Market Comment – February 2016
February, what a month!
Not only a leap year, but a leap in enquiries both for sales, investments and prospective new tenants.
Following our unprecedented success which even surprised me on the 3rd February at our launch of Fifteen Lansdowne in our Croydon office at 219-221 Lower Addiscombe Road which was packed full of prospective purchasers and enquiries, the rest of February went on to see further reservations at this development and at our other new developments at Green Dragon House, Croydon High Street and Enmore Mews, South Norwood and Carlton Road, Croydon.
Noticeably, in 2016 and in particularly February, our enquiries have come from far and wide both from the UK and internationally with demand completely outstripping supply, underpinning my previous market comments this year predicting that 2016 is going to be a solid and exciting year.
According to a previous RICS chairman, house prices in London increased 13.9% in the last year, double the national average taking the average price in London to £530,409 and I thought it was also interesting to see that the figures just out for mortgage approvals jumped to a 2 year high in January with some 74,581 mortgages to a value of 13.9 billion pounds were approved for home purchases in January, the highest figure since approvals were recorded in January 2014.
New tax changes will affect investor’s from April 2016 with landlords paying higher stamp duty charges and I strongly believe that this will not affect the housing market in Croydon as the demand is so strong.
Prospective purchaser’s looking to buy was up 25% in January and prospective tenants looking to rent in the areas that we operate in were up 3%. I think that this robust momentum with all the exciting news coming out of Croydon will only gain momentum throughout the year.
I look forward to reporting to you later in the month as March unfolds.