Hello folks, hope you are all doing well, I thought I would just dive straight into this blog as it makes me feel a little bit more optimistic for the year ahead.
Last year the property sector finished with a flurry of transactions due to the increasing pressures placed upon landlords and anyone looking to buy a second home from the government’s implementation of new taxation and regulation with the “renters reform bill”. This led to many landlords deciding to leave the property rental market and cash in their property assets into cash assets and see them make a similar return in the bank’s interest rates rather than the commitment and costs of letting properties.
As a direct result, at the end of 2024, the market was awash with ex-rental properties on the market offering yields of anything between 7% and 14% on the larger properties or HMOs (houses of multi-occupancy), thus trying to make them sound lucrative to other investors, however with the 5% stamp duty now placed on any second/investment properties, other landlords have not been quick to snap these up.
The smaller single-unit properties, such as starter/first-time buyer houses or apartments, are a different story. These properties are ideal for first-timers and, therefore, the buyers will not be subject to inflated stamp duty. They are also selling in a good timescale. The only downside to this is that there will be less stock available for the rental market, which will, in turn, push the cost of renting up and, therefore, pass the burden of the cost of living on to renters.
In April though, we will see the current £250,000 stamp duty level be reduced back down to £125,000. Will this lead to buyers rushing to buy a house or flat early this year to avoid this increase? I think not. I reason that if a buyer were purchasing a house or flat at £250,000 they would be exempt from paying any stamp duty. If they buy after April, they will now have to pay £2,500 (the first £125,000 is stamp duty-free, then it is 2% on the remaining £125,000 = £2,500), I am not sure that when it comes to buying such a monumental thing as a house, £2,500 will stop them from buying it.
If you are a first-time buyer, you are currently exempt from paying any stamp duty on a property up to the value of £425,000. After April, though, the exemption will revert to the previous level of £300,000. I do feel that this will have an effect by causing a new ceiling price for first-time buyers to look up to the £300,000 price tag. Any properties valued or marketed above this price will not have the same sales momentum on the sales market from April onwards.
The first three months, January, February and March, usually follow the same pattern each year. It is not unusual for us to receive higher than the yearly average of domestic separations/divorce valuation requests, probate, valuation requests and repossession valuation requests. I call this our 3D season (Divorce, Death and Debt). This sounds almost comical, but we see the same repeat pattern year after year.
Unfortunately, inflation levels increased towards the end of 2024, and the forecasted interest rate reduction did not occur. If inflation continues to rise in the first quarter of 2025, interest rates may increase to counterbalance inflation. If inflation levels remain steady, then it goes without saying that interest rates should also stay at the same 4.75% we have now. This will be reviewed on 6th February, so watch this space.
Late Spring to early summer always tends to be a more favourable time to sell a property due to the days getting longer, the weather getting better, and everyone coming out of the winter blues. If you are considering putting your property on the market, any time is a good time if you are realistic with your expectations. Still, some agents are gilding the lily regarding valuations.
It is a sad part of our industry that a lot of either corporate agents or unqualified independent agents will add between 10% and 20% onto the valuation figures that they give to try and unfairly gain the instruction to sell your property over another agent who may have given an honest and factual valuation figure. We call this “trying to buy the instruction”. We all know roughly what our properties are worth, so if it sounds too good to be true, then it is more than likely just that, too good to be true.
Please check “Propertymark” for a list of all the QUALIFIED estate agents covering your area. You can also head to the Companies House website to see if the agent in question is working for a reputable company, or at the very least, you can google to see if there are any news reports on that business, whether the articles are good or bad. Ultimately, you must be happy with your choices, and we recommend doing some solid research related to your property circumstances and engaging a qualified agent to ensure you are protected as a consumer.
Please feel free to share this article on your social media so that as many people as possible can make informed decisions before making those big property decisions. Take care, everyone, and happy new year.
Hello again folks and welcome to autumn. Did you know that according to researchers, autumn is the least liked season of the year, colour goes from the garden, days get shorter, wetter and the temperature goes down. Well, the current housing market is just the same as autumn, it gets harder to get good photographs of properties due to the changing weather conditions, any vacant properties that do not have electricity on have reduced hours to view them due to the darker evening creeping in, and the prices, like the temperature, are going down.
I have been keeping a close eye on the available properties either already on the market or the new ones that are coming to the market over the last six weeks, it seems to me that there is a clear downward trend in the prices that the properties are coming on at but what is more concerning is the number of properties that other agents are having to do “Price Reductions” on. Some agents that are so proud of having hundreds of properties on their website are now having to slash the prices of their available stock.
