What is a ‘normal’ property market?
Most experienced estate agents will tell you that if we were given a pound for every time we heard the phrase “my house will sell quickly” we would have all retired. The misconception about speed of sale is either based on the last time that person moved or just biased speculation because they have a nice house. Presented well and marketed at the right price, it’s true that a quick sale is always possible but can’t be guaranteed, even by the most enthusiastic agent. The reality of the UK housing market, is that it’s rarely consistent and can change overnight, often taking 3 months for the public to realise it.
Once out of the last recession, local property values rose considerably for 3 or 4 years, so people had confidence and moved. The Brexit vote back in 2016 dented that confidence and made 2017 a difficult year. With the omens for 2018 not great, out of the blue, buyers and sellers got together in big numbers from January, right up to this summer. Now here we are again in the autumn of 2018, being bombarded daily with an uncertain Brexit, contributing to a general malaise in the housing market. It must be said that we’re still selling houses, but predicting 2019 is nothing but guesswork and quite frankly we won’t know until the time comes.
The point is, the UK housing market rises and falls at different speeds, creating the peaks and troughs in different regions, causing joy or anguish in different towns and rarely performs exactly as predicted.
So in our view, an ‘inconsistent’ market is a ‘normal’ market.
