Back in May 2022, we looked at one of the major property portals to get some specific data around the availability of houses for sale in Chelmsford. At that time the property market was still moving along swiftly and we and many other agents had the market imbalance of too many buyers for not enough properties. This helped to support high prices along with cheap borrowing costs. We were talking to many people who were put off from putting their property on the market because there was “nothing for them to buy”.
Roll forward to today, February 2023 and there is a noticeable change in the market conditions. Borrowing costs have risen considerably although new mortgage rates are falling back down. 5 year fixed rate mortgages can now be accessed at under 4%. The number of properties on the market has increased greatly and we thought it would be good to understand the numbers and the reason behind them.
May 2022
443 properties available to purchase up to £500,000 in Chelmsford. Of those properties 306 were flats and only 137 were houses. Chelmsford has for many years had a number of new build flat developments in the city centre and this has led to such a large supply of flats being available. With only 137 houses available this really restricted the options available for wouldbe sellers if they were then needing to buy a property as well.
Feb 2023
606 properties available to purchase up to £500,000 in Chelmsford. Of those properties 335 are flats and 271 are houses. As you can see from these figures the number of flats in Chelmsford has pretty much stayed the same however there has been significant increase in the number of houses available to buy.
With rising mortgage costs we have noticed an increase in the number of former rental properties now coming onto the sales market and also we feel the increase of houses has come from people that have seen market prices reach their peak and want to try and sell however with that peak possibly behind us there is now the challenge of finding the right market price between buyers and sellers to make a deal happen.
Market commentators have split opinions around where the market will be at the end of 2023 however we can only work with the information we have available at the time. If you are thinking of buying or selling currently then it is important to be aware of what is happening in the local property market and not the national market and also to be specific about your own circumstances. If you need to sell and any offers are lower than you were hoping for or expected then you may be able to negotiate a better price on a property that you are looking to purchase as well.
We are always happy to talk to you and understand more about your own circumstances so please contact Trefor or Louise on 01245 830003.
