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Despite interest rates falling and further rate cuts expected, moving house remains an rare event in current times. House prices have fallen a long way over the past year and opinion indicates that further redcutions are very likely. That, combined with the reduced availability of mortgages, the fear of higher unemployment and of course the high costs with moving home have caused many people to pick the option of home improvement as a more savoury alternative.
Just putting a house on the market costs money these days with most properties falling within the regualtions that neccessitate a HIP to be purchased. Then there are the other high costs associated with moving house, namely stamp duty, estate agents fees and legal fees. All these amounts can add u pto a pretty high figure and that's before any money has been spent on the new home. So staying put looks an attractive alternative at the moment.
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Home Improvements are bad news for Estate Agents
While many estate agents struggle to stay in business as the volume of buying and selling they operate within reduces to barely a trickle, those providing home improvement services should see the benefit.
Everyone from builders merchants, architects, planning officers and of course the builders themselves should acquire work from the new trend towards improving, rather than moving, home.
But this new momentum may not be enough, especially for the army of builders who flourished in the bouyant times of recent years, when new home building was being carried out all over the country and even people commissioning extensions to their homes were taking on bigger and bigger projects.
Today's improvement projects may be limited to things like interior renovations that don't require the services of architects, planners and builders. Only designers and product suppliers will see any benefit there. So the hard times for those in the home moving market could be set to continue.
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