Sales Director Round Up of October 2018

Nock Deighton’s sales and marketing director, Ross D’Aniello, takes a look at what’s been happening in the Shropshire, Worcestershire and national markets recently….

Chocolate Heaven

There is little else more quintessentially British than the chocolate box cottage. Bringing up idyllic images of rambling roses framing the doorway, thatched roofs, exposed beams and open fires, an escape to a rural retreat is the aspiration of many.

To celebrate Chocolate Week (yes, there’s a Chocolate Week!) we delved further into this market:

• So far in 2018, there have been 2,100 country cottages sold rurally.
• The south of the country dominates, with 46% of sales, but a fifth were in the Midlands.
• Chocolate box cottages sold this year for an average of £364 per square foot. This is 33% higher than the average price paid for all homes across rural locations.

Over 1 million property transactions last year

Treasury coffers have netted close to £9.3 billion in SDLT (Stamp Duty Land Tax) receipts on 1.1 million residential transactions across the UK in 2017–18.

While sales volumes rose by just 1% over this last year, residential tax receipts rose by 8%.

Over a quarter of a million (252,000) properties were purchased as additional dwellings in 2017-2018, up 9% on 2016/17 and these accounted for 44% of all residential SDLT receipts.

Although sales volumes across London, the South East and East of England fell, residential stamp duty intake in all regions increased.

Our local markets among the fastest in the UK

It's a good time to be based in the West Midlands!

To date in 2018 properties have taken an average of 2 MONTHS to sell, (the period between them being first marketed and 'sold subject to contract') according to data produced by Rightmove.

How long a property takes to sell is dependent on a whole range of factors such as price, location, condition, time of year.

Despite challenging market conditions in many areas, nationally this figure is just 1 day longer than last year and is 10 days shorter than four years ago.

Regionally, at present properties are selling STC quickest across the West Midlands – just 49 DAYS!

House prices on the up?

HM Treasury has updated its consensus forecast for UK house price growth over the next 5 years.

Property prices are expected to rise by 2.8% during 2018, higher than many predicted.

While the Bank of England has stated house prices may fall by a third in the event of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, recent news suggests a ‘no-deal’ scenario is less likely than many thought.

Based on the Treasury forecasts, the average price of a property across the UK is expected to rise by over £27,000 over the next five years.

The Treasury expect earnings to rise on a par with house prices during 2018, and exceed price growth in 2019, 2020 and 2021.