A bullet dodged for the housing market and good news too for small businesses
Adam Day, Founder and Managing Director of leading full service online estate agency, Hatched, provides his comment and predictions for the UK housing market in light of today’s Tory win.
“I believe this to be great news for the housing market, particularly in the short term, evading the potential surprises and uncertainty that a Labour majority or hung parliament would have created. With Labour having little influence, there will be no significant meddling in the housing market. This is a relief following what we saw with Labour giving months of notice before the launch of the Home Information Packs in 2007, which contributed to the financial crash in 2007/8. If we were faced with a Labour government today they would have enforced rent cap rises and banned tenants’ fees. Both of these proposed policies would have interfered with market forces, something that should never be controlled. With a Conservative government, it is ‘business as usual’ and I predict the market continuing to grow.
There are reservations though; the continuing growth of the market is a problem in itself and I do believe that prices are already far too high for buyers across the UK. I also believe passionately that everyone should have the chance to own their own home and all the help being offered to first time buyers, fuelling demand and therefore prices, means the Conservatives have not got it all right.
Now is the time for the Conservatives to really get to work, unhindered by a coalition setup. They need to address the real issues within the housing market, to free up brownfield sites and relax planning laws on the greenbelt to allow more housebuilding to increase supply. I would also urge ministers to think outside the box on how to increase supply. I said it in my own property manifesto – perhaps they should look to encourage owners of family homes whose children have flown the nest to downsize with tax incentives. This would free up a huge blockage in the system and increase supply.
Finally, the government needs to curb the constant building of flats. We are not short of flats in the UK. We are, however, in short supply of good quality family homes. With the supply of family homes lacking, those who would be looking to buy that type of house are not looking to sell and list their own properties, so this decreases supply towards the bottom of the chains.
With family homes being built and coming onto the market, the middle of the market will be freed up, which in turn, will help to bring more flats to the market, all of which would increase the supply to satisfy the demand that is out there for properties. With a balanced supply and demand, you would see house prices stabilise and perhaps even correct themselves a little.
From a small business perspective, the government has supported small to medium sized businesses hugely with useful programmes such as the Growth Accelerator scheme. I wholeheartedly applaud this policy as it has helped Hatched to grow from a company of just six people in 2010, to today employing 24 people across the country, with huge growth since 2010 across all aspects of our business. Coupled with this, the vast majority of our staff are under the age of 25 and have been employed either straight from school or out of university. Small business needs continuing support from the government and I believe that the outcome of the election gives small to medium businesses the best chance at increasing their positions as the employers of tomorrow.”
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About Hatched
Launched in 2006, Hatched is a leading fixed fee estate agent and one of the original pioneers of the online estate agency model.
Providing a full estate agency service but without the expense of a shop front, Hatched’s use of technology drives efficiencies in procedures and processes, producing low overheads, which ultimately lead to cost savings for the business, the ability to offer more competitive fees to clients, as well as more streamlined and innovative customer services.
With savings ultimately being passed onto customers, Hatched offers homeowners a smarter way to sell their homes.
Now favouring the term ‘hybrid’ estate agency as opposed to ‘online’, which detracts from the high value and quality service the estate agency offers, Hatched combines the use of smart techniques and a forward thinking approach with the defence of honourable ethics and values of traditional estate agency to ensure the best possible consumer experience.
Hatched’s fees are, on average, 85% lower than a traditional high street estate agent’s. This equates to an average saving of over £4,000 per property, or £15m worth of savings for homeowners since Hatched’s inception.
Lettings fees for a fully managed property start from just £50 per month.
The Hatched team has over 50 years’ combined estate agency experience and with a network of regional offices across England and Wales, the estate agency offers national coverage, local knowledge and a personal service.
To find out more, visit www.hatched.co.uk or call the team on 0845 678 0908.
