THERE’S good news for residents looking to sell their home across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole in 2022.

A Poole estate agent has said that this year is set to remain a “seller’s market” across the conurbation - for the short term at least.

Sean Gibson, head of residential sales at Savills in Canford Cliffs, said: “Due to the imbalance of high demand versus shortage of stock we fully expected this year to remain a seller’s market throughout BCP, in the short term at least.

“While we were expecting things to cool slightly, January has certainly been a very positive month in terms of the number of registered buyers, viewings and sales we are dealing with which certainly bodes well for the early stages of this year. “

It comes as new data released by Rightmove showed demand for property boomed in January 2022.

The property website said it had its busiest January on record with buyer demand up 20 per cent above pre-Covid levels with an increase of 24 per cent compared with January 2020 and 41 per cent compared to the same month in 2019.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2022, Mr Gibson added: “Rising interest rates and the prospect of increased taxes may well gradually squeeze the spending power of wealthier households, leading to lower levels of house price growth as we move through 2022. However, longer term changes to people’s working patterns are still likely to underpin demand, albeit to a lesser degree than over the past 18 months. With a bit of luck, 2022 will be a less complex year than 2021 and likely less frenetic, however setting a realistic asking price from the start will be key to maintaining momentum.”