Katie Darlow, Director of Number One Real Estate and a member of the Guild of Property Professionals and Relocation Agent Network will be bringing you updates on sales in South Wales and tips on making some great investments this year. 

The recent budget 

The recent budget was welcomed as being pretty boring but it’s exactly what was needed to bring things back to normal and more importantly for us, to keep some stability in the property market. It’s likely we’ll see a 0% change in property prices this year and the 100% investment allowance for the next three years, combined with a competent Government will boost investment.  

Expectations vs reality 

One of the biggest challenges we’re facing as agents currently is the discrepancy between vendor’s expectations and buyers’ actions. Many vendors are stuck at last year’s prices and expectations are high with ideas of multiple viewings and offers coming in. Yet the volume of willing and able buyers this year has substantially decreased due to more choice and more challenging mortgage conditions. Buyers are viewing approximately 5-6 properties before making a decision and many of them are viewing before putting their properties on the market. If we’d had an offer from an unproceedable buyer last year, most agents would have laughed, yet this year that could be your best offer, despite having to wait for them to sell. Remember, your best interest will always be in the first 30 days of marketing. So often, your first offer or offers will be the best and it’s important your agent puts all their effort into the first month of marketing. 

How long will it take for my sale to go through? 

Post covid sales were taking 4-5 months to go through and sometimes longer. This March we have seen an average sale at Number One taking 9.2 weeks from sale agreed to exchange of contracts. This is extremely welcome news and much faster than we have seen for a few years. There are a few things you can do to help speed up your sale.  

1. Instruct your solicitor when you market your property rather than waiting until a sale has been agreed. Many solicitors will send you the welcome pack so that you can fill in your property information forms ready for when you agree a sale. This will typically shave up to 2 weeks off the sale process as your solicitor can send draft contracts out the day they receive the sales memorandum and your buyers solicitor is able to order searches right away.  
2. Reply to any requests for guarantees, enquiries and queries as quickly as possible.
3. Pay for your searches straight away and submit your mortgage application within the first 2 weeks on any onward purchases. 

Rents remain high 

With a huge lack of property available to rent right now, rents are extremely high. At the start of April, buy to let rates were released as low as 3.78% for a 50% loan to value and rates as low as 3.89% with a 25% deposit. Both of these rates were exceptionally low for buy to let deals in the current market with average rates at approximately 4.7%. It seems most buy to lets are carrying fees and buy to let stress testing is difficult but if you can get a good deal, you will reap the rewards in the high rents you’ll receive. 

 If you would like to check the mortgage options available to you, please get in touch and our mortgage broker will check the market for you on the best available deals. 

 If you are interested in a free, up to date valuation on your home or rental portfolio please get in touch and one of our agents will be happy to help. 

Visit: www.numberonerealestate.co.uk  

Email: sales@numberonerealestate 

Instagram: @numberonerealestate