So, with fewer properties both coming onto the market last week as well as being sale agreed, I thought I’d look at some other parts of the housing market. But first, here’s how the UK Market looked last week, compared to the same week in 2019. As I’ve said before, we do usually see fewer transactions around this time of year on the run up to Christmas and New Year. Though, 2020 has been a totally different year for all of us on so many levels. Will it follow the historical path of previous years?

We’re still seeing considerably more properties entering the market for sale as well as those being agreed sales, than in the same time in 2019. But, both New Instructions and Sales have seen reduced numbers this week compared to last. Sales being agreed are still up around 46% on the same period of 2019 – just over 33,000 compared to around 22,500. So there are still a lot of buyers out there in the UK market looking at, and buying properties.

Now, what we also see, as probably you would expect, is that there are also 44% more properties in the sales pipeline than in November 2019 – 515,000 properties compared to 359,000 properties. With the current lag time between a sale being agreed and completion being over 5 months, on average, this means that the majority of sales happening now are likely to be completing in March 2021 at the earliest – when looking at the current average transaction lengths.

Of these 515,000 properties, 294,000 have not yet had their legal searches ordered, and so are still in the very early stages of the sale. As well as the almost 500,000 properties that are on the market, still to find buyers.

At the height of the initial lockdown at the beginning of May this year, there were only 256,000 properties with sales progressing. So this shows the remarkable recovery in the housing market in the UK. There are over double the transactions progressing!

However, with all these transactions in the pipeline and the current length of a transactions process, how many of these will reach completion before the end of March and the end of the current Stamp Duty holiday.

Hi Steve,
We wanted you to know  how pleased we were with the move to our new address and the part your men played in that. As you may have gathered the completion and exchange of contract did not go smoothly and became quite concerning going down to the wire as it did but your team were absolutely brilliant and helped to ease the situation enormously.

Top marks from us!!.  I will be in touch later when we are ready to have the rest of our belonging from storage delivered.

Best regards,
Yours sincerely,
Pat & Roger Arthars

If you have managed to venture out of your home in the past week, you may well be forgiven for thinking that life looks increasingly “normal”. Pubs and restaurants are now open, retail stores are open and there just seems to be a lot more people and traffic about. Much similar to the property market too:

The chart shows the February to Mid-March pre-lockdown norm in terms of properties coming to the market For Sale. Then Covid-19 takes hold in the UK, Boris starts a period of lockdown and we see an immediate dip in the number of new properties coming to the market. However, then from 13^th May onwards, we’ve seen numbers of new instructions eventually returning to pre lockdown numbers and then even higher.

The number of sales being agreed in the UK looks very similar to the number of new instructions, when graphed in the same way:

Again, we see a pre-lockdown “norm”, followed by a massive trough which then increases week on week, day by day, to where we are today – seeing pent up demand and more transactions being agreed than pre-lockdown!

Here’s the week on week sales data:

There’s been a lot of talk about how well the UK Property market is doing since restrictions in England were lifted in mid May. But, with the other home nations having started the easing of restrictions this week, what can they potentially expect to see in the forthcoming weeks? Well, since restrictions were lifted in England on 13^th May, this is how the market has been split between the nations (figures correct up to 16^th June 2020):

So it’s pretty clear to see where the market is moving. The hope is that when the other home nations ease their restrictions, then the pent-up demand will come through, just like it has in England. The Northern Irish market only opened up again this Monday (15^th June), so we’re yet to see significant data from the region since.

If we look at these numbers on a week by week comparison with 2019, we’ll see that we’re generally running at 100% of the same week in 2019, even with only England’s market being fully open for business (the NI market will be open in next week’s numbers):

Since restrictions in England were lifted on 13^th May, throughout the UK we’ve seen:

• 35015 new instructions to the market For Sale
• 21404 sales agreed
• 58148 properties come on to the Rental market To Let
• 34117 residential tenancies agreed

In the week commencing 18^th May, we saw the number of new properties on to the sale market rise considerably to around 60% of the number we saw in the first week in March 2020. The number of sales being agreed also jumped to 45% of the number agreed in the first week of March.

