An estate agent in Worcestershire says it has temporarily run out of homes to sell as buyers snap up absolutely everything on offer.
Nicol & Co says its new offices in Malvern have already completed on 49 properties since opening in January this year and now have a further 17 homes under offer. It means they have nothing left for buyers but are at pains to make clear that this shortage is only temporary – a snapshot in time that illustrates just how extreme buyer demand has become since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Erica Hinwood, Nicol & Co’s sales manager, says:
“We currently don’t have anything for sale, as every single one of the properties we have been marketing for sale is under offer.
“This is only a snapshot in time, and we have got new listings in the pipeline, with customers at various stages of signing their homes up with us.
“But this very temporary situation where we have ‘sold out’ of all our stock reflects on the swift and successful activity by the team here in the Malvern office.”
This is not the first time an agent has run out of property to sell in this era of sublime demand.
An estate agent in Bristol recently revealed it is “running out of homes to sell” in what might be the start of a dramatic trend spreading up and down the UK as demand continues to outstrip supply.
Taylors Estate Agents Kingswood which operates in a desirable sector of the city of Bristol took to social media to make the panicked announcement:
“We are running out of houses to sell, great problem to have as they’re selling really quickly and we need more!! If you or someone you know is thinking of selling please call us…”
Taylors goes on to say that, when a property comes to the market at the right value, it’s selling within the first week of listing.
Assistant Branch Manager at Taylors Estate Agents in Kingswood, Katie Hooper, said:
“There is such high demand right now that as soon as we are getting them on the market they are selling really quickly.
“We are currently selling more than we are bringing to the market.
“From the start of the year until now our sold units have increased by 22% on last year.”
Unprecedented Demand
As with the rest of the UK, demand in Bristol has never been higher than it is today. Such is the competition for homes that the average price in the city is now more than £330,000, almost £100,000 above the national average.
Bristol is in particularly high demand as people look to escape London without venturing too far away. It’s also a relatively small city which makes available homes very desirable indeed. While house prices are almost always much higher than the UK average, they’re still affordable enough for people to sell up in London and buy something slightly bigger in Bristol.
But it’s not just Bristol. We reported earlier this week that demand for UK houses is so high that we are now in ‘the best seller’s market for 10-years’ where the excess of demand over supply is ‘bigger than at any time over the past decade’.
In a small twist of irony, the only place in the UK where house prices are consistently falling or at least staying flat is London, usually a place where you can spend 20 minutes on the tube and by the time you come up for air, a couple of grand has been added to the average house price.
