4 May 29, 2022The Sunday Times
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listings. Scotland wasn’t
included in the research.
Knight Frank forecasts that
“a greater balance between
supply and demand means
growth will slow to single
digits by the end of 2022”.
The demand is building
more quickly in rural areas
than in urban markets,
according to the research. “I
suspect it is a hangover from
last year when so many rural
owners didn’t list their house
as they didn’t think they
would be able to find anything
to move to,” says James
Cleland, the head of country
business at Knight Frank.
“What was a vicious circle is
becoming a virtuous circle as
higher levels of supply leads to
more stock coming on.”
In Cornwall, where prices
have been pushed up by an
increase in those looking to
relocate or buy second homes,
they are excited to see more
sellers coming to market.
Clare Coode, a buying agent
for Stacks Property Search and
Acquisition in Cornwall, says:
“I don’t think the values are
going to go down immediately,
but some of the heat will go
out of the market if the
increase in supply continues —
personally I am looking
forward to fewer competitive
biddings and sealed bids.”been quieter. We will see
more than a slow deflation
[in prices] later this year as
people count the cost of living
and run out of Covid savings.”
After two years of people
bidding over asking price,
he has also started to see
prices soften. He is not the
only one. Jennie Hancock,
the managing director of
Property Acquisitions, a
buying agency in West Sussex,
says: “There has been a slight
hint in the air, with the fuel
crisis, of a softening in the
market in the last four weeks;
there are cash buyers for now,
but how long before their
numbers dwindle?”
She adds: “Three months
ago houses would go for
£100,000 over asking, but
now it’s £100,000 below. I
don’t want my client to be first
in any more; it’s better to wait
until properties are launched.”
The research by Knight
Frank shows that there has
been an increase in supply in
Wales, southwest England and
Yorkshire and the Humber in
recent weeks. These are the
regions that had some of the
steepest price rises during the
pandemic. A breakdown by
local authority shows that
pockets of the North West,
South East and East Midlands
have also had a surge in newMARKET
WATCH
“These prices are not
sustainable,” says Phil Smith,
the managing director of
Roscoe Rogers & Knight, an
estate agency in Monmouth,
south Wales.
House prices in Wales
have been some of the most
robust during the pandemic.
In the year to February sold
prices were up by 11.7 per
cent, according to the Office
for National Statistics, with
reports of multiple bids
and gazumping as city
dwellers sought the good
life in the country.T
he property
market has been
riding high on a
supply/demand
imbalance that
has pushed house prices up
by 10 per cent or more across
the country in the past year.
Spring, the time when sellers
traditionally post “for sale”
signs in their gardens, came
and went almost unnoticed.
Finally, though, more
properties are coming to
market. So is this the
beginning of the end for
the house price boom?There has been a 33 per
cent increase in new listings
in Wales in the past three
months, though, with a
186.5 per cent jump in
Anglesey and 150 per cent
jump in Monmouthshire,
according to research by the
estate agency Knight Frank,
which used data from the
property portal Onthemarket.
“We have certainly seen an
increase in instructions,”
Smith says. “I do think that we
are on the edge of a precipice.
We still have high demand, but
the telephone has definitelyHAS THE BIG
SLOWDOWN
BEGUN?
CAROL
LEWIS@CarolLewis101
Three
months
ago houses
would
go for
£100,000
over asking,
but now it’s
£100,000
below. I
don’t want
my client to
be first in
any more