How to find the asking price that gets your property sold

Knowing what price to ask for your property can be a daunting task, but our top tips will help to get your home sold. We asked some leading estate agents - with decades of experience between them - what advice they would give to people seeking to achieve the right price for their home.

Brentwood in Essex saw average property prices increase by 16 per cent in a year, compared to an 11 per cent increase for properties in London, new research reveals.

Are Government schemes such as Help to Buy artificially stimulating the housing market to a point of no return where it can't function without them?

The rise of a former Victorian bakery: A dozen flats for sale on trendy London development come with original glazed brick walls and vaulted ceilings

The flats start from £625,000 for a one bedroom flat and include original features from the 19th century, such as glazed brick walls. Corbeled cast iron columns and timber sleeper beams help to create an industrial feel.

Find something for children, teens, home-offices and culinary whizzes in our round-up of great interior gifts.

If you have aspirations to buy and extend a historic building, here is what you need to know - with advice from Historic England and Lycetts Insurance Brokers.

The places where you can still buy a UK home for under £50k

You may be under the impression that it's impossible to buy a property for £50,000 given the average British house price is four times that amount, but it can still be done. We've found five houses that cost less than £50,000, such as the property pictured in Bishop Auckland, which could be bought on 95% mortgage with a £2,500 deposit and a £10,500 salary.

The list has been compiled by property website Zoopla and includes Bristol's Montpelier, Manchester's Chorlton and London's Dalston.

The luxury apartment in London's Pimlico has a retro industrial feel with handmade pieces of furniture, including a bedstead made from scaffolding pipes and wooden planks

Every neighbourhood approaches Christmas slightly differently, sometimes with consequences for local house prices.

The housing market traditionally begins to slow in the run up to Christmas as people postpone life-changing decisions. But you can still proceed with your sale by following these seven tips

Fancy a holiday home with a difference? Classic sailing ship moored in the heart of Paris goes on the market for £1.2m

If you are after a holiday home with a twist, this takes some beating. The classic boat dates back to 1913 and is moored in the French capital Paris with views of the Pont Neuf bridge and the Louvre museum. It boasts a mahongany interior with a 16m living area that includes a kitchen and skylights.

The policy is designed to help the thousands of tenants paying hundreds of pounds in upfront fees But it will end up hurting the people it was designed to protect.

Market Harborough Building Society is offering borrowers the chance to buy a home with no deposit at all - if their parents agree to put their own home up as security.

REVEALED: The hidden secrets of a modern Welsh castle that costs £2.8M and looks like it was built centuries ago

With its stone turrets and black cannons, this Welsh castle looks as though it was built centuries ago. But the reality is that it was only built 22 years old and includes hidden stair cases, state-of-the-art invisible wall speakers and an electronic triple garage.

Dick Strawbridge and his partner Angel (pictured) swapped their Essex flat for an abandoned chateau - sharing the journey with Channel 4. We pick six for less than £500,000.

The top 20 towns to turn a profit on self-build have been revealed by a developer - but there's one slight catch - you will need very deep pockets for these grand designs.

The Isle of Skye won the accolade following a survey of nearly 24,000 people by property website Rightmove, in a list that heavily featured seaside locations.

Buying a home in a National Park means paying an extra £100,000

Buyers typically pay an extra £119,000 to live in a property based in a National Park, with the New Forest being the least affordable in Britain and Snowdonia being the most affordable, according to the latest report by Lloyds Bank.

Matchy-matchy has long been considered old-fashioned but, fill your home with elegant pairings from pictures to glass ornaments and cushions and the effect can be sensational.

Hertfordshire self-build bungalow the size of SEVEN family homes for sale at £2.75m

It's an exclusive offer for a multi-millionaire after their own 21st century country house. This architect designed state-of-the-art home will come with stunning views and is set in Ashridge, among ancient trees and rolling chalk hills. But the new owner needs to knock down the existing 1970s bungalow, near Berkhamsted, in Hertfordshire, and replace it with this stunning contemporary home.

Despite the sitcom famously being set in Peckham, south London, Del Boy and Rodney's home in 'Nelson Mandela House' was actually Harlech Tower in Acton, west London.

Calls are being made for a new 'referencing passport' that tenants can transfer between letting agents, meaning an end to paying for a new reference each time they seek to rent a home

Couples in London pay more than half of their combined monthly salary to rent a typical three bedroom home - the equivalent of £29,520 a year - new research has revealed.

Two-bed Modulhus house that can be built for £50K wins design award

Most first-time buyers can only dream of buying a home for less than £50,000. But the latest winner of an annual design competition shows that building one for that can be achieved. The Modulhus won over judges including Grand Design's Kevin McCloud and fellow TV property expert George Clarke. Designed by architects Barton Willmore and EcoMotive, it is a two-bedroom home covering 66 sq m and costs from just £49,644 to build.

