News: Market Comment

February as ever seemed to rush by, as I reflect on our figures and the experts it is clear that the market changes are geographically centric. I was interested to read an article in the Guardian, written by the Halifax, stating that house prices in February had increased 1.1% to £285,476 after falls in the […]

January has proved both a mixed bag of results and a mixed bag of forecasts, with the more gloomy commentators hoping to attract headlines, stating house prices will drop 5% this year, to the more realistic such as Savills Estate Agents, who predict that house prices will recover and the average house price will be […]

First and foremost, may I take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy new year! Having worked at Streets Ahead for 33 years, I think it’s fair to say I have experienced a number of December and Christmas markets. I was very interested to see how the December sales market panned out. It is with […]

As we enter the last and festive month of 2022, it appears though all the pundits are preparing themselves for a gloomy 2023. After 33 years of commentating on the market and for those of you who follow my market comment, it will be no surprise to know that I always look for the positive […]

It will not come as a huge surprise to anybody that the pundits have been out in force predicting doom and gloom for the housing markets, and I fully understand that bad news grabs attention, however I would like to bring some sensibility into the current housing situation. House prices are remaining the same and […]

I know that for many of us, September has been an unsettling month with the mourning period for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and I am aware that this has been a difficult time for many of us. Turning to the economic situation, we have seen unsettling times there too, not to mention the mini […]

It used to be an old rumour that August was the 2nd quietest month after December, owing to the school holidays and for obvious reasons, families taking advantage of this 6 to 7 week holiday. In recent years, this has turned out to be nothing more than an old fashion saying, as in August 2022 […]

There has been a divide of opinions with the pundits regarding the housing market and the rest of 2022. Whilst it has been our experience that house prices moved up by approximately 0.1% from June to July, in line with a report by the guardian, this is still an increase, all be it small as […]

June was a month of mixed results and I don’t blame anybody for being slightly perplexed at what the pundits are writing about the property market. Save to say, I can just report on our figures and our position in June. It is true that we saw inflation reach 9.1%, a 40 year high and […]

May was a mixed bag of results and I note that Robert Gardner, the chief economist at Nationwide, says house prices were 0.9% higher in May compared to April, which is a bigger rise than 0.4% recorded between April and March. This follows a ten consecutive monthly rise, with the average cost of a UK […]

The housing market continued to remain busy during April and according to the Halifax figures, house prices rose 1.1% in April compared with March, which concludes that house prices have risen by 10.8% in the last year, taking the average property price to £286,000.79. None of us can ignore that the cost of living and […]

March saw the momentum of the housing market continue, with the average UK home now over £265,000 and that is £33,000 higher than March 2021, with a 14% increase since last March. This has been the strongest pace of increase since November 2004. After reading numerous expert reports, all be it the housing market may […]

The housing market despite the Russia Ukraine situation has continued to be as robust as ever in February. I have purposely started with this particular sentence, as I have been asked how developments with the crisis will affect the housing situation and whilst I do not pretend to know the answer, I have read many […]

I hope everyone had a great January – the worst weather and darkest nights are now behind us. I have to confess, I got slightly caught off guard with how busy it was from the 4th January. Whilst we were still in the depths of Covid restrictions, our enquiries in the first two weeks both […]

Firstly, happy new year to all our clients, both past current and all our new customers to come. It would be fair to stay, along with the obvious, the housing market is always a topic for conversation at Christmas and after reading many reports, I broadly concur with Mr Galley the MD of Halifax that […]

I wanted to finish my market comment for 2021 on a high and recent reports have made that easy for me to do, showing that the average house prices in the United Kingdom has hit a new high of £272,992 according to the Halifax. Prices increased by 1% month on month in November, while quarterly […]

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 […]

I was very pleasantly surprised with the results of September across all of our departments, from second hand homes, lettings and new homes. In recent reports, the cost of the average home in the UK was 1.7% higher in September compared with August and September was the fastest monthly rise since February 2007, according to […]

With the stamp duty holiday ending at the end of June, I wondered what the immediate after math would be like, however there was little change in July, save the obvious rush to get exchanged in the last week of June. Enquiries were at the same level and interestingly enough across our group, 58% of […]

What a month! After 35 years + as an estate agent on the Lower Addiscombe Road and experiencing the end of double tax relief and 2 recessions, it was great to feel the excitement and hear all the lovely stories of people rushing to complete before June 30th to benefit from the stamp duty holiday. All […]

As the property market is best described as booming a new property portal is launched called ‘Boomin’ and some of you may have seen advertisements. The surge in demand is predominantly being driven by the stamp duty holiday and ultra-low interest rates and I noticed in some reports that the property market is experiencing 13 […]

