With the snow and disruption caused by the Beast from the East, you may be putting off listing your home on the market until the spring, traditionally when the housing market gets a boost in activity after the winter. However, it is worth noting that lots of people spend the winter months looking at property listings online.
In fact, Rightmove recently shared figures showing that the online property listings site has had it’s busiest couple of months ever since the turn of the new year, with house-hunting visitors to the site reaching a huge 141million in January 2018.
Not only are increasing numbers of people searching for new property on Rightmove but there are more sellers listing their homes to buy online too, with the number of properties coming onto market up by 2% on last year’s figures.
However, the picture across the country is still one of demand outstripping supply in most places, leading to slight but steady increases in house prices. Again Rightmove reports that prices of property coming to market are up by an average of 0.8% (+£2,414), indicating the climate is in favour of those looking to sell. They also report that the year-on-year change in number of sales agreed has made a slight recovery from -5.5% in Q4 2017 to just -1.6% in January 2018.
At Nicol, we agree that this can be a great time of year to get organised and put your property on the market. Winter is a quieter time for social activities for many, with more time spent indoors on our laptops and tablet devices during the dark nights and poorer weather. New Year is also a time when people start making plans for the year ahead, including any plans to sell up and move to a new home. In addition, with good interest rates and mortgage deals on the market, many people are looking to get a first step on the property ladder or make a move to upgrade.
In East Renfrewshire we have had a busy start to the year at our Nicol offices, with many sales and lets agreed for great prices and with short periods on the market. We have been busy in both our Clarkston and Newton Mearns offices taking enquiries from many people actively looking to buy in the area, with the current issue being lack of available stock struggling to match demand.
We urge people to seize the opportunity this seller’s market presents and start putting the plans in motion to get your property listed sooner rather than later as we head into March and the beginning of spring looms, with more seller activity expected as the season changes. Get in touch today to ensure you are ahead of the game and make your 2018 property dreams a reality!