What Do Buyers Look For In A Property?

When you?re trying to sell your property, it?s important that you understand what the buyer is looking for. This can help you target your home more successfully and increases your chances of getting a quick sale.

Lifestyle Choices Are Deciding Factor

In a recent survey, 50% of respondents stated that the main reason for their house move was to improve the quality of their lifestyle. The Housing Futures survey from Strutt and Parker surveyed 1,000 people and asked them about their motivation for moving home.

As well as making changes to their lifestyle, there were other factors behind many of the moves. 35% of those surveyed were looking for easier access to retail facilities and amenities, while 32% wanted to be closer to friends and family. There were financial motivations for some buyers, with 31% of respondents wanting to lower the amount of money they spent on their property and 30% looking to move to a larger home.

Changes to How We Live

Traditionally, many older homeowners would be looking to downsize their property once the children had left home. However, this is increasingly not the case. While many property owners want to limit the amount of money their property costs, they don?t necessarily want to reduce the size. They might have the same size of house but with less land. This could mean reducing the size of their garden and using steel balconies to improve their outdoor space. Other buyers will look to have a bigger property in a cheaper area, which would release some of the capital.

There are many reasons behind this change in behaviour, but family factors could be one of the key issues. In the past, many couples would simply have lived on their own once their children had moved out. However, today an increasing number of older people are choosing to move in with family. The Housing Futures survey highlighted that 10% of those who took part expect to be living with other generations of their family within the next five years.

The Dream Home

On top of all these reasons for moving property, buyers also have a dream home in mind. In some cases this is an unachievable aspiration, but for many it will help drive their property purchase.

A dream home for 80% of people is a detached property and those living in the North East are more likely to prefer a cottage. Across all areas, most people were looking for a four-bedroom home, followed by three and five bedrooms.

The amount of outdoor space is critical for most buyers, with 95% of those who took part in the survey wanting some form of outside living area. This could range from small patio gardens or steel balconies through to an extensive plot of land.

In the same way that properties are not all the same, there are different types of buyers in the market as well. Deciding on who your target audience is will help you to market your property more successfully