Housing Market Update – February 2021
The first two months of 2021 have seen strong demand and shrinking supply, which has impacted the rise in house prices and the availability of commercial and rental properties. We expect to see exceptionally high numbers of completions during March, and with the potential stamp duty holiday being extended until the end of June 2021 the market is bound to thrive.
All parts of our business have performed strongly and the outlook for the year remains positive. Here is a little breakdown of each main section of our business:
Sales
We have seen another really strong month, our buyer demand is up 17% from this time last year and house prices have remained robust. The impact of Covid-19 and the stamp duty holiday have accelerated customers decisions to move, particularly relocating from busy city centres to more rural spaces. The rise of buyers means that property listings haven’t managed to keep up with the rate at which properties have been selling, shrinking the level of supply. People searching for more internal space and being close to the sea is outstripping the possible stamp duty saving. We expect the demand to continue coming in and movement still to continue as more people start to come out of lockdown and vaccination levels increase.
Lettings
The lettings market is booming, we are seeing demand from applicants up by 400%. Supply is short on the rental market meaning that there has been upward pressure on pricing. The relocation of applicants, the same as the sales market, has occurred and this is putting pressure on the supply. During February we let a number of properties and achieved an average of between 5% and 8% more on prices than this time last year*. What was noticeable is that every time a property comes to the market we are flooded with enquiries and do block viewings for practically everything. For more information on the lettings market, read our recent blog ‘A positive outlook for 2021’.
Commercial
The department is pleased to report on an extremely busy and proactive first few months of 2021. Whilst transactions are certainly taking longer to conclude than usual due to the Covid-19 pandemic, transactional levels have been constant and consistent with both lettings and sales deals being agreed and completed across most property sectors (Industrial, Retail, Investment, Health, and Land). The office market has suffered greatly due to the pandemic but with recent news of the vaccine enquiry levels are slowly returning and a small handful of deals concluded.
New Homes
Demand for New Homes across all of our developments since the start of the year has far exceeded even our most optimistic expectations with buyers coming from all over the country to secure a new apartment along the South Coast. We launched Roffey Homes latest development, Tate Residences, located at the entrance to Sussex Cricket ground on Boxing Day and have already secured sales on over 70% of the development without construction even beginning. Roffey’s other landmark development, Bayside Apartments has also seen us achieve our 100th sale since the start of the year with eager buyers anticipating moving into their new apartments in early March. Along with this, we are just about to launch a 21 apartment scheme in South Street, located in the heart of Worthing town centre, and with Help To Buy in place, we are expecting unprecedented demand for these stylish new homes too.
We are open but safe.
We’re still here to help you with any property needs and/or questions that you have. Contact our friendly team today.
*Source – Office For National Statistics.
Content accurate at time of publishing.
