about to go on its real bull run and just to add something else into the mix ahead of the BRICs meeting on 22nd August (+ 20 other countries so far), take a look at this, its been very much under the radar, most due to design than anything else.

I mentioned that the US will have something up their sleeve to spoil the BRICs meeting, well here it is.

Question now is will the FED announce a reversal of Nixon's August 1971 policy ???

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/15/long-awaited-fed-digital-payment-system-to-launch-in-july.html

Good film on the Great action film channel (Freeview 42) at the moment, a secret agent must retrieve one billion dollars in stolen Gold before the world's economy collapses.

Made in 1969 !!!

Are we being forewarned ???

...... Gold bull markets tend to last for around three years !

:)

Yep, I posted back on the 22nd June with regards to a new BRICS currency being backed by Gold and thus world trade in US Dollars could now be by passed and US Dollars dumped as no longer needed.

BUT and it is a big BUT, the Yanks know of the BRICS meeting from the 22nd August, will they attempt to jump the gun and announce news of the US Dollar now being backed by Gold, i.e. a full reversal of President Nixon's announcement on August 15th 1971 when he removed the US Dollar from the Gold standard ??

An interesting few weeks ahead so much so that I am now calling the start of the REAL Gold bull market from today 07/07/23.

Come back to me on 07/07/26 and you can congratulate me on my forecast !

:))

Down again, we're now closer to the lows of the year than the highs !! Fine by me, just picked up a few more.

Keep calling them down and I will gladly pick them up !

:)

And there's more, here's a snippet from the Landlord Knowledge website this morning :-

'UK Housing Market Revives To Pre-Pandemic Levels, Say Property Experts..............'

'The UK property market has made a full recovery from the pandemic slump, according to recent data from Rightmove. Interestingly, the recovery in property sales is most evident in London, where agreed sales are now 11% higher than they were in March 2019.

Matt Johnson, Area Director at Lettings and Estate Agent JOHNS&CO, says: “Data from the first quarter of this year revealed that new offers have surged by 85% compared to the same period last year, and we’ve seen our agreed sales grow by 33%.”'

And here's the article in full :-

https://landlordknowledge.co.uk/uk-housing-market-revives-to-pre-pandemic-levels-say-property-experts/

Nice article this morning on the Estate Agents today website, 'Foxtons has its mojo back !'..............

https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2023/6/foxtons-has-its-mojo-back--claim

In my last post I mentioned about the affordability issues that many homeowners are now facing and going forward as we move into a much higher mortgage rate arena. The UK government has no intention of backtracking on interest rate moves until next year at the earliest as its a general election year and as the Tories will need very vote they can get, no doubt they will tell us all that inflation has peaked and thus interest rates can come down albeit slightly.

So expect rates to peak around 6-6.5% before coming down to say 5% for the next few years.

I think we all know what this will do to the housing market and already we are seeing more sellers coming to the market and existing listings being reduced in price, all signs of an accelerated sales market after years of being in the doldrums, again all good for Foxtons !

What will happen as a result, well I mentioned that affordability will still be a major issue for the average buyer and banks are very reluctant to lend in a downturn, so that just leaves wealthy landlords, hedge funds and banks themselves as buyers with a few wealthy individuals in the mix.

And what will they do with these properties that the sellers can't afford to maintain, yep they will be back on the market but as rental properties, we may even see buyers renting out the same property back to the original sellers so that they don't have to move especially if they have huge equity in the property. Either way, we are not returning to the 'old days' of bank repossessing properties and flogging them off at any price.

This will also have a knock on effect to the rental market and expect existing rental clients to enter into longer term rental contracts as the housing market enters its downturn.

This is a mad link from the BBC website, its defo worth a read :-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-65761233

Yep, picked up some more 1oz Britannia coins this morning at £1590 !!! A steal !!

