Sinkhole-strewn area has ‘second longest’ sales wait
Agents and experts disagree that properties take longer to shift
Data suggests it takes longer to sell a home in a sinkhole-strewn neighbourhood than almost anywhere else in the country - but estate agents disagree.
The 40-week wait in Barming is only topped by a village in Hertfordshire but agents say the area’s sinkhole problem is not flagged up by buyers and figures suggest the issue may actually be over supply.
The figures come from the MoveSmart tool which allows sellers and buyers to compare locations, to see how homes have been selling, from listing to completion, along with a breakdown of comparable properties for sale or sold within the area and their average prices.
The tool created by national home buying-service Spring reveals homeowners in Ayot St Lawrence in Herts can expect the longest wait of 46 weeks.
Barming and the village of Anlaby in the East Ridings of Yorkshire are joint second slowest on 40 weeks.
At the other end of the scale, Bar Hill in Cambridgeshire is the quickest place to sell up, at 12 weeks.
Cormac Henderson, the chief executive of Spring said: “While historically you might expect to see a clear north-south divide, the pandemic has created a market not seen before that breaks the mould.
“Of course demand is not the only factor at play, with availability and quality of local conveyancers playing a big part in overall completion time.
“Historically, city homes have been the fastest to complete, but with fewer people wanting to live in dense urban areas due to new lifestyle choices and flexible working, it is little surprise to see the built up areas like Manchester moving particularly slowly – with supply far outstripping demand.”
The long wait in Barming has been disputed by a local estate agent.
Stewart Carroll is operations director with Simon Miller, an agency with seven branches in the Maidstone area.
He said: “It’s true that perhaps never before have property sales taken so long to reach a conclusion. But that’s a general delay across the area. Barming has been no slower than sales in Bearsted, Maidstone or Headcorn for example.”
Richard Ewence is an independent mortgage advisor with 22 years’ experience in the Maidstone area with Rosemount Mortgage Planning.
He too said he had not noticed any particular delay in Barming and said he was “baffled” why there should be one.
He said: “Of course there has been a pattern of sinkholes in Barming, but I’ve not seen that raised as an issue in any surveys or mortgage reports for properties there.
“It beats me.”
But Mr Ewence said that properties moved fastest when there was not a lot of supply in the area.
Barming and the Hermitage Lane corridor have seen around 1,800 either built or under construction in recent years.