Post lockdown, the need for Huddersfield families who want bigger homes has meant Huddersfield homebuyers must now pay considerably more to trade up to that larger home…
This demand
has been driven by Huddersfield buyers looking for more living space, especially
those looking for an area or room to work from home (be that a bedroom,
reception room or even an outbuilding converted into a study).
The average asking price of a 3 bed Huddersfield
home is £182,300, whilst for a 4 bed Huddersfield home it stands at £342,100
As
you can see, quite a jump for an extra bedroom! The heightened contest for 2nd
and 3rd step Huddersfield homes for that extra bedroom has pushed demand
to a record in October for those looking to take the next step up the ladder. Historically,
as a family and its household income grow, the need for more space has permanently
been the No.1 reason for moving home, yet now there is a new need for additional
space to facilitate people working from home. This means not only do we have
growing families wanting larger Huddersfield homes, there are also the people
needing the same larger homes for space for a home office. Therefore, looking
at the current stats, as you can see, the Huddersfield property market is doing
quite well…
60.9% of all 3 bed and 55.0% of all 4 bed homes
in Huddersfield are sold (subject to contract)
Roll
the clock back to pre-Covid and ask any Huddersfield homeowner who had enough
bedrooms for their children if they wanted an additional bedroom, and most homeowners
would say that was very much a ‘nice to have’, yet not a ‘must have’. With us
all being cooped-up over the spring this year, demand for additional rooms is
at a high, with those presently looking for their next larger Huddersfield home
are probably going to find that only offers close to (if not sometimes over)
the asking price will be accepted.
Even
though no properties sold during lockdown, putting the Huddersfield (and UK)
property market on hold for many months, many more people buying their next Huddersfield
home will have more than made up for it since lockdown was lifted as the
portals have stated if the UK property market remains at its existing trajectory,
then the number of properties sold YTD by the end of October 2020 will be
greater than YTD October 2019.
Yet
all these properties sold are causing another issue. Just because a property
becomes Sold Subject to Contract (SSTC) doesn’t mean the property is actually “sold”.
Before going into Covid, it was taking approximately 19 weeks between agreeing
a sale price (and instructing lawyers) to completing the sale. Yet, because we
are nationally running at 140% to 150% of properties SSTC (than where we
normally are at this time of year), many of my estate agents colleagues are
having to manage expectations with buyers and sellers, and tell them that the
date they are going to move will take a little longer.
The elephant in the room is that the
temporary stamp duty holiday ends on the 31st March 2021
It
sounds an age away, yet trust me, nothing could be further from the truth. Adding an extra month for the additional
homes in the bottleneck means even if the sale of your Huddersfield home was
agreed today, that would take us to the 3rd week in March ... that’s
cutting it very close for the stamp duty holiday.
It is
so fundamental for buyers and sellers of Huddersfield homes to work meticulously
with their estate agent, solicitor and mortgage lender. For example, there are
less staff in the local authorities to do the local searches, bank staff are
working from home meaning mortgages are taking much longer to get approved, and
conveyancer/solicitors are snowed under with work. Therefore, if you get a
document that needs filling in, are asked to provide documents, pay
disbursements or questions need answering, do it immediately and without delay.
A day here and day there will snowball and could mean you miss the stamp Duty
holiday … and that could cost you thousands and thousands of pounds.
The
bottom line is that we haven’t seen this sort of pressure on the UK property
market since 1987, when dual-MIRAS was abolished. Now, as we are slowly
starting to come out of Covid, with many legal and banking staff working
remotely or still on furlough, the perfect storm has occurred with unprecedented
demand from buyers looking to move post lockdown. The best advice I can give is,
as soon as you put your property onto the market, find a solicitor that has the
capacity to work with you, then instruct that solicitor to start work
immediately to prepare the paperwork, so once you have a buyer, things can move
more smoothly and quickly. The last thing you want is to lose out on saving
thousands of pounds by missing the stamp duty holiday by a whisker.
