Simon Roberts
Senior Director, Head of Regional Agency - South & East
It has already been a year since the Roberts Newby Strutt & Parker merger and what a year!
From my own personal perspective, this marriage has surpassed expectation and has genuinely extended our family and the resources we have available to ensure that we can now reach a much wider network of buyers and tenants, with total commitment to unparalleled client care and delivering value and the best results for our clients.
As the summer holiday period comes to an end and the children go back to school there is still much to consider with many headlines being centred around Brexit and the political spectrum. Although our offices in the home-counties, including Gerrards Cross, have experienced a drop in activity, partly due of course to the holidays, transactions are still relatively level proving that life still goes on post Brexit. So far 8.5% of our sales have been affected in some shape or form, although only very few have fallen through altogether. The fact remains that stock levels remain low and demand is still out-weighing supply to the extent that if a sensibly priced property comes onto the market, particularly in the price bands up to £1.5m, it is selling. A number of lenders have already cut their rates and according to our colleagues at Private Finance, we are now experiencing some incredibly competitive mortgage rates.
The Halifax and Nationwide have recently confirmed that their data, post the EU Referendum, shows that house prices continue to increase albeit at a slower rate but still many times above inflation.
Interestingly, I read recently that over half a million people have opened Help to Buy Individual Savings Accounts (HTB ISAs) since their launch in December. These accounts enable first time buyers to save in a tax efficient way and if the proceeds are used to buy a house the government adds 25% to the total. This is encouraging and proves that we are very much a nation of home owners.
Even the most optimistic estate agent realises that the full effect of the EU referendum is uncertain, however, it could certainly be argued that with homeowners’ expectations perhaps a little more realistic and the potential of mortgage rates becoming even lower, many of us in the property market could look back on this period as an excellent time to buy.
Of course our team is highly experienced at managing people’s moving plans and shall be only too pleased to discuss, in confidence, the best way forward in your circumstances and whilst we have seen the longest day of the year, the summer evenings are still light and provide an extended opportunity to view properties.