Wintry weather puts spring recovery on ice for agents

Snow and bitterly cold weather nipped what looked to have been a promising spring upturn for the housing market firmly in the bud.

According to data from telephone answering service Moneypenny, calls had been up by 25% in early March compared with the previous month.

However, once the cold weather struck, the company recorded a drop-off in numbers, and comparing call rates for the same 100 agent clients for the four days to Good Friday, found the improvement had disappeared – with 2,605 calls against 2,624 in the equivalent period last year.

Samantha Jones, Moneypenny’s head of property, said: “Call volumes to any business can be an important temperature check of what’s happening in the market place and can also of course reflect external factors out of the industry’s control.

“The bad weather across much of the UK certainly seemed to put the brakes on activity for many agents following the initial call rise which had been suggesting a boost in people looking to sell and view properties over the Easter break.

“Our receptionists had also been reporting a noticeable boost in calls early last month from people who received valuations late last year and were deciding to go ahead with putting their properties on the market.

“This early boost was backed up by a comparable 20% rise in calls coming in to the company’s 550 mortgage and finance broker clients with people looking for mortgage advice.

“However, these too slowed in the week to Easter.”

Still, even as EAT writes this, with snow falling blizzard-like outside, the weather forecast is finally showing some signs of improvement for next week. This spring's weather has been colder than winter, according to reports.