The rare beachfront plot with views over Poole Harbour and Brownsea Island comes with planning consent for two modern homes and costs an eye-watering £6.25m.

The historic property in Crystal Palace, London, retains many of its original features despite an extensive renovation, including a working clock tower and turrets on the roof terrace.

Some parts of the capital have 100 per cent properties being leasehold, while some parts of the North-East are all above 90 per cent, new research has revealed.

The most viewed homes for sale this month include a luxury barn conversion with converted outbuildings, a detached new build mansion and a three bedroom apartment with a £1.5m price tag.

One of the last moated castles in England is for sale and comes with an old dungeon and

The 18 bedroom castle is on the market through estate agents Sotheby's for £3million and includes a library, billard room and a wine cellar, along with 20 acres of land. Some of the furniture is being sold with the property, with individual items open to separate negotiation

The funding should help speed up the construction of up to 800,000 homes on large developments by tackling planning issues that can hold up projects, the Government has said.

A total of 20 separate homes are for sale at The Park Crescent in London, ranging from two to four bedrooms and costing between £3,950,000 and £20million.

Regional differences mean Burnley in Lancashire is the most affordable place while Westminster in London is the least affordable, the latest research has revealed.

Is this the grandest townhouse in Britain? Ten bedroom home in Belgravia goes up for sale

For a mere £30million, you can become the owner of this grand property in the exclusive London enclave of Belgravia. It comes with not one, but two, separate mews houses for use as staff accommodation, as well as a wine store, vault, several terraces, and space for two cars. The elegant Georgian home in Wilton Crescent is within a stone's throw of Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace Gardens.

Househunters looking for a £20million apartment require 24 hour concierges, underground parking as standard, with the option of separate staff quarters and even their own private swimming pool.

Two out of five renters in Britain never expect to be able to afford their own home - mainly because they are unable to afford a deposit or the mortgage repayments, claims new research.

If you suspect that your property has subsidence, here are the warning signs to look out for, so you can take action early and prevent the damage from getting worse.

The combination of low average house prices and good GCSE results means Heckmondwike Grammar School in West Yorkshire takes the top slot in the research by esate agent eMoov.

Homebuyer converts public toilet that's now a one bed semi-detached house

The public toilets were knocked down and replaced with two semi-detached homes, each costing almost £70,000 more than that average price of a home in Britain. The developer reportedly found needles, drug packages, vermin and asbestos on the site.

Would you swap your city flat for a B&B; in the countryside? Our list of options include a £575K guest house on the Isle of Skye and a 21 bedroom holiday letting business in Cornwall for £1.9million.

Villa Les Cedres is in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, a refuge between Nice and Monaco for some of the world's richest people. It is now up for sale by its owner, drinks maker Campari

The house in north London has been put on the market for £925,000 after being renovated with features that include a steel staircase, pink radiators and a copper letterbox.

Grand Designs' homeowners make tidy profits from their TV-featured properties

Everyone loves a good Grand Design - something that has helped to make it one of the most popular property shows on TV. Yet after pouring everything into designing and building their perfect homes, some owners have decided to move on, with three Grand Designs currently on the market. The owners of a seven-bedroom castle in Yorkshire (left), left the owners 'exhausted and scarily remortgaged up to the hilt', according to the show's presenter Kevin McCloud (inset). The purchase and redesign cost around £900,000 and the house is on sale for £1,650,000. A four-bedroom 'doughnut-shaped' property in Milton Keynes (top right), which was built in a couple's back garden for £400,000, is currently on the market for £1million. The couple behind the build, Peter Berkin and his wife Chard, were at odds at the end of the project. 'Peter is going to be happy here,' said Mrs Berkin, before adding: 'It has been positive because I am still here with him.' Meanwhile a six-bedroom house in Newport (bottom right) is on sale for £1,795,000 with the owners refusing to be drawn on how much they had spent on the build.

The average house price in the Northamptonshire town comes in at around £183,345, compared to £740,000 in central London, Lloyds Bank said.

Make sure you take into account our five factors to remember before buying a ski chalet to help ensure you make the most of your investment.

Phil Palmer and his partner Michael Butcher appeared on Grand Designs in October 2013 with a bold design for a contemporary farm home just outside of Newbury in Berkshire.

A town on the south coast has been named as the most desirable place to live in the UK for young professionals - and surprisingly it's not trendy Brighton but its near neighbour

Off the back of a tax squeeze, landlords may be thinking of quitting life in buy-to-let altogether. But is selling up and cashing in any profits a wise move?

Buyers opt for practical rather period features when it comes to securing a new home, meaning they will prioritise a good broadband signal over highly-rated schools.

Hampshire district retains the top spot in the 50 best places to live in the UK

A tranquil corner of Hampshire has been named as offering residents the best quality of life in the UK for an impressive fifth year in a row. Residents earn well above the average salary in Hart, Hampshire, and are the healthiest in the UK, according to the annual top 50 places to live in the UK list by Halifax.

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