What’s in store for 2023 and a Merry Christmas from Heartwood 24 Dec 2022
The end of 2022 is fast approaching, as is the end of our third year in business and it’s been another fantastic year for us!
The highlight this year has been winning Gold for Best Estate Agent St Albans, well done and thank you to all of the team as its our customer service that was judged! We also welcomed Kayleigh to the team back in the Spring and have expanded our support to our local community. We are proud to now be partnering with Youth Talks, a fantastic local charity supporting 13-25 year olds with mental health in St Albans.
Thank you to everyone that has supported us this year, our lovely clients and the many recommendations that we receive are the soul of our business and we are so proud of that fact.
We are delighted to say that our sales have continued to increase year on year, which after the crazy markets of 2021 seems unbelievable! That’s not to say it hasn’t been a challenging year, but the team have adapted well and we have fought hard for our clients to keep sales progressing wherever we can.
Charity in 2022
Giving back to our community is an important part of our ethos and this year we are honoured to say that we have supported Action for Homeless with their Choir Concert, St Saviours at their Beer and Fizz Festival and Wheatfields Infants with their Festive Fair.
We have always been keen to partner with a charity, helping them over a longer period of time and this year we are delighted to have formed a partnership with Youth Talks, a St Albans based charity working with the youth population to support practically with mental health. For every property sold by us, we pledge to donate some of our fee to the charity. We have completed our first quarter with them and were excited to hear the benefits that will come from our first donation. We are really looking forward to working with the wonderful team in 2023.
What’s been happening in the market
We have seen house prices increase by 6.2% year on year. It started as a year with great promise but the latter end of the year has seen the perfect storm of factors that inevitably resulted in the decline of property prices. Despite this, December has been a good month for us, although slow as is expected at this time of year we have seen more sales and more instructions this month when compared to last year.
Where is the housing market headed
Over the course of 2023 we do expect prices to fall. It will be a busy start to the year, we have a good number of properties launching on Boxing Day (a high traffic day on the online property portals) as well as many waiting to launch until the Spring. The latter end of the year will likely be quieter and see a faster fall in prices. With every property market dip though there is always a shortage of properties, in turn this will help to stabilise property prices.
If you are thinking about moving and are already on the property ladder I wouldn’t panic! It is all relative and I don’t expect a huge house price crash, more of an adjustment after the steep increases that we have seen over the last few years. Our recommendation to you if you are thinking about moving would be to sell early in the year, making sure that you are sold and ready to find somewhere when properties come to market in the spring. Although we will see a quieter spell in 2023 we predict 2024 to see prices start to recover, rather than continue to decline.
Of course these are our predictions based on how we have seen the markets react over the past 25 years as an agent in St Albans. Nobody knows what is around the corner, there are certainly many things that have happened during our three years in business that we could never have predicted! Everyone’s situation and property journey is unique. If you would like to chat through your motivations and requirements we can help you take an educated step as to when is the right time for you to sell.
All that’s left now is for us to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at Heartwood Homes.
