I HAVE written this with some trepidation on Election Day not knowing the result!

Perhaps surprisingly with the election campaign we have had one of our best sales months of the year in the run up to this big day, 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. Whichever way the election went I have no doubt that the Cotswolds market will continue to flourish even if we receive another shock result, stability and 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 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.

We moved our office in Nailsworth in the autumn of 2016 and are very pleased with the way this has been received and how busy we have become and accordingly we look forward to working with more local Stroud clients from our new office opening in September 2017.