IS IT THE CART OR THE HORSE? Neil Maxwell
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022 has got off to a good start despite the end of the stamp duty holiday and the recent interest rate rise. The only thing really missing are houses to sell, the numbers coming in are still low and sporadic.
Early New Year sales have seen very high numbers of interested parties, with bidding competitive and we’ve worked hard to not only ensure our clients achieve the best possible price but the process is transparent for all parties.
This kind of pattern is a real problem for the housing market as it’s not so much an issue of putting the cart before the horse, in terms of looking for a house before you’ve sold your own. Rather a case of leaving the cart and the horse in the barn because there is nothing to look at and nobody knows you want to move.
The rental market has been equally active with large numbers of enquiries for virtually every property coming to the market. The challenge with such large volumes of enquiries is ensuring customer experience is kept to our usual high standards.
We’ve several clients who have been unable to find a suitable property to purchase. Their buyers have had to be patient and wait until they’ve been able to find a property or go into rented accommodation as a short term stop gap. In recent months we have had many clients taking advantage of the good house prices and selling up completely, deciding to relocate overseas or in a recent case, downsizing to a camper van with the world at their feet (at the end of COVID restrictions obviously). 14
In this highly active market the response we’ve been receiving from the ‘On the Market’ portal has been excellent. ‘On the Market’ have recently improved their website, providing a lot more functionality, and in my opinion, an easier to utilise search facility with much more useful information. With COVID restrictions starting to ease and spring just around the corner, without wanting to sound like a broken record, there really hasn’t been a better time to sell your home, so do give us a call if you are thinking of moving and we can provide a valuation to help get the horse out of the barn before the cart.
