With high demand, limited stock and the prospect of continued house price growth ahead, you may be wondering if it’s worth waiting to see what the future brings rather than selling and moving now.

Stick or twist?

Chaired by property and finance journalist Anne Ashworth and featuring a panel of Savills experts from our research department and London and country teams, our recent webinar set out to unpick exactly that dilemma.

You can watch the recording here, but in the meantime here’s a flavour of the questions raised and our advice for buyers and sellers.

I’m thinking of downsizing but if prime property is going to increase in value shouldn’t I wait a few years before I sell?

Savills is forecasting average five-year house price growth of 24 per cent in prime central London, 14 per cent in prime outer London and 19 per cent in the prime regional markets, but bear in mind this is rarely a straight line trajectory. There will be purple patches at various points during those five years and there are likely to be times when it’s quieter.

We are in one of those purple patches at the moment. The key characteristics are high demand and a lack of stock, and extraordinary prices are still being achieved. The number of new prospective buyers registering with Savills was up 133 per cent in January from December 2021, and 85.2 per cent and 123 per cent up on pre-pandemic January 2019 and 2018 respectively. That’s the strongest month of new applicants since last March when demand was particularly high because of the original stamp duty deadline.

The other thing to consider is that very few people are exiting the market altogether. If you’re going to be reinvesting some of the proceeds of your sale into a new property, that will benefit from these same levels of future value growth.

Ultimately it’s about what’s right for you and your lifestyle now. In the last six months many people have decided to downsize because they are confident their property will sell quickly and well, freeing up money to buy something that’s perhaps better than they had previously envisaged and maybe helping their children move up the property ladder as well.

I want to move but should I put my home on the market before I’ve found what I’m looking for?

If you need to sell your current home in order to buy it’s important to plan and think strategically.

You may well find yourself facing strong competition, vying with buyers who have either sold already or don’t need to. That puts them in a much better position to proceed than you and we’ve seen people lose out on their dream home because of it.

Talk to your agent – if you take the plunge and put your home on the market first it may be possible to arrange a long completion date which would enable you to sell while giving you time to find what you’re looking for.

What are your tips for selling now?

We’re often asked if a seller should carry out work to the property before putting it on the market and generally our response has been that the best-presented homes get the premium prices. But because of the current level of demand and the scarcity of supply it probably makes sense not to delay.

And in this sort of market, it’s important to be able to transact quickly and efficiently so make sure you have all the necessary paperwork in order, gather together guarantees and permissions, and also be clear on what you’re prepared to leave behind and what you plan to take with you when you move.

Further information

Contact Liza-Jane Kelly or Andrew Perratt

Webinar: Stick or twist? Is now a good time to sell your home?

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