By Charlie Higgs – Owner Village Properties
With buyer demand at a record high, the average price of property coming on to the market at an all time high and the number of property sales agreed up by 55% on the same period 2 years ago, we try to make some sense of the current local Reading property market.
In the recently published ‘house price index’ from Rightmove, they talk about a ‘buying frenzy’ for new property coming on to the market, strong words… Backing this up they look at the statistics against previous times.
Property Prices – The national average for properties coming on the marketing is at an all-time high, up by 2.1% in the month, the biggest ever recorded monthly increase, pushing the national average asking price to £327,797, a record all-time high.
Sales Agreed – With the surge in buyer activity in the month, the average number of days a property takes to sell is at the fastest level ever previously recorded. This has increased the number of property sales agreed, up by 55% over the same period two years ago. With two and three bedroomed semi-detached family homes selling the fastest.
Stock levels – As buyer demand is at an all-time high and sales agreed also running at 55% up on 2019, the stock of properties available to buy is at the lowest ratio ever recorded.
Spring Serge
The spring serge has a number of influencers, the more obvious being the continuation of the stamp duty holiday and government support for 95% mortgages. Although we have seen many buyers looking for more space for home working or buyers from the city looking for a better quality of life. There is also the ‘vaccine’ factor, with people feeling more confident and considering now a good time to move with the fabulous job the NHS are doing with the vaccine roll-out. Add to this the normal spring time home moving season and not forgetting the current record-low mortgage rates. All makes for a high octane seller’s market…
The Rightmove report concludes “This is now the fastest-selling market that we measured since our records began”.
What does a ‘Sellers Market’ mean?
For local sellers in the Reading area, we are experiencing the highest buyer demand we have ever know, most properties coming on to the market are inundated with viewing requests, typically we see 20-30 viewing requests from buyers who are able to proceed. With such strong demand, competition is high and we often see properties with offers being agreed at over the asking price.
Certainly for us, the lack of stock is not due to the number of properties coming on to the market, if anything, the number of properties coming to market are slight up on the same period in 2019. The shortage of stock is a direct cause of the high demand.
Light at the end of the tunnel
Looking ahead, there are sellers that are being more cautious, waiting until they have had their second vaccination before taking the plunge to market their home. So it’s likely we’ll see that as the roll-out of the second jab continues, the stock coming to marketing is likely to increase.
Watch this space…
Charlie Higgs
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