The London Barometer January 2015
January 2015 / Sales
Market Comment
“ At the end of 2014 it would appear vendors have blinked first in the ongoing stand-off with buyers which had stalled the market since late spring. As a result more offers were agreed than the same time last year despite a 20% reduction in applicants compared to 12 months ago.
“ Pragmatic purchasers seized the opportunity to secure good value for money and interestingly fall throughs were at a
12 month low.
“ As a direct impact of stamp duty reforms almost all enquiries received from buyers since the Autumn Statement have been below the £950,000 threshold implying that the top end of the market could stay quiet until political uncertainty recedes.
“ For the first time in recent years, the increase in growth of rental values has matched that of sales reinforcing buy to let as a financially viable investment.”
George Franks, Sales Director
January 2015 / Lettings
Market Comment
“Nearly double the number of new applicants were registered in December compared to twelve months ago, showing the rental market is very healthy. As we go into an election year, generally people are inclined to put off major decisions until after the election so renting rather than buying for the time being is probably on the agenda for a large majority.
“The number of properties we were instructed to re-let was twice as many compared to the same month last year, this is largely due to the fact that this time last year significant numbers of landlords were opting to sell up and cash in at
a time many considered to be the “peak” of the market, whereas landlords are now electing to hold onto their investment properties.
“We have had six months of consecutive growth in the size of our currently let property portfolio, which demonstrates that the lettings market grew consistently during the second half of last year, counterbalancing what was happening in sales.
“Against this backdrop of a fairly volatile sales market, we believe that the rental market next year will be stable but with concerns over real wage growth our forecast is that rents in D&G Land as a whole will increase by a nominal 1% or 2%.”
Virginia Skilbeck, Lettings Direct
or
