Property market springs back to life

Over the last six months the market appeared to settle down after the post-pandemic madness when properties were literally ‘flying off the shelf’.

With concerns about rising interest rates and looming war in Europe, buyers were being more cautious and sellers were holding off putting properties on the market.

However, the last few weeks have seen a change in attitude with sellers keen to get on the market as soon as possible and buyers queuing to view. In a four-week period we launched six very different properties ranging from a 135-acre former dairy farm to a two-bedroom cottage.

Whilst the properties are all very different, the reaction from the market is the same – excited.

A four-acre smallholding in need of renovation attracted two serious potential buyers, sold and ready to go, within two hours of being launched onto the market.

Two of the properties are from deceased estates where there are either multiple beneficiaries or where the sole beneficiary doesn’t want to inhabit the house.

One property belongs to a widow who is looking to downsize and move into town and other drivers include upsizing and relocation and there is also still a strong appetite for a move to the country to embrace the ‘good life’.

What is very clear is that both buyers and sellers are looking for clear, honest and professional advice and there seems to be a move away from internet-based estate agents who merely host your property on their website.

The increase in our telephone traffic is considerable with buyers wanting to discuss properties with a human being. Perhaps, even in our ever-increasing technological world where we can ‘virtually view’ a property on our phone whilst enjoying the first cuppa of the day, the property market is returning to the old-fashioned value of ‘people buy from people’.

From my perspective, this can only be a good thing.

Annabel Fearnall MNAEA is a partner with Barbers Rural and heads up it estate agency division