Regional Round-up

May 2019

Northern Ireland has reportedly had the strongest housing market in the UK in the last quarter of 2018 and things have been improving into the first quarter of 2019.

However with Brexit looming we are hearing reports of a downturn in the 2019 market and buyers having a ‘wait and see’ approach.  As an agent working in the business for 16 years and having lived through the property collapse it has never been more important in our industry to be a member of NAEA Propertymark.

It has been a great honour to be the Northern Ireland regional executive for NAEA Propertymark, and to meet with many of the rural NAEA Propertymark members to hear about the different markets across the country. One fantastic example recently was a member in Portadown reporting outstanding sales figures which went from 30 up to 40 a month.

Our National Conference was on 8 May 2019 in Belfast. We were really excited that this year we had a National Conference and with an exceptional line up of guest speakers along with a panel debate with experts in the industry.

In 2018 we launched the Joint Memorandum on Improving Communications between the professions (MOU), an MoU between the Law Society, RICS and NAEA Propertymark, which aims to improve communication and ultimately improve the conveyancing process for sellers and purchasers. We have held the second meeting within the Down District area with solicitors, estate agents and surveyors in Downpatrick to discuss how the MOU is working and how to improve the conveyancing process.

It was a hugely successful meeting and great to see so many professionals working together to make the process more streamlined and better for the consumer. If you would like more information about MoU please get in touch.

I have also been working on arranging more workshops and meetings in NI for NAEA Propertymark members to build on membership and enable access to the support they need. I have had the pleasure of meeting members across the province to help with any concerns they have.

We held a highly successful joint NAEA and ARLA Propertymark meeting in October 2018 and worked on the National Conference which was held on 8 May 2019 in The Hilton Hotel in Belfast. NAEA Propertymark has been working tirelessly on creating training events and courses for members, along with excellent marketing tools and legislation guidance on the online shop; for example, vendor verification questionnaire, GDPR guidance and AML compliance booklets.

Mary-Louise Press MNAEA, AARLA
NAEA Propertymark Regional Executive