In property market terms, high summer can often prove a mixed bag, with school holidays and annual getaways invariably having a significant impact on both buyer and seller activity.
According to professional wisdom, this natural ebb in the annual house selling cycle, is part of a much wider pattern of peaks and troughs which define the average year, and which provide a useful guide as to the most favourable times to sell or buy.
For those navigating the niche ‘second stepper’ sphere (a category defined by three and four bedroom 'family' properties,) there is much resting on the impending September selling season, in particular, and not least because this is the last, narrow window of moving opportunity, before the Christmas slowdown begins.
Even against today’s tricky economic backdrop, this is often persuasion enough for some more serious homebuyers (and sellers), that the market 'iron' is as hot as it will ever be, this year.
In line with this trend, Maidenhead’s housing stock is becoming increasingly propped up by quality family homes with favourable school catchments, including this four bedroom detached family home, located in a sought-after cul-de-sac in Holyport.
The property features a large living room, luxury bathroom suite, modern fitted kitchen, generous dining room, two home offices and a good size garden room with direct access into the beautifully maintained sunny private rear garden. It also benefits from access to nearby village amenities and Holyport primary school, and easy access to both Maidenhead and Windsor and nearby motorway links into London.
Summary
Contrary to conventional opinion, house prices and market activity are not entirely linear, but instead subject to a annual cycle of waxing and waning buyer demand. A cycle which can bode better or worse for saleability, depending on the time of the year.
Currently, we are approaching one of the more recognised ‘selling seasons’, with new listings and home enquiries slowly beginning to reflect this uptick in mover motivation and morale.
Reassuringly, this peak looks to be unaffected even by the past six months’ base-rate hikes, which have surprisingly seen house prices change remarkably little in nominal terms.
Economist Martin Beck likens the falls (10% in real terms) to ‘more a slow puncture than a serious correction,’ and this – together with the tentative downward trend of fixed-rate mortgage deals – is creating better-than-expected conditions for actioning those often much-anticipated Autumn moves.