As i said last week, I'm still expecting bullion to trade lower maybe down to $1850 perhaps, Friday is the end of quarter and half year for many as we approach Summer holiday season from Monday so could be a few interesting trading days left this week.

Then roll on August and two fingers up to the US Dollar with a bit of luck !!!

Just leaving for a day at the races today at Royal Ascot and with all this talk about Havieron and gold find after gold find after gold find etc. well it be rude of me not to back horse No.5 in the first race !!

Good luck all !

I posted a few days back and since then we've seen a continued slide in the price of Gold stocks as well as the artificial paper price of Gold Bullion, at this afternoon's spot price Gold was fixed at $1914 no less !!!

Believe it or not, the price of paper Gold is now less than it was BEFORE the proxy war between the USA, oops sorry I meant the Ukraine and Russia !!!

Anyway, I mentioned about the BRICS meeting in August and now courtesy of the Zerohedge website, we now have dates and a lot more meat on the bones with regards to the implementation of a new BRICS currency backed by Gold.

Its an an excellent read over a coffee, here's the opening gambit :-

'The Biggest Monetary Shock In 52 Years'

'I recently revealed that the so-called “BRICS+” countries will announce the creation of a new currency at its annual leaders’ summit conference on August 22–24.

This will be the biggest upheaval in international finance since 1971. It’s taking direct aim at the dollar.

Quite simply, the world is unprepared for this geopolitical shock wave.

It appears likely that the new BRICS+ currency will be linked to a weight of gold. This plays to the strengths of BRICS members Russia and China. These countries are the two largest gold producers in the world, and are ranked sixth and seventh respectively among the 100 nations with gold reserves.

One difficulty in considering the impact of the new BRICS currency on the dollar is that all dollar indexes compare currency to currency. But that’s meaningless since the dollar, euro and sterling could all suffer from a loss of confidence at the same time.

If gold goes from $2,000 to $10,000 per ounce, that is better understood as an 80% devaluation of the dollar: from 0.0005 ounces per dollar to 0.0001 ounces per dollar. That’s a collapse of confidence but you’ll miss it if you’re looking at euros or yen.

Those currencies will all be collapsing at the same time.'

And here's the link to the article in full, enjoy :-

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/biggest-monetary-shock-52-years

Hi Major, Foxtons are well positioned on all fronts, a booming rental market with now in excess of 30,000 rentals on their books with an average rent in London now well over £500 a week. Do the sums, the numbers are mind boggling !

Secondly, for mortgage holders past and present as I mentioned a few days back, Foxton's in-house Mortgage specialists (Alexander Hall) will clean up especially now as we move into a higher interest rate environment. You have to remember quite a few mortgage holders will see their 1-2% mortgage deals expire soon, if not already ! Around 2m UK mortgage holders are due to re-mortgage this year as fixed rate deals expire.

And this brings to affordability issues, many mortgage holders do not want to lose their homes at any cost but inevitably there will be some that have no option but to sell or downsize as the cost of owning a home becomes out of reach of many especially at the lower end of the earnings scale.

And finally we have had landlords over leveraging on rental properties for income, so expect a few of those properties to come to the market now as the cost of those buy-to-let mortgages will see re-mortgaging rates of anything from 6-7-8 % even ! OUCH !!

So with regards to sales, I agree that we will see more properties come to the market, good for Foxtons but sad for those that have to sell their homes through financial difficulties.

5eights.

The day (Sunday evening) when US President Nixon announced that the US Dollar was no longer convertible into Gold thus abandoning the Bretton Woods regime when gold was pegged at $35 per ounce. The real reason as we all know - The US finally ran out of Gold !!!

Now fast forward to 2023 or more importantly August 2023 (i.e. in two months time), word has it that a big meeting of all the BRICS countries leaders together with all those disenchanted leaders whose sovereign currency is pegged to the ponzi scheme of the US Dollar will be meeting in Johannesburg around the middle of August 2023.

Putin is the fly in the ointment at the moment as the CIA will be out to get him !

