Welcome to the August edition of The Exchange 2015.

So that’s it, the summer is now over and by this time next week life will be back to normal. As we approach the final month of the ‘peak season’, it is nice to see that the market has started to gather momentum (even if it is only a little) and confidence has started to return.

Meanwhile, the global markets have been going through a major correction and people are now thinking about the possible effects on the housing market. You might think that the Chinese buyers that have been flooding their money into the UK will no longer be able to buy property in London – but maybe they will become even more determined to find a safe haven for their money.

As a result, interest rates may find themselves on hold for quite a bit longer, perhaps until the middle of 2016, which will calm the nerves of a few prospective buyers and sellers. This should translate into more property coming onto the market, as the NAEA suggests is already happening.

July’s Land Registry statistics that were recently released showed that the constipated pipeline that everyone has been complaining about has started to flush through. In July there were 24% more purchase registrations than there were in June, with My Home Move actually achieving even more than this (35%) and hopefully we can expect a similar amount in August.

I would like to think that pipelines will start to complete at a much better rate than they have been recently. I am sure you will have heard about the delays in getting searches from many Local Authorities, and you may have read my article in Property Industry Eye about the ongoing delays in dealing with leasehold properties. A lesson I learned many years ago was that things take time!

It’s now just 4 months until Christmas, which leaves ample time for your clients to move. If they want to guarantee that they will be in their new home in time, they may need to get their skates on, particularly if the property is a leasehold!

Stephen Hayter
Retail Sales Director