OnTheMarket says it delivered a record number of instant valuation enquiries last month, beating its previous best period in June of this year.
“From that we again saw a record number of agent valuation leads, and overall for total valuation enquiries we achieved another record result, which was our best ever month and 36 per cent up on our previous best month, January 2021” according to chief executive Jason Tebb.
“This clearly demonstrates that for agents looking to win more instructions, OnTheMarket is an increasingly valuable marketing platform as we are focusing on serious home movers."
Tebb's comments come on the back of the portal's latest sentiment survey, a snapshot of the housing market.
It says 72 per cent of active buyers in the UK are confident that they will purchase a property within the next three months, while 78 per cent of vendors are confident that they will sell their property within the same period.
Some 56 per cent of properties have Sold Subject to Contract within 30 days of first being advertised for sale, compared with 43 per cent a year ago.
Buyers and sellers are now focused on January completions, but stock levels still aren’t there to support continued home mover demand, the portal claims.
It adds that a slight month-on-month decrease in UK average asking prices suggests buyer affordability is stretched, with further sharp price rises unlikely.
Tebb continues: "October was yet another month where the velocity of the current market continued to defy gravity. Anyone who had thought that the ending of the Stamp Duty Holiday in September may have ushered in a new wave of calm was mistaken, with many of our agents continuing to report that nothing much had changed. Although the slight upturn in new instructions we saw in September continued in October, bringing with it some fresh stock for motivated movers, there still wasn’t enough stock to satisfy buyer demand.
"However, one positive note for buyers was feedback from many agents across the UK that the trend we’d seen in previous months of fully booked ‘open house’ days followed by multiple bids above asking price within twenty-four hours has now abated. That said, for the most part it seems that it’s still a competitive environment, especially for family homes in the popular school catchment areas.
"With the much-vaunted Budget at the end of the month amounting to quite a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ affair in terms of housing, the headlines of rising inflation throughout October seemed to be the only cloud coming over the horizon, but certainly not enough of a shadow during the month to perturb those whose plans to move were already in motion. We saw evidence of this in the number of properties that were SSTC within 30 days of first being listed in October, with a very slight increase on the previous month."
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Over the past 3 months we've got the majority of our new listing through OTM valuation leads. We also have a great method that wins vendors from our competitors who are on RM, we win the business hands down every time. Who said you need RM.
'We also have a great method that wins vendors from our competitors who are on RM'.
Care to share HIT Man?
I would prefer not to share our method, I'd much rather continue to allow my fellow agents to squander their money on RM.
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