Market Comment – September 2016

Once again the old wives tale that the property market goes quiet in August proved nothing more than just that and I am pleased to read numerous articles underpinning that confidence returns to the post Brexit housing market.

As I mentioned last month, we did experience a small price adjustment in some cases with a few properties post Brexit and I credit this to gloom mongering reporting. However in the areas that we operate in, the confidence remains as solid and steady as our pre Brexit housing market and I was pleased to read this week that RICS reported that house prices both in the short term and long term would rise for the first time since April but London is expected to experience little change.

As I have mentioned many times before, housing is like any commodity in that confidence can drive supply and demand and there is still more demand than there are properties. I am delighted to see the owner occupier market remains completely unchanged and robust. I am also very pleased to see that buy to let investor enquiries increased in August, particularly in our lower end market. Nationwide also reported a slight pick up by 0.6% and prices in August 2016 were 5.6% higher than August 2015.

Turning to the lettings market, we experienced a 2% increase on new prospective tenants registering in August from the previous month and across our group we have seen a substantial 12% increase in our available lettings stock to rent from the previous month and therefore it is no surprise that new prospective tenants are looking at an average of 6-8 properties as opposed to 4-6 at the beginning of the year and I shall be looking at this trend very closely.

Lastly turning to our new homes, whilst other parts of London are reporting a slowdown, our new homes department reported steady figures in August and I think that this is partially assisted by the impending demolition of the Whitgift Centre prior to Westfield starting work but primarily Croydon is just viewed as a fantastic opportunity with its superb connections to London and everybody can see for themselves all the changes that are happening.

I fully expect September to be a strong and solid month for sales as the Brexit fear seems to have virtually disappeared and I look forward to reporting to you in a few weeks.