Market Comment (January 2024)
It makes sense to enter the New Year with as much optimism as you can muster, and there are some factors that mean people should look at the London, and UK, housing market with positivity at this time. Hopefully you are now in the groove for this year, but if not, don’t worry, sometimes it just takes a little bit of time to get up to speed!
There will be many exciting opportunities on offer in this year’s housing market, and if you are keen to move in 2024, Trading Places is the Leytonstone agent who helps you make the most informed decision.
Cause for optimism as we start the New Year
If you are looking to sell your home this year, you’ll be heartened to hear about an increase in property prices in Quarter 3 of last year. This was the second successive quarter of growth in London, and across the United Kingdom.
Given this information is taken from analysis which considers house price data from Halifax, Nationwide, Rightmove and the UK House Price Index, you can be confident there is something substantial behind these figures.
This data suggests the average price of property in the UK stood at £306,462 for the third quarter of last year. This represents a 0.1% increase on the second quarter of the year. However, if you consider annual changes, Q3 of 2023 fell by 1.6% compared to the third quarter of 2022.
In the capital, the average price of property in Q3 of 2023 stood at £569,566 and this also represents an increase of 0.1% compared to Q2. Like the national market, the average price in London fell in comparison with Q3 of 2022.
Rightmove suggests house prices are rising in January
Whenever you look at prices in the housing market, you often have to jump between the official figures, which lag a few months behind, and snapshots from leading organisations, which represent what happens now, but might not be the full story.
The Q3 figures for 2023 give cause for optimism, but so do the latest figures from Rightmove, and they say the increase in property prices from December 2023 to January 2024 are the largest in four years.
The leading property portal says the average price of homes entering the market stands at £359,748, which is an increase of £4,751. This equates to an increase of 1.3%.
Rightmove’s Tim Bannister explains: “After a stop-start market in 2023, the initial signs suggest a smoother year for movers in 2024. More new sellers are now entering the market with more confident pricing. While the increased level of buyer activity that we’re also seeing may justify some of this increased pricing confidence from sellers, it’s important that sellers who are keen to find a buyer don’t get carried away with New Year enthusiasm when setting their price expectations. Elevated mortgage rates and the wider cost-of-living squeeze are still limiting buyers’ spending power. Accurate and realistic pricing for their local area is the recipe for success for sellers looking to get moving in 2024, and it’s been proven that over-optimistic pricing makes a move much less likely.”
Is a fixer-upper worth the time, effort and money?
In our daydreams, we all think about how brilliant it would be to find a home that needs some TLC, and then fix it up. This home could then be sold for a large profit, or become the family home for generations to come. For many people, finding a bargain and doing some work is the best route to finding a home they love, or a place to stay in their preferred location, but is this a viable dream?
A new study by Yopa focuses on close to 42,000 properties across the UK, which they class as ‘unmodernised’. The average asking price for these homes stands at £313,835, and this represents a saving of 6.2%, or £20,632, in comparison with modernised homes, with their price standing at £334,467.
If you don’t have time or skills to do the work yourself, you need to consider the cost of hiring professionals to carry out the work. It’s clear that the state of the home, and the availability of the buyer shape the overall value of each project, but this is an area many people will consider this year.
It is also something for homeowners looking to sell should bear in mind. If your home is in poor condition, you can spend the time and money to upgrade it yourself, or you might find it is better to go to market, and find buyers looking for this sort of opportunity. Depending on what your next move is, a quick sale might be more appealing than renovation work that eventually nets a higher sales price. Whatever you decide to do, we are well placed to help you sell your home.
Verona Frankish, the CEO of Yopa, said: “Buying a fixer-upper is a great way of saving money on the initial property purchase, but is also in many ways a lifestyle commitment - are you prepared to spend all of that time renovating the home before you can properly enjoy it? If you are, fixer-uppers present a blank canvas from which you can create your ideal home while also adding great value to the property. But with the price of many building materials now significantly higher than they were just a year ago, this work will cost more than it used to. Therefore, buyers need to be sure that they have fully considered the cost and time required to tackle a fixer-upper before they commit to a purchase.”
If you would like to learn more about Leytonstone, what the area has to offer, and how to achieve your goals in the local property market, we can help. To arrange an appointment, call us on 020 8558 1147 or send us an email at info@tradingplacesproperty.com
You will find Trading Places Estate and Letting Agents at 46 Church Lane, Leytonstone, London, E11 1HE; and we look forward to assisting you.
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