Property market watchers, looking for the market to start plateauing have been on high alert for some time. But they don’t have to watch too closely as all the signs are there for anyone to see. The days of putting a property on the market at almost any price, and then exceeding that figure in a market awash with cash buyers desperate to move, are waning. We may never see their like again – or, at least, not for decades. Today’s buyers are a new breed. Rising mortgage interest rates, the increasing cost of living and an uncertain and often unstable world have led to understandable caution.
So, with what sort of new market must we become familiar? There are some interesting patterns emerging. It will become more of a buyers’ market. There will be a wider choice for buyers, who will feel less pressured to make their final choices. Sellers will be deciding whether to capitalize now or wait for the next upward cycle, which could be many years away.
How often have we heard that a property’s three most essential things are location, location, location? Well in this new market those things will become price, price, price. In a market with greater choice attracting a buyer becomes more challenging. There are two ways to overcome this: correct pricing and making your home as buyer-friendly as possible – clean, tidy, decluttered, sweet-smelling and great-looking from the kerb.
Oh, and there is another way to succeed in selling: make sure you have an experienced estate agent who understands how to adapt to changing times and markets, one that has itself been around for decades serving Witney and the surrounding villages.
Martyn Cox and Company
