7 Mar 2021
Wednesday 3rd March saw Rishi Sunak announce a generous Budget:
Rightmove saw an immediate spike in activity on Budget Day with visits to its website surpassing 9 million for the first time, overtaking the previous record of just over 8.5 million visits recorded last week.
The number of mortgages approved by lenders in the final quarter of last year hit the highest level for 13 years. Residential property purchase lending was highest in December, up 31% compared with the same month in 2019.
Despite this uptick in activity, annual purchases for the whole year were around a tenth lower than the previous year, due to a complete shutdown of the market in the first lockdown.
At Movewise we have seen activity in the sales market pick up quite significantly this week, although the variation across the country is marked.
Viewing activity has generally increased with buyers who were waiting for the budget now being able to make their purchasing decisions based on some certainty.
Despite the general increase in viewing activity, the number of offers agreed has been varied with properties in some areas attracting competitive bidding whereas in other areas, where supply of listed properties has already increased, buyers who aren’t time constrained are hedging their bets and waiting to see what else comes onto the market before committing.
Agents in London have taken on a lot of property and purchasers are sitting on their hands, waiting to see what else comes on.
In other areas there has been a lag, so there are lots of valuations taking place but still a lack of property listed, so there is competition amongst buyers to purchase and bidding wars have become quite commonplace.
Notably in the South West (eg. Devon) some property is not even coming onto the market as there is nothing for sellers to buy so the market is a little frozen.
If you are considering selling, speak to your local agents and find out if there are any current trends in your localised market so that you can focus your sales strategy accordingly. Is there a high or low supply of properties like yours? Is there or is there not a pool of buyers waiting for a property like yours? If you are also looking to find an onward purchase, is there a good choice of property available in the area you are looking to buy in?
Have a great week.
The Movewise Team