Rickmansworth, Croxley, and Watford have had a good December considering we are so close to Christmas. We have seen new applicants and viewing numbers lower than previous months but that is to be expected this time of the year. We have had an excellent volume of instructions for December, agreed several sales and are pushing hard to get all our completions over the line, moving people in their new homes for Christmas.
December has been much quieter in the village of Chorleywood again with far fewer viewing requests and market appraisals as people turn their thoughts to Christmas. The team have also been working hard to get the sales to exchange and are now focusing on new instructions for 2021
In New Homes we have seen a zigzag pattern of busy & quiet periods depending on when developments are under construction and when they are ready for occupation, so again December has been a little quieter with enquiries. Following last month’s New Homes update and as a reminder, from 15th December the Help to Buy scheme has changed to a new purchase price of £407,400 and is available to first time buyers only.
We have had a busy December in lettings with plenty of move ins and have achieved an average of 99% to asking price. Property management has been busy with the usual winter issues and we have been working hard to resolve these keeping our landlords and tenants happy. We have found that many of our current tenants are making use of the stamp duty holiday scheme, making their jump onto the property ladder, and have subsequently seen several properties come back available.
Overall, it has been a challenging year and I am sure I am not alone when I say we will be glad to say goodbye to 2020! Over the Christmas period all our team have some time off with their families and we all very much look forward to returning well rested in January. We anticipate a very busy start to the year with buyers and vendors all pushing to move in time for the end of the Stamp Duty holiday in March.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us this year, we would like to wish all our client’s buyers & vendors a very Happy Christmas!
Emily Armstrong, Managing Director