Merry Christmas from the team at Living in London!

Who can believe we’re already mid-way through December?!

With the end of the year fast approaching, we want to take the opportunity to wish our loyal clients and local residents happy holidays, as well as reflect (briefly) on the 2022 property market, from our experience.

The sales market in SE16 started where 2021 left off, with a strong appetite from buyers, coupled with a high number of sellers coming to the market with the hope for a change in circumstance that a move would bring. Common themes were the desire to move outside of London and/or a general want for more space in which to live, work, be. These motivated buyers and sellers led to strong transaction levels with, in general, properties going under offer close to, at, or even over asking price within the first 4-6 weeks of marketing.

Q2 and Q3 felt more like a ‘usual’ sales market, something we would expect in a ‘pre-Brexit / pre-pandemic / pre-stamp duty holiday’ market, with decent stock levels and a reasonable demand from buyers.

Throughout the past two years, we haven't experienced a frantic market like some areas outside of London with 5/6/7 offers on each property, but a much steadier demand-led market. 

As we moved towards the end of the year, the traditional seasonal slowdown in the run up to Christmas has been exacerbated by uncertainty around (increasing) interest rates, political blunders and the cost-of-living crisis, such things always lead a high percentage of the market to ‘freeze’. 

Due to ongoing efforts to ensure we do all we can to maintain our customer focus, as well as our tireless efforts to get the best results we can for all of our clients, whether that be buyers, sellers, landlords or tenants, Living in London has again, thankfully, had a positive year, especially on the sales side of things. We are extremely positive for 2023 and looking forward to continuing our success.

On the rental side, over the past year or so, rents have increased dramatically. On average we've seen a 25% increase in rental values from 2021!

These figures seem very substantial, however during lockdown the rental market unsurprisingly took a downturn as landlords adapted to the circumstances and prioritised having a tenant in situ over achieving a high rent, so the bounce back was to be expected.

That being said, we have been surprised at how busy the rental market has been, although not that much when we think about the fundamentals… a falling/ lack of stock in the London rental market due to the government’s hostile attitude towards BTL investors with increased taxation and regulations, leading to very few landlords buying (additional stamp duty also plays a role), and more and more landlords leaving the market as the ‘fun’ (as well as profitability) of being a property investor/landlord seems to all but have gone for many. This coupled with an increase in demand from tenants moving back to the city as London’s offices re-opened. We fear much of the same in 2023 unless the government realise the need for the PRS, and that a reduction in landlords only often means would-be first time buyers are having to save for longer as more of their earnings are spent on rent.

On a more positive note, we’ve had another very busy year with more staff growth, continuing consultation on our Canada Water Office, partnering up with a number of developers on local and London-wide off plan developments, and winning multiple awards, including;

‘Feefo Gold Award’ 2022 for Customer Service,

‘Gold Letting Agent in SE16’ at the British Property Awards 2022,

and ‘Most Trusted Independent Estate Agent – South East London’ at the SME News Greater London Enterprise Awards 2022.

As well as this, we retained our 5 star (independently reviewed) status, as well as launched our new initiative “Living in Dubai" through our partnership with Eminence Real Estate – a market-leading, award-winning agency with access to the hottest developments in Dubai.  Get in touch to find out more about this partnership and investing in property in Dubai.

Or email; welcome@living-london.net

So, from our review of the past few months/year, and from our experience of working in the SE16 market for 20+ Years, we would suggest that if you’re looking to sell or let a property in 2023, start the ball sooner rather than later. Every year, we experience the annual market slow down ahead of the Christmas period, a pick up over Christmas week, and then a peak in enquiries and interest in the first couple of weeks in January.

We see about a 50% increase in new stock hitting the market in January, so it’s important to not only price correctly and ensure that your property is in a saleable condition but launch the property earlier to beat the rush to the market (if your intentions are to be moved before the summer months).

Keep an eye on our website and marketing emails as we’ll be launching our annual New Year predications blog! I wonder if we’ll be right…. again?

Happy Holidays to you and yours and wishing you a Merry Christmas!

From the team at Living in London

P.S. If you are considering moving home or selling/letting a property, please do get in touch with one of our multi award winning, 5 star rated agents, or click here for an instant online valuation; 0207 231 0002, welcome@living-london.net