Market Comment – May 2018

Firstly, Croydon gets the confirmation that we have all been waiting for for over 4 years now, that John Lewis and Waitrose will be the anchor store for Croydon’s Westfield development. It has long been rumoured that John Lewis have always been the number 1 target of the developers behind Croydon’s new Westfield shopping centre and this is great news for both shoppers, developers and for Westfield. Not to mention the 7,000 new jobs that are expected to be created by the entire development as well as the 700 new flats.

Continuing in the same positive vein for Croydon, our new homes division have been in many negotiations and numerous presentations regarding the launch of Croydon’s biggest residential scheme and in the coming months we hope to be able to make more specific announcements with regards to location, launch dates and pricing.

After analysing the figures in May, both in lettings and the sales market, May 2018 can best be described as solid and steady. Amongst the backdrop of reports that transaction levels in London are significantly down and some gloom mongers have even gone so far as to comment on the confidence levels, it would be accurate to say that the confidence levels of our purchaser database can best be described as active, solid and proactively looking to buy, whether it be a home owner purchase or investment.

Turning to the lettings market, the number of prospective tenants we registered in May 2018 was up 4% on May 2017, whilst there was no change at all in rental values. It still remains the case whereby there are 6 tenants for every property and landlords are understandably still being choosy as to which tenants. The quality of tenants in 2018 can best be described as excellent and we have registered many tenants looking to commute to Central London.

I am really looking forward to June, as all the indications are for a good month both for sales, lettings and in in particular new homes and I look forward to reporting to you early July.