Estate agents are facing an uncertain time no matter what happens with Brexit, estate agent haart has warned.
It issued the alert after saying that “many” sellers are already putting off marketing their homes.
Haart revealed that house prices dropped across its network last month, but the number of exchanges rose on both a monthly and an annual basis.
The chain said that its average house prices at SSTC stage were £220,535 in October, a dip of 1.4% on September and down almost 1% since October last year.
Average first-time buyer house prices at SSTC stage were £170,005, down 2.7% on a monthly basis and by almost 10% on October last year.
Exchanges were 2.4% up in number on September, and up 9.7% on October 2017.
The number of buyer applicants was up 37% year on year, but the firm said “many” properties are not coming to market because of Brexit.
CEO Paul Smith said that the next few weeks will prove crucial to the property sector.
He said the greatest threat is “a delay to Brexit because of political posturing”.
Smith also said that leaving with no deal would hit the market in the short term.
If there is a challenge to Theresa May’s leadership, Smith said this would undoubtedly see more home owners putting off listing their properties, with London hit the hardest.
Comments (43)
I’ll whisper this….
I’m busy listing & selling homes and have an okay pipeline, when we should be slowing for Christmas Touting by Corporates is growing, which I detest! ….however they are on their knees.
2 Clients for whom we sold extremely well for this week, both in less than 2 weeks, told me about a Touting Letter received from one of the Countrywide Group within the 1st week?! ….. 2 fingers in their direction!!!
My Tuppence worth…
Instruct a decent agent get a decent result, instruct a clown and you’ll likely have a sad face for a long time!
Every instruction counts and although I don’t discount my fees I don’t just bump them up? Play the short & mid term game and you should be okay in the long term.
For me, overcharging is bad business – higher/consistent average fee across the year matters more than just bumping someones fee because I can.
In reality, assess the job to be done and let your fee reflect that, if you lose the business to cheapncheaper.com simply move forward and focus on the clients who understand how you work and are prepared to pay for your service.
I would predict that London will suffer the most, as international interest is higher in London and this is usually heavily impacted by uncertainty.
I remember in 2008 it was a big story that a banker had been paid £5mil in bonuses so the bank forfeits his bonus as a show of goodwill to the general public.
Foreign investment then dropped by £millions more, because why would a foreign banker want to deal with a country that won’t pay his bonus?
I’m sure we will see a similar result in our industry
#projectfearalloveragain
So, in your opinion, what is the truth about a no-deal brexit then?
#projectfearalloveragain
Correct – the idea that major businesses are completely unprepared for no-deal brexit is laughable.
#projectfearalloveragain Correct – the idea that major businesses are completely unprepared for no-deal brexit is laughable.
I agree, some big businesses are prepared for a no-deal brexit. They have already started looking at relocating (Like Jacob Rees-Mogg’s hedge fund relocating to Dublin) or cutting jobs and working hours (like Jaguar Land Rover).
I agree, some big businesses are prepared
They have had over two years to prepare !
Shareholders (& the city) will expect them ALL to have plans in place – similar to the Millenium Bug situation, chances are it will be a similar outcome.
They have had over two years to prepare !
But two years ago who would possibly have believed that we would be even considering leaving with no deal two years later…let alone being close to actually doing it?
But two years ago who would possibly have believed…
Always a likely scenario – “No deal is better than a bad deal” – and one of two expected outcomes. Therefore, businesses would plan accordingly.
Everyone is getting way too excited by the whole thing, the scaremongering from the CBI and others is ridiculous.
Everyone is getting way too excited by the whole thing, the scaremongering from the CBI and others is ridiculous.
Three Reasons not to like a no-deal brexit (but there are more);
1). No friction less border…which means the end of food and drugs importation as we know it, and the end of ‘just in time manufacturing’ possibly leading to the loss of hundreds of thousand of jobs.
2). Walking away from the largest single market in the world with no deal, in the hope of hammering out new deals in the rest of the world (when incidentally we already had negotiated trade deals with over 50 countries in the rest of the world as part of our EU membership) is just madness….why would a country we have never traded with fully before suddenly start buying thousands of cars from us, when they already have their own long standing agreements in place?
