We aren’t behind the States in a lot of things but we are in one major department! In America staging is the ‘norm’. Home owners are doing it, investors are doing it, but it’s mainly estate agents that are doing it! Us British really need to catch up! As one of the few property stagers in the UK we believe property staging should be an industry standard. We really need to increase the quality of our properties, our marketing & the “shop window” of Rightmove. If you search some key areas in the United States & Sweden, their properties are immaculate, attractive & you WANT to buy them. Have a peep into the UK & you’ll find clutter & dishes in sinks.

How do we change this? Awareness & Action. 

As a country we have to improve the quality of our properties for market, whether we do it ourselves or hire a Staging Professional, change is needed. Staging is an amazing tool to speed up the sale of our properties & provide quality housing for UK families. We need home owners, investors & estate agents to get on board.

In the States, a whopping 34% of the agents surveyed recently INSIST on ALL their properties being staged! This figure would be closer to 0% in the UK!

 “Among properties that are staged: 62% of sellers’ agents offer the property staging services to their sellers, 39% of sellers pay for the staging before the property is listed, 10% of sellers pay after the property is sold, and 3% percent of agents’ firms pay for the property staging service.”

We need to begin seeing staging, not as an expense but as a vital tool to make MORE money. Studies have shown investing less than 1% of your properties value will make you a 1000% percent return. Who doesn’t want that result? 

So when is the UK going to catch up with the US?  

Awareness is growing and we are getting there slowly but the biggest influencers in residential property sales are still estate agents. Who often say to clients “wait a few months & we will see how it goes” costing their clients far more in the long run than just paying for property staging. 

 I believe once we get our estate agents on board, like in the US, the UK will begin to have a very attractive “shop-window” with properties flying off the shelf.