Lancaster & Morecambe 01524 843322
Posted on Sunday, September 1, 2019
Historically August has always been a quieter month in the local housing market. The last few years have been very postive, interestingly, coinciding with the number of new build sites. These are now drawing to a close in LA1. Many sites have been completed and as such the local housing market has gone quieter.
Don’t forget, Lancaster is also a university city, which closes for the Summer. Combine this with the 6 weeks Summer holidays and the fact that many people are away on holiday, it does have a knock on effect.
Last year the housing market saw a sales increase of 10%. This year, it has had a big downturn in activity. Last year in LA1 98 homes sold. This year it was just 55 properties. This is a big drop in sales.
I’ve looked at the sales activity in Morecambe. There has been no change at all there. My agency friends in Preston are reporting just a 10% drop in activity. If Brexit was the issue, we would all have the same downturn. Could this just be a blip?
Here are the figures for Lancaster (LA1) August 2019
For the first time since I started these reports, sales across the city were equally balanced. LA1 3 just took the lead but only by two sales. Terraces were by far the most popular selling type, interestingly, half of these had just 2 bed homes. Now that the new build help to buy schemes are coming to end, it appears that many first time buyers are choosing to look at the re-sale options available.
Sales with Semi detached and Detached homes really plummetted. But these are family homes and those with children often favour holidays in the summer over moving home!
Sales by price
up to £125,000 15
£125,000 - £250,000 34
£250,00 - £500,000 6
£500,000 + 0
Sales by postcode
LA1 1 5
LA1 2 12
LA1 3 14
LA1 4 12
LA1 5 12
Sales by property type
Detached 4
Semi-detached 9
Terrace 29
Flats 10
Bungalows 2
Only 13 agents actually agreed sales in LA1 in August and only 3 agents actually sold more than 5 properties. Thankfully 22% of all the sales agreed were by our agency.
Despite the doom and gloom, we had some great successes - Cowdrey Mews, Myndon Street, Balmoral Road, Connaught Road and Franklin Street, all sold within the first week of marketing. Antony Road and Caton Road both found buyers within the first month.
If you are thinking of moving, please get in touch. I’m keen to talk to owners of two and three bed homes priced upto £200,000 and any semi detached home owners across the region. I also have a genuine buyer looking to buy 4 more investment properties in Lancaster. These are properties priced upto £130,000 that are in good to excellent order. We have already found this buyer two homes.
My name is Michelle Gallagher. You can reach me at michelle@jdg.co.uk or call me on 01524 843322.
Ps. Why not try out our handy online valuation tool? It is not as accurate as having us around but in under 60 seconds, you could have a good indication as to what your home may be worth. Why not give it a try?
https://valuation.jdg.co.uk/home/800-jd-gallagher
