The Property Sales People

I hardly dare say this out loud let alone commit to print but, like this year's Snowdrops, the green shoots of activity are becoming apparent. January 2009 has seen increased activity, more viewings, more running around and, until, this the last week of the month when I thought it was all going to come to nothing, the offers started coming in and vendors were seizing the opportunity to secure a sale and move on. Two Labour MP's were taken to task recently for daring to say positive things but I was contacted by the National Association of Estate Agents and asked to urgently complete an online survey as they had anecdotal evidence of a slight improvement in the market. The purpose was to get this 'news' to the media as soon as possible. Of course on Monday of this week The Independent managed about 2cm of text on left hand page 4 publicizing this information. Did anyone see anything better? I hope so!

Just a short commentary on the start of 2009. Most agents weren't back until the 5 th of January after finishing on the 23 rd or 24 th of December. Don't misunderstand me, 2008 was one of the toughest years for estate agents on record so I'm not knocking anyone who took the opportunity to recharge batteries that were severely drained by the market. We were around between Christmas and New Year and a lot of the time our phones were switched through to my mobile. During the break we let two properties and since the start of 2009 it has been the rental market that has shown most life. We let 3 on Saturday 11 th alone! So, the rental market is alive and kicking strongly – for us anyway. Sales need to get going and we have certainly arranged plenty of viewings so we are hoping for some offers to work with from 12 th January onwards. Judging by the activity on our website and Rightmove there appears to be some pent up demand. In truth the lenders need to lend – then we will