Harrison Murray bucks the national house buying downturn trend

With reported slumps in house sales nationally, Harrison Murray estate agents and valuers are rising above the gloomy figures and are bucking the trend.

The HM Revenue & Customs has just announced that the volume of house sales in the UK fell by one per cent during 2011 (to 869,000), making it one of the lowest totals on record.

However, in contrast to these national statistics, Harrison Murray has reported that its 18 branches arranged the sale of an impressive seven per cent more properties in 2011 than in the previous year.

Harrison Murray's managing director, Nick Salmon explained how the firm has bucked the national trend: "When the downturn in the financial markets began in 2007/2008 we knew it would seriously affect the property market so we put in place intensive and ongoing training for all our staff to teach them how to cope.

“The result has been that we created an extremely able team of professional staff with a positive attitude to selling property in what are undoubtedly very challenging times. We are succeeding because we intimately know our markets, give sensible and realistic advice to sellers, and take the time to find out exactly what a buyer needs so that we can guide them to the right property.

“Then, when a sale is arranged we keep everyone focused on getting the mortgage and legal details finalised quickly and efficiently.”

Nick added: “You can't learn these skills overnight, which is why, after four years of honing the staff skills we are outperforming the market. And it's why we are the marker leaders in many of the areas in which we operate."