IT’S a good time to sell your property – that’s according to Gascoigne-Pees.

The firm of estate agents based in Winchester Street, Basingstoke, is advising home movers to act now if they want to sell their property in the New Year as typically there is an influx of homebuyers to the market in January. Commenting on the local housing market conditions, branch manager Nic Austen said: “Housing market conditions improved throughout 2013 helped by the launch of the Government backed Help to Buy scheme, lower interest rates and a greater availability of 90 and 95 per cent loan-to-value mortgages.

“Encouraged by the green shoots of recovery in the housing market, we saw more first time buyers and home movers purchasing their first home or moving up the housing ladder in 2013. “We expect this momentum to continue into 2014 as we see the traditional influx of homebuyers enter the market in January following the Christmas period, and now is a good time to instruct an estate agent to sell your property.”

Nic said house prices in the local area have increased over the past 12 months as demand for property continues to outstrip supply.

He said he is finding that sellers are being more realistic about their price expectations and properties that are correctly priced and pro-actively marketed are selling well.

The estate agency is seeing more committed buyers wanting to move to Basingstoke from outside of the area, looking for both new-build and re-sale properties.

However, due to the increasing numbers of buyers looking to move into the area, the estate agents urgently require more properties of all types and prices to sell to meet this growing demand.

Gascoigne Pees expects to see more first-time buyers and home movers enter the housing market in 2014, as the housing and mortgage markets continue to improve.

Nic has some top tips to offers on how to find the right estate agent.

“A good estate agent with the right network of branches and marketing expertise will expose your property to a wide audience of potential buyers,” said Nic.

“An estate agent will have good knowledge of the local housing market conditions, the types of properties already on the market in your area and know the sorts of buyers that would be interested in purchasing your house. “The benefit of choosing a large estate agency network is that the customer inevitably has access to more buyers and therefore a better chance of selling their house quickly and at a good price.”

For further information about the housing market in Basingstoke, for advice on buying and selling or to arrange a market appraisal, contact the team at Gascoigne Pees on 01256 464466.