Houses are Flying...
Since the lockdown restrictions were lifted the property market has been going at a very fast pace. Theres lots in the media about house prices rising which is true for the last couple of months but the lettings market is also moving at a great rate.
So I'm sure your thinking all that's great isn't it....well it's great for people selling their house and it's great for landlords filling their houses but on the flip side buyers are paying more than ever for property and tenants are fighting over rented houses.
Why is this?... My goodness there are many reasons why we think this is happening.
Lets talk about the sales market first...
As we are all aware lockdown was a surreal time for us all but we had lots and I mean lots of time to fill. Rightmove had a rise of 20% on its site during lockdown meaning lots of people were looking for houses but couldn't view. Many people started working from home and questioning whether their home was working anymore and if they needed a home office. We also had the amazing weather, so gardens became very important. So important that searches for kitchens and dining rooms changed to home office and garden. Views on flats went down and 2 bed houses went up. This is a huge change but I can understand why. Due to this and people just wanting to move like any other 'normal' time we had a rush when we could view houses again (we needed to make up time). Of course the stamp duty change has been another big trigger for the fast pace market.
This is all really positive but I wanted to know what was happening NOW and if there has been any changes since this 'BOOM' started. And the answer is... YES change is starting. I have been speaking with a few local agents and brokers in the last week, getting an insight from them first hand. Estate agents have had incredibly good July's and August's but September is seeing a slower intake of interest. Especially with houses that need a little TLC. Interestingly the other point that came up was a very high percentage of the 'sold subject to contact' are still waiting to go through. I asked the brokers why and they couldn't give me a definitive answer. All they said was it seems as if they are dragging the process out.
This got me and dad thinking.... Is this the start of the market slowing and maybe crashing in the next few months? If banks are unsure and dragging things out that has got to count for something right? However due to the extremely high sales volumes of the last few months we are finding it incredibly difficult to find properties that are the right deal for us and our clients. We will keep trying, finding new and creative ways to find properties and buy in as safe and risk free way as we can make it.
Right now is the time for the lettings market which people don't seem to be talking about that much. WOWZER its crazy out there! We are looking for rental properties for longer term to house our contract clients but we are struggling to even view the properties. One agent isn't doing any viewings as people are applying for them as soon as they see the pictures online. So this week we have contacted about 60 agents in our area and had 0 viewings from it (soooooo frustrating). We sat down together to figure out how we can move forwards and this is what we have been up to the last couple of days...
We are using all sorts of online portals that landlords advertise on so we can get to talk to them directly. We are advertising on social media and asking our network to put us in contact with landlords. This is starting to work! We have some calls booked in to discuss how we can help them and guarantee them rent for 3-5 years.
We are now coming up with ideas on how to contact letting agents in a unique way so they come to us instead of us always chasing them.
This last week has had highs with some fantastic 1-2-1's, a new contract signed by some wonderful tenants for another year and a new long term client, but the lows have been hard and tested our motivation with so many NO's. But we are still here, still pushing forward, still learning and growing!
Until next time...
