Market Comment – October 2021

As we enter the last quarter of a marathon year, the pundits have mixed reviews on the housing market.

Some saying that house prices will continue to rise by 1% in December, after a 1.3% rise in October and some saying property prices are beginning to level. However, in October we experienced a 5.8% increase on prospective purchaser enquiries as opposed to October 2020 and an 8.5% increase on new homes enquiries.

I concur with a lot of pundits, in that we will continue to see a steady solid housing market until the end of 2021, with no sign of buyer demand slowing down and interest rates remaining very low.

There has been talk of interest rate rises and that is not for me to comment, but I think now is a good time to buy and insulate from any rate rises and even if they do come, I think they will be small.

We were pleased to launch another new development in October, with 50% already reserved and people taking advantage of the help to buy scheme.

Turning to the lettings market, demand has outstripped supply so much, that we have experienced a slight shortage of stock, although as I write and after speaking to all the branches, I know there is a good and healthy amount of new stock already booked in for November.

The prospective tenants registering are up 3.9% on the same month last year and although in the last few months we have seen rents pretty stable, the sheer amount of stock that has come to the market has pushed rents up slightly and I look forward to reporting to you accurately on this increase at the end of November.

I look forward to reporting to you soon and in the meantime, if any of our existing clients or clients thinking of coming to the market have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email or call me.

Gary