Election time
Elections tend to create a short-term hiatus in house sales and we were interested to see the latest figures from Rightmove: The number of new sellers bringing their homes to the market is down 14.9% compared with this time last year. It is the biggest year-on-year slump in any month since August 2009. Added to the fact that Christmas is just around the corner, it is understandable that people are not focusing on selling their property right now.
Uncertainty has meant a lot of people were already sitting on their hands when it came to moving home – they wanted to see what would happen before making a commitment. Three and a half years on from the referendum, they’re still waiting and every year this number grows. This is going to create a substantial amount of pent-up demand. The good news is, that once it’s all over, this demand could be released onto the spring market early… in February rather than March/April.
Maybe a new government will bring some much needed reforms to stamp duty and a reduction in the tax and legislative burden on Landlords – but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Whatever happens, we’re going to have an interesting few months ahead of us and I will try and keep you informed of everything that affects the housing market.
In the Lettings world – despite the additional costs passed on to Landlords caused by the Tenant Fee Act 2019 and the increased tax burdens on buy-to-let Landlords, it might not be such a bad time to be investing in property. The Lettings market continues to be understocked from the top to the bottom which has caused prices to increase sharply over the last 6 months and this trend looks set to carry on into the new year. These Landlord-friendly lettings conditions could combine nicely with reasonable sales prices to offer some appealing yields.
Finally, if you want to take advantage of the potential surge of activity in the New Year, just give us a call and we can talk you through what you need to do to be ready to go the moment it kicks off.
I’ll be back with more just before Christmas.
