Sales Market Update - January 2023
First and foremost, we do hope that you had a wonderful Christmas, and we wish you all the best for a happy and healthy 2023!
The past twelve months has, once again, proved how resilient the property market is here in the UK, where the majority of people like to own their own home, particularly here in South-West Wales, an area which is still in the top places to live in Wales. Whilst we have had to endure too many changes and, many would agree, crass financial decisions from our government leading to increased mortgage interest rates – in general terms many people are still committed to moving and realising their moving plans.
Our experience is that home-sellers and buyers are taking a step back and adjusting to what many are calling the new “normal”. The normalising of the property market was bound to happen at some point as we could not expect the historically extremely low interest rates to last forever and, so, in 2023 the expectation is that mortgage interest rates will stabilise at circa 5-6% with fixed rate 5-year plans already coming in at lower than 5%. In real terms, we do tend to fair better here in the Southwest as it is still a “go to” area for many- given the perfect balance of urban, rural and coastal lifestyle, which so many are now seeking!
In terms of house prices, we do not see the larger price falls that some press reports suggest. We choose to listen to commentators like Roger Martin-Fagg, a Behavioural Economist who is more often than not very accurate with his forecasts and who predicts price adjustments of around 5–7%. In this regard, we should remember that since the start of the pandemic house prices in this area have increased by circa 20% and so we are, therefore, still in a positive position. Swansea has recorded the strongest house price inflation in Wales in 2022 and the third biggest increase in the UK! We should also remember that even if we are selling at 5% less – we should almost certainly be buying at 5% less too!
In terms of transaction numbers, yes, we can expect fewer sales in 2023 and that, again, is no surprise. This takes us back to pre-pandemic levels of around 95,000 transactions per month in the UK, so around 1.1 million annually – this will be down from around 1.3 million.
It is worth adding here that a less frantic market will almost certainly lead to a less stressful move for all concerned so, whilst it may take a little longer to sell, the process should be a little more “relaxed”.
Selling your home and helping you move
Our focus here at Dawsons is to ensure that we maximise the opportunities in the New Year market to help home-sellers realise their moving plans and we have already started! You may realise that traditionally “Boxing Day” is the busiest day of the year for property searches and 2022 was no exception, early reports from all major portals suggest that numbers are up on the previous year. We also have a number of “Market Ready” properties, this is where we have the full advert prepared but not yet “live”, this is due to continued demand and low levels of properties available.
We have opted in for enhanced marketing with “OnTheMarket”, one of Britain’s leading portals to ensure that your home is prominent on the site with Spotlight Property and Premium Listings. Likewise, with our other chosen portal “Zoopla”, in 2023 we will ensure that there are plenty of eyes on our property listings.
We have won year on year numerous awards and continue to be recognised and awarded for our success, further validated this year at the EA Masters Best Estate Agency Guide where for both sales and Lettings we were awarded in the top 0.2% of Estate Agents throughout the UK, based on results, marketing and customer satisfaction of over 25,000 estate agency branches.
We are proud of our independent status that allows us the ability to react quickly to changes in market conditions when others cannot. We continue to promote heavily on all social media channels and have a robust digital marketing plan that reached over 40,000 people just in the last quarter of 2022 alone. This is in addition to our own website, with circa 30,000 visitors per month, where we also have our own online instant valuation tool, high quality video tours for properties, professional photography and the ability to request either a viewing or valuation appointment date online. This means that your property is available for enquiries 24 hours a day, 7 days week - so gone are the days of having to wait until the office opened!
We believe in the power of our teams
As well as our prominent marketing, our driving force is our team of people. We believe in the personal touch and knowledge so in-depth that an online agency would struggle to compete with. However, such is our determination to make the whole process as stress-free and transparent as possible, that we’ve united a Sales Progression team. Our dedicated Sales Progression department, a rarity within the industry, means that every sale receives their own personal Sales Progression Manager. Their sole remit is to get your property from sold to completed, constantly mediating with all parties within the chain, as well as surveyors, mortgage lenders and solicitors in order to progress the transaction, pre-empt any potential issues and minimise the likelihood of chain collapse. Through this dedicated approach, we repeatedly maintain fall through rates below the national high street and online agency average, providing quicker turnarounds and avoiding the stress and costs associated with the breakdown of a sale.
If you would like a fresh approach to the selling of your property in the New Year or if you are not yet on the market, we are here ready to get you and your home ready for the early Spring market, we will be pleased to call you or arrange to meet you at a time to suit you.
Contact Cat Sollis (Senior Digital Operations Manager) for further information on 01792 362031 or email cat.sollis@dawsonsproperty.co.uk.
NB: If your house is presently on the open market, please do check your agency agreement to ensure that you are free and able to list your property with another agency and that you are not tied to a contract.