Law firms are the most affected by changes in the property market

With 60% of law firms involved in conveyancing, the legal sector is more affected by changes in the property market than any other area of the economy.

Currently house prices are falling, transactions are taking longer and have a challenging profit margin.

Hema Anand, partner in BDB Pitmans’ residential real estate team comments in The Law Society Gazette:

‘Everyone is waiting for the market to bottom out so they can feel they have paid the right price. There is a lot of price chipping going on. It is not uncommon for buyers to pull out only to come back a few months later to ask for a lower price; and for transactions to be agreed after successive price reductions, or for considerably less than the asking price. The difficulty we have at the moment is that there aren’t enough houses coming up for sale and the reason for that is that sellers [think], “if I don’t have to sell, why would I in a falling market?”.’

She also discusses the upcoming reform of leasehold enfranchisement:

‘I don’t think the valuation process can be simplified that much, but we would certainly welcome some of the other streamlining they are proposing.’

The full article is available on The Law Society Gazette website, here.