Buying agency reports strong demand from British buyers in 2014

An independent property buying agency has reported that its client base last year was predominantly made up of British buyers. 

Sourcing Property says 69% of buyers in 2014 were based domestically. Buyers from France and Italy made up 9% and 5% of the firm’s client base respectively, with the rest a mixture of overseas buyers from the Middle East, Far East and Australia. 

Owner/occupiers made up 53% of buyers, while the remaining 47% were investing in buy-to-let property.

“People are often of the view that buying agents, especially those in London, largely act for the super-rich overseas buyer, however, we have a strong British client base, the majority of which are owner occupiers (78%),” Jo Eccles, Managing Director of Sourcing Property, commented. “Of these, 13% were first-time buyers and 12% were buying for children, an increasing trend. Our clients also work across a diverse range of industries, with 50% in banking and financial services and the rest divided across industries including insurance, fashion, recruitment, government, property and law.”

As for rentals and relocations, Sourcing Property witnessed a 26% growth on 2013, with the largest number of relocations from the US (46%). This is closely followed by Europe (36%), whilst 18% relocated from within the UK, including employees from CBRE, Lulu Lemon, JP Morgan and RBC.

“We are in talks with a number of large corporations to handle their employee relocations, and we expect this growth to continue as companies, especially tech, digital, media and finance, increase their relocation numbers and many would-be-buyers opt to rent instead,” Eccles added. “We have partnered with a superb settling in and education consultants as part of this growth.