Bought to you by: TOWN AND COUNTRY HARLOW “CHANGING THE WAY ESTATE AGENTS WORK!” 01279 295524 June-July 2023 TOWN AND COUNTRY HARLOW www.townandcountryhertsandessex.co.uk
Welcome to our brand new magazine: HARLOW PROPERTY & MORTAGE NEWS”. This has been in the making for some time now, and the main reason it has taken so long for us to put this all together has been us experimenting and drafting various versions and using friends and family as guinea pigs and listening to what they said, both good and bad (and there was plenty of bad), and changing this and that until we have gotten to where we are now. But first, a little history.. Our strapline “CHANGING THE WAY ESTATE AGENTS WORK” was originally born out of my frustration of how I was treated by Estate Agents when trying to buy and then later trying to sell & buy a property for my family. I decided there and then to become an Estate Agent. Imagine my pleasure when I met my now business partner Lee Venables and discovered that he too had had the same experiences when selling and subsequently buying a property in Harlow and wanted to change things from within. We stayed in touch as our paths crossed several times while plying our trade in Harlow and surrounding towns and villages. It was at one of these meets that we spoke about joining forces. Two meetings later, we decided to join forces and change the ‘Estate Agency World’. A short stint working out of an office in Ware, gave us the chance to start to put a plan of action together and put into place strategies, that we are continually tweaking, because just when we think we have got it right, we want to do even better. One of the things we both wanted, was to be able to produce a local property magazine that really “drilled down” into what is happening not just in Harlow, but in every postcode sector of Harlow. Afterall, there are big differences not only in CM17, 18, 19, and 20, but in individual sectors. All we had to do was access that data, and that is what we have been doing since Lee and myself relocated to our shop / office in Harlow Town Centre in September 2022 which is the HQ of Town and Country Herts & Essex. We are delighted to tell you (you have probably already guessed), that we now have current and ongoing data for all 9 Harlow postcode sectors. What does this mean? Well read on dear people! This is the first of what we hope will be many issues of “HARLOW PROPERTY & MORTGAGE NEWS”. We are going to publish it every two months, and every postcode sector will be featured, with data being updated in every subsequent issue. It will be available as an e-magazine online, and we are delighted to announce that it is also going to be available as a 24 page hard copy magazine, and will be available FREE OF CHARGE in various retail outlets around the town. We hope you find this magazine as interesting and intriguing as we do. It will be full of facts, stats, and figures that will help you understand the local market better, help you understand your local area and indeed Harlow better. Most important of all though is the fact that we can use these amazing facts, stats and figures to help sell Harlow property quickly and for a great price. People viewing your property will be given a comprehensive property and area report when they view. No other agent (as far as we know) offers anything like this magazine and no other agent gives viewers an information pack like this. So, put the kettle on, make a brew or a coffee, get yourself a biscuit or two, and have a read through this first edition of our magazine. Your feedback would be appreciated Regards Geoff Flewers Sales Director Town and Country Harlow
Since that ill fated Liz Truss mini budget back in the Autumn, things have been very choppy indeed. However, the waters are calming, and to be fair, they have been calming for a while now. The main stream media rarely give out good news, and the good news is that mortgages have been dropping since the middle of November. Whilst the mortgage rates may well (indeed are sure to) change between the time this is being written and the next issue is published, the rates whilst still more expensive than pre September are still falling. The Bank of England raised the base rate by another 0.25% in April BUT, the very same week, many major players in the mortgage market reduced their 2 & 5 year fixed rate mortgages by 0.5%, and some, a whopping 1%. For a deeper look at this please see our mortgage news page. The Harlow market continues to improve week on week and sales for the last week in April were the highest since September 2022. May has been an odd month mainly because of THREE bank holidays, but sales have remained high. In essence, if your property is marketed correctly and for the right price, IT WILL SELL! May saw 154 properties listed on all the major portals. At the time of going to print there were 402 properties for sale in Harlow which is a massive increase from 235 in May 2022. in May alone there were over 200 properties reduced in price. It is no coincidence that the increase in sales agreed has coincided with many properties having their asking price reduced. For too long (in our opinion, way too long), local agents have continued to “over value” property as “stock” becomes increasingly harder to come by. This of course means one thing. THE PROPERTY WILL NOT SELL UNTIL IT HAS A PRICE REDUCTION! The amount of properties