On a weekly basis I scroll through Rightmove and Onthemarket to get a sense of what is going on!
This week I searched 10 miles
from Itchen Abbas (Nr Winchester) and for everything in-excess of £1.5m. My search brought up 90 properties as either for sale or under offer. Of the ninety, 48 are under offer. Of the 42 available there are a couple of commercial opportunities and a few old chestnuts that have been sitting around for some time. A few more are ones that have been under offer and others that instinctively are too much money.
That said there are some that are currently under offer that I am surprised about and maybe they have accepted a lower offer, but it does show a resilience to the market, despite the turbulence over the last couple of months.
This information slightly flies in the face of what one would expect as be come off the Truss disaster and recession announcements.
Instinct is that sellers would batten down the hatches and wait until things settle down, possibly in late February/March. Hopefully conveniently coinciding with the appearance of the daffodils. Buyers would most likely do the same and wait for the market to fall before doing anything.
The above data (and my own book of clients) tells me that there are still good buyers around who are prepared to pay a good price for the right house. Yes, we can talk about the market falling about 10%, but this will not stop a buyer paying a bit extra to secure the right house.
This time of year, with the dankness in the air, is a great time for a few quiet off market sales. It is not the time for external photographs and a glossy brochure, but charm can be seen with the log fire and Christmas lights shining brightly.
We have some good “cash buying”, time flexible clients looking and would welcome a confidential chat with anyone interested in securing an off-market sale.
