The market is still dependent on two main factors, confidence and price. There is no doubt that the market sub £250,000 has fared better than the rest (but properties priced at £250,000 to £280,000 are very vulnerable to the Stamp Duty threshold and receiving offers at only £250,000, incentives to pay the additional stamp duty will become a bigger factor to entice buyers at this price range).

North Devon continued to perform very well compared to Somerset and Cornwall with almost every North Devon Office having a good year for sales, some offices with a shortage of property and no shortage of buyers.

Whilst confidence in the market is not in the hands of either the seller or the agent, the greatest influence a homeowner can have in creating a successful sale is getting their price as accurate as possible from day one. Those taking a realistic view on the pricing of their home, in the main, being the winners with good early sales, those pitching their price above its real market value struggle to find genuine interest are the potential losers; reducing only to find that their home may have become ‘stale’ in the eyes of the buying public and then having to drop further to compensate for this.

There are buyers out there and there is a market. However, every homeowner should take a business like approach to the value of their home. The first 4/6 weeks are extremely important when it comes achieving the maximum interest.

The West Country is still seen as an excellent place to move to and interest still remains strong. But buyers are better informed than ever on what represents good value and what does not. Therefore the pricing and marketing of homes to the widest possible audience through a trusted and proactive professional agent is as critical as ever.

Nigel Cooke reports

Here in the North East, particularly on the coast, in the last four weeks we have seen a surprisingly healthy number of enquiries across the board. Viewings and office visits remain strong, although ability from purchasers remains weak and they are undoubtedly nervous. However, they are viewing and having a good look round before even thinking of offering.

Our average selling price remains around the £185,000 mark and prices have remained static during the whole of 2012.

Living at the coast offers many tremendous benefits and has an attraction all of its own with excellent restaurants, pure white sand beaches, schools etc, and yet is only approximately ten miles from Newcastle City Centre and approximately fifteen miles from Newcastle International Airport.

We very much believe that there is pent up demand within the market which we hope to be able to satisfy over forthcoming months remaining as we are, a dominant Agent within our sales area. Our ability to retain our position within the marketplace has undoubtedly been enhanced by the fact that we employ a large number of well-trained and highly motivated staff with a wealth of experience within the industry, unlike the majority of our competitors who seemingly fail to appreciate the benefits of continual training.

We predict that 2013 will see very much the same market conditions that we have experienced this year, although there is some concern over potential lack of new stock becoming available as sellers continue to be nervous of what the future may hold for them.

If the public was more aware of how buoyant the market really is and if the lenders were more amenable, perhaps many more people would be ‘teased’ into giving the market a try!

Christopher Mayhew, Managing Director

Having two mainline railway stations offering commuter journey times of approximately 30 minutes to London certainly makes our area a popular place to live. We are very fortunate to deal with a diverse range of property from flats to country homes throughout the Surrey and Sussex areas. We are still seeing a reduction in prices from marketing to sale although the market has seen a significant uplift from September compared to the same period in 2011.

There is a serious lack of potential vendors leading to overpricing coupled with fee slashing by some agents. We do not see this situation improving until the New Year. The supply and demand situation has seen buyers fighting over some properties, just last week we had an open event with 34 viewers and nine offers. Our Surrey office has seen a 25 per cent increase in turnover this year and our Sussex office is about to have its best year ever.

The rental market is still lucrative for landlords, we are seeing more and more investors returning to snap up property that will produce a good yield. Some landlords are achieving six to nine per cent return on their investment. There is still a shortage of quality property to let as tenants are staying in situ for longer as they put off buying for the foreseeable future. This is fuelling increased rents across the board. We are finding that there are many agents entering the frame and advertising a management service as low as five per cent.