being reduced on Rightmove, Zoopla etc. is at an all time high! The biggest problem with this is that statistics show that you achieve less for a property when the price has been reduced. Indeed, various independent studies have concluded that the optimum selling time for a property is 8-14 days! Independent studies showed for example that a property really worth £350,000 will sell for a higher price if advertised at perhaps £340,000 than if over priced at say £360,000. Please make sure your agent can justify the asking price when valuing your property. YOU REALLY NEED TO SEE PROOF! SEE PAGE 13 FOR A MORE COMPREHENSIVE LOOK AT WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH THE HARLOW PROPERTY MARKET! Does it matter if house prices drop? WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU? Well, the answer is multi faceted as it affects different people in different ways. 1. If you are a first time buyer and property prices are falling then you might consider playing a waiting game. Waiting for property to fall lower and lower could be a good ploy. However, what you should also consider is simply “affordability”. If you can get the right mortgage for a property you love and you can afford the repayments, then buying now is definitely the right move. Afterall, just about every analyst predicts that mortgage rates and indeed inflation will be considerably lower in 2 years and even more so in 5 years, so affordability now with a 2 or 5 year fixed rate mortgage seems like a wise move. Property may rise & fall, but over longer periods it ALWAYS RISES. 2. If you are moving up the ladder then falling house prices in theory means that the differential between your property and the type of property you would like to buy will in fact decrease as property prices fall. How much that differential closes, will of course change from area to area. Indeed there are still areas where prices have hardly fallen so keep a keen eye out and in reality it comes back to that one word again, “affordability”. MAKE SURE YOUR LOCAL AGENT HAS ALL THE RELEVANT DATA TO SHOW YOU. 3. If you are “down sizing”, the opposite can to said as the differential will increase, thus costing you more! Once again, regional differences can come into play, and as always “affordability” is key. 4. If you have a second property that perhaps you rent or indeed inherit, then selling it as quickly as possible is vital if prices are falling and you do need or want to sell. In conclusion, we always say that the right time to sell is when it is right for you! Just make sure you are in possession of all the facts, and not just what a local estate agent tells you. ASK THEM TO SHOW YOU AND JUSTIFY WHY THEY ARE SAYING IT!
slightly different ways. • Rightmove average prices are the highest, but their index is based on the asking prices of newly listed properties (around 100,000 each month), not on sales prices. In comparison, the ONS UK HPI index uses final sales prices, including for cash and mortgage sales, recorded by the Land Registry. It includes around 80,000-100,000 sales per month. • Halifax and Nationwide use their own mortgage applications at approval stage (around 12,00015,000 per month). The average price quoted by Nationwide is usually the lowest. The differences in the source of the data, as well as the statistical calculations that make up each index, explains their variations. Comparing the indexes against each other is like comparing apples with pears. However, despite the variation in methodologies, the overall trend direction noted by each organisation is similar. It is this overall trend which is important when considering what is happening in the current market. Source: Dataloft, Nationwide, Halifax, ONS UK HPI, Rightmove
Harlow has a current population of 98,150 people living within it. That is an increase of some 14.2% over the last 10 years. 14.8% of the population are aged between 35-44, which is slightly above the regional (East of England) average of 13%. 28.5% of households comprise just one person, while 42.5% of households include families with children. The most predominant industry of employment is Public admin, Education, and Health which accounts for 26.2% of the working population of Harlow. 58% of the working force in Harlow, travel to work by car, and surprisingly only 2.2% travel to work by train, while 8.9% walk. 29.1% of people living in Harlow work from home. • In 2021 there were 39,710 dwellings within Harlow. 26% of properties are flats while houses make up 74% of housing • 56.4% of residents within Harlow own their own homes while 15.1% live in privately rented accommodation. 28.5% live in a social rented property. • 12% of properties are detached, 18% are semi detached, 44% are terraced, and 26% are flats. • Over the last 12 months the average sales price in Harlow was £326,533. The total value of sales was £379,408,652. • Over the last 12 months the average sales price in Harlow for various types of property was: • All properties £385,434 • Terraced £331,704 • Semi detached £418,029 • Detached £593,740 • Flats £198,265 We have so many more facts, stats, and figures available for the whole of Harlow. In the forthcoming pages, we break down all of this into postcode sectors, and in forthcoming issues new data and updated data will be included so we can keep you bang up to date with what’s happening exactly where you live!
