The market will pick up in the spring
Kjartan Hallgeirsson real estate agent and the managing director of the real estate company Eignamiðlun says that smaller apartments are always in demand. Composite image
Kjartan Hallgeirsson, a real estate agent and managing director of Eignamiðlun, says the real estate market started to slow down last fall. He predicts that it will pick up in the spring. Small apartments for first time buyers are popular, and apartments with four or five rooms are also sought after. The demand of the a single family home is also quite strong.
How do you experience the real estate market right now?
“The real estate market was very quiet in December but has been getting significantly better this month. It has been a very difficult market for first time buyers because of high interest rates and the inflation. Negative coverage of the market doesn’t help either. However, there are more buyers than sellers so the market will continue to pick up,” he says.
What kind of properties are people looking for?
“People generally look for good, safe accommodation. For some, location is the main thing. For families, it is a safe home for their families, with good transportation, and that school issues are in order. For first-time residential buyers, the good condition and maintenance of the property is important,” he says.
Now, many talk about a cooling market.
"The market slowed significantly last fall, but there has been a change in that after the end of the year and we feel more interested in the buyers. We hear the same thing from other estate agents."
What kind of assets are most popular now?
“For the largest groups of buyers, it’s small apartments for first-time buyers and apartments with 4-5 bedrooms. Ground floors with separate entrances and closed verandas are popular, along with smaller apartments. But whole floor apartments and single family homes in every neighborhood are always sought after.”
How do you see the market developing this year?
“I predict that the market will continue to grow slowly and stabilize over the course of spring and summer,” says Hallgeirsson.
What kind of properties are missing on the market now?
“We need small and practical apartments for the young buyers and fancy apartments for people 60 years of age and older. We also need single family homes, attached houses and duplexes,” he says.
Do you recommend that people first sell their property and then find a property to buy or should people just bid on and then sell their property?
“You are a much stronger buyer if you’ve already sold your property because then you know exactly what money you have, but since there is not a lot of supply, there is always a certain risk to sell and not to have anything else in hand. But that’s changing and the supply is increasing.”
