Brighton Rocks: Successful Selling by the Sea!

Pier-ing at property prices

Across the UK, demand for property is outstripping supply, but nowhere is this more evident than in Brighton. The average asking price of property in the town has shot up faster than the Turbo rollercoaster on the pier, but unlike the ride, there's no sign of a downwards plunge!

The average Brighton property has increased a whopping 13% from February 2015 to today – from around £442,395 to a huge £500,967*. Average house prices in the UK have climbed by 9.7%, so the Brighton Boom is well above the average - leaving many home owners and potential buyers feeling as dizzy and shaky legged as if they'd had a rollercoaster-run in... you definitely need strapping in to ride the bumpy Brighton property market!

However, here at Urban.co.uk, we're not nervous about loop-de-loop markets, and we certainly don’t let average asking prices hold us back! Our sales team recently negotiated the successful sale of a property located in BN2, which sold at far over the initial asking price in December, a notoriously slow month for sales - and it certainly wasn't a rollercoaster ride for the sellers!

The happy homeowners had purchased the Urban.co.uk Essentials Package, plus photos and an EPC - a steal at only £349 + VAT. They handled the viewings for their property themselves, but other than that the entire process was managed as if they had sold with a local, high street agent.

A local Urban.co.uk assessor visited their property, carried out a full assessment, took professional photographs and a created a floor plan, a For Sale sign went up in the front garden and voila, the property was ready to be marketed online across the main property portals including Rightmove, Zoopla and Primlocation, as well as local sites and the Urban.co.uk website.

A flood of interested viewers contacted the sales team at the Urban.co.uk office, where the fully-trained team arranged for the owners to meet with potential buyers and showcase their property. The Urban.co.uk team received a number of offers on their behalf, and the owners were happy to proceed with a very speedy completion at a figure substantially over the asking price.

They said: ‘The Urban Sales Team are excellent! Whenever we needed help or advice from the sales team, be it on-line chat or by phone or email, they were always very helpful. They were always there to help towards completion, communicating with all involved. We would say they helped over and beyond what they were expected to do. We have recommended friends to use Urban Sales to sell their home. Thank you!’

Controlling your clicks

The Brighton Digital festival is a celebration of digital culture, and is held annually in the town. with such an exciting digital heritage, choosing to move away from a traditional high street estate agent, and towards a more intuitive, user-led platform is the next logical step for many.

We understand that our customers are buys people, and that selling your house is just one thing on your to do list, so we’ve invested in technology designed to make the process as simple as possible – check our exactly how it works here

We believe that putting our customers back in the driving seat is the very best way to ensure that not only you get the very best service, but that potential buyers receive the best information too. Nobody knows your property like you do, so who better to feed that knowledge back!

One happy seller wrote:'The Urban.co.uk website is easy to use, and allows you to personalise it as YOU want, not just the usual estate agents jargon. You can then easily adjust and re-adjust, and add or deduct what potential buyers see at any time. Their surveyor comes and does a full measurement and floor plan, which you can upload to your own private web page. you can then put them (photos) in any order, add or remove any or add your own photos if you want. Excellent service with helpful staff, and I saved £3500 in agents fees!'

High Street vs. Online

Not everyone in Brighton is as confident online as the digital festival goers though, and there is still many people who are still wary of putting their biggest asset in the hands of an online estate agent. Here at Urban.co.uk we understand this concern, but we firmly believe that the High Street is definitely not the place to be any more for a number of reasons...

The ongoing safety of our chips aside, we work really hard to make sure that the service we offer is as good, if not better, than high street agents.

The fully trained Urban.co.uk customer-services team are available on the phone, email and online chat seven days a week, and unlike traditional agents, they are never out of the office carrying out viewings or valuations!

We pride ourselves on our customer service, and many of our customers have chosen to move their properties from high street agents to a solely online service – and in doing so have not only managed to sell their property in a fuss-free way, but they’ve saved a bundle!

• ‘Within 10 days of my ad going live with Urban.co.uk, I had three offers at the asking price, and the eventual sale cost me around £420. If I had sold the year before when the property was on the market with a high street agent it would have cost me £12,000 in commission!’

We like to think of the bigger picture at Urban.co.uk, and to us, a £12,000 saving represents a brand new kitchen and bathroom, with maybe a little left over for a restorative holiday after a big move! But this happy customer isn’t the only one - the huge cost savings just keep coming!

• ‘Why would you pay for a high street estate agent? Using an online estate agent was easy and saved I've £4,000. We sold in under a week and completed with no problems. Do it?’

Rocking rental scene!

As well as selling to people looking to make Brighton their home, the town is very appealing to the thousands of buy-to-let landlords looking to invest. With a rental yield of around 2.8% and a high demand for rental properties, Brighton is a great place to invest in bricks and mortar.

The thriving student community, and plenty of commuters flooding to the town to make use of the speedy transport links to London mean that investors are snapping up property as quickly as it reaches the market. As well over a decade's worth of experience in selling property, Urban.co.uk also has an experienced lettings division, who have access to a nationwide network of eager landlords always on the lookout for their next investment - if your property is right for the Brighton rental market, our landlords will want to hear about it!

For more information on how the Urban.co.uk team can help you sell your Brighton home, contact us seven days a week on brighton@urban.co.uk, or 0800 689 9955