Birmingham property news
October 2009
Knight Frank’s Birmingham
estate agents, covering the prime city
centre as well as country
houses from Derbyshire in
the north, to Warwickshire in the
south, has seen a recent rise in
buyer activity.
Markets, however, remain
challenging with certain areas
performing more strongly than
others. The rapid decline in
house prices may have
steadied, but sensible pricing
remains key to achieving a
successful sale.
A number of interesting trends are starting to
emerge as the Birmingham property market begins to show some signs of
recovery.
Clear differences can be seen across the
various counties with Derbyshire remaining
particularly resilient. The market, however, in
areas such as Staffordshire and Shropshire, which
are more susceptible to the declining fortunes of
the urban conurbations, is more subdued.
Houses for sale
In Birmingham itself, supply in the best suburbs
remains extremely tight and continued demand
for the limited number of properties available has
helped to prevent prices from sliding at the same
rate as for the city as a whole.
Although we are definitely seeing more activity
from buyers, they remain price sensitive and
properties that do not look good value or are in
some way disadvantaged will struggle.
People are also looking at a greater number of houses
for sale and viewing individual properties more times
before committing to an offer. However, when a
desirable house is pitched at the right level we
are starting to see the re-emergence of
competitive bidding.
The most confident buyers at the moment seem
to be entrepreneurs or board-level executives
who obviously feel that the economy is showing
some signs of recovery. We are yet to see
professionals such as solicitors or accountants
back in the market to such an extent.
While the Birmingham property market is undoubtedly in better health
than it has been for some time, the spring of next
year is when activity should really start to get
going again with a big improvement in supply
and demand.