About Us:
Savills Exeter office is well placed to cover most disciplines of property related work in Devon, West Dorset & West Somerset, with Departments currently covering all aspects of Residential, Estate & Farm sales; Hotels and Leisure sales and advice, Commercial, Residential and Agricultural valuations; Rural Management and professional advice; Planning; and Development advice.
Savills Exeter have a large selection of houses, estates, farms, hotels, holiday cottages and development sites for sale in the West Country. Please contact any Savills employee who will be delighted to help you with your property requirements.
Interview with SJ Bingham Chick, Director at Savills (July 2015)
Based in Exeter, what can Savills offer the local market?
With Savills, I’m the local representative of a global brand; we provide local knowledge but global reach giving us a unique advantage over national and local brands. Although I am based in our Exeter offices I spend much time in the area and I still live here in Dartmouth. I first fell in love with the South Hams after spending a long weekend here. I quickly made it my home and have been here 13 years, 10 of which were spent working in estate agents in the town.
We have only two offices in the West Country so we don’t waste time competing with ourselves. With 31 offices in London and over 500 overseas we have a very strong presence in the London market and internationally helping us to feed to our vendors’ properties an impressive array of buyers with a particularly keen interest in the South Hams. Our focus is across the full range of prices – we don’t just focus on value but are also particularly good at selling properties that are unique or unusual – from a tiny pretty cottage to a substantial coastal mansion.
Our ability to sell quickly at a good price is more often than not due to how we market and present a property. We take great care in producing quality brochures for every property using the best photography we can.
We get 1m visits to our website each year but also heavily market through the Rightmove and Onthemarket web portals. Our very strong brand recognition sees us mentioned 60 times a day in UK press and media.
Unlike many other agents, we can take a wider perspective of the South Hams market – if a property in Salcombe isn’t right for a buyer, it may be so in Dartmouth and vice versa.
What are the prospects for the local market?
The market locally is pretty stable – we don’t see any immediate change in the current trend. Importantly, it remains an investment market with a strong focus on the 2nd home buyer. Consequently, it is dependant on what also happens in the London and Home Counties.
Like other agents, we bemoan the current lack of inventory. I don’t recall having so many buyers ready to act but with too few properties to satisfy their interest. Our skills, experience and strength in marketing means we are better placed than most to sell the right property, quickly and at the right price.
In such a market where there’s not enough stock, it’s imperative that a potential buyer registers their interest and needs with us as early as possible. That way, they’re more likely to be informed about a property that matches their needs sooner and often before it appears on the websites or even a board put up outside.