3). With no deal what then happens to the Northern Island border with one side in the customs union, one side out? Isn’t that categorically against the Good Friday Agreement? And how do you manage that….put a physical border back in place? if anything could resurrect historic problems and troubles that would be it.
Can you give me three good reasons to like the no-deal scenario?
Before anyone picks me up on it I understand I misspelt Northern Ireland twice in my comments today 😉
I refer the honourable member to the answer I gave earlier 🙂
Government & Business have been aware of the “deal or no deal” scenario for over 2 years and should have planned accordingly.
Ostrich17
Government & Business have been aware of the “deal or no deal” scenario for over 2 years and should have planned accordingly.
Whether they should have or not, I think you’ll find that most businesses have not made preparations because they have no idea of what will happen in a no-deal scenario.
Have you heard of any car manufacturers stockpiling parts coming from Europe for instance, so they can keep the production lines rolling if border controls and subsequent delays have to be put in place? Have you heard supermarkets sorting out alternative food sources for perishables if there are huge lorry queues into the Dover, Calais trade route?
If they have not made preparations, then they are not fit to run a business. A no-deal scenario is the first outcome that a sensible FD and board would have been able to model.
They can then tweak the model according to what deal is actually agreed (if any).
I don’t know what the weather is going to be like tomorrow, but I am prepared – rain or shine!
If your goose suddenly laid a golden egg you’d be euphoric, and no doubt you’d protect and nurture the goose.
If it continued to lay more and more gold eggs until it was laying a dozen a day, you’d be eggstatic, 😉 soon followed by complacent, which in turn leads to less protection and less nurture, what the hell, you can afford it!
If the goose suddenly stopped laying, you’d be running around blaming the goose and everything but yourself!
This is true of some company owners and the European parliament!
Markets fluctuate, especially property markets as they’re directly affected by so many outside, but closely connected factors. You can’t work in property and not know this!
Knowing this, you should also know that when the sun shines you should make hay and store it, you’ll need it for that rainy day, far more than you’ll need to upgrade your Range Rover to the Vogue Autobiography!
Brexit is a word I hate, it has become the excuse for everything on both sides of it!
The only thing it, and Cameron have achieved is to divide a country down the middle, and waste 2+ years of everyone’s life in the process. Still nothing has been learned by the result, politicians continue to act in the same way instead of uniting the country in gaining forward momentum in business and commerce. The EU still bullies while flaunting its wealth in front of the ordinary people who provide it.
You cannot have yesterday again tomorrow, we’ve already wasted 700+ yesterdays!
Leave or Remain, May was handed a poison chalice and it is impossible for her to get a deal that won’t upset people, but who so far has offered an alternative? They fall like lemmings when the going gets tough or they don’t get their own way.
The Labour party is unrecognizable, socialism seldom sees already successful countries prosper, let alone one that is currently peddling backwards!
A second referendum is undemocratic, yes Iv’e heard the arguments otherwise, but strongly believe that the result must stand.
It’s up to you to make the best out of what’s left.
Not everyone has what it takes to run a company, less have what it takes to make a success of it. You did, you still do, stop remoaning and get on with it!
Heads for bunker!
Lot of good points in this, but I don’t agree with a second referendum being undemocratic. Just think of all the lies that were told leading to the first result. Are the people not allowed to have the option of changing their minds, now that they can see the truth of what leaving actually means? Have you never ever made a decision and then changed your mind after you have seen the implications afterwards? Is not being given the choice of that more undemocratic?
We now have a negotiated deal that appears to be the least worst and least damaging that can be achieved, and at the same time pleases no-one. Remainer politicians want to stay in, and leaver politicians want a much harder exit.
How is anything that has been negotiated in this deal better than what we already have in place? The irony is that it may well get accepted in parliament simply because for most politicians it is not as terrifying as a no-deal brexit.
Anyone that headed for the polling station believing the words of politicians and their spin doctors was delusional.
That said, people also have to be wary of where they get their news with so much political bias from rag to rag, and between news networks, their channels, and even their presenters.
The referendum was ill-thought out, Cameron assumed that Leaver’s would grumble, but stay home while Remainer’s would vote in large numbers.
Many that should’ve voted first time around didn’t, and now they want the chance to again.
