An independent Kenilworth estate agent has looked back at a "crazy" year in the local property market.

Julie Philpot of Julie Philpot residential told Nub News that 2022 had fallen into different parts - before and after the Liz Truss mini-budget.

"Needless to say, since August/September, once interest rates had gone up, people have held back," she said. 

"Obviously the press reports had all the negativity, and said prices are falling, so people decided to wait and see what happened. 

"But to be honest while people are waiting, there are people who still want to buy, so the prices aren't necessarily going to drop that much, because somebody out there will purchase.

"We haven't seen prices fall dramatically - really they have just readjusted slightly from where they were.

Julie said September had been a "rare" month where both buyers and sellers were pushing to complete deals as mortgage rates went up.

Julie Philpot Residential recorded record sales in 2022

"September was the month where everything came together - this doesn't happen very often," she added. 

"Buyers and sellers were all singing from the same hymn sheet; sellers wanted to get moving before prices possibly reduced and buyers were thinking 'we need to buy now using the deal I have got'. 

"It is really rare to get that all at once so it was mad."

And while Julie said the autumn had been extremely busy, she said the first half of the year had still seen huge demand for houses around Kenilworth.

In fact the business, which launched in 2019, last year recorded record sales.

"Up until the autumn we were so busy," she said. 

"We just couldn't get things up quick enough - people wanted to view and then buy straight away. So it was really busy."

Now a team of four, the business was put under extra pressure when Julie was off work having been involved in a crash.

She praised director Donna McCamphill for "producing miracles" in keeping everything together during that time.

And while the firm has just had a hectic end to the year helping people move in time for Christmas, Julie said she was still expecting things to be busy again in 2023.

"Now we are into the point of changing market conditions, it will be interesting to see how things change in the new year. 

"I think a lot more houses will start becoming available come February and March as things start to calm down a bit with spring being a traditionally busy time of the year – we can't wait."

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