Welcome to our October 2022 Property Market Comment. We're Here to Help You Make Better-Informed Property Decisions.
While the political landscape may be in turmoil, the property market appears, for the time being at least, to remain as resilient and upbeat as ever.
We know that the generous cut in SDLT announced by the government will certainly help first time buyers, with over 200,000 property transactions now expected to be completely free of stamp duty. That’s property up to £250,000 (or £425,000 for first time buyers). Of course this benefit is partially offset by rising interest rates and it is expected that some buyers may not be able to afford as much as they had hoped. Don’t forget that if people have less money to spend this doesn’t necessarily pull prices down – it just means that they have to buy a cheaper or smaller property.
But this is by no means a major problem for the market as a whole, and although some economists are predicting a fall in house prices, we must remember that there has recently been a massive imbalance of supply and demand, with a clearly unsustainable hike in the national average house price of over 20% over the past two years, with average rents rising by a whopping 21.8% this year alone (Source: Home.co.uk)
The most likely scenario appears to be a reasonable levelling off of this imbalance, returning to what many of us will remember as a “normal” market.
Whilst the urgency of the speculative buyer may subside, there will always be people needing to move for genuine reasons – a new job, a family on the way, schools, and of course the four D’s - death, divorce, downsizing and debt. Employment levels are at their highest in nearly 50 years, yet mortgage rates are about half what they were then. Whatever the sensationalist news headlines might suggest, a house price crash seems unlikely, even if we do eventually see a levelling off.
At the end of the day, unless you are a property investor, moving house is more important than actual house prices. And it’s all relative anyway as any price change affects both buying and selling. And, once you’ve bought, the value of your property is almost irrelevant until you come to sell – property is after all a long-term proposition.
Nevertheless, we are aware that if you are thinking of moving, you may feel a little confused right now. I think we can say that there is nothing to worry about despite what you might hear. We’re here to advise and encourage, to guide and to continue to steer the right buyers to the right property and to pay the right price. Our job is to help people move, whatever the market, and for our clients to be delighted with the results. Why not call us today for some straight-talking good advice? We’re local and we have our finger very much on the pulse of the local property market. We know who’s buying and whose selling and we’re very good at putting the two together.