Estate agent urges sellers to face the winter chill

It’s a sign of the times when estate agents are practically beating the bushes to rustle up house sellers.

This week Hunters Estate Agent has taken an ad on these pages entreating property vendors not to hang up their hats for winter and defer selling into the new year.

The reasoning behind it says Rowena Quinn, managing partner at Hunters Estate Agent, is that while demand has “skyrocketed” this year, the number of houses for sale in some areas has dropped by as much as 70 per cent since August.

The inevitable effect is creating a pent-up demand which Quinn believes sellers would be foolhardy to ignore as the year draws to a close.

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“The winter months provide potential sellers with the perfect opportunity to take advantage of competition within the market and to optimise their price.

“Demand has been driven up even further for the few properties that are available, leading to more competitive bidding and an increase in the prices being achieved for properties.”

Quinn believes with stock running so low during the traditional “peak” seasons, the average number of bidders per property can be much higher in the winter months, pushing up sales prices and delivering maximum returns for sellers.

Quinn says Hunters are seeing a tranche of buyers who sold successfully in the spring selling season, and are now ready to buy having closed the sale of their own properties.

She adds that these sellers-turned-buyers are keen to find new homes as quickly as possible, to minimise the amount of money they have to spend on rent and to meet mortgage approval deadlines.

Contrary to popular belief, Hunters’ advice to sellers is to take advantage of the competitive winter market, where low supply and high demand can help sellers to maximise their price.

“In the spring thousands of homes are expected to become available, providing buyers with much more choice and reducing the competition for homes, so if you’re considering selling now is the time.”

Unfortunately a news cycle dominated by headlines predicting property price rises of 20 per cent over the next three years is likely to have the opposite effect on would-be sellers, who will defer the decision to sell now in anticipation of even greater returns further down the line.

A self-fulfilling prophecy if ever there was one.