HOUSE PRICES SURGE AGAIN

Britain’s housing market is bouncing back with average prices rising by more than £5,000, according to a national newspaper report.
Today’s Daily Express reveals that prices have shot up by £30 a day in the first half of the year with the cost of the typical three-bedroom semi now £216,260 – £5,478 higher than January.
Nicholas Leeming, business development director of property website Zoopla.co.uk, is quoted as saying that “the property market is back on the right track”.
The Zoopla research also shows that asking prices for top-end homes have risen by nearly three per cent since the beginning of the year.
Commenting on the trend, Adam Offer, managing director of Besley Hill, Bristol and Gloucestershire’s biggest independent estate agents, said: “I expect the surge to continue due to such factors as low interest rates and demand outstripping supply. Now is a good time to buy property.”

FISHPONDS BRACE WITH A NEIGHBOURLY FAMILY ASPECT

When Bridget Smith told her mother that the house next door to her Victorian mid-terrace property was coming on to the market, she jumped at the chance of buying it.
“My mum was on the phone the next morning to ask if I would mind if she put in an offer because she would love to move next door and watch the grandchildren grow up,” recalled Bridget.
Now, with the two children in their mid-teens, Bridget and her widowed mother have put the two houses, numbers 53 and 55 Berkeley Road, Fishponds, up for sale to move to west Wales.
“Apart from new home developments, chances like this, to buy two houses next to one another, rarely come along,” said Mark Symonds, senior branch manager at Besley Hill’s Fishponds office.
“It’s an ideal opportunity for people wanting to move so that they can live next-door to an elderly relative or perhaps someone else in the family they can call upon as an on-site baby-sitter.”
However, in the case of these two bay-fronted properties, they could also attract independent buyers.
The three-bedroom number 53, which is on the market for £164,950, is suited to professionals, young families and parents seeking a property for a son/daughter attending local colleges while, at £150,000, the two-bedroom number 55 will appeal to first-time buyers as well as professionals.
Arranged over three floors, number 53 is an outstanding house offering charming accommodation with great character featuring a superb roof conversion forming a top floor bedroom complete with en-suite shower.
Features include natural wood stripped floors and panelled internal doors with period-style handles, stained and leaded glazed windows and attractive fireplaces.
Further benefits are a lovely Victorian-style bathroom, stylish timber-effect kitchen and delightful landscaped rear garden.
Number 55 also has an eye-catching landscaped rear garden together with well-modernised refurbished accommodation offering a high level of comfort with gas heating and many uPVC double glazed windows.
For further details and to view these properties, contact Mark Symonds at Besley Hill Estate Agents, 764 Fishponds Road, Fishponds, Bristol BS16 3UA, tel 0117 965 3162, email fishponds@besleyhill.co.uk