Market Comment – December 15
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 reporting in the newspaper regarding October and November’s housing market. Croydon remains London’s hotspot as a place of opportunity and as I have previously mentioned it is only 14 months before Westfield completely demolish the Whitgift Centre with the new shopping centre set to re-open in February 2020.
The number of mortgages approved in October rose to 69,630 just up from September at 69,012 and higher than the 68,099 average over the last 6 months, the Bank of England reported and whilst i do not have Novembers figures yet, mortgage approvals in October hit £12.2 billion pounds and this time last year it was 59,423 so putting things into perspective we are up 17.2%.
It was great to attend Develop Croydon on the 18th November and the momentum for change and may I say the re branding of Croydon is absolutely tremendous. Each year we see new investors looking to invest and buy in Croydon and this year was no exception. On a much smaller level I attended the Croydon Chamber of Commerce quarterly meeting in November and the chamber’s appetite for opportunity is equally admirable.
Similar to the residential sales market, residential lettings grew slightly month on month with new applicants up 2 – 3% and by and large we saw no change in the cost of renting and also in the areas that we operate it is still between 6 and 7 tenants available for every property with landlords understandably having the pick of tenants.
Turning to new homes, we were thrilled to be instructed on some landmark and major developments in Croydon including the innovative apartments at Green Dragon House, Impact House, Enmore Mews and apartments at Mint Walk which will be released in 2016 and this is a department that we are planning major expansion in in 2016.
Lastly, I could not have been prouder at the estate agency of the year awards which is dubbed our Oscars and is sponsored by the Sunday Times and The Times where by once again we were awarded the Gold for Best Customer Service in the Uk, Bronze for Training and Development and Innovation and Patrick Donnelly our Croydon Manager was shortlisted down to the last 6 for Best Manager in the Uk. This is recognition of the high customer service standards and training that we have provided in 2015 which I look forward to providing to all of our customers in 2016.
As the decorations go up and the Christmas lights go on, this only leaves me to wish all of our customers, past, present and future a very happy Christmas and we look forward to helping and working with you throughout 2016.