2021 – What’s happening in the Market?

Before looking at the first few months of 2021, it is worth noting what happened last year.

According to the property website Rightmove, properties in Cornwall had an overall average price of £303,868 in 2020.

Most sales in Cornwall during 2020 were detached properties selling for an average price of £416,285.  Terraced properties sold for an average of £222,400 with semi-detached properties fetching £247,867.

Overall, sold prices in Cornwall over the last year were 12%: up on the previous year and 16% up on the 2018 peak of £262,880.

This year there is little evidence of any great cooling of the market and certainly from our point of view we are still receiving many instructions from buyers for HomeBuyers Surveys and Building Surveys throughout the county, especially ‘hot spots’ such as St Mawes and the Roseland, Mevagissey, Padstow and St Agnes.

There is also strong demand for rural property across all price ranges.

Initially, the Stamp Duty holiday was to end in March and whilst buyers who agreed to buy early in the year were hopeful to beat the deadline, many had resigned themselves to not making the deadline which has now of course been extended.

It does beg the question whether the relaxation of Stamp Duty has stimulated the market locally or would we have seen the high volume of out of County buyers and investors buying in any event?

With the third period of lockdown, fewer properties have come to the market, perhaps vendors were unwilling to have potential buyers viewing during this time.

The reduction of new property onto the market has increased pressure on those properties that are available, and we are frequently hearing of cases where there are three or four buyers chasing the same house and offering over the asking price.

Director, Julian Crosby, spoke to one local agent last week who only had one property available on his books.

Rentals are also in great demand and one of the largest rental agents in Truro reported again only having one property available whereas they normally have a stock of around 20.

So far this year, locally there is little evidence of a let up in the market. With lockdown restrictions possibly being eased in the next month or so, we feel in the short term at least there is going to be little let up.

Published 22 March 2021

Written by: Julian Crosby FRICS MRPSA