Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2009 | Page 19

PROPERTY life PROPERTY with Sam Biles Summer Launches – a thing of the past? Traditionally there has been a lot of seasonality within the property market, the season. property market slowing both booms and It’s not that long ago that if a glossy crashes. People realised less what was particularly at the top end. Houses brochure was being created then the happening in the market if they had to were launched in May/June with an proofing process was by post with wait weeks to see if a property had sold advertisement in Country Life and cumbersome mock-ups taking days or or not and whether its price had reduced. supported by local advertising. weeks to turn around. Now you can Market evidence was scarce and If they failed to sell then there was a expect a proof back by email within information on true prices often jealously second flurry of activity in September the hour. Clients often have such good guarded by professionals 'in the know'. often with adjusted prices. Thickness quality photographs of their properties of Country Life back copies vary greatly from their own digital cameras that possible, on free websites, for anyone to with the time of year, some issues being launches need not be delayed by waiting look up a neighbour's sale price. veritable tomes whereas those in January for the leaves to appear on the trees or and August are more akin to parish the wisteria to bloom. newsletters. "The biggest change to the Old copies of local newspapers show a seasonality of the market is however the internet." similar seasonal variation. This no longer seems to be the case. But for some years now it has been "The Land Registry produce graphs for each area showing the numbers and average prices of houses sold." This is much more like the stock market; It is such a different 'beast' from with so much up to date information traditional print advertising, accessible available, houses are treated more as day and night, in Hulverstone or in commodities. Whilst the properties will Honolulu and to anyone with a PC, a Mac probably never be as volatile as ‘pork or a modern mobile phone. The effect bellies’ or oil the market definitely reacts of this is to take the formality out of the with more immediacy and much less A lot of this seems to be to do with market and to liberate it from traditional seasonality than once was the case. the speed of modern communications. constraints. The reasons for 'launching Furthermore people are keen to buck any in May' have dwindled, not least because Sam Biles is Managing Director of leading trend and if they perceive that launching sellers do not understand why they should Country House and Waterside Property their property a few weeks early may wait. Specialists Creasey Biles and King 'steal a march' on the competition then This is however a two-edged sword. Tel: [phone] that is what they will do - stretching out Selling seasons put a natural brake on the [email protected] "Activity within the property market still varies greatly month to month but the traditional seasonal pattern seems to have all but disappeared." 19