Every year we like to take a look back over the past 12 months at our areas performance and try to forecast what we believe will happen in the coming year.

This year though is a little bit special for us. It may be the end of a decade, but it is the start of a new era for Orchards Estate Agents, I’ll come on to that more in just a few moments.

A Year in Numbers – Area Averages

Approximately 800 properties Sold STC in the last 12 months with an average asking price of £375,000 in MK45.

The Average days to secure a buyer for South East (Excluding London) is the second lowest it has been since 2012 – 51 Days

The Average days taken to reach completion after becoming Sold STC has increased from 95 days in 2011 to 115 days in 2019

Bedfordshire house prices have on average grown 35.55% in five years up to Q3 in 2019 however Bedfordshire has seen a decrease in values first three quarters of 2019 compared to 2018 with prices down between 1.4% and 2.4%

New Sales Listings for Bedfordshire are 1.4% down compared to the same period in 2018

New Rental prices for Bedfordshire are on average 1.8% higher for one or two bedroom properties then in 2018.

Our Year in Numbers

70% of all new listings sold in 2019

1208 Viewings carried out in 2019 (that’s an average of 11 per property)

An increase of 19% more instructions in 2019 than 2018 whilst the areas has a whole saw a decrease of 1.4%.

The average time taken from sale agreed to completion for a property sold by Orchards is 78 days a whole 37 days faster than the area average.

Managed letting stock increased by 14% when the area average for new instructions was 3.4%

We broke the 200 managed lets target and finished the year on 215!  

This year with the help of our local community we have managed to give back over £304,100 worth of prizes, donations, sponsorships and money off vouchers creating over 175 “winners”

So What Is Next? Onwards and Upwards That’s What We Say!

We want next year to be even bigger than this year, but we can only do that with the local community’s help.

Thinking of Selling or Letting? Call us for a free valuation. They are no obligations and completely free of charge. We will provide you with the best advice at all times, including any thing we believe may benefit you to consider before you put your property on the market, and when the best times are to sell!

Already on the market? Register with us to help you find the house you are looking for. All of our properties are called out to our applicants even before they become published online.

Fancy yourself a writer? We are doubling our magazine distribution from 5,000 houses to 10,000 houses in the new year and are looking for budding writers to provide content. Do you have a passion for saving money or for being thrifty and upcycling? Do you run a business and you want to share information with the local community? Get in touch and help us create the best content!

What’s more, we want to ensure we continue to give back to the local community we love so much. So we are excited to be launching the following initiatives.

Our mentoring scheme for local start-up business including £15,000 worth of funding, office space and one to one mentoring.

A fight against Homelessness. In 2020, working with our landlords, investment buyers and other local charities we are striving to prevent homelessness. We want to create better communication channels with local government in order to make it easier for people on benefits to be able to let property, we are working with providers to find alternatives to 5 week deposits to enable more people to afford to move and perhaps most importantly we are going to be putting more man hours in to helping the local communities and charities by volunteering at local events, foodbank and more.

Everyone at Orchards wishes you a great 2020 and we thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Should you have any questions, want to help on our new initiatives, or are just thinking of selling or letting in the area call us on 01525 40 22 66.

Kind Regards

Adam Barker

Director

Orchards

OUR PRIZES THIS YEAR

£300,000 of Money off vouchers                        

£105 to British Legion                               

74 Easter Eggs

£60 of Smyths Vouchers                                         

52 Bottles of Cava                                

31 Bags of Pick n Mix

5 Lunches from Ampthill Nutrition Kitchen       

5 Chocolate Hampers                 

4 Tickets to Woburn Safari Park

4 Tickets to Go Ape                                                

2 Tickets to Lego Land  

2 Tickets to Amp Rocks

Meal for Two at the White Hart                            

1 Zumba Class

Body Composition Scan

1 Cut & Blow Dry                                                

1 Set of Gel Nails                      

Russel Lower PTA Ball Sponsorship

Winner of the Best Agent Guides Excellent award for Sales and Lettings (Top 10% of Agents in the country)