Even in a normal economic climate, never mind during a recession, you would not expect property sales to be rising at this time of the year. It is in the spring and summer that the market traditionally starts to pick up.
It is all the more gratifying, therefore, to be able to reveal that last month Besley Hill’s 16 offices throughout Bristol and Gloucestershire enjoyed their best sales since the market disappeared in August 2007.
In addition to the highest sales for 26 months, our figures from the branches for October show: the best instruction numbers for 14 months; highest average fee on instructions for 14 months; best buyer registrations for 18 months; highest viewings for 18 months; highest pipeline for 17 months; best quarter for exchanges for nearly 24 months; and best mortgage referrals since October 2008.
The two Besley Hill franchises showing the greatest improvement in sales were Stroud (96%) and Knowle (66%) while Stroud (127%) also recorded the best improvement in exchanges.
Buyer registrations are always a good indication of the state of the market and our offices at Kingswood and Chipping Sodbury both reported an increase of more than 100%. Viewings were also up, particularly at Knowle (51%) and Wotton-under-Edge (50%).
It is early days but these figures, taken with encouraging national statistics, suggest that the housing market is at last turning the corner.
