Face to face sightings of Solicitors and Estate Agents, has been relatively rare in recent years; so the Late-Summer Party in the Preuveneers ‘ Urban Garden’ was also a good opportunity to put names to faces.

Views on the radical changes in the property market were also discussed with property professionals giving their views both on and off the record.

Opinions on the controversial introduction of Home Information Packs were voiced, with many believing them to be a bureaucratic waste of time, resulting in confused and hesitant investors. Sunit Patel from Property Search Group, however, said: "We hope that now HIPs are compulsory, we can focus on using them to reduce the number of property transactions that fall through which is currently 1 in 3, costing vendors up to £1million a day in wasted legal costs and fees."

Rising interest rates and how this may affect the housing market was also up for discussion. The implications of the Northern Rock “Credit Crunch” and news of other Banks, such as Abbey, Halifax and Royal Bank of Scotland increasing some of their variable mortgages, also brought about discussion on savers resistance to invest and how this effects the property industry.

Getting the Party Started

The staff all helped to get the garden into shape; trying to work out how to put the marquee up was an interesting ‘ Team Building’ exercise – of sorts! The live music was provided by Ric playing and singing some excellent music to get the party started.

View all the Photos here...

Thanks to all of those who attended – especially Pablo for generously washing up – it was great to meet you all; and there was even some booze left over, you might be pleased to hear… perhaps even enough for Party number 2…watch this space.

Click to enlarge........

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