Three quarters (76%) of those looking to purchase a new home said that their buying agent didn’t have a presence within the area they were looking to sell, latest research by GetAgent Exchange reveals.
A survey of homebuyers to have purchased a property within the last 12 months found that 51% had moved within their existing local authority.
However, 49% had looked further afield, with 16% purchasing within the same county, whilst 11% purchased within the same region of the UK but outside their existing county and as many as 21% looked to a new region or home nation of the UK altogether.
As is often the case, a high proportion of these buyers (64%) also had a property to sell.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
However, with such a significant proportion moving to a new local authority or further, the survey by GetAgent Exchange found that only a small proportion of sellers had the opportunity to utilise the same agent to aid with both their purchase and sale.
Three quarters (76%) of those surveyed stated that the agent they were buying through didn’t have a presence in the area in which they were looking to sell their existing property.
And additional analysis of CDRC data by GetAgent Exchange found that it’s those moving to Cornwall who tend to head the furthest in search of a new home, travelling an average of 159 miles from their original property.
However, those heading to no less than 23 other UK local authorities also move between 70 and 118 miles from their original home.
NATURAL DISCONNECT
Colby Short, Co-founder and Chief Executive of GetAgent.co.uk, says: “Our research has found that almost half of buyers are crossing local authority lines, and a notable portion are relocating to entirely new regions.
“So it’s hardly surprising that when they find their next home, the buying agent is unlikely to have a presence within their current area and is therefore unable to help them sell their existing property.”
And he adds: “This distance is creating a natural disconnect between buying and selling agents, which can complicate the process for movers and leave potential vendor leads unclaimed.
“It’s for this reason that we’ve created GetAgent Exchange, providing agents with a smarter way to capitalise on their out-of-area leads across regions through our significant referral network across the UK.
“It helps unlock new income while also delivering additional support to movers, all without requiring any effort from the referring agent.”
