In an interview with Helston Nub News Branch Manager at Bradleys Estate Agents, Martin Clements provides a market update on the last six months, now entering September.

In March, Bradleys Estate Agents Helston became the exclusive sponsors of the Nub News property section - bringing you desirable properties in and around the town, plus news and features relating to the local property market.

What have the last six months been like? [.H2]

Martin told Nub News:

Obviously, we did the first review earlier on in the year which stated that sales were outselling instructions, and we had a very good for exchanges (people completing their house sales).

The second half of the year has followed a very similar format, sales are extremely strong, we have noticed a dip in the local instructions across the town.

As a brand and across the industry we have noticed the levels of instructions coming to market are less, I think that is down to a little bit of nervousness with the sellers, I think they are struggling to decide on the property they want to go for.

There is a general nervousness across the market at the moment, we have hit a bit of a lull, we are trying to work on the quality of the instruction as well.

However, we have noticed the quality of instruction being brought to market has been better, and we think that is down to the marketing we are offering, the drone videos, the packages, have really excelled.

As a result, we are noticing a better quality of clients but that doesn't mean we are dismissing the park home sale, we love them.

We have had some good transactions recently where we have had the 106 restricted properties (affordable housing), they are really focussed on finding the local buyer and giving them the chance to purchase.

Overall, a fantastic first six months, great levels of properties completing, happy buyers and sellers and we can tell that by the levels of the reviews.

[H3] Obviously, there has been a shift in the coronavirus restrictions, a huge change in fact with the removal of all legal restrictions, has this affected how you operate at all? [.H2]

We have still kept very strong covid rules and regulations, we have followed the rules with masks, but we have gone from being masks and gloves with every appointment to giving the client a choice. We are happy to wear gloves and masks if they want.

We are just really happy to start seeing people back in the office and seeing faces again.

We have spent 18 months without seeing anyone's mouths move and part of our job is dealing with and responding to people's facial expressions, the general consensus of all the customers I see is that they are happy to see faces back.

The restrictions for us are lifted, I think we are all wanting to get back to some normality.

[H3] Looking ahead to the next three months, what does that look like? [.H2]

It is going to be instructions driven, we have a good pipeline of sales that are going through, but to finish the year strongly we need the next instructions to come to market.

We need the sellers to believe we can do that for them, we have seen a levelling of the bounce, and I think now it will be instruction-driven.

[H3] Anything else coming up this year for Bradley's? [.H2]

I think because we have had our best year as a group (since figures going back to 2007) we just want to carry on with what we are doing, and what we are good at, which is offering the complete property service.

We are an expanding office/business, we have taken on another member of staff and that is going to facilitate a little bit more comfort in the office and time off because we have worked exceedingly hard over this period. It also shows that we are investing back into the community, people working for us, and we see ourselves continuing to grow.

There is the rebranding of the new office, new LED signage, we are trying to move forward and we want to concentrate more on the next step of social media.

It is about putting ourselves out there as a brand that is modern but also has the history, we have been going for almost 26 years and we want to go for another 26 years.

The only way we can continue moving forward is by keeping up to date with new technology, and responding to the demands of the customer.

Bradleys Estate Agents is a sponsor of Helston Nub News.

Without their community-minded sponsorship, we wouldn't be able to bring you local news free from overly intrusive ads, pop-ups, and clickbait.

Click their banner at the top of this story to visit their website and get in touch.

Make sure to follow Bradleys Estate Agents for updates on the market and details on a wonderful selection of Helston properties.

[H3] Carry on the conversation on our Twitter and Facebook pages. [.B]