Richard Blake Header
With no major party managing to muster a majority vote in this year’s General Election, we are left wondering what a coalition government will mean for the property market. It has been a tense few weeks in the world of politics with a hung parliament followed by the appointment of a new Housing Minister. Senior industry leaders have however questioned the experience of the new minister with the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association calling for an end to the Housing Minister merry-go-round. There have been fifteen Housing Ministers in the last twenty years.
Increased uncertainty has knocked confidence in the market with house builders particularly affected. Whilst the Prime Minister has touched on an idea of a soft Brexit, everyone is hoping that early negotiations can alleviate some of the economic fears that surround Brexit.
Since the General Election, although the market has weakened, we are hopeful that now the Brexit negotiations have started and the Government is getting on with its day to day business, activity levels will begin to increase to the good levels of pre-election. Demand continues to greatly outstrip supply which will no doubt keep prices fairly stable.
As for the local market, here in Dartmouth and surrounds, we have had a rush of exchanges and completions from what was a very busy first quarter of 2017. The shortage of supply is marked and still exists although sales levels have weakened since the commencement and then result of the General Election. I am sure that this will be corrected over the coming weeks and we look forward to a steady selling period over the summer months.
We have found that the villages just outside Dartmouth, i.e. Stoke Fleming and Strete in particular had a very successful selling period; many properties selling as main residences which is good news for those communities. Dartmouth of course always gets its fair share of interest and more recent good publicity about the town in the national press can only help. Garages in Dartmouth are proving ever popular with eye watering figures being achieved.
First published By The Dart magazine July 2017 issue
