26
Mar
Getting better already?
Whisper it quietly, but there may be accumulating evidence that the
top end of the property market is starting to pick up.
National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) figures out this week
may have made very interesting reading, for the average asking
price at the top (executive) end of the market jumped from
£608,389 in January to £650,220 in February. Over the
same period, the selling price was also up, from £531,896 to
£591,111. All this would appear to suggest a market
recovery.
The same could not be said of less expensive homes, save for the
very bottom end, where two-bedroom flats were up in both asking and
sale prices, plus a small increase in the price fetched by
three-bedroom terraces. Otherwise, the upper end of the market has
bucked the wider trend.
In such a case, those considering purchases of high-end property
may be unwise to look at general average prices. Instead, buying
now before these homes increase further in value may be a very
shrewd move.
Another finding by the NAEA was that the recent jump in buyer
interest across the whole housing market has now started to
translate into a rise in sales, up to eight per agent in February,
the same as 12 months before. President of the body Chris Brown
commented: "The housing market has had a devastating year, but now
prices are lower than they have been for a long time and there are
bargains to be had."
Such news as the NAEA has provided may suggest that the sentiments
expressed by some about the market have been unduly negative.
For others, however, this news may be less surprising. Head of
residential research at property firm Savills Yolande Barnes
recently stated: "We could now be about to enter the latter stages
of house price falls and be on the brink of the first stage in the
recovery process."
Market movement has also been detected by many of those working on
the ground. For example, the Team Association chairman Neil Parsons
recently noticed that the two estate agents and valuers in mid
Norfolk he oversees had seen a surge in viewings over the last
weekend in February and the first in March. These had been the
busiest seen since 2007 and had led to more offers being put in
than at any time in the previous 15 months.
Mr Parsons had been hesitant to suggest these were the "green
shoots" of recovery, the phrase by which government minister
Baroness Vadera recently talked herself into trouble. But now such
a claim could have substance.
So for those keen to buy a high-end property, it seems that the
present could be a very good time to do it. The bottom of the
market may already have passed, although there could be a long way
to go on the upward curve, meaning there are plenty of gains to be
made.
Earlier this month Timothy Lambert, sales and marketing manager at
property investment consultancy Ducalian, said that people should
not wait for signs that the market has bottomed out, as this will
have passed by the time the evidence emerges.
Describing the current situation as an "ideal time [for investors]
to get back involved", he commented: "With low prices and interest
rates at an all time low, now is the best time to buy since the
last property crash in the early 1990s."
It may be that some are already doing just that and catching the
start of a wave of recovery.
