Sensible pricing is the key to sales, says Brian Holt

Manager of the Kenilworth branch Julie Philpot says the spring has so far been extremely busy with sales on the increase and plenty of people deciding to take the plunge after a period of waiting to see what was going to happen to the economy.

In fact the past couple of months have seen both offices report a sharp increase in sales and in new properties coming onto the market.

“We may well be bucking the trend in Kenilworth as, although experts are saying prices are remaining static and likely to stay that way for the rest of the year, three bedroom semis have actually risen in price over the past three months because demand is greater than supply,” explained Julie.

“We always recommend a sensible price regardless of what’s going on in the market, but now it’s becoming even more important for vendors to be realistic about how much they can achieve for their home.

“Realistic though doesn’t mean miserable – it means exactly what it says and if there’s a demand for a particular type of home – in this case the perennially popular three bedroom semi then these can command a sensible premium. If everyone is sensible up and down the chain then no one will lose out.”

Last week’s report from the Nationwide showed house prices rising marginally – by 0.3 per cent - across the country, making them 1.2 per cent lower than this time last year.

“The first three months of 2011 saw the economy grow, albeit slowly,” explained Julie.

“So the growth has been sufficient to reassure people that there’s not going be a huge crash, but not so vast as to see prices soaring, which is in many ways a pretty healthy state of affairs.

“As ever we’re advising people to ask a sensible price which may not be what they could have asked three years ago. But then neither are they looking to spend what they would have done then.

“Because we’ve been in this business for a very long time our customers understand that we really do know what we’re talking about, we understand the nuances of the local market and the overall picture nationally and will do our utmost to help at all stages of the buying, selling and moving process.”