Elevated Summer Activity

Both the Christchurch and Southbourne offices have been encouraged by a significant elevation in enquiry levels and resulting sales over the last quarter which looks set to continue over the summer period.

Interestingly the pendulum appears to have now swung in favour of the seller in terms of property supply and demand and present enquiry levels in many areas of the market are outpacing the supply of new properties coming into the market place. This has certainly galvanised prices and in certain niche areas, such as waterside property, homes close to the coast and quality retirement bungalows has put upward pressure on prices being achieved. Both offices continue to witness investment buyers taking more interest in the market after concluding that their savings in conventional Building Society/Bank accounts are giving them little prospect of a decent return. Similarly both Southbourne and Christchurch see a significant increase in first time buyer activity which throughout 2008 was virtually non-existent. This has been partly as a result of the property prices having fallen to a level whereby they have become affordable to the first time buyer and also as a result of the fact that mortgage rates remain historically very low. Todd Gaston, Director of the Christchurch office, comments: \"Both offices remain cautiously optimistic about the market over the medium term, assuming that external elements such as bank base rate and unemployment levels do not increase significantly. At the present time, in light of the demand being shown for properties in both localities, we are keen to speak to anyone who is considering bringing their property to the market in the near future. We offer a complimentary, no obligation and confidential market assessment based on a raft of evidence in the market place\".