2013 didn’t get off to a very good start which considering the appalling weather is of little surprise. In the first quarter, our number of sales agreed was virtually identical to the same period of 2012.

From there on we have seen a considerable improvement in activity with the second and third quarters showing an increase in sale of 15% and 36% respectively and have finished the year with an improvement of some 26% (net sales).

Interestingly there is a national message that new instruction levels are down but here at JW Wood we have seen our figures actually improve, another encouraging sign of a return in confidence.

Reports suggest that the New Buy Scheme introduced to assist the new homes market has been a great success with this helping first time buyers enter the market. It is of course possible that this could have taken some first time buyers out of the “second hand” market but hopefully this has been addressed with the introduction of phase two, the Help to Buy Scheme.