“Last month was substantially busier than January 2018, proving that regardless of the ongoing political uncertainty, the local market is still in good shape and buyer confidence is, for the most part, unaffected by the current Brexit scenario.
We assisted significant amounts of buyers last month who were moving home, either first time buyers or family movers, as well as landlords who were adding to their portfolios or making further holiday property purchases. We also observed that in both Aylsham and North Walsham, both towns where there are new build housing developments, activity substantially increased on the previous few months, which had a positive ‘ripple effect’ on the second-hand properties for sale in the area as well. We would suggest that, overall in the region, prices held relatively steady in January with very little movement.
On the remortgage side of the business, we assisted a higher-than usual number of clients who were seeking a capital raise in January, mainly to fund renovation projects to their existing properties as they have decided to ‘improve rather than move’ in 2019.
Brexit did come up in quite a few conversations with clients across the month, however many seemed to have reached the same conclusion, which is that the situation has gone on for so long now, they are focusing on their own situations, rather than worrying about the macro picture which they have no control over. Many buyers that we spoke to last month felt that they could no longer ‘wait to see what would happen’, either because their own circumstances dictated that they needed to move home sooner rather than later, or indeed because they had found a property that they had fallen in love with and therefore decided to purchase, regardless of the current news headlines.”