WhatHouse? newspaper makes the shortlist for First Time Buyer Readers’ Awards
Posted 25 January 2017 by
Keith OsborneWe’re delighted to announce that WhatHouse?, the free newspaper that we distribute around London and the southern Home Counties, has been shortlisted again for the First Time Buyer Readers’ Awards 2017 in the Best Property Supplement of the Year category.
This publication, which we produce ten times a year with a distribution of 285,000 copies per issue won a Highly Commended prize in the same category in the 2016 awards, and we’re very pleased that the independent panel of judges has shortlisted it again for the 2017 event, which will be taking place on Friday 21 April. Nicki Chapman will be the celebrity host at the event at the Waldorf Hilton on Aldwych, central London.
It is now up to the magazine’s readers (and those loyal fans of our own newspaper, of course!) to make the final votes to decide who wins the award. It is one of 17 categories covering a range of disciplines relating to the homebuying process, from Private Developer of the Year and Best First Time Buyer Apartment to Most Innovative Marketing Campaign and Best Mortgage Lender For First Time Buyers.
With some tough competition to make the top position in the awards we know we’ll have to work hard to show people who may not know about us what we do and win their favour through the quality of content we’ve been providing for over four years now.
The timing of the announcement of the shortlist coincided with the release of data from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), which revealed that first-time buyer (FTB) sales in December 2016 were the highest for 15 years. In all, 32% of sales in the month were to those putting a first step on the property ladder. The last time that happened to such a scale was December 2001.
Mark Hayward, the NAEA’s managing director, says: “With demand at an all-time December high and sales to FTBs at their highest on record, 2016 closed on a positive note following several months of uncertainty. However, despite an encouraging December, there remains a clear shortage of homes. We await the government’s housing white paper to see how it intends to tackle this and hope the market continues to improve for both buyers and sellers.”