Record number of sales being agreed

One of the regions most recognised estate agents, Nock Deighton, is seeing records being broken throughout 2020. Having been established in 1831 the brand has certainly seen many different markets and crises over the past 190 years however since the firms recent expansion into new territories and with new offerings and branding the challenges are now multiplied. The company reports that is nearly all metrics are up, whether it is the number of viewings, appraisals or sales that are being agreed there is significant jump.

Estate Agents have had to carefully consider their approach to the challenges that 2020 has thrown at them. Ross D’Aniello, Nock Deighton’s Sales Director states “We have seven very different offices facing seven very different challenges. From market towns to bustle urban centres each office has its own specific needs and wants, and we’ve had to carefully strategize our approach to each one.”

Property portal Rightmove have reported that whilst prices on the portal for the West Midlands have marginally dropped in the last month by 0.4%, they have in fact gone up 7.3% over the full year. Ross continues: “The beginning of 2020 was set to be a fantastic year for the sector, that was until March when everything ground to a halt. The pent-up demand that the housing market experienced over the previous years plus the first lockdown has created a huge back up. The market has seen a tsunami of activity and it has barely let up since, despite the second lockdown. Currently we are progressing sales on a breath-taking £110m of property, the highest in the firm’s history.”

Whilst activity is high there are still issues to be aware of that may affect the outcome of individual sales. Ross warns, “with the Stamp Duty Holiday ending in March there is a race to the finish line for transactions. Solicitors are seeing their workloads grow to extraordinary levels and this is not slowing down. Getting sales completed will be the main challenge and our specialist sales progression team are fully focussed on helping where they can. Another thing to be conscious of is actually moving house, make sure you’ve appointed a removals firm early and stick to your completion dates as slots will be booked up quickly.”

There have been several petitions requesting that The Chancellor reconsiders the end to the stamp duty holiday in the hope that it will be phased out rather than come to an abrupt end on the 31^st March.