“A fine balance”

Anyone with an interest in the property market generally understands the influence of supply and demand on house prices. Just like any other “commodity”, if everybody wants something that is in generally short supply, the price tends to rise. In the property sector, the media often describes a rising market good and a falling market as bad.

Indeed, as estate agents, our job is to sell our clients’ property for as much as the market will tolerate and, unlike online estate agency alternatives, we are paid in direct proportion to the price we are able to negotiate. The problem is, prices have risen to such an extent over time that the average house is now well out of reach for the average man (sorry, person) in the street. So maybe, socially speaking, rising prices should be seen as a bad thing (although frankly we know which side our bread is buttered).

However, the supply/demand equilibrium appears to be about to change. According to Rightmove, the number of sales agreed at this time of year is the second highest for ten years, only slightly lower than the high of May 2014. So supply is clearly up and, during this time of relatively stable demand, sure enough there appears to be a corresponding dip about to happen in prices, as Rightmove goes on to report that price of property coming to market has dropped by 0.4% this month (the first fall in June since 2009 at the height of the credit crunch) and the first fall this year.

Fortunately these observations could be regarded as fine-tuning and there are no major corrections about to happen. Nevertheless, it may be that the current levels of political turmoil could possibly persuade marginally more people to sell and fewer to buy, in which case the edge could come off property values – but at least this might just free things up to the extend that anyone sitting on the fence as to whether or not to sell might feel more confident that they will indeed be able to find somewhere else suitable to buy.

Please feel free to contact one of our local property experts on 01926 431431 if you’d like to see where your own property sits in the market. You might be pleasantly surprised!

©Copyright Richard Rawlings 2017 except where excluded under licence.<