After the floods

H&H King director Richard Stronach examines the impact on the residential rental and property for sale markets resulting from Carlisle’s disastrous floods in January.

Following a stormy night I came in to work on what was probably the only open road into Carlisle via the race course and set about dealing with what we thought would be wind damage to sale and rented property.

However shortly after 9am I received a phone call from one of our vendors from the Caldew Maltings saying that the water was rising and that she thought that the property would need to come off the market because she was sure that she was about to be flooded and in fact that she had just seen a fish through her patio window!

So the scene was set for what turned out to be the worst floods in Carlisle’s history.

During the following weeks we were inundated with homeless families looking for rental property and with property leaving the sale market and being let out.

Rents increased across the board however we tried to be sympathetic and tried not to join in with the foray of what can only be called exploitation.

It was a sad reflection on our society to see so many taking advantage of people’s misfortune. There were of course exceptions one client offered their empty properties for free.

The flooded properties will take a number of months to be refurbished and this will of course have an impact on the market place.

There will be fewer houses available for sale in the popular central areas and prices in the short term for the refurbished properties will be affected. They will however recover and things will be back to normal we feel in about 18 months’ time when the memories of the floods have receded.

The rental market will also go through a state of flux when the majority of the flood victims return to their homes and there is a glut of properties becoming available for rent or for sale. Rents will at that point return to some normality.

It has been a very trying time for most people and agents and our sympathy goes out to those who have experienced difficulties and hardship.

Let us hope that we never see the likes of the January flooding ever again and that the necessary measures are put in place by the Environment Agency and the council.

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