What a month as homeowners scramble to get on the ladder! No one could have predicted the activity this month as across the group, 21% of properties were sold for more than the asking price, 15% attracted offers from 3 of more buyers and the number of potential purchasers was up a whopping 26% on […]

Firstly and most importantly, I trust and hope all our customers clients and indeed everybody is safe and well. I know that these are difficult serious and challenging times for everybody and I would like to thank those once again on the frontline, putting themselves at risk to get us through this pandemic. I have […]

Please accept my apologies for the slight delay in Februarys market comment, however this is simply down to activity levels being so high in both residential sales, residential lettings and in new homes. A particular mention goes out to our unsung army of hero’s, the admin team and property management department, who 7 days a […]

Firstly I would like to wish everybody a happy new year and I trust all be it a different one, everyone had a lovely Christmas. There is no doubt that over Christmas and during the early months of 2021, not only in the property market but the main news across the UK and world over […]

As we approach the end of the year and we emerge from another lockdown, I would firstly like to thank all our clients who have vigilantly adhered to strict government guidelines, all the precautions and extra measures we put in to place for the safety of our staff and the public in November. I confess, […]

I’m pleased to tell you all that the housing market both in residential sales and lettings remained solid in October and in pockets of the areas we operate in, we are seeing prices still rise. After analysing all of our figures, our prospective purchaser enquiries were up 4% on the same month last year and […]

September turned out to be robust both in residential sales, lettings and land and new homes. I was correct with my prediction, in that activity even exceeded my expectations. Two particular areas to be noted is a 12% rise in prospective purchasers compared with the same month last year and a 31% rise in new […]

First and foremost, I trust and hope all our clients and customers are well and safe, as we all know these are very challenging times. Even I confess in these challenging times, not only is the property market in sales, lettings and new homes bucking the trend, but demand was up so much in August […]

July turned out to be an unprecedented month and no one in the industry could have foreseen the expediential spike in activity and indeed in confidence. It seems hardly possible that change in a three month window. Sales enquiries were up in excess of 270% and lettings enquiries in excess of 210% and as I […]

Whilst I am mindful that so many people throughout the world are making such sacrifices, it almost seems inappropriate to deliver to you an upbeat report, but the housing market has returned with full force across all of our offices and departments and all of the figures have been substantially up on June the previous […]

First and foremost, I hope and trust you are all well and managing to adapt in these challenging times. I can personally speak for the whole operation throughout the Streets Ahead group, in that we have made huge operational changes in line with the government guidelines and so much more to protect our staff and […]

I wanted to take this opportunity to focus on some of the positive stories in the media during the last month. Whilst I know this is a difficult time for everybody, I want to once again focus our huge thanks and support for the national help service and all key workers for the phenomenal job […]

First and foremost, on behalf of all the Streets Ahead family, I would like to thank the NHS and keyworkers for their unbelievable commitment and incredible work during these challenging times. I am sure it goes without saying that we have all been touched by the amazing courage shown by our doctors and nurses, key […]

As I write this, I reflect on 2 dates. Firstly, our progress and results in February which I am quietly excited by, as prospective sales applicants are up a whopping 16% on the same month in 2019 and residential lettings applicants are up by 12% on the same month in 2019. The activity that we […]

Some market commentators and newspapers have called it the ‘Boris Bounce’ however, mindful that my market comment is non-political, I can report that there has been a substantial upturn in activity in the housing sector in January and it is my opinion that the uncertainty of Brexit and the cloud of stuck in the mud […]

Firstly, I would like to wish all of our customer’s past and present a very happy new year and I was delighted to read over the last 2 weeks and even at the end of December, some positive news amongst the property pundits and news in general. All seem to agree that now the political […]

November can best be described as a solid and stable month for the sales market across our group, from Coulsdon to Crystal Palace. The number of houses that we agreed sales on were marginally up on November 2018 and it was refreshing to see that just over 85% of the offers that were accepted were […]

As the Brexit deadline came and went and we face a general election in December, this appears to have had little impact in activity throughout our operation. Indeed for the first time turning to lettings first, October by far was our busiest month, up 13% on October 2018 and I have read a number of […]

September can only be described as an unusual and strange month both for sales and lettings and for me, who speaks to my team all day and every day, I confess it seemed like a long month. Let me explain when I say unusual, in that nothing seems predictable throughout the group from new sales […]

I trust everybody had a great Summer, if not unusually hot but great for BBQ’s and for prospective purchasers and tenants out viewing in the evening and weekend. Last year, when we experienced temperatures of 23 degrees, I was surprised that the viewing figures were up and not down and this year it came as […]

