Hi and welcome once again to the Hannells Derby Market Pulse – a short video where I’ll be giving you a brief run-down of what’s been happening in the local market and beyond.
My name is Benjamin Brain and as usual, I’d like to thank you for choosing Hannells to help you with the sale or purchase of your property. This month, I’ve got some interesting statistics, important information for anyone that’s thinking of buying and selling and a HUGE announcement from the team here at Hannells – so stay tuned.
October has been another very busy month here at Hannells with activity levels surpassing all expectations. With talk across many regions of a market “cool-down”, we were delighted to see that Derby is still performing strongly and we anticipate that this will continue to the end of the year and beyond. We had our third best month of the year for sales which is great news once again for local buyers and sellers, especially considering the time of year.
We had a total of 635 newly registered buyers across our six branch network and a 10% increase in offers during October which shows that demand out there is still very strong. In particular, we saw a 20% increase in investors looking for buy to let properties and renovations. An interesting figure with all the talk of interest rate rises in 2015, but more on that in a moment.
The national average asking price has dropped for the first time in six months but only minutely with a reduction of .2%. As a result, the average asking price across England and wales now stands at £177,299. London and the South has made a large impact on this drop with prices in the City starting to slow down. Prices in London are up almost 20 per cent on 2013, so it was bound to happen.
However, even though average prices in the Midlands are still 11% below where they were at the peak of the market in 2007, the central regions continue to be strong performers. This includes the East Midlands, East Anglia, the South East and the South West all leading the way. According to the latest land registry stats, the city of Derby has again seen growth of .2% with the average asking price in the city now being £110,125.
In more positive news, the latest figures released show that during the months of March 2014 to July 2014, there were an average of just under 76,000 transactions per month. That’s a 20% increase on the same period for 2013 where average transactions were at just over 64,000. This has been helped largely by a record number of mortgages that were released in August as Lenders introduced over 1,000 new products to compete for business and attract more customers.
It was recently announced that the average age of a first time buyer in the UK is 29 years which caused some interesting headlines. However, when you bear in mind that with the recession over the last six years, it just wasn’t right for first time buyers – it is to be expected that there will be many more older first time buyers, going right into their 30’s and beyond and we should see this come down over time.
In the previous edition of the Derby Market Pulse, we talked about the potential interest rate rises in 2015 and what impact that would have on the property market. You’ll be pleased to know that since that last update, there seems to be a general consensus amongst industry experts that this incremental rise is going to be pushed back and we may not see any rises until after the election in May 2015. David Cameron himself has said that he would like to see rates remain at record lows for as long as possible to allow families to live in the homes they can afford.
Finally, it is with great pleasure that I bring to you the news that Hannells now offer a complete service for lettings and property management. We’ll be bringing the same levels of customer service, presentation and innovation to our lettings department that has helped Hannells to become the agent that helps more people to move in Derby than any other agent. For any enquiries or to arrange a free consultation with our Lettings Director, Andrew Sanderson, email enquiries@hannells.co.uk or get in touch with any of the local Hannells branches.
Well that’s it for this week. I hope that you found this video helpful and if you happen to be thinking of buying or selling and now renting or letting in Derby, don’t let the Winter month’s put you off. The figures we’ve talked about today show that there’s absolutely still a high demand out there for local property and some fantastic homes are being made available on a daily basis.
Once again, thank you for choosing Hannells and all the best with your move. I hope we’ve been able to make it a moving experience….
If you have a property in Derby and you’re thinking of selling, why not arrange your FREE market consultation with Hannells today. Pop in and visit or or view the contact details for all six of our local Derby branches HERE.
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