Market Comment – May 2017

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 political rhetoric in the last 4 weeks around the housing market has been closely related to Brexit, and I read recently in the financial times ‘’buyers from continental Europe have disserted the housing market in London’s most exclusive area since the Brexit vote’’. However interestingly enough across our new homes group in the last quarter, we have seen an upturn in our total oversees prospective purchaser enquiries and in particular from the far east.

An interesting report by CITY A.M. on Friday 2nd June, reported that Edinburgh was named UKs most in demand city, followed by Croydon at 104% higher than average. Following these statistics, Laurence Hall a Zoopla spokesman quoted saying ‘‘It’s no surprise that we see high demand for properties in the outer London suburbs, such as Croydon, as they prove to be an affordable alternative for buyers’’. Whilst I agree with this, Croydon is London’s biggest borough and I don’t think for one moment affordability is its only unique selling point, as undoubtable that is paralleled with its connectivity and the allure of the 3 Billion Westfield Hammerson regeneration about to start.

Mixed emotions throughout our renting division, as we have seen no increase in rent and Landlords I am pleased to say are being realistic by and large to find the right tenant, however the good news is prospective tenant enquiries were up 4% on the same month last year.

So as we go to the polls this Thursday, will it be the conservatives who have promised a new generation for social renting and council housing or will it be Labour who promise 4,000 new homes for rough sleepers, 100,000 new council homes and locals to get first dibs on new homes in their area, or could there be a chance for the Liberal Democrats who have pledged ten new garden cities in England, all to be stuffed with ‘Zero-carbon’ homes.

As I write this market comment, we are only 72 hours from finding out and the polls have predicted it will be a close race, so I look forward to reporting to you later on in the month when we know who is Prime Minister and who will decide our housing policy for the next 4 years.

I also look forward to reporting to you following our figures and statistics and all local market trends.