Top tips to sell your property faster
EditorialRoom 11th July 2024
Selling a house is a major undertaking and can be surprisingly time-consuming. It requires planning, paperwork and, yes, money. So it makes sense to stay organized, especially if you have no experience as a home seller. Here’s our selling checklist with everything you need to know to avoid mistakes. Keep your emotions in check It can feel like an invasion of privacy when strangers open your closets and poke around. Distance yourself from the emotional aspects of selling the property and stay focused on the business aspect. Do your research Before you sell your house, get to know the local market inside out and get your property valued properly to save time and money. Then set a competitive asking price. Remember buyers will probably try to negotiate a discount. Choose a real estate agent It’ll cost you in commission, but agents have more experience negotiating home sales, are familiar with
Read MoreUK housing market still cautious RICS says
EditorialRoom 13th April 2023
House prices in the UK are expected to continue to drop despite surveyors’ expectations that the housing market will stabilise over the next 12 months, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (Rics) monthly survey has shown. The study which measures the proportion of surveyors reporting new buyer inquiries against those saying they fell, shows a score of -29% for surveyors reporting a fall in demand in March, almost flat on the -30% recorded in February. A minus score means there was a higher proportion of surveyors reporting a fall than a rise. The survey findings also show agreed sales slipped to -31%, down from -25% in February, although still less negative than the -43% reported last October in the wake of Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-budget. Near-term expectations point to sales remaining under pressure over the next few months, returning a net balance of -29%. Nevertheless, this is less downcast than
Read MoreSales of luxury homes drop 28.1% in the U.S.
EditorialRoom 16th October 2022
Luxury U.S. homes purchases fell 28.1% year over year during the three months ending Aug. 31, 2022, according to a new report from Redfin, as rising interest rates, inflation, a tepid stock market and economic uncertainty are causing luxury buyers to back off. That’s the biggest decline since at least 2012, eclipsing the 23.2% plunge that occurred when the onset of the Covid-19 brought the housing market to a near standstill roughly two years ago, the real estate brokerage revealed. “High-end-house hunters are getting sticker shock when they see the impact of rising mortgage rates on paper. For a luxury buyer, a higher interest rate can equate to a monthly housing bill that’s thousands of dollars more expensive,” Fairweather said. “Someone who was in the market for a $1.5 million home last year may now have a maximum budget of $800,000 thanks to higher mortgage rates. Luxury goods are often
Read MoreEurozone sees fall in construction output
EditorialRoom 18th February 2022
Production in the construction sector in the eurozone dropped 4% in December 2021 compared to November, according to first estimates from Eurostat. In the whole of the European Union (EU), construction output was off 3.1% on a monthly basis, the statistical office of the bloc said on Friday (Feb. 18). Compared to December 2020, production in construction decreased by 3.9% in the Eurozone and by 1.8% in the EU. The annual average production in construction for the year 2021, compared with 2020, was up by 5.2% in the euro area and by 4.8% in the EU. Monthly comparison by construction sector and by Member State In the eurozone in December 2021, compared with November 2021, building construction decreased by 4.5% and civil engineering by 1.9%. In the EU, building construction decreased by 3.6% and civil engineering by 1.3%. Among Member States for which data are available, the largest monthly decreases
Read MoreHousing market: What 2022 has in store?
EditorialRoom 30th December 2021
It’s been a year of running out of adjectives to describe the housing market during the COVID-19. What will the 2022 real estate market look like? U.K. After a stellar 2021, UK’s housing market may slow next year, according to the Nationwide Building Society. The house price index (HPI) increased by 10.4% year-on-year in December after a 10.0% increase in November. On a monthly basis, the HPI rose 1.0% following a 0.9% gain in November. Economists had forecast a 0.5% increase. “2021 was the strongest calendar year for house price growth since 2006,” the group said on Thursday (Dec. 30). The average price of a typical UK home hit a record high of GBP 254,822, up by GBP 24,000 over the year, which was the largest rise in a single year in cash terms. Prices were 16 percent higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early 2020. Prices got
Read MoreUS home prices to rise another 16% in 2022
EditorialRoom 1st November 2021
Home prices in the U.S. are currently up 20% year-over-year but they have yet to peak, according to a new report from Goldman Sachs. The investment bank’s economists predict that home prices will grow another 16% by the end of 2022. “Of all the shortages afflicting the U.S. economy, the housing shortage might last the longest,” the note goes on” wrote a Goldman Sachs team of economists led by Jan Hatzius in a recent note. The COVID-19 crisis has driven many Americans to seek homes in suburban areas that provide more space and are not as congested as apartments in big cities. Over 15.9 million people have moved during the coronavirus, according to USPS data. Yet many other homeowners have been reluctant to sell during the pandemic, and the construction of new homes has foundered amid supply chain disruptions, lumber shortages, and now economy-wide labor shortages. Industry experts say the current
Read MoreConstruction output in Spain falls 13.9%
EditorialRoom 31st October 2021
Construction production in Spain dropped 13.9% year-on-year in August, marking the biggest rate of decrease among EU member states for which data is available, Eurostat data showed. In August 2021 compared with August 2020, production in construction decreased by 1.6% in the euro area and by 1.0% in the EU, the statistical office of the European Union said. The largest annual decreases in production in construction were observed in Spain (-13.9%), Romania (-7.0%) and Slovenia (-6.8%). The largest increases were recorded in Hungary (+10.2%), Poland (+7.9%) and Finland (+4.7%), In the euro area in August 2021, compared with August 2020, civil engineering decreased by 2.9% and building construction by 1.3%. In the EU civil engineering decreased by 1.5% and building construction by 0.7%. In August 2021 compared with July 2021, seasonally adjusted production in the construction sector decreased by 1.3% in the euro area and by 1.8% in the EU.
Read MoreEU house prices go up by 7.3% in Q2 2021
EditorialRoom 25th October 2021
In the second quarter of 2021, house prices, as measured by the House Price Index, rose by 6.8% in the euro area and by 7.3% in the EU compared with the same quarter of the previous year. This is the highest annual increase for the euro area since the fourth quarter of 2006, and since the third quarter of 2007 for the EU, Eurostat said. In the first quarter of 2021, house prices rose by 5.7% and 6.1% respectively. Compared with the first quarter of 2021, house prices rose by 2.6% in the euro area and 2.7% in the EU in the second quarter of 2021, the statistical office of the European Union added. Among the Member States for which data are available, eleven showed an annual increase in house prices in the second quarter of 2021 of more than 10%. The highest annual increases were recorded in Estonia (+16.1%),
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