It’s been another tumultuous week for the UK in regard to Covid, personally I could do with things being a bit more settled, we...

It’s been another tumultuous week for the UK in regard to Covid, personally I could do with things being a bit more settled, we seem to be all over the place at the moment and it certainly effects me mentally I don’t know about you?

So what’s our week been like…well the North-East has been put in Tier 2 which is high alert.

Which means mixing indoors is not allowed, I really do hope for all of us we do get some rest-bite from this and I certainly want to see all my family over christmas (my mum lives alone and is in my brother’s extended bubble and my sister lives elsewhere). Hopefully these measures help to drive down the virus.🤞 I can’t imagine having a christmas without friends and family around.👨‍👩‍👧‍👦👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Tier 2 in the North East hasn’t really affected the property market and how we work. We’re keeping all our customers safe and also our staff while still looking to drive through our customer service standards in trying times.

So let’s looks at the stats…🧮. To see where we are and if we’re seeing this on the ground:

Property Prices: Were up 2% in Sep & down 1.6% in Oct, showing a mixed couple of months. The overall movement for the year is up 6.4% for the year in the North-East and the average time to sell is 60 days.

I don’t know about you but it’s been a good couple of years since we’ve seen that type of price increase!

I think we might be being tricked by stats a little here, since higher priced houses have the most to gain from the stamp duty cut and so a higher proportion of houses might be coming onto the market in that sector BUT this mini-boom shows no sign of slowing at the moment.

Rental Prices: Into qtr 3 the qtrly change for rental prices is up 2.7% and 3.3% for the year for the north-east. I think the lettings market maybe hotter than the sales market at the moment, this increased demand is driving up prices but I also think the uplifting in universal credit on an annual and one-off basis (for this year only) and the continued above inflation increase in the minimum wage is driving rental prices up from a low base.

*According to the Rightmove House Price Index

The economy itself is very mixed I think, the government has dumped / going to dump 300-400 billion pounds on the economy this year. It’s beyond belief? If you’re in a sector particularly effected by Covid then it’s terrible while others are doing really well. I think it’s an incredibly two paced economy and certainly isn’t all doom and gloom, although my heart does go out to those in the entertainment, leisure and the food and drink sectors 💓

Again if you’re faced with any of the problems thrown up by Covid – tenant not paying the rent, struggling to get tradesman, want to sell? Give us a bell, I did a little video below discussing what we offer: