Choosing to start a new estate agency in any period of time could be classed as brave – or foolhardy, but there is some method in our madness and we thought we’d explain why in this first blog post.
We all know what has happened in the past 18 months to 2 years. The world was gripped by Coronavirus and the UK, along with countless others, went into various degrees of “lockdown”.
Someone looking objectively at the economics of the situation would probably have issued dire warnings for the property market, but, in fact, it blossomed.
Why?
Because so many companies put staff on furlough and because so many schools set remote learning for pupils, the home, for many, became a crowded house. If you’re expected to work remotely, if not on furlough, a kitchen or dining room table is not ideal for you and your children to perch on.
Many then made the decision to extend or move and because there is a shortage of housing with 3, 4 or 5 bedrooms, ones that did come on the market didn’t hang around for long. It was exactly the same here in Burton. We’ve seen properties land online and sell within hours or days.
People wanted to upsize.
They needed an extra reception room, an additional bedroom or a loft to make the home work-friendly.
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, implemented a Stamp Duty Land Tax “holiday” and this fanned the flames of demand even more. There are signs now that the heated property market is cooling, but we anticipate that property sales will remain brisk, without the SDLT break, as many are still WFH and interest rates are at historic lows.
Burton property has followed this national pattern. Let’s look at DE13.
There were 900 sales in the past 12 months and there are currently 237 properties for sale in and around Burton. The price range is vast – you can pay from £70,000 for a modest flat to £950,000 for an executive home, with all price points in between.
The average sold price this year for Burton sits at £260,000, a huge increase on previous years.
What’s interesting though, at least to us, is that the £260,000 dwarfs historical data from Rightmove:
Properties around Burton-on-Trent Station had an overall average price of £95,929 over the last year. The majority of sales around Burton-on-Trent Station during the last year were terraced properties, selling for an average price of £98,167. Flats sold for an average of £85,000, with semi-detached properties fetching £103,500.
Rightmove
This shows that most buyers wanted to pay higher prices for bigger properties in Burton, we think?
In our next blog post, we will look at the various areas of Burton and their property performance.
If you’d like your home valued, contact one of our team today.
