2020-2021 Property Boom
North Norfolk saw a boom in the property market in 2020 – 2021, with demand for property far outstripping supply and this is set to continue into 2022.
Like all the beautiful coastal areas in the UK, Norfolk’s tourist industry has reported two bumper years for visitor numbers and with local holiday letting agencies reporting massive increases in bookings already in place for 2022, the staycation boom looks set to continue.
This is reflected in the property market, with record numbers of buyers seeking to secure both permanent and second homes in our sleepy corner of the world. This has resulted in the majority of properties brought to market having more than one buyer competing to purchase and prices exceeding guide in most cases.
Now is the time to sell
This makes right now a fantastic time to consider selling your home. However, an issue that we are encountering time and time again is a nervousness on the part of sellers to put their homes on the market because, whilst they know their home will sell quickly and for a good price, they are unsure if they will find an ongoing purchase because there seems to be so little coming to market. It is almost becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy; each seller who chooses not to put their house on the market is one more house that is not available to buy which feeds the restricted supply further.
Coupled with this, second homeowners have either been using their Norfolk homes more or renting them super successfully, because of the nation holidaying in the UK and therefore the appetite to sell these properties is dampened. The overall result is that there simply is not enough property coming to the market.
This winter has also been hampered again by the current wave of COVID infections and uncertainty that the Omicron variant brought in its wake; it is likely that this is had an impact on the number of instructions for local estate agents in Q1.
Spring Surge
Spring is traditionally considered to be the best time to bring a property to the sales market, the days are lengthening, gardens are cheering up and we should be moving into a Spring with no restrictions and a generally more hopeful outlook. The likelihood of a surge of properties coming to market from motivated sellers ready to take the plunge is quite strong.
There really have been few better times to consider selling in Norfolk and by working together with buyers and sellers to manage expectations and timeframes, there is every reason to expect 2022 to be another exciting year for the local property industry.