Are Properties Taking Longer To Sell?

We're just coming into spring and this time of year for us in the property industry is when the property market usually really springs into life.

Actually, when I look back through, the first quarter of this year, and look at the numbers from January to March, what we can see is a market that's been really busy, right from the start of the year.

Number of Buyers Registered

Let me give you a few numbers. Number of buyers registered with us so far this year is up 10% on the same period last year. The number of viewings arranged by our teams is up 20%.

This extra activity has meant for our business, number of sales we’ve agreed, the number of properties we’ve placed on the offer has increased by 27% on the year,

House Price Stats

What about prices? Well, as usual, the national House price indexes are all report slightly different figures.

Zoopla's latest report shows that house prices in the North West year on year are up 0.8%. And in Yorkshire up 0.6%.

Yet Rightmove reports year-on-year growth in the North West of 2.6% and 2.4% year-on-year growth in Yorkshire.

Our own data, admittedly, a much smaller sample, but showing 2.7% year-on-year increase in house prices.

So very much in line with what Rightmove were reporting.

Buyers & Sellers

In a lot of ways, very positive if you're a seller, but it's not all plain sailing. Rightmove also report that the length of time it takes for a property to go under offer is now 72 days. That’s the longest it's been for five years. And, typically about twice as long as what we would have seen in the post-pandemic boom.

So I think what it clearly demonstrates to us is that buyers are cherry-picking those properties that are most attractively priced.

So a lot of positivity and certainly a lot of, momentum in the property market right now. But my advice remains the same. Price your property sensibly.

Pick the right agent, especially with a general election almost certain to happen later this year.