A TENBURY estate agent believes that there is a pressing need for more homes to be built in the town and surrounding area especially to enable first time buyers to get on to the property ladder.

Mary Stone has recently opened her business ‘Mary Stone Properties’ in the town.

She believes that there is demand for many more homes in the town especially from first-time buyers.

Before opening her business, she had worked for the estate agent McCartneys in the town.

But now she had decided to set up on her own with what she describes as a new approach to selling houses.

“I believe that many people want something different from the traditional model in which the estate agent gets a percentage of the sale price,” said Mary Stone.

“What I want to provide is greater transparency based upon a fixed fee irrespective of the price of the property.”

But she says that the biggest issue is having enough properties available for sale especially for those wanting to get on to the home ownership ladder.

“It is very simple, prices are high because there is an excess of demand over the supply on homes on the market,” she added.

“This is especially the case in the rented sector where there are hardly any homes in the area for people to rent.”

She disagrees with people who do not think that there is any need for further development in and around Tenbury.

“I could sell first-time buyer homes five times over and there is a desperate shortage of properties,” Mary Stone added.

She said that there is a particular problem for younger people from the locality because property prices are high compared with levels of pay.

“Local people find it very difficult to purchase in Tenbury,” Mary Stone added.

But not everyone agrees that more houses are needed in Tenbury.

Tony Penn, who represents Tenbury on Malvern Hills District Council and is a former planning portfolio holder, thinks that it could prove hard to sell many more new homes.

He has described the area as being ‘vulnerable’ to property development cause of the absence of a local housing plan.

“There is no question that without having a plan in place any developer has a very strong chance of success and they know it,” said Tony Penn.

“It is for this reason that there have been so many applications and it could continue. When the development plan is in place there will be a much stronger case for refusing housing schemes.”

He thinks that there is simply not the demand for the number of houses that there is permission to build in the Tenbury area.

“It is hard to see that there is going to be the demand because this is a rural area and there are simply not the local jobs to support a much bigger population,” he added.

“As it stands at present houses are not selling that well in and around Tenbury and there are a number that have been on the market for some time. I think the developers must be suffering from indigestion.”