Top tips for decorating your home this Christmas

In this month's edition, we're on hand to offer our top tips to help you decorate your home this Christmas!

We also look at news of the Help to Buy scheme receiving an extension until 2023, we analyse why smart-home technology is becoming more common and we provide a handy guide for tenants moving out of their rented property.

Top tips for decorating your home this Christmas

 

Yes, it really is that time of year again. Decking the halls is practically obligatory for all of us during the Christmas period and with so much pressure on presenting a perfectly preened pine tree and creating a winter wonderland so festive that reindeer land on your roof, here are a few tips to help you create a Christmas to remember.

The Tree
For many of us, the focal point of the Christmas decorations is the tree itself and that presents a few initial decisions – the first being the choice between real or artificial. In recent years, the difference between real and artificial trees has narrowed quite substantially, meaning that many of us are now opting for the longer-lasting artificial tree. However, if you like the traditional option of a fresh tree then consider delaying putting it up by a week or so to ensure that it is still looking its best on Christmas morning – one traditional suggestion would be to wait until 12 days before Christmas on December 13th.

Chic or classic
The next decision for that all-important tree is around the decorations themselves; do you go for a chic colour scheme straight from the pages of Vogue or for the traditional charm? If you choose to go for a colour scheme, then keep it clean and simple – whites and silvers are understated and elegant, lending themselves to most homes. Also, to ensure that your tree has maximum impact then extend the theme into its surroundings and decorate the rest of the room in the same colour palette as your tree. If you shy away from ‘fashionable’ trees and colour-matched accessories, then the traditional Christmas accoutrements of home-made baubles, paper snowflakes and vintage accessories are probably more in-line with your Christmas aesthetic. Dust off those tree decorations given to you by friends and family, made by your children or passed down through the generations and showcase them on your tree of choice; just make sure that they are evenly distributed so they get the admiration that they deserve.

Twinkle, Twinkle
When it comes to Christmas decorations, one thing that never goes out of style is a little bit of sparkle! Having lots of reflective decorations around the home really helps to set a festive atmosphere – think lots of candles of different sizes (it’s nice to play with heights of candles for a little more interest) and tealights in crystal glasses. All of the sparkling candles and crystal reflections will set a truly magical tone throughout your home and turn even the most Scrooge-like guests into Christmas converts.

Stairway to Christmas Heaven
Don’t neglect surfaces such as mantelpieces and staircases, if you really want to have the maximum impact whilst decorating for Christmas. Using offcuts from real trees, lining the handrail of your staircase with branches decants an intoxicating smell of Christmas around your home. When it comes to surfaces such as mantlepieces, use fruit centrepieces to create a feeling of decadence, with very little expense.

Light it up
For many of us, decorating outside of the home seems like an awful lot of effort for such a short period, however when it comes to adding that touch of festive flavour to the outdoors it doesn’t have to be a lighting extravaganza. Thanks to the homemade delights of Kirstie Allsopp, the Christmas wreath is storming back into fashion for 2018, with ever-more people opting to create their own wreaths. Simply pick out some choice items for your door wreath – such as pinecones, pine tree branches, fruit and ornaments - and adhere them to a wire frame in the shape of a circle and voilà – your outdoor decorations are complete.

Of course, that’s not to say that seeing a home adorned with many a Christmas light doesn’t still stir up that feeling of childhood Christmas excitement in all of us, so if that’s your plan for the exterior of your home, then we insist that you go ahead and light it up!

Read our tenant's guide to moving out of your rented property

 

Your tenancy has come to an end, and now you must juggle a series of different tasks before you can successfully leave the property. But don’t fret! Take a look at our guide to moving out for some handy tips to make the process a little less stressful:

Round off all your bills
Unpaid rent is the most common reason for tenants losing their deposit, so it’s a good idea to check with your landlord or property manager before you move to make sure you’ve paid the correct amount.

You should also give your energy suppliers plenty of notice before you move so that they can organise a final bill. Make a note of your meter reading on the final day for reference – this will prove useful, should you be billed an incorrect amount.

You could also consider having your mail re-directed to your new address and you should also inform any of your service providers such as TV, internet etc. that you will be moving to a new house.

Give the place a good thorough clean
Landlords will need the property to be ready for the next tenant, so there will likely be a clause in your contract that stipulates that you will need to clean every nook and cranny of the property before you move out. If the property isn’t spotless, you could lose some of your deposit to a cleaning bill.

Spruce up the garden
The garden will also need to be in the same condition as when you moved in. Pull up any weeds, mow the grass and dispose of any garden waste properly. If the gardening tools belong to the landlord, ensure you leave them behind for the next tenant.

Thoroughly check the property for a final time…
Moving out of your rental property is a different proposition to moving out of your parent’s house or a property you may have owned. For the duration of your tenancy, you have essentially played the part of guest and caretaker of someone else’s property, so a good deal of the process will be focused on the condition of the property when you moved in vs when you left it.

