PERHAPS surprisingly with the election campaign in May we have enjoyed one of our best sales months of the year.

In most years spring and summer are traditionally very busy for us, but the run up to an election can impact the housing market - often resulting in people shelving plans until after the event.

This has surprised us slightly but the buyers that we are dealing with are motivated and generally have a need to move, be it a smaller or larger home, more or less garden, a change of area or circumstances, and some people just feel that now is the right time.

Sales are slightly higher than a year ago with the referendum in 2016 and perhaps its shock result.

Despite the election resulting in a hung parliament, I have no doubt that the Cotswolds market will continue to flourish – at least a known outcome is always welcoming.

As ever, pricing and marketing is important.

We were pleased to see that we achieved just over 98 per cent of our clients’ asking prices last month and other information that may be of interest is that on average it takes 15 viewings to agree a sale, clearly some are considerably quicker and that statistic will mask those that decide not to move.

We make sure that our clients’ properties are very well marketed and on average we make contact with circa 750 potential buyers on our database for each property that we sell.

We also work very hard when the sale is agreed to closely work with our partner solicitors to ensure the sale goes through swiftly and efficiently.

We are delighted to see that the Perry Bishop and Chambers’ average in 2017 from agreeing a sale to exchange of contracts is now just over 80 days, compared to a national average we believe of 100 days.

We are delighted that we are making such a difference; we have always aimed to be of considerable support to the clients we look after and all those that we have the privilege of helping to move.

The company continues to be strong and successful – though I hesitate to say ‘strong and stable!’

We are delighted to be opening a new office in Stroud later this year and look forward to helping more people to move or sell.