A town in Merseyside topped the nationwide list of most sought after places to live last year, with some houses snapped up by keen buyers within a week of being advertised, but considerably little is known about the inner workings of our local property market.
The ECHO spoke to Hannah Wilkinson, assistant manager of the Wallasey office of Karl Tatler, a local estate agents which was slap bang in the middle of the boom that saw house prices in the town rise by almost £25,000. She spoke about the reasons behind Wallasey's sudden popularity, the best parts of her job and the view people often have of estate agents as 'money-grabbing robots'.
Hannah said: "After covid hit the Wallasey property market went mad. We opened [the Wallasey office] just before lockdown.
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"Then covid struck so when we came back there wasn't that many houses for people. But, then the stamp duty holiday hit and I think the boom was a combination of that plus the fact that people needed more space."
The stamp duty holiday was introduced by the Chancellor in July 2020 and meant that buyers wouldn't have to pay stamp duty, a tax paid upon buying a single property, for houses under £500,000. It ended last October and the ceiling for stamp duty returned to its previous £125,000 threshold.
Hannah said: "People were thinking they're going to have to work from home and so they needed an office, then a lot of people wanted a garden because of the weather we'd had and I think all of that together just started people moving towards buying.
"There were obviously a lot of people who struggled which is awful, but thanks to the lifted stamp duty a lot of first time buyers were able to save a bit more so they had better deposits to buy, and a lot of people did the same thing. Stamp duty certainly saw the bigger houses go through."
Hannah revealed how she first got started in the estate agent business.
She said: "I was in the hospitality industry from 15. I didn't got to university, I just wanted to get working.
"But I got fed up of the late nights and I guess I wanted a bit more of a structured office role. Also, it's a bit cliché, but I've always been really into properties.
"It was just something I was interested in so I just applied. I didn't have any experience in the industry and I worked at another agency who took a chance on me before Karl Tatler."
After gaining the necessary experience, Hannah then moved to a junior position at Karl Tatler. She is now an assistant manager, running both the day to day of the office whilst still getting dealing with sales and lettings.
She said: "I started as a lettings negotiator and then we combined the offices to do both sales and lettings so then I was Sales Negotiator and Lettings. I soon progressed to a senior level then last year I was promoted to assistant manager.
"This is my 6th year, my 7th in November, so the progression is there. Another lady in the office was sales negotiator and is now a valuer. The branch manager [of the Wallasey office] was a lettings negotiator before so the progression is there.
"At this company we prefer to promote from within and for the higher-up roles at branch manager its very rare that we'll have people come in at that level. Most of the staff have progressed upwards have worked here for a decent amount of time."
She said that one misconception of the business is that estate agents are all 'robots' who hold their commission as priority over the happiness of buyers just looking for a place to live. She said: "It's not easy, obviously people get upset when their offers aren't accepted.
"We're all human in here. Everyone is in the same position of people buying a home.
"I think people have the perception of us that we're just money-grabbing, and we don't care about clients, especially maybe from the buyers position. The industry has massively changed in the last two years since covid.
"We're now in the position where there are so many buyers for every property and a lot of people are missing out. We get the blame for that because they think that's us but it's supply and demand, there's not enough houses for the amount of buyers, and I guess everyone blames us but we work for the [house sellers], it's never our decision of whoever they sell too.
"But I think that part of the job is really bittersweet- we get to do one nice call of 'your offer has been accepted' but then we've got to do ten calls that ruin people's day. I think people just think that we're dead happy and don't care about that but actually that's ten calls that are letting someone down and I think probably people don't associate us as people, they just think we're robots.
"The best bit of the job is when you've been searching with a client for years and you find them that home and their offer is accepted and they're just so grateful and are crying and so happy for the good news. That's the best part of the job.
"But equally its the other side as well for the sellers' side, finding them a buyer so they can move on, or maybe they're selling their parents house and we find them a lovely buyer and it's just very rewarding in that way.
"Last year I had a woman who eventually listed her property after losing her husband and we found her a lovely flat and a lovely buyer [for the previous property] and it was just the best feeling because I've worked alongside her for that long. And that's the difference with us because we keep in touch, we communicate then the end result is that she got what she wanted and I was able to help her in the end."
Even with the return of stamp duty, and the more recent cost of living crisis, Hannah doesn't think that the Wallasey boom is going to end as quickly as may be expected. She said that Karl Tatler expects another 18 months of great business before things begin to quiet once more.
