The pandemic has hit all economic sectors, including the property market. Here, Thorgills Director Ben Madden assesses the last year and looks to the future.

Based on continued media speculation, it looks as though the stamp duty holiday is going to be extended in one form or another.

As we don't know the full details yet, it's difficult to say exactly what the impact to the Brentford market could be.

The last year has been turbulent to say the least, with a full market closure during the first lockdown, followed by a period of significant buoyancy in more rural locations, before what felt like a never-ending stretch of changes to how we could all live our lives.

Brentford's high proportion of apartments meant that post-lockdown, the local housing market was not viewed quite as positively as perhaps neighbouring towns, such as Isleworth.

Changes to lifestyle meant would-be buyers placed significantly more importance on finding a new home with a garden and additional internal space, to allow for home working.

When you add the cladding saga to what could be described as Brentford's perfect storm, it wouldn't be unreasonable to feel as though conditions were, at times, extraordinarily tough.

More recently we have seen signs of confidence. The Prime Minister has now set out his road map, the vaccine rollout continues to gain pace, restoring a sense of national pride, and both buyers and sellers have looked to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday.

This positivity has resulted in Thorgills placing more properties under offer than any other three month period in our history.

The current log jam created by these additional property transactions means conveyancers are struggling to support their clients and ensure contracts are exchanged promptly, meaning the stamp duty holiday extension will be a godsend for many (Rightmove estimates 300,000 transactions will be positively impacted).

What does the future look like? In the short term we can expect lots of positivity this Spring, as buyers flock to the market and continue taking advantage of the potential £15,000 saving we believe Mr Sunak will confirm in his budget next week.

The longer term picture? As I said in my recent piece for The Brentfordian, we must learn to expect the unexpected.

Speculation around significant changes to property taxation, perhaps to help fund the cost of the pandemic, is rife.

Who would have thought back in April 2020 that a year on we're were about to enter the busiest period the property market had seen in years?

If you want my advice, if you want to move home, do, if you don't want to move home, don't.

Thorgills

You can follow us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER