I had a homeowner from Pinkneys Green email me the other
day. She said she had been following my blog (the Maidenhead Property Market
Blog) for a while and wanted to pick my brain on when is the best time of the
year to sell a property. Trying to calculate the best time to put your Maidenhead
property on the market can often seem something akin to witchcraft and, whilst
I would agree that there are particular times of the year that can prove more productive
than others, there are plenty of factors that need to be taken into
consideration.
Even if you are putting your property on the market, you
don’t know how long it will take to find a buyer - no crystal ball to help with
that one. At the moment, the latest set of figures for all 28 estate agents in Maidenhead,
show the average length of time it takes to find a buyer for any Maidenhead
property is as follows ..
Detached 86
days
Semi 74
days
Terraced 81
days
Flat 91
days
Overall average 85
days
If we roll the clock back to January 2016, the overall
average time it took to find a buyer (again using data from all of the 28 Maidenhead
Estate Agents) was 119 days.
So, on the face of it, things have vastly improved over the
last six months or so. Well, when I looked at the data going back to 2009, and every
Spring since then, the average length of time it takes to sell a property drops
between January and the Summer months, for it to rise on the run up to
Christmas. For example ..
Winter 2009 - 194 days Summer
2009 - 182 days
and in more recent
times …
Winter 2013 - 158 days Summer
2013 - 128 days
Winter 2014 - 124 days Summer
2014 - 118 days
Winter 2015 - 111 days Summer
2015 - 110 days
Coming back to the present, even if you placed your property
on the market today in Maidenhead, if it takes you on average a little over twelve
weeks to find a buyer, then you can expect solicitors and the chain to take an
additional eight and twelve weeks after that, before you move. It comes down to
personal choice as to when you place your property on the market. Children
often affect the decision. On one side you might delay putting that for sale
board in your front garden so you can move in the summer school holidays, but
on the other side, you might want to move sooner to be in the catchment area of
a preferred school, in plenty of time for the next academic year?
There are times of the year when it's better to sell, and
times when waiting a little longer can pay off in the long run. In a nutshell, I
would say this is the way of the seasons ..
Spring: Customarily there are more house-buyers as the
Daffodils show themselves
Summer: Sellers may miss out on house-buyers being on
holiday
Autumn: The enthusiasm for buying homes returns
Winter: Interest diminishes as festive period looms
What this means to buyers and landlord investors is that
they often pick up a bargain in later months of the year, as there is less
competition from owner occupiers. So, whilst there are better months to achieve
a quicker sale, the only piece of advice I can give to every home owner and landlord in Maidenhead, is do the
right thing for yourself, do your homework and buy (and sell) with both your
head as well as your heart
For more thoughts on the Maidenhead Property Market – visit
the Maidenhead Property Market Blog
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