What type of property in Canterbury sells the best?

Knowing how saleable a property is half the battle when deciding what (or not) to buy for your next property investment. Why?  Well because one day, you may need to sell that property. If you go into the purchase with open eyes, you know most of the risks and can barter the price accordingly if you have to. Bearing this in mind, last week, a couple from Blean popped into our offices to ask about investing in property. Their concern was if we have another property slump (and we will because that is what has happened to the British property market ever since the 1950’s), if they did need to sell, what type of property would be easier to sell. Now everything sells, even during a slump, but I did some research and followed up their query – I was actually quite surprised with the results.

A good guide to judge the saleability of property is the number of properties for sale, compared to the numbers that are sold, subject to contract. Now I carried out this comparison last week, so the numbers will be marginally different today, but of the 20,689 households in Canterbury there are 589 properties on the market for sale. Of those 589 properties, 281 properties are fully available on the open market waiting for a buyer and 308 have buyers and are sold subject to contract. That means 52.2% of property on the market has a buyer in Canterbury (interestingly, when I looked at Herne Bay, it has an identical percentage of property sold at 52.2% as well, whilst Whitstable is 55%).

However, delve deeper, and in Canterbury today, 58.3% of detached houses on the market have a buyer and great news for semi detached property owners, as 71.2% of them have buyers.  80 of the 167 terraced houses on the market now have buyers (making 52% sold stc). The properties that appear to be sticking though are apartments at a comparatively lower 42.6% and bungalows at 51.8%. 

I am always giving advice to my existing and new landlords in Canterbury on what to buy (or not as the case may be).  Having this detail of information at my finger tips, allows me to spot trends in the local market, which then enables to me to give the very best advice to my clients. I don't charge for that advice as I have plenty of opportunity to earn money by finding the best tenants for my landlords in the years to come on the investments I have advised on.