Charlesons.

Have you been patiently waiting for the end of a long cold winter to finally put your property on the market? Many believe that the arrival of Spring – no matter how late – is one of the best times for selling your home. Spring can definitely feel like it’s time to get things done and giving a kickstart to the house hunting season. When the sun is out, and your front garden is in bloom, it also helps with preparing a property to look its best for creating that vital first impression and encourage potential buyers.

If you are a Redbridge Borough property owner, it’s also recommended to seek the experience and advice of your local estate agent in Redbridge to obtain the latest update on how the market in your particular neighbourhood is performing before making a decision. Most importantly, you need to get a valuation to dispel any unrealistic expectations along with an understanding of the local property market, i.e. what’s been selling or not selling on your street and in the surrounding area.

 

Combination of different factors can strongly influence whether you can sell your property

Timing is always critical and, of course, so is the asking price. However, it’s always likely to be combination of different factors, often market-led, which can strongly influence whether you can sell your property or not at a certain moment. A local estate agent will be in possession of insider knowledge not necessarily reflected in the more general data collected on the big property portals. In other words, a local agent will be more likely to know exactly why individual properties in certain areas fetched a particular price on the day.

You may have already been regularly checking local property prices online, which can appear quite confusing at times. For example, it was reported in March that house prices made their biggest monthly gain since August 2017. The average price of a UK home had risen by 1.5 per cent, and in the three months to March, were 2.7 per cent higher than the previous year.

Fast forward a few weeks – only to read that the UK property market is experiencing its “flattest period in the last five years”, according to the latest report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICs). All the signs show that buyer demand is at its lowest since 2013. One recent survey suggests that house prices in parts of London have dropped by as much as 15 per cent in the last 12 months.

 

Agreement over affordability and performance of London’s outer boroughs

Despite of conflicting data emerging in different areas at different times – and giving rise to shouty headlines about the state of the marketplace nationwide – there is still a general agreement over the affordability, and consequently, the performance of London’s outer boroughs.

As of April 2018, the average London property price is currently around £485,400 compared to the average price for a property in Ilford, for example, which is currently estimated at £436,200 – a rise of 1.53 per cent since January 2018, and a rise of 3.49 per cent since the same period in 2017.

Only six of the 20 outer London boroughs have an average property price that is higher than the inner London average. The UK House Price Index (HPI), which uses house sales data from HM Land Registry shows that the second highest average year-on-year property price of 5.26 per cent is currently found in the London Borough of Redbridge –  the highest rise of 8.05 per cent being for properties in Merton.

 

Sellers can achieve a price consistent with percentage growth

In other words, the property market in Redbridge borough may currently favour both buyer and seller. Those looking for more affordable prices are better served by the outer boroughs, while sellers can achieve a price consistent with steady local percentage growth. The opportunity to boost a property’s selling potential can be greatly improved by many factors, which an experienced local agent can advise during a valuation.

Their professional realistic approach will indicate the best price at the time of placing on the market rather than give false hope by telling you what you think you want to hear. Spring may be a time for optimism, but not for rose-tinted glasses…