Government schemes, like ‘Help to Buy,’ have fuelled this growth, and the signs that recession and economic trouble has ended have also helped. These developments have had a tangible effect on house prices, with Halifax reporting that in November 2013, prices rose by a staggering 7.7%
The sales website, Rightmove, reports a 21% year on year increase in traffic. The Office of Budget Responsibility has predicted that by 2018, house prices will have increased by 27%!
Of course, this is great news for estate agents, many of whom have relied on their rental businesses to keep them afloat during the darkest days of the housing downturn.
Estate agents prioritise winning new instructions:
The fact that there are more people not only wanting, but able, to buy has implications for estate agents. It means that they need to work to gain business in what is rapidly becoming a highly competitive market. Committing vendors to place their property for sale with the estate agent is something of a dog eat dog market and, knowing the prospect of a sale is easier than in previous years, vendors can afford to be prudent about which agent they advertise with, and vendors clearly take more aspects in to account than just the agents fees when choosing which agents to entrust their house sale to.
New ways to secure more new property instructions:
The fundamental “sell” for estate agents is to win the new instruction in the first place, and with an increase in buyers returning to the market, property in general is selling quicker and estate agents are working hard to secure more new instructions.
A recent survey by Complete My Sale on the estate agents using their sales progression service showed that 9 out of 10 estate agents have planned to increase their advertising budgets by 50% or more for 2014 in view of more potential in the market.
The survey also showed that the most popular reason for estate agents now using Complete My Sale was to enable their in-house sales teams to focus more on new instructions, either by physically spending more time meeting potential vendors, or by carrying our proactive marketing activities such as targeting specific locations with leaflet drops or board counting in order to increase the presence of their estate agency within the local market.
Josh McGann from Complete My Sale confirmed:
“The recent survey of our estate agents shows that the most popular reason estate agents choose to use us is because it enables them to get more new property on their books. Last year the most popular reason for joining CMS [Complete My Sale] was because we help reduce their fall through rate. Whilst this is still very true (our fall through rate is less than 1 in 7) the shift in reasoning now does highlight to us that estate agents are much more positive about the property market and are keen to maximise all potential new sales in their area”
It’s a great time for estate agents to attract new business as confidence grows, home ownership looks a likely prospect, and the market increases. But with this growth comes financial shrewdness; vendors seek the most competitive deals, and estate agents need to be able to offer that.
