Has apathy has hit the Grantham housing market as sellers await the outcome of the general
election and stricter mortgage regulation suppresses buyer demand?
Rightmove reported the number of homes registered for sale per estate agent
fell to its lowest level for five years in December, with available stock 10% lower
than in the same month a year earlier.
Looking at Grantham, in the early summer of 2014, each estate
agent in Grantham had on average 34.3 properties on its books (as there were a
total of 584 properties up for sale in Grantham at the peak in the early summer
just gone). Our research shows that number plummeted to 26.4 per agent in
December. While the lack of new
properties coming onto the market in the later months of 2014 in Grantham
pushed asking prices up slightly from November to December, traditionally a
quiet season for the housing market, property sellers will need to work hard in
2015 to complete a sale.
The length of time a property takes to sell has ever so
slightly increased over the last few months. Two bedroom properties in Grantham
are now taking 62 days to sell, three bedroom 78 days, four bedrooms 94 days, but here an interesting figure, one beds
are taking on average 26 days to find a buyer
2015 will be the year of the selective mover. With only 166 brand new properties a year
being built in Grantham since the turn of the Millennium, this woefully low and
insufficient number of new buildings in the town over the past few decades and
a systemic change in the type of properties homeowners want (with families
splitting etc so we have too many larger houses and not enough smaller ones),
buyers are becoming dissatisfied with, and therefore dismissive of what is up
for sale.
The heat has gone out of the Grantham property market and I
anticipate a moderate reduction from the high transaction volumes seen in 2014,
but it most certainly isn’t icy cold.
That might mean Grantham landlords could
bag a bargain during this period of uncertainty, especially if the financial
markets do not like the election outcome. Markets and buyers do not like
uncertainty, but savvy Buy to let landlords know buy to let is a long term
game, and irrespective of short term apathy, reduction in the quality and quantity
of stock for homeowners to buy or the
election, if people don’t buy property they rent. The Council aren’t building anymore
properties, the council house waiting list is decades, not years for the better
type of property .. the only other place to get a roof over your head .. rent a
property! Good old Bricks and Mortar! In
fact with less properties coming on the market in Grantham, that will keep
prices quite stable.
