The one constant thing about the property market is that it is always changing. Interest rates and changes to regulations affect the market on a national level while local developments can impact the market on a more granular level.
With these changes, as well as seasonal fluctuations, it can be difficult to know as an estate agent when to advise your clients to buy and sell, or where the rental market will go. Read on for advice on how you can navigate the ever-changing world of the property market.
How to stay on top
Do your research
This means on a broad scale through the national papers and trade publications, like Estate Agent Today, Property Industry Eye or The Negotiator. You’ll also need to stay abreast of what’s happening in your local area as local markets may not always mirror national trends.
Local media will, unsurprisingly, contain more news and coverage around changes in the local area that may affect property sales, such as council decisions and upcoming development projects. So, reading the local papers or following key local figures (Mayors, MPs etc.) could give you the edge on what’s happening in your local area.
Websites, magazines and newsletters tailored to the property industry will share news, insights and analysis around property development, management and sales, as well as legal and financial information that may have an impact on developers, investors and landlords you may partner with.
There are several key sources that when combined will give you a comprehensive understanding of trends in the UK property market. They often use a combination of their own in-house data and data more widely available on the market to form their own opinion on the latest trends.
Two of the biggest property data businesses that provide regular updates are:
- Hometrack provides a House Price index report which looks at cities, regions and countries.
- Twenty Ci provides a detailed quarterly report on the factor influencing the UK property market.
All the big property portals have their own news sections which provide property and market updates:
- Rightmove provides a monthly UK house price index, breaking it down by region, price and affordability.
- Zoopla regularly provides updates on UK and local markets through information written content.
- On The Market has its own ‘sentiment index’, giving its perspective on the previous month’s data.
Two of the biggest mortgage lenders, Halifax and Nationwide, also provide monthly market updates on house price index trends and should be used as another source of property trend information.
Property publications may also include location guides, updates on mortgages and lettings, expert interviews, case studies and features around topics including sustainable building, innovation and skill development. As an estate agent, staying on top of trends will help you to understand where the market is going, what kinds of properties will be popular, and how to promote your other services, such as financial advisers on mortgages during a peak in interest rates.
Network
Speaking with other property professionals can reap dividends as they share their information with you and pass on key resources and habits. Keeping your ear to the ground for updates can help you predict the market’s changes.
It’s important to have a network of contacts across different areas of the industry with various skill sets and areas of expertise. Having a mix of diverse contacts means you can get insights from across the industry with a range of perspectives, and having a greater number of contacts increases your chances of hearing key updates earlier.
As an estate agent or broker, you are very much on the frontline of the property market on a daily basis and have access to tools for compiling and analysing market data. You also speak with buyers and sellers every day so have great insight into the consumer mindset. Speaking with (or meeting) other agents and brokers regularly are an invaluable way to keep up to date on the latest trends in your area. It’s also important that you stay in contact with local property developers, the local planning department, solicitors and financial advisers is key to advising your clients and understanding the local market. For example, if you learn a big property development is going through the planning department, you could work with the developer as an exclusive agent, as well as know that the prices for existing homes in that area will be affected.
Attending industry events (locally and nationally), connecting on LinkedIn and finding property forums are all good ways to start networking in property.
Understand your market
Identify when your market’s natural high and low seasons are. Experience will help here but if you’re new to property or want to validate suspicions, look at data from previous years, both your own and industry data. Sites like home.co.uk are helpful here, as well as your own registrants, viewings, offers, closed sales and sign-ups to your other services.
Understanding these annual cycles, and knowing how to differentiate them from market fluctuations, is important when it comes to buying and selling real estate.
If you want to get a more granular view of the local market for a specific property then two of the best sites that you can sign up to (for a monthly fee) are:
- Sprift which provides a comprehensive overview of a local market (and the ability to generate and send market reports to prospective customers).
- Property Data provides access to really granular information about individual properties as well as local areas and has loads of useful tools to evaluate any chosen market and even has tools to help you source properties if you want to.
How we can help
HBB Solutions is a property buying specialist with over 10 years of experience that works closely with estate agents to repair property chains and offer part exchange services to new home builders.
We regularly use all of these data sources to make sure we have the most up-to-date view on national and local property trends, and we zoom in to look at property-specific data to help us make the most accurate and reliable offers we can when buying property – so we can act quickly and buy within weeks, not months, so we keep you and your vendors moving.
We also provide a guaranteed purchase when you have a property that won’t sell. Get in touch with our team today.