Kitchen, Bathroom & Refurbishment Specialists KITCHENS CARPENTRY BATHROOMS BESPOKE WARDROBES REFURBISHMENTS
The following pages contain just some of the very latest data for individual postcode sectors. This includes information from the 2021 census, plus bang up to date property and amenities data from DATALOFT INFORM, HOME.CO.UK, THE LAND REGISTRY, HMRC, & THE OFFICE OF NATIONAL STATISTICS If we were to publish every piece of data we have, this publication would rival War and Peace for pages! However, in the forthcoming months we will continue to give you up to the minute information for not just Harlow, but your personal postcode sector to help you understand more about where you live, what your property might be worth, and what’s happening to the local property market in general. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we have enjoyed writing it all up and designing it!
8,844 people live within the postcode sector CM17 0 The overall population has increased by 28.9% in the last 10 years. 66% of residents own their own property while 11.4% live in privately rented accommodation. There are 3,758 dwellings in CM17 0, 18.7% of properties are flats, while houses make up 81.3% of housing stock. AVERAGE SALES PRICE OF DETACHED HOUSES AVERAGE SALES PRICE OF SEMI DETACHED HOUSES “CM17 0” APR 2022—MAR 2023 “CM17 0” APR 2022—MAR 2023 AVERAGE SALES PRICE OF TERRACED HOUSES AVERAGE SALES PRICE OF FLATS “CM17 0” APR 2022—MAR 2023 “CM17 0” APR 2022—MAR 2023 TRANSACTIONS BY MONTH MAR 22 - FEB 23 AVERAGE HOUSE PRICES JAN 1996 - MAR 2023 Above are just a few snapshots of what’s happening in “CM17 0” right now! Overall there was a slight reduction in March. Average detached property price is now £782k which is the third consecutive drop. Semi detached is now £442k also a third drop in a row. Terraced properties at £369k, are slightly up for the third month in a row which mirrors the UK market. Flats are also up at £243k which is a jump of some £14k. Once again this mirrors the regional and national market trends. Transactions slumped considerably in Feb (these figures have a greater lag than sales prices). However, the preliminary figures for March are suggesting an upward turn. A quick look at the final graphic gives you an amazing look at property in “CM17 0” since 1996. This holds up every expert’s theory that while property has troughs and peaks, the underlying theme over a longer term IS ALWAYS UP!
17,060 people live within the postcode sector CM17 9 The overall population has increased by 18.2% in the last 10 years. 70.8% of residents own their own property while 15.6% live in privately rented accommodation. There are 6,697 dwellings in CM17 9, 14.9% of properties are flats, while houses make up 85.1% of housing stock. AVERAGE SALES PRICE OF DETACHED HOUSES AVERAGE SALES PRICE OF SEMI DETACHED HOUSES “CM17 9” APRIL 2022—MARCH 2023 “CM17 9” APRIL 2022—MARCH 2023 AVERAGE SALES PRICE OF TERRACED HOUSES AVERAGE SALES PRICE OF FLATS “CM17 9” APRIL 2022—MARCH 2023 “CM17 9” APRIL 2022—APRIL 2023 TRANSACTIONS BY MONTH MAR 22 - FEB 23 AVERAGE HOUSE PRICES JAN 1996 - MAR 2023 So what’s happening in “CM17 9” RIGHT NOW? Just a slight fall overall in this postcode sector as CM17 9 bucks the trend! Detached property sits at £513k which is just slightly down on Feb figures. Semi detached properties are the surprise stat here with a very slight increase to £419k which is the third month in a row prices have risen. Terraced property averages out at £348k which again is the third increase in a row, however, this follows regional and national trends. Flats sit at £228k which is a third successive fall which again goes against the flow BUT, upholds what we have thought about flats in CM17 9 that there has been some serious over valuing recently! There is still an abundance of property in CM17 9 that has been on the market way too long. In the main, this is also a result of agents over pricing property just to win the instruction. Once again though, the final graphic shows the healthy return on investment over a much longer term. Watch this space!
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