Property news from our CEO: Marcél du Toit
Hello from the other side!
While 2020 so far has been a frightful year to navigate, it has given me more time at home with my family and reinforced again just how important it is to be happy in your home. It seems it’s not just me who’s realised the importance of home; since lockdown has ended we’ve seen a surge in buyers looking to buy new homes. Whether to access more space, better connectivity for remote working, or to just have that extra study – being happy where you live really is very, very important.
“At Leadhome we’re obsessed with using data to get our clients better outcomes when selling, buying, letting or renting a property, and this surge in buyer interest is clearly demonstrated in our data.”
One of the key indicators we look at to assess the attractiveness of selling your property at any given time is the ratio of buyer enquiries we receive against the number of properties we market on behalf of sellers (measured over a rolling 7 day period). The higher the ratio the more buyer interest there is, and it is therefore a better time to put your property on the market; a lower ratio means the opposite. Since lockdown ended on 1 June, buyer interest has skyrocketed, averaging a 90% buyer enquiries to marketed properties ratio, compared to a 62% average in 2019*.
* Another way to think about it, is that for every 1 property we market on behalf of sellers we’ve received 0.9 buyer enquiries every 7 days since level 5 of lockdown ended, compared to 0.6 buyer enquiries in 2019. This is a massive increase in buyer interest!
“This means there has been a whopping 46% increase in buyer activity since level 5 of lockdown ended!”
And pleasingly we have also seen buyers paying on average 96.7% of sellers’ asking price since 1 June, compared to the 2019 average of 96.4%.
Cool data, but what does this all mean?
If you’re considering selling your home, now is a good time to do it. Not only are there more interested buyers (as per our above data), but because of the attractive lending rate, buyers are able to pay a bit more for the property that they love. And whilst the fear around putting your property on the market given Covid-19 is completely justified, there are easy ways in which you can mitigate against the risk of transmission; in fact, we’d love to help you with this.
If you’re considering buying a property, know that you need to bring on your A-game! There is a lot of interest in, and competition for, properties which means that you’ll need to be prepared to pay fair value for that house of your dreams.
In the meantime, I wish you a great month ahead – please stay safe and keep your loved ones close.
Marcél
