In modern life, this idiom rings true about a lot of things. Life moves at such a pace that it can be hard to keep up and in most marketplaces, there seems to be a level of demand that outstrips supply; whether that’s the latest phone being released, the lack of stock globally in the latest PlayStation, or as we so often see, in property. On top of this, the past 18 months keeping everyone in has created a level of pent up demand to spend or to move, that’s seeming hard to meet.
We’ve talked at length with a repetition that we’re sure is starting to get annoying, to both our landlord clients and here in our blogs, about how important the strength of marketing for each property has become. Gone are the days of poorly positioned, slightly grainy photos getting the deals you’re looking for. As such, it's something we’ve invested heavily in, pushing for professional photos wherever we can, and including floorplans and even 3D walkthrough tours, to give those viewing a real feel for the property before they even speak to us for the first time.
It’s the culmination of these two factors that we’ve seen with our most recent property listings. Any stock we have is seemingly snapped up faster than we can introduce it to the market. Most notably, this week, we’d agreed a let on an excellent flat in Ringmer in a day, just a few hours after the first viewing. This is excellent in terms of performance as a business, but clearly left a lot of disappointed applicants who had also seen it and further phone calls we were turning away. This is the quickest we’ve seen lately, which really blew us away, but the same really has been true with anything we list, disappearing in a day or two; including two flats in Hove, a studio in Eastbourne, and a house in Lewes. It seems to be that there is a real desire to move at the moment, that stock levels just can’t meet.
As a company where the main aim of the game is to find tenants for properties, this really feels like success, we’re getting the proverbial “bums on seats” and filling properties at near break-neck speed. However, it means that we’re constantly looking for more stock to fill the gap and take to those that have been disappointed missing out on each quick let in order to meet the demand and not feel like we’re letting applicants down.
I always dream of seeing all of our online listings and all of our boards saying “Let Agreed”, but now that it’s a reality, it’s really not all I hoped it would be. Instead, it feels like we’re treading water until more instructions come along.
As a rule, we don’t tend to use these blogs to advertise or ask for things. They’re here to offer up views or information, but this time it feels necessary. So, if you have anywhere you need tenanting (particularly if it’s similar to the properties I’ve mentioned above), please do get in touch. It’s a line agents often put in mail-out advertising that I feel can never be true, but at this point, we do really have a string of disappointed applicants waiting for similar properties. Our lettings team can be reached at our office on 01273 672 999, or by email to lettings@eightfold.agency.