Market Comment – October 2022

It will not come as a huge surprise to anybody that the pundits have been out in force predicting doom and gloom for the housing markets, and I fully understand that bad news grabs attention, however I would like to bring some sensibility into the current housing situation.

House prices are remaining the same and in October, prospective purchaser enquiries were at the same as February 2022. So whilst house prices aren’t going up at rapid paces, it is important to remember that any commodity, houses like any commodity is governed by supply and demand and the demand still outstrips the supply. Whilst we have seen healthy increases, I note Halifax reported a 0.4% decline in house prices in September and for me, this is not headline news.

I do accept that all people coming off a fixed rate and with the cost of living and inflation etc, we will see a sensible and maybe even cautious trend going in to 2023, but I do not think there is any cause for alarm looking at the numbers of registrations.

It appears financial markets are calming to the new government and this could, after reading many reports, provide some relief and I have already seen some interest rates fall.

It may interest our readers to know that the average house price in Croydon in July 2022, was £423,775.

Turning to the lettings market, as I have been reporting for many months and even years, we are now at over 10 prospective tenants per property. We have seen rents increase slightly over the last couple of months, but I have spoken to many landlords and I am encouraged at the humidity shown in that they are not all putting rents up to their existing tenants. So the moral of the story for renting is, this is still a solid and healthy market.

Turning to New Homes, following appointing 3 more new home executives and 7 new sites due to start between now and February 2023, I think the figures speak for themselves, but I will look forward to reporting back to you with more granula figures towards the end of the month and of course the year.