With house prices rising at their fastest pace in 17 years is ‘frenzied buyer activity’ driving West Midlands house prices to new highs?
For the vast majority of people, Hollywell Homes can stick our necks out and say that 2020 onward has been... emotional. Where the UK, and more locally Worcester and Herefordshire property markets are concerned, the expectation of how property transactions should and could be carried out has changed forever. As consumers we should now start to experience the advantages of paperless transactions with even Her Majesty’s Land Registry (HMLR) having now invested into the much-needed acceleration of their digital transformation, improving the organisation itself and taking positive strides towards a truly digital property market. As we mentioned in Hollywell Homes June market update our opinion was, and still is that stamp duty needed a complete overhaul with a reform of the home buying and sales cycle to further utilise new technology, processes, and digital currency to bring much-needed efficiencies to the process. When you consider something as simple as being able to email web signed documents to HMLR, as opposed to the current ‘hard copies in the post’ system, the time benefits could be easily demonstrated and would accelerate conveyance procedures, and dare we say it, dramatically reduce the current backlog issues HMLR are facing.
During the pandemic, HMLR’s essential role in property transactions was brought under scrutiny. It is of great comfort that one of HMLR’s own priorities over the last year has been to ensure that, going forward, property transactions are not interrupted and that they deliver a high-quality service that should and is expected by their customer base, homeowners, and property professionals alike. Whether you are just thinking about finding how much your house is worth or getting a valuation of your property, the automation of priority services should give you comfort knowing that property transactions can now continue during any further periods of national and local lockdown. As an example, HMLR was an almost entirely office-based operation whereas today over 90% of their operation can now deliver their services remotely.
For those of you reading this that are interested, HMLRs Annual Report sets out their response to the pandemic and their ongoing transformation programme to progress towards a fully digital property future and is mainly regarding new services and much needed boosts in staff and infrastructure, such as the introduction of electronic signatures and digital identity checking and a new tool called View My Applications which allows consumers to see the status of applications on one screen. You can read HMLRs Annual Report at https://bit.ly/3xOd2p0
So has months of “frenzied buyer activity” driven the average asking price for a home in the West Midlands and the UK to new highs, according to Rightmove, possibly.
Rightmove expected figures from HMRC due later this week to show that June was the busiest month on record for sales, with buyers rushing to complete before stamp duty rules change across the country. On the 30th of June, a temporary tax break on the first £500,000 of the cost of residential property in England and Northern Ireland started to be phased out, with the threshold cut to £250,000. Wales ended its temporary tax break entirely, while Scotland’s had finished at the end of March.
There is no doubt that the property market has been boosted by Rishi Sunak’s tax holiday, coupled with homebuyers’ thirst to move motivated by lifestyle shifts during the pandemic, subsequently driving up prices and activity in most parts of the UK including Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Rightmove, which lists 90% of estate agents properties across the UK have been quoted in saying that the first six months of 2021 had been the busiest on record since 2000, meaning that the average price of homes coming on to the market in England, Wales and Scotland increased to £338,447 – an increase of £21,389, or 6.7%, since the beginning of 2021.
Unlike a traditional estate agent, Hollywell Homes charge homeowners a fair fixed fee to market and sell any property, and based on the property price above of £338,447 save our customers over £4000 + VAT in typical agency fees*. In these testing times where every penny counts we know we can help many more homeowners save money whilst still receiving best-in-class personal service.
“Our senior team has worked together for over 15 years across Worcestershire in the property sector and has many more years of combined property experience between them. Responsible for all company initiatives they are heavily focused on company development; investing in new systems and technology to improve the buying and selling experience for our clients and enabling us to operate in a more efficient way, saving time for us as a business and passing those savings on to our customers”.
For more information selling your home or for advice on strategic refinancing to increase the value of your home, please visit https://www.hollywellhomes.co.uk or call Adam and Ben at their Worcester head office on 01905 948848.
Adam Paske – Director – Hollywell Homes