Looking at July, whilst I appreciate that there are many uncertainties and in particular Brexit, it will come as no surprise that out of the negative reporting, I have found it easy to find the rays of sunshine amongst this negativity. When you actually look at the housing market across the UK, certain commentators have […]

The recent spell of hot weather in June did not seem to deter prospective purchasers and their house hunting. As I reflect over June 2019 compared with June 2018, the number of prospective new house hunters looking to buy and not registered across our group was up 7% as a figure of 714. Also, the […]

May turned out to be a mixed bunch of results and reports when I look at the statistics and media reports for the housing market. The average price of a house rose to £236,800 in the first 3 months to February, up 2.8% compared to the same period last year according to Russell Galley, managing […]

April turned out to be a month two spikes in that we saw a dramatic increase in sales enquiries in the second week of April, with a significant decrease in the third week which as you can imagine did equal itself in the end and new registrations were exactly where we expected them to be […]

I have read some pretty gloomy reports about the housing market at the end of March and the word subdued seems to crop up time and time again. I have to say, it might be subdued for the reactive Estate Agents, but for the Proactive Estate Agent, it is my opinion that their market share […]

February ended up being a fairly stable month across our group, although it was a month of stop and start both in the lettings and sales market. I was interested to read that house prices according to the nationwide building society were up 0.4% compared with a year ago, however in February house prices dipped […]

Firstly, January proved and beat all of my expectations amongst the normal pessimistic predictions with some of the pundits. I read with interest in January, the top 10 property experts predictions for 2019 with between 70% and 80% with no capital growth movement, one saying a 5% increase and one saying a 5% fall, and […]

Firstly, I would like to wish everyone a very happy and prosperous new year and I trust everyone had a fantastic Christmas. I was away over Christmas and the new year, which gave me much time to read the experts view on the property both in sales and lettings going forward in 2019. After spending […]

November turned out to be a month of peaks and troths across our group. It would be fair to say we got off to a sluggish start in sales and lettings but particularly in our sales division, however, I am pleased to report that in the last ten days we did as much business by […]

Octobers statistics for all of our offices and nationwide can best be described as stable and solid, and I note with interest that the BBC have reported today that house prices rose 1.6% in October 2018 compared with October 2017. In the same article, it goes on to say prices were flat after a 0.2% […]

It hardly seems possible that we are now in the last quarter of the year and I know many of you will be saying the same as me “where has 2018 gone?!” but that just means that we are all working hard and hopefully enjoying ourselves and that’s why time fly’s. September turned out a […]

I hope everyone enjoyed the hot weather and for those of us old enough, it reminded us of the summer of 1976. I did think to myself privately that temperatures of 33 degrees plus would somewhat subdued the viewing figures and by the time 6/7 o’clock came people would be rushing home to BBQs and […]

Whilst July was very much what we expected and with no increase or decrease in activity with our sales market, anyone could be forgiven for thinking that the property market was going to collapse after reading some of the gloomy reports surrounding the London house market, the uncertainty of Brexit, the hottest August since 1976 […]

Firstly, Croydon gets the confirmation that we have all been waiting for for over 4 years now, that John Lewis and Waitrose will be the anchor store for Croydon’s Westfield development. It has long been rumoured that John Lewis have always been the number 1 target of the developers behind Croydon’s new Westfield shopping centre […]

April proved to be somewhat an unpredictable month. I predicted that it would be solid and steady, however we saw bursts of purchaser activity in the middle of the month and a real spike in new registrations for prospective tenants at the end of April. By and large, the figures and amount of properties that […]

Despite a number of reports throughout March describing the housing market as subdued, sluggish and slow across our group, I would describe March as being solid. I cannot argue with the statistics that house prices were down 0.2% from the previous month, but let’s put that in to perspective in that it is not enough […]

Firstly, I would like to wish all out clients both past, present and future a very happy new year and whilst I have spent a month reading a lot of negative propaganda about the property market, I thought I would write to you on a more cheery note about the positive things in the housing […]

Firstly I’d like to take this opportunity to wish all our current, past and our new 2018 clients a very happy new year. Over the festive period I have been reading all of the reports as to the housing market in London, the South East and rest of UK and it was with interest I […]

As our thoughts turn to the end of the year, Christmas and 2018, we saw some important changes to the housing market this past November. On the 1st November the government published its “tenants fees bill” which if passed in to law will make it an offence for Landlords and Tenants to charge upfront fees. […]

Another solid month. “UK house price growth edged up to a 3 month high in October” according to the Nationwide. Also, annual growth in house prices peaked up to 2.5% up from 2.3% in September, as a shortage of homes in the market and low mortgage rates propped up prices the Nationwide have commented. It […]