The longer it goes on, the more reasons will be found for a second referendum (I guess that’s the point) but in the meantime, our MP’s still collect their salaries, they join more and more lucrative lobbying committees, they wine and dine while they discuss and discombobulate everything into an even bigger muddle, all while our businesses and financial futures look ever more bleak.
A referendum took place and there was a result, it is fairer to tell the losers you should have turned out and used your vote, than to tell the victors that their vote counted for nothing and we will vote again, that could incite civil war!
It’s time to stand behind someone with a backbone, no matter what you think of May or the Conservatives, for now her back bone is holding strong, if arching a little!
Regarding a no-deal, we can only guess if it would be better or worse as it’s never happened before, I’m sure at first it would feel worse as the EU spits their dummy, but we are a great innovative nation and other countries worldwide benefit hugely from working with us, trading with us, and exporting to us.
I don’t like the deal, but it’s all we’ve got after two years of nothingness!
If prices are already falling but “many” sellers are not putting their properties on the market that doesn’t bode well for future prices does it? Clearly there is a LOT of pent up supply …. and that is going to be meeting rising interest rates, higher property taxes and the prospect of a Corbyn government. The sooner we agents have realistic conversations with our potential vendors the better.
The news today is hopeful. Ken Clarke reluctantly backing May’s deal, Gove on board and only Spain assing around over Gibraltar as usual. We may actually be in at last for a pragmatic compromise of the type which our country excels at and which has been our success story over the centuries. To bring two halves of the country together in a deal which means that we are out of the EU but have ease of access to markets should satisfy the majority and will certainly satisfy the markets which is where we are as businesses.
Of course, if there is a no deal transactions will fall still further and over valued stock will plummet and we will be in an early 1990s scenario. The consolation prize will be the end of the worst of the online only gang and the fly-by-night high street brigade, and a market where the real estate agent (sorry about the pun!) will be the winner for a generation.
Second referendum? The jury is still out!
Can’t exactly disagree with a something that has no alternative option can you.
Property prices drop means a great time to trade upwards
Yes but it’s the 8 months of realisation estate agents have to survive.
People still marry, divorce, have children, get new jobs and die. Up your fees and your game to match.
Has Pee Bee died? Or been silenced?
He is on holiday
Some may wish, J1… but unfortunately for them I am neither! ;o)
In truth there are many distractions that we blame for downturns in the market.
England in a World Cup, England not in a World Cup, Easter Bunny, Sunmer Holidays, Elections, Wars, Mark Carney, Michael Bruce, Kenny Bruce, and then a man who doesn’t exist who drives around in a big sleigh once a year!!!!
We have an 8 or 9 month market at best these days, things have changed and if you are budgeting for 12 months of equal income spread then you are deluding yourselves.
Strap in until February Peeps!!!!
We are all doomed if it snows too!!!!
Happy Thursday
If I was a betting man, my money is on a second referendum.
If I was a praying man I’d being praying for a second referendum.
And for those businesses that will flourish, I’m sure they will be happy to reach the brexit finish line. Change doesn’t suit everybody nor does it please a minority but democracy rules so accept it and stop blaming brexit for the problem within our industry, yes it’s part of the cause but not the main issue, the market has been over heated for two or three years and whilst the public had to accept it(and they still bought and sold) now we have to accept a market that’s tough and may get tougher but for those that have been an estate agent for more than 10 years well you’ve seen it before and that wasn’t anything to do with brexit so now you will have to accept it and work through it as best you can, moaning changes nothing.
I seem to remember Paul Smith being a very vocal Brexiteer.
How he didn’t expect this to happen is beyond me. I hope he thinks the resulting turmoil and economic hardship, which will be amplified for anybody working in the property industry, was worth it.
It amazed me that there is anyone who didnt think this would happen. Sold down the Brexit river by a bunch of MPs who are more interested in furthering their own interests than fulfilling the immigration free, NHS funded utopia that many believed was being offered. As mentioned above, any little thing puts people off but this is enormous. I expect next near to be about just getting through and hoping your colleagues are still with you come next Christmas
If you voted for Brexit, you need to look at yourselves and ask…..was it worth it
And to cap it all David Davis was on LBC radio this morning extolling the virtues of walking away with NO DEAL! Idiot!!!
