Autumn 2023
Now that we have got summer behind us and the little treasures are back at school we can now hope for a return to some common sense and normality in the property market.
The holiday season is never the easiest time to accurately judge the state of market conditions. There have been so many mixed opinions amongst economists, the media and property professionals about the state of the market of late. If we listen to national statistics we would be led to believe that a crash could be possible but this does not take into account local differences and variations in the region. Here in Suffolk and North Essex the market has indeed quietened down and some estate agents are finding buyers thinner on the ground but demand for properties from £500K to £1m is relatively strong especially those that are of the highest quality or ‘best in class’ as we call them. On average properties are taking around 2 weeks longer to sell than at the beginning of the year and there are still some vendors and estate agents who are only prepared to accept viewings with cash buyers.
Vendors struggling to sell are those that continue to overvalue their properties before they ‘see the light’ and agree to reducing their prices now that buyers are far more selective and cautious. One of the reasons that vendors try to justify their unrealistic prices is that they may have overspent on renovating works and need to claw back on their investment. Also they may have observed that their neighbours had achieved a similar asking price forgetting that this may have been 12 months ago.
We have seen a big drop in Best and Final bids which was so commonplace over the past few years but ‘drop offs’ are still worryingly high (over 30%) and this is usually down to various reasons such as mortgage application rejections, vendors changing their minds and removing their properties from sale because they cannot find anything suitable to move to and also poor communications amongst conveyancing solicitors and estate agents.
We think that would be buyers are getting used to the idea of high interest rates as confidence is gradually returning in spite of the high interest rates and on a positive note we are seeing an increase in attractive properties coming to market.
Stacks has 17 offices across the UK, so we can help with your property search, either here in Suffolk and around the country.
Do give us a call for an informal chat and take advantage of our local knowledge. Tel 07531 901506 or 07715279230.
