The residential conveyancing team at Ansons Solicitors is reporting that the property market is picking up across Staffordshire.  Julie Tomasik, Head of Conveyancing and Senior Associate at the Anson Solicitors Lichfield office, says that there are several factors having an impact on the housing market locally.

“We are seeing a number of trends start to emerge: 

• Homes are starting to sell at or close to their asking price again. A recent report by Hometrack indicated that 96.2 percent of homes achieved their asking price in March this year. This is the highest level for ten years.
• Homes are selling more quickly. Hometrack’s report also indicated that the time properties remain on the market is also at just eight weeks, its lowest since the financial crisis.
• Help to buy has been fuelling the first time buyer market, and yet we are still not seeing the volume of properties being built to meet the level of demand which has been building up over the last few years.” 

Backing this up, HMRC’s report on UK property transactions for February and March is almost one third higher than the previous year.

“There is still a considerable way to go before the number of transactions reaches the pre-crisis levels of activity,” says Julie, “but there is definitely more confidence in the market.”

Ansons Solicitors recently introduced an online conveyancing quotation facility which means that house buyers can obtain an instant estimate of conveyancing costs at the weekend when they are most likely to have been house-hunting and working on the budget for their new property.

“This is a real benefit to home-buyers who want information immediately and wish to get the house-buying process started.

For further information, contact Julie Tomasik at Ansons Solicitors on 01543 263456.