Knowing how saleable a property is half the battle when deciding what (or not) to buy for your next property investment. Why?  Well because one day, you may need to sell that property. If you go into the purchase with open eyes, you know most of the risks and can barter the price accordingly if you have to. Bearing this in mind, last week, a couple from Dunmow popped into our offices to ask about investing in property. Their concern was if we have another property slump (and we will because that is what has happened to the British property market ever since the 1950’s), if they did need to sell, what type of property would be easier to sell. Now everything sells, even during a slump, but I did some research and followed up their query – I was actually quite surprised with the results.

A good guide to judge the saleability of property is the number of properties for sale, compared to the numbers that are sold, subject to contract. Now I carried out this comparison last week, so the numbers will be marginally different today, but of the 44,183 households in Chelmsford there are 1,660 properties on the market for sale. Of those 1,660 properties, 647 properties are fully available on the open market waiting for a buyer and 1013 have buyers and are sold subject to contract. That means 31% of property on the market has a buyer in Chelmsford (interestingly in Braintree 55% of properties on the market have a buyer and in Witham 57%).

However, delve deeper, and in Chelmsford today, 58% of detached houses on the market have a buyer and great news for semi detached property owners, as 69% of them have buyers.  Terraced houses fair even better, with 247 of the 340 on the market now having buyers (making 72%). The properties that appear to be sticking though are apartments at a comparatively lower 55% and bungalows at 57%. 

I am always giving advice to my existing and new landlords in Chelmsford on what to buy (or not as the case may be).  Having this detail of information at my finger tips, allows me to spot trends in the local market, which then enables to me to give the very best advice to my clients. I don’t charge for that advice as I have plenty of opportunity to earn money by finding the best tenants for my landlords in the years to come on the investments I have advised on.