What’s in store for the Cornish Property Market in 2022?
The new year is just around the corner and for some, that truly does spell a new start. That new start often goes as far as relocating and moving house. If you are now starting to think about a move to Cornwall, you are not alone.
Savills research shows that compared to 2019 (which was already a good year), 2021 has seen an increase by 198% of £1m+ priced agreed property sales in Cornwall. The property market can sometimes be a tough one to predict and to the untrained eye, you might not know what’s best for you and your property investment. Fret not, you have come to the right place. Relocate to Cornwall has put together this article so you know what to expect.
2021 brought great opportunity for some despite the global restrictions. Economic factors came into play such as the tax break introduced through the Stamp Duty holiday, meaning buyers were saving on the first £500,000 of the purchase price on a property. This was further supported by low interest rates.
However, seemingly trumping these Government incentives is the underlying desire of individuals and families wanting more space, whether that be a home office or a larger garden, but mostly striving for a better quality of life.
Cornwall has so much to offer, whether that be the 400+ miles of coastline to explore, beautiful beaches, fantastic restaurants, independent shops, strong communities or good schools to name a few. With the flexibility of home working, people are realising that they do not need to be in the capital or elsewhere, so it has opened up possibilities which didn’t exist before.
Moving forward into 2022
The fact that Covid 19 is a long-term issue, with most recently the Omicron variant showing its virulence, will no doubt fuel minds over the Christmas period about either a full relocation to Cornwall or the purchase of an investment property.
November and December are notoriously a quiet time of the year for sellers to advertise their property. It is therefore expected that in January, more stock will come to the market. There is still a very strong level of unmet demand, and it is expected that price levels will remain sustained due to the lack of supply.
Due to a significant lack in house price growth particularly in coastal and country homes throughout the South West preceding the COVID-19 outbreak, there is still a significant price gap between London and the Southern Counties which gives further capacity for house prices to rise throughout the South West.
Second home owners and investors into Cornwall are seeing that they can have the best of both worlds. They can enjoy the property as a holiday home for 8 weeks of the year and rent it out at a strong yield for the remaining time, often meaning the property breaks even or better over the period of a year. Individuals are funding this type of purchase in a number of ways, this could be through savings, repurposing business funds, releasing equity from principal homes or through inheritance.
What does this mean for those who want to move to Cornwall in 2022?
It is an incredibly difficult buyers’ market at the moment, with demand for property far outstripping supply. This therefore means that to be the “chosen” buyer for a property you need to put yourself in the best proceedable position.
Relocate to Cornwall ensures that all their buyers are serious about buying. That does not necessarily mean already having your home sold, but it does mean being very close to exchange. A lot of buyers have been moving into rented accommodation just to put themselves in the most proceedable position, given how competitive the market is. It removes the ambiguity of whether a house sale will fall through in the eyes of a seller. Often to a seller, just knowing that the sale will progress without being in complicated chains is worth far more than a slightly increased offer price.
You need to have all your finances lined up, whether that is having a decision in principle issued through a bank or cash funds easily accessible. This can often take a little while to sort out, so it’s important to have this sorted before you start looking so that you know 100% how much you have/can borrow. The moment that you want to put an offer in on a property, proof of funds are needed.
This leads on to off-market properties. Many people do not realise that a lot of property does not reach the likes of Rightmove and Zoopla. This is because a lot of sellers like to be private about their house sale and therefore limit the number of viewings of their property to quality buyers. This therefore means that estate agents are only going to invite those who are in the most proceedable position to view. Estate agents generally know that buying agents have a bank of proceedable purchasers who have completed due diligence beforehand on their client which limits any ambiguity over the transaction.
To summarise, estate agents know that the buyers that Relocate to Cornwall put forward are fully proceedable and are therefore looked on favourably.
Lastly, towards the end of 2021 we have been hearing that people think that house prices in the South West have reached their peak and are therefore thinking twice about purchasing. Our message would be, we are facing a very constrained supply of property which doesn’t look like changing any time soon. Savills have in fact predicted that there will be a 4% growth in house prices across prime regional areas in 2022 and the five year forecast is 19.3% growth. Waiting for house prices to drop may end up losing you that dream home or investment opportunity.
With all that in mind, if you’re looking to find your dream home in Cornwall but are struggling to find “the one”, why not let us do the work for you?
When you come to Relocate to Cornwall for help, you can be sure you’re getting the best properties available across a wide range of estate agent with whom we have built up strong relationships. We offer a wide range of services, from Partial Packages to Bespoke Packages.
