As always can be said of the London property market, a lot can change in a very short time. This is certainly true of the events playing out this month and indeed this week with the ‘certain’ announcement of the extension of the stamp duty holiday until the end of June 2021. In true journalistic style it was printed as fact when actually only the Chancellor can deliver that message in today’s budget. A week will seem like a long time for all of us trying to navigate transactions which are working towards the March 31st deadline currently.
The stamp duty holiday has certainly shaped much of the market over the last few months, and focused minds into securing a property in time to take advantage of the additional saving. It has been a very busy start to the year with four active clients all keen to find and secure before the end of March. Combined with the number of buyers looking against average stock levels we have seen for some competitive bidding. In the last week I have heard of three best and final bids, all of which had the under bidder or unsuccessful party, bidding again after the deadline with substantially increased offers only to be told the vendors had accepted the offer and that was final. This demonstrates two things – that good stock is scarce and sometimes it takes a buyer to lose out on a property to realise how good it was – that’s human nature- we want what we suddenly can’t have. The second aspect shows that we are in a nervous marketplace and vendors (with advice from their agents) are likely to stick with a reliable and well considered offer rather take a chance on a higher offer from knee jerk, emotionally driven reaction.
Our advice to buyers is make sure you have everything ready to ensure your offer is received in the most positive light.
We will make sure that you have briefed your solicitor and have funds with them ready to apply for the searches, have the Anti Money Laundering processed and have a surveyor ready to go. We would have already ensured you have a mortgage in principle.
Time and time again we see our clients being successful in securing the property because we have done all of these background checks before we find a property. This allows us to present our clients as hugely credible when we are making offers on their behalf.
If there are any questions you have about the current market or our thoughts and projections for the coming year ahead, we would be delighted to help.
James MacLeod – jmacleod@jmchase.co.uk – 07766 700426
Emma Hanks – ehanks@jmchase.co.uk – 07801 232544
