Market Comment – January 2020

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 politics has passed us and the confidence is there both in the sellers and buyers.

I was delighted to see that we saw a 21% increase in prospective new purchasers registering in January and a 15% increase in new homes being listed in January across our group and in summary, there has been a very big spike in activity and the confidence in the housing market has definitely returned.

Help to buy goes from strength to strength and I was delighted to see so many people at our recent launch in Purley and also, prospective new purchasers enquiring about the help to buy scheme was up 26% on January 2019 and I am very excited about all the developments with help to buy being launched with our new homes team this year. From Purley to Crystal Palace and Croydon, we will be launching a number of mixed schemes in the first quarter of 2020.

I am always very proud to attend our annual sales conference at Selhurst Park football ground and this year was no exception, with every member of staff attending and I was thrilled to hear of all the fantastic examples of estate agency both in the lettings and sales market in 2019 and to reward the winners and recognise outstanding members of staff from accounts, to admin, to new homes, sales & lettings.

The residential lettings market has also experienced an up-turn with 11% more prospective tenants registering and 12% more stock available than this time last year and after carefully studying this market, I have no doubt that we are in for a solid residential lettings year.

For the last 3 years, we have had the cloud of uncertainty, not just in estate agency, but in much business and it seems as if our news was dominated by Brexit, but now this cloud has gone and taken the uncertainty with it and I predict a welcome to this confidence and a solid up-turn in 2020.

Happy new year to all our clients, all be it a little belated and I look forward to helping many of you move in 2020.