How will coronavirus affect house prices in Ceredigion?
What does the outbreak mean for buyers, sellers and homeowners? Takes a look at what’s happened to house prices so far this year and how the fight against COVID-19 could affect the value of UK homes.
What does the outbreak mean for buyers, sellers and homeowners?
The property market in Ceredigion and beyond
The property market in 2020 showed so much positivity after returning with a boom following December's general election, with a number of sales rising by more than 12% in January as buyers and sellers had clarity and awoke from a Brexit-induced slumber.
Since this pandemic, the market is set to experience a significant slowdown, with all of us in Aberystwyth and beyond having closed our doors, and everyone told to stay at home. If you are in the process of moving home, the government has come forward with the new guidelines to put any moves on hold. With the uncertainty of mortgages and viewings, the property portals are showing a massive buyer demand dropping and a growing number of sales falling through.
Unfortunately when sales do fall through at this current time, it is nobody's fault. Hopefully when we get back to normal, things can pick up again. If this has happened to you, please do not worry. Whether you are with us or another estate agent, we will work just as hard to continue to try sell your house again. People still want to move house and people still want to buy.
What’s happened to house prices?
After looking at house prices on the Land Registry, the most recent data only goes up to January this year which overall show how house prices fell by 1.1% month on month but grew 1.3% year on year to reach £231,185.
This timeframe isn’t particularly useful in helping us understand the impact of coronavirus, as it covers transactions that would have been agreed before Christmas but were only completed and registered in January. With that in mind, we’re unlikely to know the true effect of coronavirus on house prices for a couple of months at least.
Will coronavirus affect house prices?
It’s too early to say exactly what impact the outbreak will have on the property market, but this is likely to mirror the rest of the economy.
In the short-term, house price growth will stagnate as there will be fewer transactions going through. But as we saw with Brexit, the UK property market is very robust, so it’s highly unlikely that prices will crash in the coming months.
Knight Frank forecasts that UK prices will fall by 3% this year, but then bounce back by 5% in 2021, in line with its predictions around the economy as a whole shrinking this year.
Richard Donnell from Zoopla, says: ‘We do not expect any immediate impact on prices. Beyond the next few months, the outlook largely depends on how the government’s package of support for businesses and households reduces the scale of the economic impact. ‘The timing of any rebound in housing market activity depends on when the new restrictions are lifted and to what extent households and businesses are able to return to a normal way of life.’
Will estate agents still hold viewings?
Since the government imposed its restrictions two weeks ago, estate agents have closed their doors and sent their staff to work from home. This means that in-person viewings can no longer go ahead until the restrictions are lifted. If you are a client of ours you will already know that we have set up our offices at home, and are continuing to work as 'usual' the best we can to be there for all our tenants, landlords, vendors and buyers.
We are still getting a range of enquiries and we can deal with these as we have a range of video viewings that we can send on to potential buyers.
We also offer 360 degree viewings, show properties via video call and recorded films.
We shall continue to update you further with the local property news. If you would like to know more, this article by WHICH can perhaps help you.
Take care, stay safe from the Alexanders Team.