Market Comment – June 2016

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 new prospective buyers registering in May were looking for and it was a real mixed bag with the only common denominator being that over 70% were owner occupiers.

There was a marked increase in activity with regards to new landlords coming to the market in May as we saw a 9% increase of new landlords on the same period last year and I have no doubt that this is due to the stamp duty changes on March 31st. In a recent report, I have read that there are 1.75 million landlords in the UK according to the HMRC and landlords banked a combined a 14.2 billion in net income from their rental properties during the year, up from 13.1 billion the year before.

On June 2nd, we hosted our second investor’s event in the Croydon College Conference Centre and we are thrilled that one of the property industries top commentators, Kate Faulkner was able to attend. Herself a passed Croydonion, it was great to hear her enthusiasm for Croydon’s ambitious regeneration. Croydon’s deputy leader Alison Butler, councillor for homes, regeneration and planning told delegates that the regeneration is already transforming the look and feel of the borough and she went on to explain plans such as college green near Fairfield Halls, the former Taberner House site and Westfield to an enthusiastic 200 hundred strong attendees.

Having read the feedback from our event, it seems that there is so much passion and enthusiasm to invest in Croydon and I was delighted to read all the comments of praise surrounding this year’s investor event. Very shortly we shall be looking at arranging another event.

Fingers crossed as the weather hots up, so does enthusiasm and word is certainly spreading in respect of Croydon is the borough of opportunity for the owner occupier and investor alike. I am excited about the summer months ahead and I cannot finish this month’s market comment without a word on Brexit. Whilst I am obviously apprehensive about making a party political broadcast, I am pleased to report that the negative Brexit commentary and reports have not affected the Croydon market and across our group to date.