Estate agent David Creane says sales are picking up in the property market.
Cowley Groves’ chairman said: ‘If you look back over September and October this year and compare it to last year there is a stark difference in term of sales agreed.
‘This period last year could be described as very quiet while 2013 shows a marked difference in terms of the number of unit sales agreed and their value. This pattern has existed right through this year.’
He said that since 2008 nobody would disagree that we had been in a declining market where all businesses had been affected and a negative impact experienced on an increasing basis right up to 2012.
The verdict of estate agents on the trade in which they work is often taken with a pinch of salt. After all, it is in their financial interest to talk up the market.
However, as November’s Examiner Business Word reported, there was agreement among specialists that the property market is improving from the standpoint of an existing home owner or an estate agent. First-time buyers, still unable to get on the first rung of the property market, might use a different term than ‘improving’.
Mr Craine added: ‘I anticipate that next year you will see a further improvement on 2013, albeit gradual.’
The UK had turned the corner, he said, and interest rates remained historically low with the Bank of England indicating this would remain so for quite some time.
He added: ‘With this knowledge it would be prudent to take stock and view this time as an excellent time to enter the market in terms of low asset prices and cheap cost of funds.
‘Dare I use the old adage “there’s never been a better time to buy” but I do believe that this is the case as over the coming years we will see a return of hardening of prices and a more buoyant market.’