To help avoid any issues, it’s a good idea to do a walkthrough of the property and compare it to the condition report and/or any pictures you or the lettings agent might have taken before the move. It’s also a good idea to take new images before you leave.

… and review the inventory

The inventory you received at the beginning of your tenancy will detail any items that the landlord had in the property, for example, gardening tools, small items of furniture, kitchen appliances etc. You will need to check that all these items are still in the property and that they’re all in working order, or you might face losing a portion of your deposit.

The Help to Buy scheme has been extended until 2023

 

The Government’s Help to Buy scheme has been extremely successful, with a duality in its accomplishments; firstly, in encouraging people to take a step on to the property ladder and secondly, in encouraging housebuilders to develop new homes in the knowledge that they have a government-backed safety net of potential buyers, just waiting to purchase their newly-built homes. With the news from the recent Budget that the scheme which is due to end in April 2021 will be extended, albeit in a new format, by two years prospective buyers should be buoyed by the government decision.

Help to Buy will have been in existence for a decade by the time the extended period finishes and is available to first-time buyers as well as current homeowners looking to trade up on the property ladder. Essentially, the scheme provides a government-backed loan to people who want to buy a new home but cannot afford the deposit. For developments participating in the scheme, you only need a 5% deposit (ie. &10,000 for a home worth &200,000) and the government then lends 20% of the cost (topping up the deposit), with the remaining 75% consisting of a mortgage. The 20% loan from the government is also exempt from fees for the first five years of the scheme.

The extra two years of Help to Buy will be available to first-time buyers throughout the UK for houses worth up to a new regional price cap, rather than the current scheme’s cap of &600,000. As well as new regionalised limits for the equity loan, the scheme will solely be available to first-time buyers whereas currently, you do not have to be new to the property market in order to buy through the scheme – a fact which very few are aware of.

The scheme in its current guise has helped more than 300,000 people purchase a property, all of which have been new-build homes. It is this interaction between buyers and new-build homes which has helped to answer the ever-increasing demand for properties across the UK, and with the scheme forecast to end in 2023, there will surely be an impact upon the ready availability of new homes from this point onwards.

Housebuilders have had the luxury of a steady supply of buyers ready to purchase through Help to Buy who otherwise would not have been able to purchase their properties, and after 2023 there is the real possibility of a slowdown in new building projects due to the cessation of Help to Buy. Companies such as Barratt, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon have reaped the rewards of the scheme since its introduction in 2013 with around 40% to 50% of their sales from Help to Buy homes.

For five years, potential homebuyers have been able to purchase properties which would otherwise have been outside their price range – and for first-time buyers, in particular, this has allowed a first foray into property ownership. The announcement of an extension to the length of this scheme should therefore encourage potential buyers to take the plunge, and allow building firms to continue to reap the rewards of a particularly lucrative sector of the property market.

What's driving purchasing habits in smart-home technology?

 

Smart homes have typically been seen as a luxury for those with money to burn, or, if you’re feeling particularly unkind, those of a less-active disposition. The ability to control your central heating with your smartphone or turn your house lights on and off using voice commands certainly has an element of usefulness, but popular opinion around the idea appeared to be that such technology wasn’t high on people’s lists of priorities when it came to managing their home.

Recent research by the Property Expert suggests that this isn’t the case, however; according to their findings, almost three-in-four homes have at least one connected smart automation device of some description already. Further research has advised that by 2023, this sort of technology should be commonplace across the country, with close to 1.5 million homes planning to fully automate their home in the next five years.

What’s the thinking behind this surge to make your home work for you? The data seems to suggest that it comes from a practical place, with 40% of those people with smart home technology confirming that their purchasing habits were based on a desire to make their lives easier. When you consider the practicalities of turning your heating on prior to your arrival at home during the cold winter months, or controlling your TV watching or music listening activities without having to get up from the sofa, perhaps it’s no wonder!

Beyond that, 31% profess their purchases to be down to a desire to keep up with the latest technology, with a further 18% citing a need to cut their energy bills with the installation of smart meters. At the other end of the scale, 3% simply wanted to keep up with their neighbours.

Currently, the most popular forms of in-home gadgetry are smart TVs, smart meters, home hubs such as Amazon Echo, heating and smart speakers. The landscape could change drastically by the time we hit 2023, of course; technology like smart fridges with the capacity to order food or sensors that monitor your movement and adjust the lighting in your home accordingly could become more prevalent as smart speakers and TVs become the norm.

There’s certainly an element of attraction to automation too; it can add value to any kind of home, be that purchased or rental property. With that in mind, should you be wondering of ways to increase the price of your house, flat or abode, you could do far worse than investigate ways to kit your domicile out with the last technology.