Sales:

Rentals:

The number of Sales that are in the process of a transaction. At the time (23^rd April 2020), there were just over 310k transactions proceeding, with 150k of them having had searches ordered by the purchasers. As I write today, there are now around 246k transactions UK wide with sales agreed on them. Of this, 141k have had searches ordered. The number of properties currently on the market listed as For Sale hasn’t really changed in this time, from 454k in April to 447K currently. With some vendors having to sell due to changes in their work and pay situation, this has left a good stock of property on the market.

I hope this is useful to you and planning for the marketing of your business.

The big day is around the corner! Packing can be time-consuming, here are some tips that will help the process being smoother.

But of course, Knight Removals can help!

Making up and sealing the boxes

If you’re using our boxes, tape them using two lengths of tape, down the middle and across the seam to hold the box together, be sure to go halfway up the side of the box. Do the same on the top of the box and write across the tape using a permanent marker, the room where the box is to be placed and a brief description of the contents eg. BED 1 (shoes), KITCHEN (cups), etc.

Please no tucked under boxes.

What box to use for what

Small boxes

• Heavy, small items such as records, tins, bottles, cutlery, heavy food (rice, sugar etc) and heavy ornaments.
• Glasses, delicate ornaments, fragile china, small pictures and books. Pictures and records should be packed on their edges. Make sure that bottle tops are tight and pack bottles upright.

Medium-sized boxes

They are the most commonly used and are used for most other household effects such as pots, pans, glass, china, ornaments, pictures, clothing, food etc.

• Do not overfill the boxes; keep them square and in shape.
• When packing china/glass etc individually wrap each piece in paper/bubble wrap.
• When packing boxes do not place heavy items on top of delicate objects.
• Fill the boxes half/three quarters full and then fill to capacity using soft items such as pillows, cushions, towels, cuddly toys etc to take up any space on top. It is also a good idea to place soft items between each layer of very delicate china.

Large boxes

• Keep back sufficient large boxes for packing of bedding in current use.
• Lighter items such as clothing, light linen, shoes, bedding, toys, board games, light pots and pans.
• Mark boxes accordingly ie. BED 1, BEDDING, this will ensure they are easily identified for making up beds at your new home.

• Hanging clothes and furniture
• Transit rails will be on our vehicle for your use on moving day. If you are storing hanging garments we are able to supply cardboard wardrobes at an additional cost. It is generally not necessary to unpack chests of drawers, ottomans or similar furniture.

….. and after using the boxes

• When opening the boxes and making them flat, cut through the tape using a knife or scissors, please do not rip the tape off as this is messy and tends to ruin the box. We will collect the empty flat boxes as soon as possible after you notify us. We are unable to take other used materials or rubbish.

Moving Home Checklist

Moving house or office requires thorough planning and preparation to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible on the day. Knight Removals are here to help you every step of the way. Here are some useful tips that can make your move go according to plan.

Packing tips

Label your boxes – We suggest each box is clearly labelled using a marker pen with the name of the room where it should go in your new property. This will enable us to place your boxes in the appropriate room when unloading and will avoid having to open boxes to find out what they contain. It will also ensure you do not have to carry boxes around after we have finished. Any delicate or valuable item should be carefully wrapped with bubble wrap or paper and put into a box labelled as fragile.
Box everything – It is a good idea to pack everything you possibly can into boxes. It is much more secure and easier to move a box than to try to carry several bags of small items whose contents could spill out.
Use sturdy, uniform sized boxes – It is much easier to stack boxes of uniform size, which maximises the load capacity of our lorries or your car or van. Please do not use boxes from your local supermarket as they are not built to carry your treasured possessions! Better to use sturdy boxes made for the purpose. We supply boxes free of charge to our customers.
Don’t overfill boxes – Please ensure your boxes are not overfilled – remember they have to be lifted and carried! Overfilled boxes are more susceptible to break under the strain.
Don’t underfill boxes – Partially filled boxes may collapse if heavy items are placed on top of them. Try to distribute your possessions evenly in the available boxes.
Ensure you have plenty of packing material – It is essential that you have plenty of paper, bubble wrap, tissue, marker pens and adhesive tape.
Beware of newsprint – When packing your valuable and fragile possessions please remember that newsprint will rub off. Use plain paper where this may be a problem. Your ornaments, glassware and other delicate items can first be wrapped in kitchen roll before using newspaper.
Utilize luggage space – Don’t leave your suitcases empty, this is an ideal space to pack your clothing.
Prior to moving day

