Daily Archives: April 8, 2021

POD Point Rollout at Tesco Stores (Image: Tesco/POD Point)

IT’S ELECTRIFYING Driving an electric vehicle is cheaper than you think – costing just from 1p per mile!

We spoke to Go Ultra Low ambassador Ben Fogle all about it. In association with Go Ultra Low.

Having seen the positive impacts lockdown has had on the environment, we’re all keen to continue doing our bit – but the advice can be confusing.

From giving up meat to reducing your waste there’s so much you can do – but have you considered an electric vehicle (EV)?

Last year, we caught up with Ben Fogle, Go Ultra Low ambassador, to tell us all about his experiences with EVs.

Go Ultra Low is an industry and government campaign aiming to educate the UK about EVs.

When it comes to going green, Ben says it’s important to focus on what you can do and not what you can’t.

“I don’t think anyone is perfect and I’m the first one to put my hands up and say I’m not the perfect green citizen,” he told us. “The important thing is to realise the impact we have and work out what we CAN do.”

POD Point Rollout at Tesco Stores (Image: Tesco/POD Point)
POD Point Rollout at Tesco Stores (Image: Tesco/POD Point)

For Ben and his family, switching to an EV seemed like a sensible and exciting decision and it wasn’t one they took lightly.

“As a family we looked at our mode of transport. We use public transport where we can – we use trains and we use buses but we also have a car and we need a car.”

“No one likes change, we’re all creatures of habit, but we’ve been an EV household for the best part of a year now – and we wouldn’t go back!”

Although switching to an EV seems like a big change, as they are at the forefront of technology, if you’re at the stage of life where you’re looking for a new car it can be an economically friendly decision as well as an ecologically friendly one.

There are now a lot of comparable price points available for EVs and plenty of leasing options, too. We’re also reaching the point where there are second hand EVs coming into circulation, so the price tag isn’t as large as you might think- and they can be cheaper to run.

When Ben used to live in London it used to cost £7 to fill the car at the chargepoint near his house, and he would combine the charge time with a dog walk. It would only take 30 minutes to fully charge and it would last them a week. Now Ben charges as home, so it’s even cheaper.

You can install a chargepoint at home or you can access one of the 38,000 public chargepoint connectors across the country. You can also get a government grant of up to £350 to help install a chargepoint in your home.

“I’d love to meet other people who get a full week’s driving from less than £7 petrol.”

Read more: The Sun

It’s Time to Go Green!

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Electric cars will electrify and electrocute the housing market

Of all the issues facing the broker market in 2021, possibly the biggest is staring us in the face. And yet I can find hardly any expressions of concern or advice, on line or in person.

We know now that sales of new petrol and diesel cars are to end in the UK by 2030, but do we know how this momentous decision will impact the housing market?

Certainly I have not seen any lender, estate agents or surveyor factoring the impact of electric vehicles into their pricing.

But neither does it follow that as professionals, we should not be bringing the issue to the attention of our clients – especially in such a topsy-turvy market where people in search of a home as a long term investment have never been as in need of, or receptive to, expert advice.

Brokers are faced with a genuinely unique opportunity to gen up on this dynamic subject, study local authority plans and debates and put themselves in a position of strength with which to help their clients.

This will, after all, be one of the most important development effecting house pricing over the next two decades.

The broker is still the only provider of sound and objective financial advice to whom most of us can turn when it comes to a buying a home, and right now our customers want more than just figures.

They want opinions. It’s not just about finances when societal issues are about to play such a massive part in undermining asking prices and second guessing conventional valuations.

No broker, no comment
EastEnders and Coronation Street live in a cosy parallel reality, but any broker serving an urban market is faced with a different scenario.

The fictional street scape of the 1920s bears no relation to the densification of the 2020s.

Universal charging points will see cuts to parking spaces of upwards of 60% on some residential roads.

This will have a direct effect on demand. Blocks of flats with no parking and terraced houses are the most vulnerable of all to stagnating prices.

Smart houses in leafy suburbs, where off and on street parking is plentiful, however, will enjoy an easier path to electrification, with a direct effect on price.

That said, there are no simple answers. Urban locations won’t be the only one to suffer. The hearts of many small to medium more rural towns and villages are also strangulated with parking problems.

A loss of around a quarter of local parking spaces will have a dramatic impact.

You might argue that demand for housing will rise, that the economy will prove resilient to Brexit and that valuations will maintain conventional trajectories.

But it’s by no means a stretch to suggest that the value of properties without parking or designated electric vehicle bays will suffer, while those with their own car charging or designated bays could easily increase by 15%-20% – over and above the 5-10% increase in value that having parking spaces already commands.

It’s micrographics, not just demographics
That’s why the advice you give has to be granular. For homeowners and landlords, demand will invariably fall for certain types of property. But rise for others.

In many London boroughs car ownership is already falling among younger people, motivated by electric scooters and excellent public transport.

Read more: Mortgage Introducer

It’s Time to Go Green!

If you would like to know more about Solar Panels and the PowerBanx range of home battery systems, and get a free instant quote, please complete our online form: