Cheadle Property Market Update July 2021

What a month July was!

The vaccine roll-out gathered pace, more government restrictions were lifted, and the country was united behind the England football team, who swept to the final of Euro 2020 on a wave of patriotic fever, only to lose on penalties – again! This time to the Italians, which left us all with a massive hangover and no spontaneous bank holiday!

Talking of hangovers, July was the first month after the initial stamp duty holiday finished at the end of June and the phased return to normal stamp duty rates returns at the end of September. It is almost unbelievable that twelve months have passed since the Chancellor announced the beginning of the stamp duty holiday and the frenzy that followed in the housing market in Cheadle and around the country.

The bizarreness of the post-pandemic property market rests on a bit of a paradox. Homes cost more than they ever have before. But they have also never been cheaper to buy.

That is because mortgage providers are in a price war, racing to the bottom over rates. Two weeks ago, Nationwide launched a 0.99pc five-year fixed mortgage – the cheapest deal on record. Except it has now been trumped by Halifax, which has just launched a 0.98% mortgage deal of the same length. Brokers expect that rates for two-year fixed-rate mortgages could fall to as low as 0.75% as lenders battle for a slice of the property boom.

The problem remains a stark shortage of properties! And in July the problem was really exacerbated if you look at the stats. Look at the table below for new listings in July.

As you will see in July 2021 there were only 133 new listings, compared with 311 in July 2020. This is a massive reduction of 57% and has hit the traditionally most popular markets of detached, semi detached and terraced homes across SK8 worst of all.

As you can see from the next image, the average available stock for the comparative period last year is down 51% yet there were 29% more daily views on Rightmove from potential buyers.

All this of course reflects in the sales statistics and they are also 29% down in July 2021 by comparison with 2020. Again the biggest drop is in detached and semi detached family homes.

This acute shortage is therefore reflected in the average price by type of property over the last twelve months with detached homes up 10.7% and now standing at £453,000, semi detached houses have increased in value 8% and are now an average price of £319,000 and terraces are up a more modest 3% at almost £261,000.

We are finding the biggest clamour is for semi detached family homes around the Councillor Lane/Palmer Avenue/ Aber Road area, terraces within walking distance of the village around Jackson Street, Cromer Road, Bulkeley Road, New Hey and Newboult Road and detached homes on the Orrishmere estate and around Broadway/Daylesford Road.

Our own view is that the imbalance between supply and demand is getting worse and there needs to be a correction to take some of the heat out of the market and bring some much needed stability. At the moment many sellers are still reluctant to put their homes on the market as there doesn’t seem to be anything suitable for them to buy, but that just creates a self fulfilling circle, which somehow needs to be broken. If anybody has the answer – we would love to hear it!

If you are thinking of selling and moving home in the Cheadle area and would like to know the current value of your home, please call Patrick, Joe or Maurice on 0161 428 3663, e-mail sales@mkiea.co.uk or visit our web wage where you can select one of the three valuation options that suits your need best.