PROPERTY MARKET COMMENT
AUGUST 2018
Despite the political and financial uncertainties the property market locally has held up extraordinarily well. Generally there is a shortage of property for sale and this results in many sales being agreed relatively speedily and often with a choice of buyer. These favourable selling conditions are not in evidence throughout the country and the London and Home Counties market in particular seems to be experiencing a slowdown. Checking of transactions involved in a chain of sales has become a crucial part of ensuring that an agreed sale becomes a confirmed sale.
There are also considerable uncertainties and delays in the mortgage market and again great care is needed to ensure that mortgage applications are submitted in good time together with all the support documentation which is now required. In this area local authority searches can take up to 7 weeks to obtain and again it is important to ensure that application for searches together with the required fee are made as quickly as possible.
There has been much press comment highlighting the important role that selling agents need to undertake in ensuring that an agreed offer proceeds to a confirmed exchange of contracts. At John Goodwin we have dedicated teams working full time on this part of the sales process. When checking chains of sales agreed elsewhere it soon becomes evident that this is not always the case.
John Goodwin
August 2018