The problem is people in power can make decisions that affect ordinary people’s livelihoods and businesses without any consequences for themselves. If a no-deal brexit came about and it caused untold misery for people throughout the country, all the politicians who encouraged it should lose their jobs…..maybe they would think twice about what they do then!!!
Just imagine if in your business you could say and do whatever you wanted, including wasting tons of money, but you still got paid the same at the end of the month. Then you could be as ideological as you wanted.
‘extolling the virtues of walking away with NO DEAL! Idiot!!!’
Why does that make him an idiot in your opinion?
Because in my opinion (and guess what I don’t expect to change your opinion) it means we will have no friction less border…which means the end of food and drugs importation as we know it, and the end of ‘just in time manufacturing’ possibly leading to the loss of hundreds of thousand of jobs.
Walking away from the largest single market in the world with no deal, in the hope of hammering out new deals in the rest of the world (when incidentally we already had negotiated trade deals with over 50 countries in the rest of the world as part of our EU membership) is just madness….why would a country we have never traded with fully before suddenly start buying thousands of cars from us, when they already have their own long standing agreements in place?
And apart from that what then happens to the Northern Island border with one side in the customs union, one side out? Isn’t that categorically against the Good Friday Agreement? And how do you manage that….put a physical border back in place? if anything could resurrect historic problems and troubles that would be it.
What would we get in return?
More control over our borders….yes they’ll be shut or tangled up in knots.
More control of our money….what, well less than 0.7% of our annual spend? How does that seem in comparison to an estimated loss of up to 8% of GDP as part of no deal compared to having a proper deal?
More control of our laws…. we helped make the laws when we were in the EU.
More ability to thrash out new trade deals and control immigration…..did we not veto a trade deal with India that the European Union negotiated because part of the deal was the ability of highly qualified people in India to be able to move and work in the EU (something Mrs May announced to the CBI the other day as now being desirable!).
That’s just my opinion for what is is worth, but please tell me what advantages you think a no-deal brexit would give us?
Two and a half years after the referendum I’ve wisely come to the viewpoint that time is better spent talking to the nearest wall than attempt to debate people like you. If I’d been old enough, I would have voted No in 1975 and at every opportunity where it was suggested we would be given a referendum but denied (Maastricht, Lisbon, Nice).
time is better spent talking to the nearest wall than attempt to debate people like you
What type of person do you think I am then?
I answered your question. I also said it was my opinion, and I didn’t expect to change yours.
Two and a half years after the referendum I am still waiting for someone to explain to me what we are going to gain, and how that is better than what we are going to lose. Happy to listen to anything put forwards.
Having witnessed the run-up to the Scottish Independence Vote undermine the Scottish property market, it’s fair to say we are in for a bumpy Brexit ride.
Every New Instruction/Sale carries much more value to your business now.
Full service Estate Agency matters more than ever as smart clients begin to really appreciate what High Street Estate Agents bring to their property sale.
Dig in, buckle up – don’t bother slashing fees …… drive up your Service Levels
General election = Don’t put the house on the market/don’t buy a house.
Financial crash = Don’t put the house on the market/don’t buy a house.
Threat of conflict = Don’t put the house on the market/don’t buy a house.
Brexit = Don’t put the house on the market/don’t buy a house.
People don’t like uncertainty. Plus ca change.
ABSOLUTELY!! Spot On.
I think it was Robert Frost who said “Life goes on!”
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
Isn’t ‘fear’ itself a great sales motivator … “Exit before Brexit” ?? What will Brexit do to your house price?
Some would say that Brexit is a great Lead Generator!
The reality is: “Nobody Knows” + “regardless of market conditions, stuff happens”
Sad times ahead for many businesses, 7 local agents have closed this year in our area so far.
Agencies are trying to keep staff on when they can’t afford it. So more will close by the year end.
Agencies are trying to keep staff on when they can’t afford it. So more will close by the year end.
We went through this four years ago, due to some unforeseen circumstances.
Had to go down to just me for a period of time, but I can’t tell you how much I learn’t in that period…..happy to share our experience, the things we learned and what we put in place to survive with anyone facing similar circumstances.
Never give up!
Same for me back in 2009, literally on the brink but working 7 days a week, 12-15 hour most days meant the business kept going. Best advice I can give when times a re tough is to make sure you hire the best possible staff, not the cheapest.