THE SAVIOUR OF RURAL VILLAGES?

As our growing retired population relocates to market towns, more flexible approaches to working are allowing young families – so often the heart of village community life – to loosen their big city ties. Could this be a turning point?

By 2025 – barely more than three years away – the ONS estimates that the UK will be home to well over a million more people aged over 65, compared with last year. This growth in retiree numbers is four times the increase in adults under 65 and nationally significant because, in contrast with past generations, most of them now own a house. They have no mortgage, a decent pension and a plan to live healthily for another 20 years or more. Low maintenance homes in market town centres with good shops and services, are highly attractive to retired buyers. In recent years, this has pitched them into head-on competition with commuting-oriented families, all looking to buy in good towns, handy for the train station. Flexible working has changed this in ways which should last and might grow. Not many amongst the great tide of buyers moving out from major cities expect a complete and lasting switch to working from home. But a high proportion already know that they will not be expected to be at the office, travelling at peak times, every day. This has generated a willingness to look further afield, boosting demand in villages which have long suffered from an exodus of the young. Will it be enough to reinvigorate the clubs, pubs and, most importantly, schools? It’s too early to say but, either way, the families that have already made the move, are the best news many villages have had over the last year. The grandparents, meanwhile, with their disposable incomes and fondness for traditional shopping, are just what the market towns need.

Overpriced Competition Is Good

Given the massive demand over recent months, extending even into the New Year lockdown, the news that values have not risen dramatically is often greeted with surprise. Values have increased in most areas, but in few by much more than general inflation. This is because credit and affordability constraints are still tight, and because supply increased greatly, too, making for a remarkably active market. Pricing strategy is thus still central to selling without delay at the best price. Competition can help you here, if your competitor is overpriced. Your house looks better value, so everyone comes to see it , not the rival. You sell quickly, whilst the overpriced house languishes, pushing the owners to lose confidence, eventually selling at below its real value. The trick is to know the true maximum value of your property – and have a strategy to get it. Whether you are selling with a dream of moving to a rural idyll, or to a town centre penthouse, without a buyer at the price you need, it will remain just a dream.

Top: Cornwall £1,200,000 guide (Truro)

Below: Surrey £1,950,000 guide (Oxted)

Opposite page: Cheshire £4,500,000 guide (Alderley Edge)

Below right: Our latest specially commissioned cartoon from Annie Tempest, whose Tottering-byGently has appeared in Country Life since 1993.

Holiday Rush

Those that have made their move are fortunate to have avoided what has become a stressful rush to complete before the scheduled end of the Stamp Duty ‘holiday’. Recent months have been quite extraordinary, with supply and demand being so high that, for the first time in living memory, sales volumes have reached record highs in all regions, at the same time (in our experience and confirmed by the RICS). But a sale agreed is not a sale completed. Legal process is the big problem here: the huge number of deals going through has caused average conveyancing times to rise alarmingly. Three months from agreement to exchange is quite common. It’s not all the fault of the lawyers. All those involved in searches, title checks and mortgage matters, are taking longer to respond.

This is frustrating because it is physically possible to exchange contracts in just a few days and, where no mortgage is involved, exchange often takes place within two or three weeks. To avoid wasting time it is vital that sellers prepare. Delays arise when title deeds can’t be found, contracts have not been drafted in advance and – often – when owners simply fail to realise that, until they return queries about their property, their lawyers can’t do much. For listed properties, matters are more complex still (as explained on page 15).

Despite the frustrations of lockdown, the early months of the year remain an especially good time to sell, because buyers begin looking immediately, whilst sellers just begin thinking about selling and wait for better weather. Come to the market promptly and you'll find plenty of buyers and much less competition.

Orderly Expectations

Feedback from buyers and sellers alike indicates that, despite widely shared acceptance of the probability of higher taxes and modestly rising prices, the broad desire to secure a more balanced lifestyle will remain. The trends forced through by our collective responses to the pandemic will continue, if less dramatically. This augurs well for the remainder of the year.

Above: Devon £1,200,000 guide (Taunton)

Left: Yorkshire £1,250,000 guide (York)

Below: Sussex £3,650,000 guide (Mid Sussex)

Opposite page: Kent £2,995pcm (Cranbrook)