Hampshire, West Midlands and North Kent coast

HAMPSHIRE

WHITE & GUARD
Jason Guard, Managing Director

The past few years have turned the world on its head. The pandemic caused the global economy to shrink with inflation levels soaring which has only added to the struggle everyone then faced. Then rising from the ashes, we saw the property market suddenly on the up-turn and gathering pace as the year went on. The market, certainly in the South of the country, although relatively predictable to an extent, gathered momentum with a general feel of positivity across all sections within the marketplace. However, these frameworks change from time to time, and if the market dramatically increases in terms of both activity and pricing, there is always a point in which it then takes a turn and either balances, dips slightly or slows down completely.

So, although we have undoubtably seen increases in both over the years, it’s safe to say that we are now at a point where there is, it seems, more of a chance to take in one’s breath and even ‘jump into the water’, when you feel the time is right with reference to entering the property market with no preconceived concerns. The market we are now seeing locally is now far more balanced and dare I say it, a much more enjoyable place to be as a result.

Waterfront property market

I am of course only speaking about the part of Hampshire where we have a network of offices and includes marketing homes in towns, villages, and city centres, along with houses on the waterfront. So, being in such a beautiful part of Hampshire certainly comes with its advantages and the list of them is undoubtably a long one at that, and at the same time, the reason I genuinely feel that a strong market will never drift too far away from us. I would certainly say that I can see the market locally remaining buoyant for the foreseeable future, so any update from ‘this side of the railway’ as they say, will continue to be realistically healthy and our reporting on it will be as true to the real picture as this particular person can quite literally describe.

Feature property: 10 Marina Drive, Hamble – sale agreed over its asking price of £1.5 million.

WEST MIDLANDS

ROYSTON & LUND
Graham Sheardown, Associate Director

We have been market leader over the last 24 years for house sales from our West Bridgford sales office, supported by our strong lettings team and over the last five years we have opened two new branches in Keyworth, and more recently Ashby de-la-Zouch, along with our new owners and their Wolverhampton Branch.

The property market continues to remain strong over our branch network, despite a reduction in the number of house buyers over the summer period. This has confirmed a return to a more ‘seasonally based’ market after the furore after the pandemic. This strength comes through the continued lack of houses available to buy. Locally, we have not experienced a drop in asking prices – they have just not risen over this period. On a positive note, this August our Bridgford and Keyworth Office has exchanged on 28 properties, up three exchanges on 2021.

Speed of sale

Motivated sellers who want or need to move quickly at this time of year tend to price competitively to find a suitable buyer in a time frame that suits them, with some hoping to complete their move in time to enjoy Christmas in a new home. We at Royston & Lund find a great balance between speed of sale, maximising the achieved sale price and choosing the strongest buyer by using Guide Price’s and Guide Price Ranges with the use of organised ‘Multi Viewing Days’ grouping our registered buyers together. Our average sale price for 2022 in West Bridgford is £349.851, £9,000 over our average asking price.

Locally, we have seen a property value rise of 8% since the start of 2022, slightly ahead of the national average. This again is due to the limited supply of houses coming to the market. If supply continues to be limited this may cause a further rise of a couple of percent, as children return to school, and the market has its final push before Christmas. Although demand continues to soften, and supply constraints are improving, there is still a massive imbalance, suggesting house prices will remain level or rise slightly for the remainder of 2022.

Feature property: Radcliffe-On-Trent, Nottingham – £925,000

NORTH KENT COAST

COOKE & CO
Victoria Field, Sales Progression and Compliance Manager

Cooke & Co Estate & Lettings Agents are an independent, family-owned agency, based on the North Kent Coast with three local branches, founded by Mr Damien Cooke, some 30 years ago. I have been part of the brand for some 12 years and it has been fair to say that we’ve all seen our fair shares of ups and downs, especially during the most recent years with the rollercoaster that’s been the pandemic.

Post Covid, as the world returns to the ‘new normal’ the recent market has been incredibly buoyant with an unprecedented number of sales and at record breaking prices for our local area. Margate in particular, has experienced the process of gentrification over recent years. We are however, starting to witness the market slowing somewhat, this could be as the summer months come to a close and the colder months are approaching, or it could be the result of the interest rate rises and cost of living crisis upon us.

Prices levelling out

We believe the latter is the contributing factor to the slowing of the market. Although we are seeing continued sales, with minimal fall throughs, the prices are starting to level out and the panicked calls from buyers looking to secure a viewing before the property is sale agreed, are subsiding. I believe we are very lucky at Cooke & Co as we offer a range of different marketing options to our sellers and therefore, we regularly deal with clients looking to off-load their investment portfolio, to large family homes and brand new, off-plan developments.

The trend in the most months has been for properties that range between £350,000 to £400,000, and this could include a sea facing apartment for a coastal retreat to a Victorian terrace home for a first-time buyer, and we have successfully agreed 20 sales from our Margate Branch within the last four weeks.

The average time these properties remain on the market ranges from one to five weeks, generally speaking, with a strong interest from buyers looking to either invest or move to the coast from out of the area and start a new life by the seaside.

Feature property: Quex Road, Westgate-on-sea – £330,000 (Freehold)