Market Report – October 2018 – Southbourne.

It’s a buyers market…. Sort of.

We’ve been through a period in Southbourne, for the first time in a long time, of prices going downwards.  Southbourne has been fortunate enough to have one of the hardiest property markets of any location over the last 5-7 years.  

What we’re really finding in Southbourne is that property priced correctly will sell immediately, have a great choice of buyers and sell for strong money.  This is the ultimate goal for any seller.

The properties we see that struggle are those priced a little too high, even just a fraction and they seem to stick.  Patience is key for sellers.  

Buyers have more information than ever before.

Buyer are negotiating from a point of having a higher quantity of information than ever before.  It’s not always accurate information, but it certainly changes the dynamic when it comes to negotiation when in a buyers’ market.  

Zoopla stats for the previous three months shown below.  In terms of the value change, this is going to be behind the trend as they are working on land registry data (completion prices) rather than sale agreed prices.  

Looking to the future

This time of year has been quiet when looking at the previous two years.  The summer holidays (an always quiet period for the property market locally) seemed to drag out right to the end of the year.  We haven’t had that this year. We’re seeing strong numbers of sellers coming to market and there being an equally strong number of buyers wanting to buy in Southbourne.  

I think we’ll see, rather than hard price drops, more of a slight change in asking prices, rather than in completed prices.  Those that take that move sooner with the asking price drops (for those that are a bit stuck on the market) will achieve higher prices than those that take a bit longer to make the move.

Any questions please do ask.

Simon Ward
Managing Director

Mr Green Estate Agents