Dorset Property Market Update - November 2023

Edwards Estate Agents - Wimborne area guide

By Grant Brooks – MD Edwards Estate Agents

Edwards Estate Agents in Dorset – Property Market Update

This year has been a rollercoaster of ride for the property market, and not just in and around the Dorset area but right across the UK as a whole.

From the start of 2023 and throughout most of the year the media has been predicting double-digit falls in property values, which does little for the fragile confidence of both buyers and sellers.

A market price correction was an almost inevitable consequence of the booming buyer driven frenzy property market of late 2021 and early 2002, followed by the financial meltdown after the disastrous Truss/Kwarteng mini budget towards the end of 2022.

Price Correction

Given to continued dire media predictions I read with interest the latest statistics from the property portal Rightmove, which gives some context to what has actually happened, not the wildly negative speculation.

Rightmove’s Key Indicators

Average asking prices are just 3% below May’s peak, but pricing right the first time remains key to securing a buyer
Sales agreed are now 10% below 2019’s more normal market level, improving from 15% below last month
The pandemic-driven stock shortage is over, with available properties for sale now just 1% behind 2019

Making any sense of these numbers is tricky as they represent the whole of the UK market, translating this to be relevant locally and perhaps more importantly down to individual property level isn’t easy as the maths doesn’t always work.

An individual property’s value is influenced by many different factors, location, condition and of course local market conditions, but ultimately a property is only worth what a buyer will pay for it.

The homeowner will also sometimes have their own expectation of the property’s value, this is often guided by what they believe similar properties have sold for. This hypothetical value is generally based on local properties that sold at the height of the market.

For an agent in today’s market, this can be a difficult conversation as many of the homes sold during those frenetic months of 2022 were agreed at more than the asking price, these properties and the resulting local comparative values will certainly have fallen considerably more than the headline 3% of the Rightmove stats.

Valuing a property in the current market must be based on what, from our recent experience, we know is selling and the prices each property type is achieving. Previous hypothetical values are not relevant today and certainly not realistic in the current market.

Thankfully for the majority of home buyers that bought at the top of the market, these properties are their forever homes and will not see the property market again for many years, and the likelihood is that in years to come their home will have seemed like a bargain, as property values are likely to see more boom and less bust markets over the coming years.

Advice to Dorset homeowners

For those considering a move in the new year, achieving a sale of your home in the current market requires a clear marketing strategy and the experience to put the deal together to ensure you get it transacted to completion. The journey must start with the asking price being set correctly. Properties that start even very slightly over market value are not getting buyer interest.