West Bridgford estate agent Royston & Lund provides some insight into the local market.
Nearly six weeks ago the government opened the doors to the housing market. At the time, there was an estimated £82 billion of property transactions on hold due to coronavirus.
The immediate effect of the reopening of the property market has been seen clearly on the property portals – with a distinct spike in searches for properties the day after restrictions were lifted. Rightmove recorded over 5 million visits on 13th May and reported that sales demand doubled from Tuesday 12th May (when restrictions were still in place) to Wednesday 13th May.
The spike in property searches can be attributed to the many people who have had to put their property search on hold due to coronavirus and are now looking to move quickly in order to avoid their own chain collapsing, or just to take advantage of current circumstances.
Six weeks in and the housing market has continued to gather pace with significant volumes of buyers and sellers returning to the market. “Searches for purchases are now at 44 per cent of pre-lockdown highs, up from lows of 15.6 per cent in mid-April” explains James Tucker, chief executive of Twenty7Tec.
Miles Shipside, Rightmove director and housing market analyst, said: “The traditionally busy spring market was curtailed by lockdown”.
However, at Royston & Lund after returning 6 weeks ago, bringing our entire sales team back a full 3 weeks earlier than we intended to, we have witnessed the market bounce back in a way we could not have imagined.
In the first weekend that the property market was released, we were in receipt of approaching 450 enquiries just by email for property which had been on the market pre-lockdown. We had a backlog of circa 200 viewings logged by interested parties throughout lockdown and over 100 enquiries from potential vendors looking to get valuations on their properties.
Fast forward to the end of June, we are now witnessing a market similar to that we would expect in a ‘normal’ spring market.
Despite both buyers and sellers seemingly understanding there is a recession coming – at some point, we are seeing properties having numerous offers made from numerous buyers, best and final offers are being asked for as they would have pre-lockdown and property continues to sell for above the guide price.
Furthermore, demand in West Bridgford in particular and Rushcliffe as a whole has been consolidated by a good amount of new property coming to the market during the last 6 weeks. This has had a knock-on effect on bringing more and more potential buyers and sellers to the market place and assessing their own options.
If you find yourself wanting some advice or have seen a property come to the market which you are interested in, give us a call on 0115 981 1888 to discuss what we can help you achieve for your property.
