Telephone calls taken for estate and letting agents increased dramatically in a number of high-end London postcodes since the general election earlier this month.
The claim comes from call monitoring service Moneypenny, which says that valuation calls in the SW, N and NW postcodes increased by 28% between May 8 and May 20.
Moneypenny also reports that lettings calls increased by 14% and viewings calls by 3% in these postcodes during the same period.
The picture was less dramatic in Greater London with comparative figures showing an 8% upturn in valuation calls, viewings up 4% and letting enquiries decreasing by 6%.
Throughout the rest of the UK, the call patterns present a more complicated picture.
Outside of the capital, viewing calls are down 2% post-election, compared to a 6% rise in the first week of May when set against the first week of April.
Similarly valuation calls which had been up 10% in early May, fell by 5%, while lettings calls which had been up by 15%, also fell overall by 3%, according to Moneypenny.
“Certainly in the immediate aftermath of the general election, particularly during the first weekend after the result was announced, we were flat out meeting demand as agents struggled to keep on top of all their calls,” says Nicola Jackson, property team manager at Monneypenny.
In comparison to the weekend before David Cameron’s victory, the weekend after the slim majority was confirmed saw a 5% jump in calls to agents nationwide, Jackson says.
Lettings calls during this time jumped 9%, compared to the pre-election weekend.
“While there are fluctuations, we are seeing many highly encouraging signs for the sector which we hope will be reflected across the whole of the UK, and bode well for the rest of the year,” Jackson concludes.
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Wouldn't have anything to do with the mansion tax, would it? Those looking to buy £2m plus properties can now go about their business in the gleeful knowledge that they won't be hit by a 'draconian' and 'unfair' annual charge. Yipee!
The non-implementation of a mansion tax does seem to have released the brakes on the PCL market. I dare say some more favourable tax breaks are coming the way of wealth overseas investors courtesy of Boris and his chums.
Yes, I'm sure the removal of the threat of the mansion tax played a part, but I think the extent to which people were being put off might have been over-emphasised a tad. I think it's more likely that the election itself always brings a slowdown, and the interest high-end agencies are now seeing is a result of that.
The idea that PCL would have collapsed if the mansion tax had been introduced was just scaremongering, in my view.
I'd say the mansion tax was a major factor, it's too big a rise to just be explained away by election uncertainty alone. Policies which would have had a dramatic impact on wealthy overseas investors - which, by the way, didn't just involve the mansion tax - were bound to scare people off investing until they knew for sure who would be forming the next government.
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