The last three years have been full-on property finding
I could never have imagined the sustained house buying fever that came from a pretty benign 2019 as covid took hold. The property market was crazy mad until September last year.
It made sense. Houses in the incredibly accessible and hugely attractive search areas around Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells (not in town) had lagged their London counterparts almost to the point where you wondered if anyone would ever move to a large country house again.
Being interested in anything to do with Geography, it’s breadth pretty much encompasses everything everywhere in some way. A global pandemic coupled with people having time to make major decisions in terms of where they wanted to live and how they hoped to live their lives going forward (given more flexibility at work) gave endless reading fodder and opportunity to speculate. And although the areas around Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells have been popular with commuters for many many years, changes in the workplace made this an even more popular and accessible destination to buy for anyone looking to move out of London.
I was envious too. Families were able to move where they wanted to (within reason) and carry on working, not be to be totally constrained by both distance to work and childcare. Factors that had been very difficult before suddenly had an air of possibility, even though they were likely to evolve over the next few years. And childcare will have to catch up with these changes as supply is low out of London.
That’s where my search area came into its own. It didn’t involve a family relocating hundreds of miles away or even very far from London and at the same time there was, and remains, a safety net. If your job changed and you then had to go to the office again every day it really wasn’t a problem, if your new boss suddenly changed any covid work arrangements and wanted everyone in for 7.30am rather than three times a week by 9am, it could still work.
Quite often you could get into work (train strikes aside) as quickly as living in London. The (often rainy and wet) West country & (Soho house, touristy) Gloucestershire can’t really give you this option.
After the mad rush…What happens next?
2022 was a year that started full on and carried on in that vein until the natural (very hot!) summer holiday slowdown when people are away and focused on children and just enjoying the weather. Ukraine, politics at home and the impending fuel crisis slowed the market. Followed swiftly by the mess that was the mini budget under Liz Truss at last put the brakes on and anyone looking to secure a mortgage had to reconsider their position. The years of unbelievably low interest & mortgages rates were over.
2023 is going to be a mixed picture. The stock market has roared ahead in the first couple of weeks this year and estate agents are reasonably busy, not silly busy but actively being asked to carry out valuations, making sure current deals are on track to exchange and re-marketing properties that hadn’t sold last year. Potential buyers are booking in viewings a week ahead, it’s active which is a positive sign. Downsizers are a big dynamic, they are downsizing from large properties with land to…quite large properties with less land. Watch this space. Unfortunately it also means that families looking to trade up to a larger property but without large gardens (they don’t have time to garden or spare budget to employ a gardener x days a week) are looking for the same properties and they are in short supply.
Vendors will have to be realistic, they need to prepare their houses for sale rather than ‘winging it’ and knowing it will sell. Ideally agents should help them have everything ready to go. This could be having a report done on their private drainage to make sure it is up to current regulations, to finish off those jobs that lay unfinished and will only rile an incoming purchaser. Have tiles replaced that have slipped, clear the garden, take leaves out of the drains and have the gutters swept.
There will be a trickle of houses coming onto the market until gardens look a little less wintery (although to see a garden looking wonderful in winter is special) and there are still plenty of cash buyers or clients with mortgages agreed out there if good houses appear off-market.
This area of the market should be busy this year, will less competition for houses it makes sense to try your hand off-market if you are selling, avoid the internet and then if that isn’t successful go live after a few weeks.
As a search agent I can access these houses, make sure I’m one, if not the first in to view and give clients good advice on every aspect of their decision, the way forward, bidding and then securing the house making sure that all aspects have been covered thoroughly and making sure that clients make the right decisions for themselves and the years ahead.
I’m looking forward to whatever this year will bring, there are always surprises and special finds, stressful weeks and problems to unravel, but the only good results are happy clients in a their new home. Do get in touch with me on 07771 723 807 if you would like to chat through your search, I look forward to hearing from you.