My round-up of 2024 by Kate Taylor
Welcome to my round-up of 2024.
It’s been a tumultuous year in politics and national events can all so often affect the local and regional housing market. At the start of 2024, I don’t think any of us could have predicted the timing and impact of the snap General Election, what this would mean for the economy and how unfolding global crises play into how housing policy is shaped in Westminster and the Senedd. Whilst I might not have a crystal ball, we have been studying the Autumn budget, the latest Bank of England base rate reduction and what this might mean to the mortgage market, and crucially, buyer sentiment. Analysing historical trends post General Elections, it is usually the norm that when a party achieves a landslide victory, there follows a period of stability in the economy which in turn produces a robust and secure housing market.
But not this time. The delay to holding and publishing the budget and the continuous drip feed of caution and doom mongering in the press preBudget caused jitters in the economy and nervousness amongst buyers and home owners looking to step up the ladder. But is it all doom and gloom or is there some festive cheer at the end of what feels like a long 2- year tunnel. With 2025 fast approaching, we take a look back at the challenges and achievements of 2024 and examine our marketing strategies for the new year.
The property market has remained active, if a little subdued over the Summer and Autumn months. The latest data from the Nationwide Housing Price Index shows a modest house price increase of 2.5% in Monmouthshire for quarter 3 (July/Aug/Sept) compared to the same time last year. However, if we look further back to the same time in 2019, there has been an overall increase to property sales of 29.97% in this 5-year reporting period. This represents the most significant increase in sales prices for many years. Whilst this house price data only reflects what is happening with mortgage purchases, it is still a good litmus test of activity in the market.
The sales market has been more challenging than we have been used to of late and the dynamic between buyer and seller has shifted from a seller's to a buyer’s market. Buyers are still active but they are resistant to properties that are testing the market at a high price which means that sellers should consider adapting to these changing conditions and pricing their property competitively to secure a deal early in the new year when fresh stock will be coming to the market. Mortgage approvals were up 26.4% nationally in the Summer compared to 2023 but private sale completions were down 4.9% in the same period. Despite these pressures, 2024 has been a busy year for us. Our sales and lettings teams have clocked up over 1100 viewing appointments and we’ve completed on sales properties with a combined value of £36m. Our completion volume this year is 9% higher than in 2023, we have agreed more sales in 23/24 than in the previous year and we are optimistic that the pressures in the market are not long term and eventually in the first 1/2 of 2025, greater buyer activity will return. One figure that we don’t mind being below the industry average on: our fall throughs on sales failing to reach completion is just 20% compared to 33% nationwide.
In landlord news: our business continues to grow, our portfolio is up almost 10% this year from last. We have recruited another member to our lettings team, and we are pleased to be able to service a 24hour, 365 days a year maintenance line providing peace of mind to our landlords. This year we transferred our client accounting to Payprop which is the UK’s leading property management software and rental payment platform for letting agents. Payprop seamlessly automates and safeguards rent collection, reconciliation and payments from end to end. Operating like clockwork. the platform facilitates incoming and outgoing transactions in real time which means we can pay rent monies out on the day that we receive them. A landlord statement and rent remittance arrives in your inbox monthly, ensuring you have peace of mind and control over your income.
Our proptech developments: we have recently upgraded our software system from Expert Agent to Street. Street is designed to deliver modern, digital services enabling us to transform customer experience of buying, selling, renting and letting property. Street enables us to offer a more convenient, modern and ‘on-demand’ service for our clients and users of our services allowing you to access details of appointments, offers, sales progression milestones, property maintenance and contractor quotes at any time of the day or night via our Street app. Or, you can still just give us a call!
We are committed to advancing excellence in sales and lettings through our training and estate agency advancement programme and our award winning company is a proud member of the prestigious national agency network, the Guild of Property Professionals. Our exclusive Guild membership is important to us and we share the Guild’s core values of knowledge, integrity and results. Being part of a nationwide network of likeminded independent estate agents throughout the UK with a central office in London sets us apart from our competitors and gives us access to the lucrative London market. We are currently achieving a 97.4% customer satisfaction rating from our clients via the ESTAS which is an independent review site and this year we were honoured to have won 5 Guild Awards, 4 ESTAS, 2 British Property Awards and 2 Best Estate Agent Guide awards, including the company being recognised as being in the top 500 companies for lettings in the UK.
But it is not all about business. Our team has an unwavering passion for customer service and aspires to offer exceptional levels of client care whilst contributing to the communities we live in. We continually look for ways to support and engage our younger generation by giving them the opportunity to work alongside us and this year, we have hosted 3 students plus a day release apprentice who certainly teaches us a thing or two! In addition, Careers Wales have asked us to represent our industry at careers fairs at local schools to inspire younger people to work in the property sector. We fundraise for TY Hafan and this year we have been selling Abergavenny 2025 Calendars with all proceeds going to this amazing children’s hospice - so if you need a calendar for next year, pop in to our showroom to pick up your copy, it’s not too late! We have enjoyed sponsoring local groups too and have invested in kit and rain covers for Abergavenny cricket club plus we have sponsored drama productions for Abergavenny Amateur Dramatic Society plus Forget Me Not Productions. Our largest event was supporting the annual Abergavenny food festival where we sponsored the Local & Vocal stage which is an important space for our community to share ideas on sustainable farming and housing.
On behalf of the team, my warmest wishes for the remainder of this year and for the new year ahead!
Kate Taylor