September was a month of mixed reports for the housing market both in London and nationwide. The Nationwide reported that house prices rose 2% from September 2016 to 2017, the weakest increase since 2013 but this was very regional with London house prices going up by 0.6% and the East Midlands values jumping 5.1% in […]

As I write this, I am mindful that in a few days’ time the children will be back at school and for many of our clients the summer holidays will be coming to a close. The reason I mention this is, many people always say August is a quiet month for this very reason and […]

July across the board can be best described as a steady month both for sales and lettings. There have been mixed reports about the housing market and July 2017 has been no stranger to the usual gloom mongers, so I thought it would be prudent to report to you with some actual figures across South […]

Mixed reactions with the general election outcome in that most people expected Theresa May to be our Prime Minister a month on from my last market comment, however she is Prime Minister without a majority in the house of commons and some of the pundits see this as a period of uncertainty. The good news […]

May turned out to be a month of mixed emotions, with all the political parties making promises as I had mentioned last month, as we go to the polls on Thursday the 8th, will it be Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn that head up our housing policy over the next 4 years. Many of the […]

Whilst all around seem to be talking and concentrating on the United Kingdom triggering article 50, giving us 2 years to leave the European union, at Streets Ahead we marched on and produced very solid and stable results throughout March. There have been conflicting projections and reports in the newspapers, with the footsie reaching record […]

Traditionally, February although the shortest month in the year, over our last 27 years has proven to be an extremely busy month and February 2017 was not to disappoint. I was very interested to read the government housing white paper which was published this month. The white paper recommends a number of measures to increase […]

Both house prices and activity in the areas we operate in defy predictions and also defy the gloom mongering pundits. There were mutterings at the end of 2016 that the sales market would slow in 2017 amongst other things due to European and global uncertainty and a question mark over an economic recession. I have […]

Firstly, I trust everyone had a happy Christmas and I would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2017. Finishing off 2016, there was no slow down across our offices in December and now it is nothing but a myth that December is the quietest month of the year. Those amongst us who have […]

Solid and steady best describes the housing market from Coulsdon to Crystal Palace in all the areas that we operate in during November. While we watched with interest the American elections with the president elect trump due to take office in January 2017, a few have asked has this had an effect on the Croydon […]

I am happy to report that the housing market in September officially bounced back according to the Bank of England figures. A total of 62,932 house purchases worth 11.1 billion pounds were approved in September as opposed to 60,984 in August. It is slightly down on the previous 6 months average 64,841 but this was […]

‘’House prices will rise in the coming 3 months and over the next year as buyer demand continues to re bound’’ This is a quote that I thought sums up my sentiments for the housing market in the areas that we operate in for the remainder of 2016 and going into next year. Whilst the […]

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 […]

July has proved a positive month because my staff and I have remained positive, sometimes battling against the gloomongers and experts who can only talk of nothing else but a slowdown. We remain extremely positive at Streets Ahead and I have spoken to other leading independent estate agents both in south east London and around […]

Well what a month June was! I think I, like many others will remember the 23rd June for many years to come and as the news of our surprise Brexit from the European Union and what can only be described as political turbulence engulfs the news, it is important to remember that we have experienced […]

In one of the most historic days in decades, the UK has decided to leave the European Union after months and months of campaigning. Some of the campaigning has been criticised for being negative and scaremongering but people of the United Kingdom have ultimately decided. It is unlikely that there will be an immediate shift […]

Activity throughout our offices remained solid and steady in May with regard to the sales market with a small increase for the same month in 2015. New instructions to the market were up 3% and new registrations looking to buy were also up 3%. Interestingly, I have looked at the type of property that our […]

April has in some respects defied all the pundits and that has certainly been the case in the areas that we operate in. Some industry commentators had suggested from the 1st April that Buy to Let landlords and people buying second homes would have to pay 3% stamp duty and in the areas that we […]

March, what a month!. As investors rushed to complete by the March 31st, it would be no exaggeration to say that our team were working at a speed reminiscent of the property market at its absolute busiest. Speaking to solicitors and conveyancers, many had seconded extra staff to cover the deadline as any investment property […]

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 […]

The housing market in general across all of our areas in November remained steady and I noticed in a recent report that the average value of a property now stands at £196,305 across the Uk which is 3.7% higher than a year ago. Croydon continues to ‘’buck the trend’’ with quite a lot of negative […]

Traditionally October is a good solid month for the housing market and October 2015 was not to disappoint. Early indicators in the month showed a firm spike in prospective purchasers looking to buy and in the first half of October as a group we registered 4% more purchasers than October 2014. Firmly on the agenda […]

September’s housing market can only be described as a month of confidence as we experienced as a group more prospective buyers registering than any other month in our 25 year history and this was fairly equal across our group from office to office from Crystal Palace to Coulsdon. Our stock coming to the market was […]