Shropshire Farming Talk: Where is the property market headed for 2024?
Predictions by Lloyds Bank that the property market would fall by an average of 4.7 per cent in 2023 seem to have been unfounded.
And, as we look back on last year’s sales, we see that the market has only levelled back slightly and is still well above pre-Covid prices.
Certainly in the north west we have a number of contributing factors, not least of which is the cancellation of HS2 north of Birmingham.
Those property owners who were affected by the scheme are now in a dilemma depending on where the legal process of the sale of their property has reached.
There remains much confusion which is having a knock-on effect on the property market, not least of all the sale of farms and land.
Interest rates and the hike in the general cost of living is also impacting the property market as people struggle to secure mortgages.
Immediately post-Covid we saw an influx of people from cities and towns paying top dollar for country houses but now there is much more caution about the associated costs of running a rural property.
Operating as we do in the heart of the dairy belt, we also see the impact on the farming community of the drop in milk price with farmers generally being less able to invest in their businesses.
However, we recently sold a 1,000 acre estate on the Welsh borders which had great potential as a sporting estate and we expected national, if not international, prospective ‘lifestyle’ buyers.
Interestingly the final four serious contenders were all farmers from within a 30 mile radius proving that there is still plenty of appetite for expansion.
Lloyds are predicting a further 2.4 per cent decrease in property prices over 2024 with other leading experts predicting falls of between 4 per cent and 2 per cent but we find that rural areas tend to be less affected than the urban market and are keeping our fingers crossed.
Annabel Fearnall is a Partner of Barbers Rural
