I had a resident from Abraham Heights email me the other day. She said she had been following my blog (the Lancaster Property Market Blog) for a while and wanted to pick my brain on when is the best time of the year to sell a property.
Trying to calculate the best time to put your Lancaster property on the market can sometimes seem confusing. It is also often determined by your circumstances and needs. However there are particular times of the year that can prove more productive than others. There are also plenty of factors that need to be taken into consideration.
If you are putting your property on the market, you don’t know how long it will take to find a buyer – no crystal ball to help with that one. My own agency has recently agreed several sales in just days from them hitting the market. Take Appletree Drive, Hala for instance. It sold in one day. Windermere Road, Freehold sold in just 5 days. However we all know ones that have taken longer!
At the moment, the latest set of figures for all 15 estate agents in Lancaster, show the average length of time it takes to find a buyer for any Lancaster property is as follows ..
Detached 177 days
Semi 121 days
Terraced 117 days
Flat 197 days
Overall average 149 days
If we roll the clock back to January 2016, the overall average time it took to find a buyer (again using data from all of the 15 Lancaster Estate Agents) was 195 days.
On the face of it, things have vastly improved over the last six months or so. When I looked at the data going back to 2009, and every Spring since then, the average length of time it takes to sell a property drops between January and the Summer months, only for it to rise on the run up to Christmas. The graph below illustrates this.
Coming back to the present, even if you placed your property on the market today in Lancaster, if it takes you on average a little over twenty one weeks to find a buyer ( this is an average, some agents really are quicker than others ) then you can expect solicitors and the chain to take an additional eight and twelve weeks after that, before you move.
It really does comes down to personal choice as to when you place your property on the market. Children often affect the decision. On one side you might delay putting that for sale board in your front garden so you can move in the summer school holidays, but on the other side, you might want to move sooner to be in the catchment area of a preferred school, in plenty of time for the next academic year?
There are times of the year when it’s better to sell, and times when waiting a little longer can pay off in the long run. In a nutshell, I would say this is the way of the seasons ..
Spring
Customarily there are more house-buyers as the Daffodils show themselves
Summer
Sellers may miss out on house-buyers being on holiday
Autumn
The enthusiasm for buying homes returns
Winter
Interest diminishes as festive period looms
What this means to buyers and landlord investors is that they often pick up a bargain in later months of the year, as there is less competition from owner occupiers. So, whilst there are better months to achieve a quicker sale, the only piece of advice I can give to every home owner and landlord in Lancaster, is do the right thing for yourself, do your homework and buy (and sell) with both your head as well as your heart.
For more thoughts on the Lancaster Property Market – visit the Lancaster Property Market Blog www.lancasterpropertyblog.co.uk or simply call me, John Gallagher in my JDG Lancaster office!