Why are there so few houses for sale?

Why are there so few houses for sale?

• 42% drop in the number of properties for sale in Maghull in the last 12 months.

• 111 homes have sold (STC) in Maghull in the last three months alone, taking the time from the FOR SALE board going up to being sale agreed to an average of 58 days.

• The £300k to £400k price range in Maghull is the most active, where it takes 29 days agree a sale, but the £200k to £300k is taking 70 days.

• What is driving people to want to move home, and what can homeowners who want to move in 2022 do to ensure they sell and find the home of their dreams?

At the time of writing there were 95 properties for sale in Maghull - roll the clock back exactly a year, and the figure was 164 - that’s a drop of 42%.

It’s left many prospective home buyers stressing about their move. We all know someone looking for their next home but struggling to find it – by the time the ideal property pops up on Rightmove it’s gone within days.

With demand at an all-time high and prices being driven up and up, some hopeful movers are being forced to review their plans, but it needn’t be that way.

Is this 2007 all over again?

Usually when there has been excess demand in the residential sales market it gets offset by people moving into rented accommodation. However, the number of properties in the Maghull area available to rent is also at a 15-year low.

Demand for homes has exceeded the number of properties for sale since the General Election in December 2019. After years of long drawn out Brexit negotiations, homeowners and buyers were more confident about their move. Many people who put their home move on hold in 2018 / 19 had more confidence to return to the market.

After the dust settled on the first lockdown in 2020 it seemed it had done little to quell this pent-up urge, and since the late spring of 2020 the property market in Maghull has been on fire. The lockdown changed living habits and what most of us are looking for in our homes. Proximity to public transport has dropped down the wish list and demand for apartments has dropped, whilst properties with larger gardens and rooms that could double up as home offices tended to be at the top of most buyers' wish lists.

Around 36% more properties in the Maghull area have sold in the last 18 months than the long-term 20-year average.

In the last five years an average of 204,410 new homes per year have been added to the number of properties available in the UK.

239,600 properties came back into the market when they became available after their owners had sadly passed away. But with a growing population that still isn't enough - the country needs at least 300,000 new houses to keep pace with demand.

Another problem that has come to light is the cladding issue of apartment blocks. Just over three-quarters of a million apartments have issues with cladding. Whilst these are being rectified (which will take many years), they are essentially unsaleable unless a fire safety expert on these buildings signs them as safe.

These cladding issues prevent these apartments from coming onto the market (reducing the supply of properties to buy). It also precludes their owners from moving up the property ladder from their apartment to a house. But crucially, many first-time buyers who can save a bigger deposit or be gifted cash from the Bank of Mum and Dad are skipping the apartment as their first home and going straight for a house - increasing the demand at the lower end of the market.

So, how long does it take to sell a property right now?

Apartments – 76 days

Terraced/Town House – 21 days

Semi-Detached – 61 days

Detached – 76 days

AVERAGE TIME FROM PROPERTY LISTED TO SALE AGREED IN MAGHULL & LYDIATE

This means it’s a seller’s market, enabling sellers to push up their asking prices in high demand areas. But what is important to remember is that most sellers are also buyers, which means the advantage they have on selling their property is turned on its head when they come to buy.

Many sellers prefer to find their future home before putting their current home on the market, but this makes the lack of properties on the market seem worse than it really is and could be eased if prospective sellers put their property onto the market whilst they were hunting for their next ‘forever home’, or even before, just to make sure that they’re ready to move quickly in a competitive market.

Not all homeowners are do this, partially because they (wrongly) believe they will be get stuck and lose their buyer if they haven’t got their next home lined up and ready to move into to.

We very much have a chicken and egg situation. Some homeowners are waiting for the right property to come onto the market before they put their home on the market. But the demand from buyers means that some properties are matched and sold before we’ve even had a chance to take the photos and list on the portals.

So, what do you do first?

There is another way of doing things. It's a technique estate agents used to use before the internet, and it's called 'chain building’ – and we love it.

It means that we’re able to really put some effort in to helping find the right buyer AND the right house for each seller. It’s a win win.

Many homeowners are contacting us wanting to move home yet don't want to put their property on the market until they’ve found their dream home – so what we do is slowly build a group of people in a chain over many months. It requires a lot of patience to build a chain downwards and upwards around you.

There is no cost to this and no legal commitment to go through. It can sometimes be quick, but can often take six, even twelve months to build a chain of people who are prepared to wait for the right chain to form.

It means that you’re more likely to get your next 'forever home'.

If you don’t play the long game and build relationships with local estate agents and only rely on waiting for properties to appear on Rightmove or Zoopla you will be disappointed again and again.

According to Denton House Research, 7 out of 8 people who viewed a house through an estate agent in 2021 were not on the mailing list of that agent before they viewed it.

That means all these properties that sold in Maghull that were built on a chain will sell without appearing on Rightmove or Zoopla, and you could miss out.

It’s so important to get yourself on our mailing list at North Wall (and other agents if they do this chain building) so you don’t miss out on your next forever home in Maghull. Call the office and speak with the team to tell them what you’re looking for and we’ll make sure any you get the details of any properties that meet your requirements.

If you would like a chat about anything mentioned in this article, feel free to drop me a message or call me.