I am a...
Here we share news and views on both the local letting market in & around Oxfordshire and all planned and recent legislation.
While it’s been an incredibly warm summer, the most recent weather changes have indicated that it’s time for the school year to begin again. However, the fun isn’t over quite yet as the bank holiday weekend is coming up. Here are our recommendations for family-fun activities in Oxfordshire.
The letting market is seasonal, with the ‘busy period’ running from May into August. The same is true every year: these months form the crest of the letting wave, with enquiries surging across these months (see graph). But why does this happen across the Oxfordshire letting market?
Enquiries 2017 – Indexed to 100
Letting a property on the first viewing could be negative if the let is agreed with the first person through the door simply in order for the agent to earn their commission. At Finders Keepers we can proudly say that ‘let on the first viewing’ is a positive as it is down to hard work and careful matching. Our letting team is not paid on commission. We understand that finding the right tenant works out better in the long run; fewer property management problems from tenants who were unhappy from the start and hopefully fewer tenancies for the landlord as happy tenants tend to stay longer. Over the last couple of weeks we have let several properties on the first viewing. Here are just a few examples.
The number of properties advertised for sale in Banbury has increased 29% year-on-year1, so it’s not surprising that the average time on the sales market has increased to 114 days1. As a result, we have seen a rise in the number of people contacting us because they are considering letting as they have failed to sell. A recent example is a 3 bedroom stone-built cottage in the popular village of Byfield.
As with many things in life, you get what you pay for and ‘cheap’ is not often associated with ‘good service’. We totally understand why a landlord would be tempted by an agent claiming to offer the same level of service for a cheaper price – we’ve been lured in by attractive pricing ourselves.
Quarter 2 (April, May and June) sees the annual letting wave build towards its peak of the summer months. In general terms, this means there is more variety and fewer ‘trends’ in terms of what lets best and who is renting in Oxfordshire – over the last three months we have let more than 600 properties across the county and these have ranged from 1 bedroom annexes in the grounds of the owner’s home up to 7 bedroom houses. However, there have been ripples of difference across our eight offices.
Sometimes things can go wrong when letting property – it would be naïve to think it will be smooth sailing 100% of the time – but how you deal with these situations is the true measure of success. Our Abingdon team recently demonstrated their calm, decisive expertise when a tenant vacated a property without warning. The Property Manager and Letting Specialist – both based locally to the property – worked together to get the property back to standard, relist it and let it within a week.
 www.tpos.co.uk |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
© Finders Keepers Ltd. 2019
