The number of properties for sale
in Neath has fallen by 48% since this time two years ago (October 2019). One of
the reasons is that many Neath buyers feel overwhelmed and fearful they will be
made homeless if they sell their home and can’t buy another. So, I have decided
to look again at the facts and give them to you in greater detail in this
article.
My research has found the number of Neath
properties for sale started to decline last autumn (2020).
Nationally, the same story is being written as
the average UK estate agency office now has around 16 properties on their books
to buy, compared to 43 a couple of years ago.
So why is this an issue? Many Neath
homeowners are wanting to move home and are worried they will put their current
home on the market, it sells quickly and then be unable to find another home to
buy – thus they believe they will then be making themselves homeless.
The fact is that most Neath home buyers need
to sell before they can buy their next home, meaning they need to place their
property on to the Neath property market before they can buy their next home.
Yet because of the low supply of properties
for sale and the current high demand, there is an imbalance in the Neath property
market. This means some Neath house sellers are nervous to put a ‘for sale’
board outside their house.
So, let me look at the Neath numbers in
greater detail. According to the three main property portals (Rightmove, Zoopla
and On-The-Market) …
In October 2019, there were 181 properties for sale in Neath. Today, there are only 94 properties for sale, a reduction of 48%. When I break it down into bedroom numbers and type it gets even more interesting (note things like building plots and part commercial/part residential etc., won’t be in these numbers so the stats below won’t precisely match up to those above).
| # Properties on the Market in Oct 2019 | # Properties on the Market in Oct 2021 | % Change | |
| 5+ Bed | 7 | 3 | -57% |
| 4 Beds | 40 | 16 | -60% |
| 3 Bed | 85 | 43 | -49% |
| 2 Bed | 35 | 20 | -43% |
| 1 Bed | 1 | 3 | 200% |
.. and when I looked at the type
of properties … it got even more interesting …
| Type of Property | # Properties on the Market in Oct 2019 | # Properties on the Market in Oct 2021 | % Change |
| Detached | 59 | 34 | -42% |
| Semi | 62 | 31 | -50% |
| Terraced | 46 | 22 | -52% |
| Flat | 10 | 3 | -70% |
As you can see, there have been
some interesting changes in the number of properties on the market in Neath
over the last few years, depending on the type and the number of bedrooms, yet most
types of housing are down considerably.
So,
if Neath homeowners do sell, will they be made homeless if they can’t find
their next ‘forever home’?
The answer is quite simply … NO!
Neath properties are coming on to
the market all the time, yet the buyers have got to be in the game, in it to
win it so to speak. If you keep looking at properties, without even having
your property on the market, let alone sold (subject to contract), then you
will fall into a self-fulfilling prophecy of not being able to buy another home
and will always be chasing your tail.
And it’s those magic words of “subject to
contract” that are your get out of jail card.
The average time taken from agreeing a sale
to it being legally binding (i.e. exchange of contracts) is about 19 weeks.
During those 19 weeks, you are ‘sold subject
to contract, which means you have four or five months to find your new home and
the likelihood of not finding your next forever home is very small.
And even if you can’t find anywhere, you will
never be homeless as the sale is not legally binding until you exchange
contracts, so you can withdraw from the sale up to that point, without penalty.
One final word of advice to all Neath
home movers.
Around 6 in 7 Neath home buyers could have missed their ‘forever home’ in 2020/21.
Let me explain, in a study of
various UK estate agents 84.8% of homebuyers were not on the estate agent’s
mailing list before they contacted the agent to view the home according to
Denton House Research.
Yes, 6 out of 7 buyers (84.8%) waited
until the property came on to the market on one of the portals (e.g.
Rightmove, Zoopla or On The Market) before asking to view it. But would it
surprise you that depending on the location and type, up to one in five houses
don’t actually make it on to the portals for sale.
This means if the homebuyer
hadn’t registered themselves on the agents mailing list, they would’ve missed
out on their ‘forever home’, because they would not have known the property was
for sale until it was too late.
Quite simply, if you are serious about moving home in Neath, speak to our team today!
