BREAKING NEWS – top 5 stories 05/03/2021
BUDGET MEANS FULL STEAM AHEAD FOR HOUSING MARKET – IS THAT A GOOD THING?
The Chancellor’s budget with an extension of the SDLT holiday until the end of June, and a further tapering of no SDLT in the 125,000 to 250,000 banding, for a further three-months until September, has created a stampede to do all things property.
The downside is that we have reports, where property developers have had so much interest, that their websites say they can’t at the moment take any new business; and conveyancers are turning new business away, due to staff being on furlough and lockdown 3.0.
By priming the fiscal pulmigator, a Keynesian construct, the chancellor has possibly done more damage than good, as house prices will probably soar, stock levels will be low, and then when furlough ‘ends’ in September we might be get a new cliff edge – rather a nuclear winter.
Where the market stagnates, with thousands of first-time buyers aided by government backed mortgage lending find themselves locked into properties with wafer thin amounts of equity.
EPROPSERVICES ACQUIRES SECOND LARGE WEBSITE AND LEAD GENERATION COMPANY
Backed by Tosca funding, epropservices has just secured ‘The Property Jungle’, a second purchase in a week. This comes hot on the heels of Reapit the large CRM business also acquiring ‘Agentpoint PTY Limited, the largest provider of real estate agency websites and lead generation technology in Australia’.
The significance of this strategic thinking is that property portals are the shop window for many agents, feeding the agents the leads back to agents, which are generated by applicants who see inventory digitally displayed on Rightmove etc.
Agents though can free themselves from this relationship, by driving busines directly into their own websites if these websites are cutting edge lead generation ecosystems, and Starberry, The property Jungle and Agentpoint are really digital lead generators with a website face. It will be interesting to see who will win this tussle of where agents spend their future cash.
PROPERTY PORTALS REPORT HUGE UPTICK ON ACTIVITY
Immediately following the budget, levels of viewings on the all the major three websites spiked as buyers became reassured that there was going to be a new window of opportunity to save up to 15,000 of stamp duty tax.
HALIFAX REPORT MARGINAL FEBRUARY FALL IN HOUSE PRICES
Unsurprisingly, Halifax have announced that their analytics state that property prices were lower by 0.5% in February, though annually up by more than 5% year on year. Many pundits feel that the temporary wobble on value was caused by the ‘will he’ ‘won’t he’ knife edge situation around the possible extension of the SDLT holiday, which now has been resolved.
LACK OF HOUSING STOCK ADDS DOWNWARD PRESSURE ON AGENTS FEES
At a traditional time when vendors look to list property at the start of the Spring market, we have been contacted by a number of agents reporting that discounted fees are being offered to induce vendors to commit to certain agents.
Whilst there is of course a market economy and each agent can offer their services at whatever cost they wish to, it does now seem that it is very much a ‘sellers’ market’ at least until the end of June, and in lower price market places, maybe until the end of September.
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