Sellers Confident In The Property Market (Sept 24)
Sales Director Jake assesses the data from the last month or so, with some pretty interesting trends, especially when it comes to the increase of properties on the market!
What does this mean for buyers and does this demonstrate the current confidence of sellers throughout the UK housing market? What does Jake expect over the coming months in terms of house prices? You'll have to watch the video to find out!
The summer is nearly over and Autumn is almost upon us, so it's time to take a look back at what we saw happen in the market across our region over the summer, before we dive into our predictions for the property market over the coming months.
Distractions haven't dampened demand for property
Let's start by saying the months of July and August are normally two of the quieter months in the year for the property market. Lots of distractions like holidays, kids off school, and people making the most of the better weather and enjoying days out. We've even had the added distractions of a general election, the Euros and the Olympics this year too. Despite all of this, and as we’ve been saying throughout these property news updates, there’s been no sign of the usual summer lull in the UK property market.
With the number of sales agreed in July and August by all agents across our region up by around 23% compared to the same period last year, we can see the market has been very busy indeed. Even the most optimistic of estate agents could be forgiven for failing to foresee such a high demand from buyers!
The best July and August the property market has seen in years
One of the biggest trends over the summer has been the increase in the volume of properties coming to the market. Over 5,300 new properties were listed across the region in July & August – that’s 17% up on the same period last year and, barring 2020 (when the property market was allowed to reopen after the initial COVID lockdown), this is the highest number of new listings we’ve seen in July and August in the last 5 years.
What does this mean for sellers and buyers?
Clearly, we can see there is a lot of confidence among sellers given how many are now bringing their homes to the market. This is positive and a good sign for the market, but whilst we’ve seen an increase in demand from buyers this year, the increase in the volume of new property coming to the market means the buyers out there have more choice. In fact, buyers have more choices than they've had for a while, but will this have an impact on house prices? The added choice will likely keep house prices in check – we’ve seen a bit of price growth this year in some areas and we might see a bit more but nothing hugely significant.
The market remains price-sensitive
Buyers are still constrained by higher mortgage rates as the market remains very price-sensitive. This is backed up by Zoopla’s latest housing market report which tells us 1 in every 5 homes listed for sale in August had a house price reduction.
Zoopla also said that homes that need an asking price cut take more than twice as long to sell as homes without asking price changes. This emphasises the importance of getting the asking price right at the outset if you're looking for a timely sale. This may be something more people take into consideration, considering Christmas is only about 16 weeks away!
