Ipswich Property Market Comment Autumn 2009
Quarterly marketing report coving the months of July, August and September 2009
One thing I can say for certain is that looking back, quarter 3 of 2009 is definitely a landmark period when in the Ipswich area the market has picked up considerably.
2009 as a whole so far showed steady improvement right from the word go. Each month has seen a gradual increase in both buyers and properties coming on to the market and during the first two quarters of 2009 we were comfortably double the number of sales we achieved in the respective months of last year. About mid July the market really did explode into life where a huge volume of fresh buyers appeared on the scene.
Whilst I cannot speak for other estate agents, we noticed a big increase in properties coming onto the market, properties selling faster and on some occasions closer to the asking price.
Having been in the business for well over 20 years and seen several downturns and recoveries in that time, this recovery is quite different from any previous one, which is particularly underlined by the quarter just finished.
It has certainly been much more sudden and more extreme than we were expecting and this is of course very welcome news. But why has it happened?
During the last quarter of 2007 and the whole of 2008 vast swathes of buyers were holding off purchasing a property either through fear of the continued reduction in prices and secondly through inability to obtain a mortgage.
Mortgages have slowly but steadily become easier to obtain as the year has gone on and what we have seen in this quarter is the ever-increasing pool of buyers that wanted to buyer sooner but didn’t.
On Thursday August 6th the Daily Express reported that ‘house prices boom starts again.’ At the same time the Halifax recorded the ‘biggest rise since the bubble burst.’ As these two events occurred buyers came in and phones started ringing. Some may argue therefore that this period is an artificial one and is the total number of buyers that would have bought during 2008 concentrated into just one quarter and there is no doubt an element of truth in that. If we see a noticeable drop off in sales and buyer activity in the last quarter of 2009 then that would certainly underline that that may be true.
September has also seen a flurry of activity with people agreeing the purchase on properties between £125,000-£175,000, conscious that the stamp duty holiday which is in position at present, expires on the 31st December this year. For buyers purchasing at £170,000 for example it will be £1700 more expensive to purchase the same property on 1st January 2010 than it would have been prior to 31st December 2009. You can therefore understand the urgency on behalf of these buyers allowing up to three months for completion to take place. Again time will tell if, once 1st January arrives there is a complete drop off for buyers in this price bracket due to the ending of the stamp duty holiday.
All in all the whole Ipswich housing market is looking far far healthier than it did at any time last year, and lets hope this will continue!
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