A recent House Price Report by the ESPC has suggested that a continuing lack of properties coming to the market for sale is fuelling increased competition amongst buyers who are keen to move or to get onto the property ladder in the East of Scotland.
The ESPC Report shows that, in east central Scotland, there has been an increase of 5% in the past 3 months of properties selling. However, in the same period, the number of homes coming to the market increased by only 2.2%, leading to issues caused by lack of stock. The report concluded that many agents are reporting that there are not enough properties on the market to satisfy buyer demand.
Commenting on this Report, Robert Carroll, Founder of MOV8 Real Estate, Estate Agents and Solicitors, stated:
“Our experience of the Edinburgh and Lothians property market for the past few months has been one of extremely high demand combined with low availability. This is often leading to a feeding frenzy where multiple buyers are bidding on properties, driving prices up and selling prices down.
“High demand and low supply to the market, of course, has the effect of increasing selling prices whilst decreasing selling times. It is not uncommon in the current market conditions for a property to sell within just a few days of coming to the market after the seller has received multiple offers.
“The remarkably strong seller’s market doesn’t seem to be translating into a larger number of sellers having the confidence to get their homes onto the market for sale. It seems that whilst buyers are quite bullish about the current market, sellers are a little more cautious. The lack of availability of homes to buy is also contributing to sellers not wanting to put their own property on the market until they have first found one to buy. With many people feeling the same way, this fuels a bit of a vicious cycle.
“Even in the toughest period for the property market after the Credit Crunch, family homes remained in high demand. However, we are once again seeing very high demand amongst first-time buyers for one and two bedroom flats, with several offers being received at Closing Dates from multiple interested buyers. Areas where there is a high concentration of one and two bedroom properties, such as Gorgie and Dalry as well as Abbeyhill and Meadowbank, are performing very strongly and this is backed-up by the stats in the ESPC Report.”
The effect of this lack of supply is having a clear impact on selling prices and times. The average selling price in east central Scotland between May and July 2017 increased by 6.7% to £238,703 when compared with the same period last year whilst the median selling time in east central Scotland dropped by 20.2% compared to the same three month period a year ago, down from 20 days to 16 days.
Whilst this makes for a challenging market for property buyers, these are conditions that sellers have not seen for several years and, if you’re thinking of selling your home or investment property, it’s a great time to do so.
If you are thinking of selling your property, please do get in touch with us by calling 0345 646 0208 (Option 1) or by emailing [email protected] to organise a free valuation of your home or to get a full, transparent breakdown of the costs of selling your home.
You can also now instantly book a Valuation Appointment by visiting our homepage at www.mov8realestate.com.
Leave a Reply