Advice

Whilst spring is still in the air, why not consider a move? Your timing could turn out to be perfect………. The pressure for a decisive Brexit result has clearly provided the country with a sigh of relief and a bit of breathing space – finally.

Friday is overwhelmingly the most popular day of the week to move house as it provides new homeowners with a long weekend of moving “fun” – unpacking boxes, hanging pictures and all the DIY that tends to accompany a move.

Around Valentine’s Day it would seem that there’s a fair bit of love involved in estate agency! Estate agents are, if anything, matchmakers after all. And just as people fall in love with the right person, so buyers also need to fall in love with a property if the sale is to succeed.

As estate agents, we are in the business of Home. Our role has always been to help people move and we really enjoy it. The sadness is that it’s difficult for us to pursue this passion when the Coronavirus pandemic is curtailing almost everyone’s moving plans for the time being.

The housing market has been an obvious casualty of the Coronavirus lockdown. Yet the desire to move, once the decision has been made, is strong. Indeed, as soon as the government announced that people could once again move house, Rightmove buyer enquiries doubled within 24 hours. They were even 4% higher than the same day last year!

According to EstateAgentTODAY the housing minister Chris Pincher is drawing up guidelines which could allow agents to return to something like normal working in the near future.

This month’s market comment comes with a degree of optimism, but also with a gentle warning. But let’s get the bad news out of the way first. According to HMRC, UK residential property transaction volumes plummeted by 12.5% last month, down 2% on the year.

Already 2018 has become a record year for property price cutting according to newly published data citing a combination of some too-optimistic sellers and ultra-cautious buyers.