Market Comment – August 2018

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 not viewings, however our viewing figures remained static in August and vertically identical to June and July.

Enquiries were slightly down with our group registering 446 new applicants, which was 6% down the previous month, however early indications are although new enquiries were slightly down, the prospective purchasers that did register were very serious about buying.

New sales were much the same as June and July too, and traditionally we see a pickup in September and I am looking forward to reporting to you our figures at the end of September.

Turning to the lettings market, I am in somewhat of a quandary as new enquiries were up and far out ways the number of properties we have available and inherently when demand outstrips supply, prices increase but this is not the case, with much of London reporting a decrease in rents achieved and I was pleased to see that our rents achieved are still holding their own. All this said I am pleased that this is the situation and this is all a recipe for a very sensible lettings market.

New Homes goes from strength to strength with the help to buy initiative from the government proving to be an enormous success and we are looking forward to launching Chapman house in September as well as 2 other sites our new homes department are just about to launch.

Well its back to school and for some of us the holidays are over. I trust everyone has had a great summer and I look forward to reporting to you at the end of September.