About Us:
We have been selling and letting homes in South Devon since 1990 and pride ourselves in our knowledge of the area, our people, our marketing and our ability to build great relationships with sellers, buyers, letting agents and those who rent homes through our agency.
With more than twenty year’s experience in the South Hams, Marchand Petit is an estate agency synonymous with quality homes, marketing and service.
Our years of experience in the South Ham, selling and letting homes from apartments to country estates, mean we have been able to grow the business and now have established offices in Kingsbridge, Dartmouth, Salcombe, Newton Ferrers, Millbrook, Modbury, Torpoint and Totnes as well as our London office.
Our success can be attributed to our honest appraisals based on our extensive knowledge of the area and experience, our marketing capabilities and our people.
Interview with Peter Gardener, Managing Director of Marchand Petit (July 2015)
What sets the agency apart?
We’ve six offices across South Hams, a Cornish franchise alongside a London presence and have been helping buyers and sellers for 25 years. That’s given us a very strong position in the local property market.
In 2014, we successfully achieved exchange of contracts on over 40% of the property available to buy within South Hams (marketed at £250k and above), our closest competitor having 16% (source Savvy Agent). At the higher end of the market (above £800k) our share grew to 60%. We’re a leading agency in letting properties across the region. We invest heavily in marketing our clients’ properties, advertising extensively in local and regional publications and generating strong press coverage across a wide range of national newspapers, magazines and website.
Which way is the market pointing?
There seems to be more confidence in market – we successfully completed a series of auctions, which shows that buyers and sellers are more willing to take risks. We notice an increase in interest from people moving here to work – improved internet connections have helped – or possibly to retire. The second home market does, however, remain the main driver of the market.
With the election out of the way, the top end has picked up a bit – more volume is appearing but prices have not moved much. There are still stamp duty issues but the stepped nature of this tax has become more progressive and this distorts the market less.
The legal process has become more torturous – mortgage lending is so much more risk averse – and this slows everything down as more boxes have to be ticked. It’s beginning, however, to ease up.
Do you see much change in activity?
Prices are fairly stable as most vendors are willing to consider a fair cash offer especially if they are looking to move outside the area. Low interest rates and good employment levels should keep the market stable for the foreseeable future.
Dartmouth remains popular but the supply of stock hasn’t really increased. We expected a bit more activity as the election recedes. Good prices are being achieved and it’s even possible to sell off market if an agent knows you’ll consider selling when the right buyer appears. We do notice that the quality of local housing stock has improved – owners are spending more on their homes and doing more to maintain them.
One of our strengths of our company is that the Dartmouth market is not the only market we focus on. Our experience and contact with vendors and buyers dealing across all our offices in the South Hams means we can reach into a wide network of interested buyers and sellers and better match the two. It’s very important for buyers and seller to keep in close contact with agents – it’s a specialist market here and you need a local agent to give that specialist advice.
