Homes sales re-start
HOUSE purchasers look to be prising the lid off Tees Valley’s housing market. Eighteen months after the sector first caught cold from recession, agents say they are seeing the first green shoots of recovery.
Several report double-digit sales increases, indicating that the sector - one of the first to be hit by the credit crunch in 2007 - is at last rallying.
Michael Poole estate agency, which has six offices across the Tees Valley, said that in the first three months of the year sales had increased by 20% on the same period in 2008, while its Ingleby Barwick office has seen a massive 250% increase - albeit it from low numbers.
Michael Poole, senior partner in the practice, said: “You can only keep the lid on the property market for a limited period of time and it seems that this sector is recovering from the recession ahead of other businesses.
“Buyers are now aware of their requirements in terms of finance and those sellers who are prepared to bring their property on the market at a realistic asking price will achieve a sale.”
He said “a sense of normality” had returned to house prices, although first-time buyers were still finding it difficult to get a foot on the ladder.
Thirlwells estate agents, which has offices in Middlesbrough, Marton, Billingham and Eston, has seen a similar increase of “around 25%” since the turn of the year.
Senior partner Ian McClelland said: “I genuinely believe that the market has more or less bottomed out. Homes are much more affordable than they were a couple of years ago.”
Since January, Stockton-based Browns Estate Agency has also witnessed a 50% rise in sales on the last three months of 2008.
Operations manager, Simon Brown, said the market was “definitely on the up” although it was difficult to predict how long recovery would take.
“We are seeing investors fighting over properties at the lower end of the market,” he said.
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