Published: 15/12/2022 By Tam van Wyk
It’s that time of year again but, no doubt, many of us will still have presents to buy and turkeys to order. That’s because, somehow, Christmas always seems to creep up on you, especially this year, with all the distractions of the world cup. Then, bang, suddenly we’re right there in the middle of it and there’s not enough time left to do all the things we want to do. We always manage to muddle through, though, and then it’s feet-up time.We could all do with a bit of a break, too, because it has been quite a year. You might have thought that at the start of 2022, with Covid out of the way, we could all have breathed a sigh of relief and gotten back to normality! Instead, we’ve had the war in Ukraine, three prime ministers, a disastrous mini-budget, soaring living costs and repeated increases in the base rate. The one constant has been the property market, which has remained remarkably steady throughout, with both house prices and landlords’ yields rising.
Unsurprisingly, all those headwinds mean the housing market is now starting to slow, but only to the extent that prices and activity are coming down to more normal levels (although rents are continuing their inexorable rise). And, in the current climate, anything normal is very welcome indeed. As to what happens next – I’m afraid that will have to wait until our January edition when I will be making my predictions for the year ahead, so make sure you give it a read.
Right, well, that’s nearly it for 2022, but just before we all start tucking into the mulled wine, a reminder that over the Christmas period, many people will be spending time planning their next house move. So much so that record numbers visit the portals. They reach their peak on Boxing Day and from then until the first day back at work, there are around 51 million visits to Rightmove’s website! If you hurry, we can get your property onto the market before the holiday shut-down and you won’t miss out on all those potential renters and buyers.
Lawson Rutter wish you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year for 2023!