Diary of an agent: Jamie Carter and Will Matthews
From the city of Birmingham to England’s farms and estates, the property market has taken its first steps back towards normality. Here the agents discuss how their respective sectors have responded.
4 minutes to read
Jamie Carter (JC) launched Knight Frank’s Birmingham residential sales office in 2018 and has been building the business in the city since. Will Matthews (WM), also known as Stan, is part of Knight Frank’s Farms and Estates department, where he handles deals of 150 acres and larger.
With the housing market having reopened under strict social-distancing rules and Knight Frank introducing protocols to keep everyone in the process safe, they talk about the prospects for the remainder of the year.
Now the market’s restarted, is it good to be back?
"JC – It’s great to be able to do the part of the job that we all enjoy most as agents: meeting people and helping them realise their property goals. Yes, it’s an uncertain time for all of us but there’s no point in worrying about the future. We all need to focus on what we can do now."
WM – It’s very busy but not as easy as some people are making out. Certainly, at the top end of the market it’s taking longer for it to wake up compared with the general property market.
How was trading ahead of the lockdown?
JC – The core of our business is made up of Birmingham’s city centre, where we deal with apartments and modern terraces as well as the suburban areas popular with families such as Sutton Coldfield, Harborne, Edgbaston and Solihull. We also handle rural property sales in the region around Birmingham. The market in March was trickier than last year but with the Brexit vote complete we had come back to work in January excited about what the year had in store. Then the lockdown hit.
WM – The previous decade was frustrating at times, but we started 2020 with the best market conditions I can remember for a long time. It seemed that an extended period of uncertainty had come to an end, and there was a lot of money in the market. Just before Christmas we’d sealed a deal that achieved £9m above the guide price and that momentum had carried over into the new year.
What is sentiment like now activity has resumed?
JC -It will take four to six weeks before we know more about the longer term impact this experience has had on the market, but at the moment people want to get moving and there’s strong interest due to pent up demand. The majority of the chains that were paused during lockdown have held together and there was virtually no renegotiation of pricing for agreed deals.
WM – Most of our vendors remained in the market during lockdown and we had plenty of web hits and enquires during this time. We have just seen through to exchange a 200-acre farm on the Wiltshire/Dorset border. There is definitely pent-up demand and we have recommenced at what is traditionally a busy time for farm and estate sales.
How are you finding the new processes?
JC – I’ve undertaken a series of valuations and viewings and it’s a big change, not least as half of your mouth is covered by a face mask and my hands have been sweating in gloves. However, although it’s a little strange at present it’s something we will get used to, and it is far better that we have these precautions in place.
"WM – Organising viewings takes a while longer and you tend to point people, rather than accompany them of course, around the estate. However, the gardens lend themselves to socially-distanced discussions afterwards. "
How will the coming months shape up?
JC – I think properties that have been on the market for some time, pre-lockdown, could suffer more than new instructions. Buyers have a stronger case to negotiate the price for the former. Regardless, there will be a lot of testing of the market in the coming weeks. However, demand still outstrips supply at present in Birmingham. The majority of vendors are happy for viewings, under social-distancing rules and with PPE, to take place and there is clearly the ability to get deals done.
WM –At the moment we are seeing vendors that were already planning to bring property to market doing so but not many new instructions – there will be people keen to ride the situation out in their farm houses instead. While the current bounce in activity has led to some suggesting prices will rise, this will dampen down as people start to weigh up what’s happening in the wider economy and prices will likely stay where they are.