Saturday 1st October not only saw records broken with the soaring temperature but also with the figures achieved at our latest Open House Day.

Whilst the country bathed in glorious sun the buyers flocked in their hundreds to see all of the 825 houses that opened their doors. The day was a huge success with a total of £50m worth of offers received so far and still more coming in daily.

All of the firm's offices took part in the event with a total of 1,924 viewings carried out throughout the day. A superb 62 offers have been received so far as a result of the day and of those 34 have already gone under offer. With more offers still coming in this number is expected to increase significantly too.

These figures are remarkably similar to those achieved at the same event back in March. Michael Fiddes, Head of Agency at Strutt & Parker observes: "this is an encouraging indication of the market; how despite the doom and gloom portrayed in the press, these results show there are serious buyers out there and deals are being done even if confidence is shaky."

The event is clearly very popular for both buyers and sellers. As a result of the advertising for the day a total of 58 new properties were brought to the market as they felt compelled to be part of the initiative. Buyers still seem to really enjoy the informal set up of the day and the flexibility it offers. In a time when it is often very hard for people, especially families to gather together to view houses, this event offers a unique opportunity to do so.

Fiddes admitted: "we feared the stunning weather would keep people away but we were not beaten by the BBQ! The day was not outshone and in fact it all made for a rather fun and lively atmosphere." The concept was not a new one for the firm, but this was the first time in its history that it was a national event with all the offices from the southwest of England to the north of Scotland all participating.

The appeal of the day can be seen most clearly by the significant number of houses that actually went under offer just prior to the event, as buyers were so concerned about the level of competition they would be up against if the house participated! They did not want hordes of people looking around what they had already hoped would be their dream home. The record number of viewings for one property was in Shrewsbury where one house had an astonishing 50 visitors during the day. The owners were understandably delighted. Not many houses achieve these numbers of viewing during a normal sales campaign, let alone all in one day!

The results so far clearly show that there is activity in the market across the country. There is no doubt that conditions are tough but it is perhaps therefore even more pertinent to think of these new innovative campaigns to help stimulate things and to make the whole sales process more attractive.