Be prepared – The majority of your belongings should be boxed 3 days before moving day, with only the essentials left unpacked. This will leave you plenty of time to prepare your large furniture and appliances.
Parking – If you have difficulty parking outside your house please plan to allow the removals van to park as close to your property as possible. This may require you to notify your neighbours and/or save a space by parking outside your property overnight. Please contact your local Parking Shop or Local Authority for a parking permit if needed. Remember our lorry and vans are large and will require space to manoeuvre.
Pets – If you have pets you should consider what is to happen to them on moving day. It is generally better that they are removed from the premises before the move takes place.
Mobile – Make sure that your mobile phone is fully charged up for moving day. You are probably going to need it.

Moving day – loading
Your removals team arrives – We will introduce ourselves and go through the order that we will be loading our vehicles. Please highlight any particular issues to us at this point.
Relax – This is where your thorough preparation will pay off, and our experienced team can begin loading your belongings carefully onto the removals vehicles.
Final checks – When you think that everything has been moved out, please take a walk around with the Knight Removals supervisor to ensure that all items to be moved have been loaded onto our vehicles. It is your responsibility to make sure that nothing is left behind.

Moving day – unloading
On arrival at your new property please walk around with your Knight Removals supervisor to advise him of the room layout and where certain items should go.
Directing traffic – It can be helpful to position someone at the main entrance to direct your removals team to the appropriate rooms in your new property. You are familiar with your furniture and box labelling so it would be very helpful to assist us at this stage to ensure things are placed in the correct location.
Final checks – A final check of the removals vehicles to ensure everything has been unloaded and you are now ready to start unpacking your belongings in your new property.

Having been interested in Philosophy and more so the ancient Greek Philosophers and studying the Sophists and Pre-Socratic thinkers I would like to write a little about a Post-Socratic Philosopher (and in my opinion) one of the greatest thinkers of all time, Aristotle.

Aristotle claimed (350 years BC)  that everything in the universe is in flux (something we now know to be true) in other words everything is in motion. So since everything is moved by something Aristotle says that there must be something that imparts motion without itself being moved.(The Unmoved Mover no less) otherwise there would be an infinite regress of movers. (An axiom for Aristotle is that an infinite regress of movers is impossible) .

Now according to the main man himself all movable things are only potentially in motion. So….. they require something else to act upon them in order to be set in motion.

So matter or the thing itself does not move but it contains in itself the source of motion. So if there was no unmoved mover there could be no motion because a moved mover requires a cause of its own motion in order to move and remember no infinite regress is possible.

So ……………………………………………….

There can only be one unmoved mover (You can call it what you like)

Because many unmoved movers are just not necessary it only takes one to produce a continuous motion and……….this bit is important… An Unmoved Mover causing eternal motion must likewise be eternal.

And for those that question eternal motion, well if motion were not eternal then time would not have always existed. And since time is the measure of motion then if time had not always existed then time itself would have a start point. That start point would not have a past contradicting the definition of time itself (past, present, future)

So…….  Knight Removals……….. The Unmoved Movers

Having been a keen chess player from a very young age, I was always fascinated by the way the Knight moves and how using just the two Knights and one other piece, you can destroy your opponent in no time at all.

So some tips to remember when playing.

The Knight should always be placed closed to the action and play a key part of control for the middle. It should be placed in the centre 16 squares, where each Knight then attacks 8 squares at once. Placed on the edge of the board it is weak and attacks only four and placed in the corner only two, this is insanity and you are probably going to lose it.

Watch out for forks

A multiple attack is the most dangerous weapon of the sturdy Knight, a fork is a tactic where by the Knight makes two or more direct attacks simultaneously, most commonly two pieces are threatened which can be called a double attack. The attacker usually aims to gain material by capturing one of the opponents pieces.

Remember the Knight is the only piece in chess that you cannot blocked when placed in check, it is also the only piece other than a pawn that can open.

The KNIGHT: The Best Mover