Nova News Editorial October 2017
The National Association of Estate Agents conducts a monthly survey for all its members’ offices. The latest figures released cover August and whilst the national trend does not necessarily mirror local activity it does give a broad outline of how things are in the residential sales industry and a possible pointer to how things will be in the next months. Some observations go without saying such as the summer holiday season pushing down demand yet the number of properties on the market increased marginally during August. The number of first time buyers has stayed the same, as has the number of sales agreed.
Interestingly the number of house hunters registered at NAEA estate agents offices has dropped to a 12 month low with 343 registered per branch on a national basis, the lowest figure since August 2016. The chief Executive Mark Hayward (a very entertaining person to listen to at seminars by the way) suggests that whilst the supply doesn’t meet demand he anticipates the market bouncing back in September when the holiday season is over. Far be it for me to disagree with the boss but locally it seems that it may be a different story moving into October. Maybe the September report will show a slightly different conclusion.
Talking to some of the local agents activity in the marketplace seems to have slowed down considerably over the past few weeks in respect of houses coming on the market. I am looking at September now as I write this article in the first week of October. I look at one of the property portals every day getting an indication of what has come on the market in the previous 24 hours within 5 miles of Newport centre. The last month or so has seen a reduction in the number of new instructions for non new build i.e. established homes. A number of the properties coming on as new instructions are remarketed properties which have already been for sale with one agent and the vendors having decided to move to an alternative agency in order to regenerate interest in their home. I sense that the number of prospective buyers has also reduced further and that the number of viewings is also down; this is only my opinion, the agent’s editorials elsewhere in Nova may well tell you a different story.
I am always happy to offer you advice or assistance with any property related matter, contact me on 07507 928008 or email. I look forward to speaking with you.