The talk is of a single 'trade' currency backed by Gold and settled externally of the US Dollar based SWIFT system.

Now, the Yank Banks and Hedge funds know what's coming and as we've seen for the last few years everything associated with Gold has done little or nothing despite the problems of the weak economies of countries around the world amid global inflation worries , especially those countries whom have their currencies pegged to the US Dollar (i.e.US Banks and Hedge funds have been shorting the f&&k out of them - Turkey being the latest example !).

Gold stocks have been extremely poor performers as a result but this is more by design not as a consequence, how else are those Yank Banks and Hedge funds supposed to get their grubby mits on huge amounts of Gold stock without calling the prices down and instilling fear into shareholders so that they sell ??

Expect more moves South in Gold ahead of August but then stand by for the fireworks !!!

If you want to have a quick read of what happened in August 1971, take a look at this article :-

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-takes-united-states-off-gold-standard

Just clicked on trades and saw some mahussive ones put through late on.

Its so easy when you can trade World markets without risk and a pipeline of FREE dollars !!

Damn it, more Gold !!!

Recent results from the South East Crescent include:

- 32m @ 6.6 g/t Au and 0.26% Cu from 1,317m

- 46m @ 4.2 g/t Au and 0.16% Cu from 1,229m

- 62m @ 2.2 g/t Au and 0.06% Cu from 1,349m

- 148m @ 1.7 g/t Au and 0.25% Cu from 1,205m

Nice !

Ok, firstly here's an article courtesy of the Lettings Today website :-

'Summer rents soar with 18% annual rises in places '

Data from London-focussed agency Foxtons reveals that average weekly rental prices in May have surpassed the peak of 2022.

The average weekly rent in London passed £600 in May, a 13 per cent increase year-on-year. Central London, once again, achieved the highest average weekly rent. However, East London showed the highest year-on-year increase at 18 per cent compared to May 2022.

Foxtons’ analysis of London data shows that market activity picked up significantly in May as the busy summer lettings period kicked off. New listings increased 22 per cent from April to May, whilst applicant demand increased 31 per cent over the same period.

Registrations remained broadly flat compared to last year, however Foxtons saw registrations rise eight per cent in South London and 13 per cent in West London year-to-date compared to last year.

The average rental budget for applicants increased two per cent from April to May. Applicants looking to rent in North and East London increased their budgets the most, budgeting 12 per cent more than last year.

The percentage of budget that renters spend to secure a property has increased for the first time in three months, taking the overall average to 102 per cent. Renters in Central London spent 108 per cent of their registered budget in May 2023, a seven per cent increase compared to April 2023.

The agency’s lettings director - Gareth Atkins - says: “We are seeing trends in demand and supply return to a more traditional cycle, in line with what was commonplace before Covid. The one major difference is that even with May’s increase in properties to rent, applicant demand is far exceeding supply.

“This is partly due to the normal summer influx of incoming university students, corporate relocations and families moving during school holidays combined with the reality that supply has never returned to pre-Covid levels. In May, eight per cent more renters registered per each new instruction; an early sign of the competition to come.”

And with interest rates more than certain to bottom at 5% for the next few years (goodness knows how high the Banks and the BOE will take them), we could see an increase in re-mortgaging for those existing home owners whom have accrued substantial gains in the value of their homes since the era of 0-1% interest rates and now have to re-mortgage at today's higher rates.

Foxtons have an 'in-house' re-mortgaging service and if the level of this re-financing increases substantially throughout the industry which I have a feeling it might as move into a higher interest rate economic environment, then expect Foxtons to reap even more of the the fruits of their labour, who knows maybe the company's next acquisition might be a mortgage financing business and not another rental business.

Its a win, win, win all the way for Foxtons !!

.....shows no signs of abating, don't know if this has been posted by anyone this morning so apologies if so :-

https://www.mining.com/web/first-quantum-rebuffs-informal-approach-from-barrick-gold/