News from Estate Agent Richard Blake
A record uplift in sales
May proved to be an excellent selling month, the market having improved considerably since the General Election. The run up to any General Election does the housing market no favours - this time, in particular, where policies threatened to cause special harm to the market. Now with a settled long-term policy framework potentially lasting 5 years, we know where we are and confidence has duly returned to the market.
As I write this mid-month, June has already been the most active for many years with plenty of sales being agreed. However, agents throughout England are reporting low stocks with new instructions becoming rarer. Dartmouth is no exception and we desperately need fresh property to the market to meet the demand we are seeing at present.
I attended a conference for a couple of days last week and the keynote speaker was a respected economist who in March predicted a Conservative majority of between nine and sixteen seats. At that the time, he was probably the only person that considered that as a real possibility. He was most entertaining and as he was speaking to a room full of estate agents and surveyors, he brought good news. He expected the UK economy to grow over the next few years but without the typical boom and bust property market to stand in its way. He suggested that although property prices would rise steadily, there would be no huge increase and any spikes in price would be short term to be followed by a correcting fall. This was mainly due to the current policy on mortgage lending, which was keeping a tight rein on the market generally. He also predicted that there were little real inflationary pressures in the economy and although we would probably see a steady rise in inflation to 2%, there was nothing really to be worried about over the next few years.
Today is Tuesday, a normal school day, and the town is packed and bustling. Some of the crowds may well be house hunters come the summer/autumn and with the momentum that we have at the moment, the summer could well be an excellent one for the property market. To those potential vendors who are thinking of placing their property on the market, this is the best time to do so for years and I encourage you to ring your chosen agent and get the ball rolling.
First published By the Dart July 2015 Issue