Could this be because they over valued in the first place, probably. When choosing an agent to sell your property, remember that if an agent has more that 100 properties on its own website, then it obviously cannot be selling many at all. If an agent claims to have multiple offices selling your property for you, if it is a corporate agent, why would the lead office allow another office to claim a selling fee? I used to work for a corporate and this was never allowed to happen, as the offices are all in competition with each other but they still use this tactic to try and win your business.
When you see the properties appearing at the top of Rightmove listings, look carefully to see if it is actually a new listing or whether it has had a price reduction instead. The reason I say this is more than 50% of the top properties on Rightmove searches that I have done in recent weeks have all been price reductions and not new properties coming to the market.
When reading this blog, you may think it is coming across as negative, I would disagree. The market will always change, sometimes daily, but one thing remains the same and that is experience. An experience, and dare I say, a qualified estate agent will be used to these changing times and will be able to advise you accordingly to suit both your expectations and the reality of selling in a downward facing market.
This week, Cross Keys Estates had two enquiries from potential vendors both with differing needs. One family that did not live in Plymouth but had an older relation based in Ivybridge that needed to move into an assisted living property, as she was about to come out of hospital and her own property would no longer be suitable. We attended the property to value it, spoke in great detail on the phone and came up with a bespoke marketing plan. The property was placed on the market and enquiries came in straight away, a viewing was carried out within 24 hours of the property going live which led to the property being sold immediately towards the top of the guide price, meaning that the assisted living property was able to be secured for them.
The other vendor had been on the market with another (corporate) agent and tried their “Modern Auction” experience, they had tight timescale needs as they are moving abroad and had a date set for this move. The auction was a complete failure and didn’t generate nearly enough interest needed to gain offers on the property. A good neighbour of theirs recommended that they come to see us for a much more traditional and proven way to sell their house, after they popped in to our office and talked everything through in detail, we came up with a marketing plan, placed the property on the market and sold it within 5 days of the initial meeting in the office and at a price that exceeded the original agreed bottom line price.
There is a simple truth to this blog, if you have a need to sell your property, you also need to see a fully qualified and time served experienced agent. As the property market gets tougher, this experience will be what get you the results that you need. If you are unsure about which agent to choose, look them up on www.allagents.co.uk or if you want to be a bit more thorough, you could also look them up via PropertyMark to see if they are qualified, you can put your postcode in to their website and this will tell you if an agent is qualified or not.
In this day of scam artist and rogue traders, you could also try Companies House to see if the company that you are thinking of using is legitimate or not, you might be surprised at what information you can find on this website. When all is said and done, you cannot beat a good referral from someone who has been or is in the same situation as yourself and has been through the entire process.
I would also like to point out that as it stands with the current interest rate, properties that are currently on the market for prices over £300,000, are being affected by the higher cost of borrowing. If buyers are putting down a 10% deposit on £300,000 (£30,000), for a 2-year fixed rate 25-year term mortgage, the cost of borrowing £270,000 is now roughly at £1,500 per month. I got these figures from Compare the Market website. I am also sure that we will see more interest rate rises before Christmas which will push the property market prices down further.
The last thing that I wanted to point out is this, if you are selling and buying on in the same market conditions then your sales price is always going to be relative to your purchase price. In other words, if you are having to sell for a few thousand pounds less than you could have got a year ago, it does not matter, as the property that you are buying will also be a few thousand pounds cheaper as well.
Please feel free to call me, pop in to our office, or email me with any questions you may have or any advice that you may need with regards to your property buying or selling journey, as I am always only to happy to help.
2023 HAS CERTAINLY STARTED WITH POSITIVITY
We are not even four weeks into 2023 and we have been out to or booked to see more than 60 properties wanting to come to the sales market. We already have 19 (yes that’s right 19!) properties, as at the third week of January, either signed up and on the market or waiting for their professional property brochures. We have also already agreed sales on 17 properties making Cross Keys Estates the right agent for you.
If you have been looking to move this year and you need to sell your own property, PLEASE PLEASE do not make the mistake of leaving it too late or choosing the wrong agent. CHOOSE Plymouth’s award winning NUMBER 1 estate agent – CHOOSE Cross Keys Estates!
If you are on the market since last year with the same agent but feel that they are not doing enough to get your property sold, maybe a fresh start is what you need. Our average time on the market is less than half of many of our competitors, meaning we sell your house quicker and usually achieve higher selling prices as well. Just check out our glowing customer reviews on www.AllAgents.co.uk
To give yourself the best chance of making the right decision, call the Cross Keys dream team today on:
Plymouth Sales: 01752 500018
Plymouth Lettings: 01752 500099
