The initial “trend” of limited stock ensured that house prices soared. As demand far outstripped supply, record prices were being achieved they still are. Properties that hitherto struggled to sell for a number of factors including condition, structural issues, even price required to avoid negative equity, were all now selling.
The conclusion in the press amongst Estate Agents and sellers was therefore all positive. For those of us that have worked in the industry for some time, we marvelled at how well sellers were doing, at how all homes sold in two weeks and at the new record prices for that style, that district, that street.
There remains however a concern or indeed several concerns;
If sellers still want a buyer who has sold, can you afford to sell first? You may not find or manage to attain what you want. So selling first deemed risky by many.
If you are trading down it is a fabulous market. Even basic economics tells us that 10% of a higher value is always more than that of the lower priced property being sold. But how many trade up as opposed to down. Considerably more.
There is now a complete lack of property. How do we solve it? If for example, Dalgety Bay should have 53 homes but now has 3, how many new listings will it take to get the market back on track? Also, all these new homes must come at the same time. A regular but slow flow of instructions ensures each is sold as it arrives.
We are in unchartered territory here. Regents pride themselves on testing the “fitness” of a buyer. Their ability to proceed. It is one of the reasons we remain an award winning Estate Agent, achieving a silver award in the whole of the country. But a trend may emerge of not buyers, but sellers backing out as they realise they cannot find a home to go to! So a fall through is caused by vendors.
Brexit, lockdown and a desire to live in a home with a garden and/or home office are all factors, but the abiding one is limited supply for demand. Very few can predict when this will change, how it will change and what best to do until it does.
If you sell, you capitalise on your home. Get the best price for your property and can buy in less stressful times. If empty nest is a worry, you can now sell at an optimum time.
However if the market is to normalise, a number of things have to happen, a sudden glut of stock at one time but in almost all towns at almost the same time. Not caused by an economic downturn or a need to sell, but for the right reasons.
Allowing buyers to again look properly at what they want, where they want and where are their red lines. The frenzy has changed all that. Initially it seems for the better, now, nobody is as sure.
