The Headlines

  • Sale market supply continues to fall and is down 2% compared to 2021
    • More importantly, supply volumes are over 12% down on the last “normal” year of 2019
  • Demand in the sale market has fallen by 20% compared to 2021, although demand is still up 15% compared to 2019
  • Lettings market supply continues to fall and is down almost 10% compared to 2021
    • More importantly, supply volumes are over 25% down on the last “normal” year of 2019
  • Demand in the lettings market is also sharply down by nearly 12% on 2021, and it is also more than 15% down on 2019

 

We have over the course of the pandemic developed a reputation for bringing you interesting highlights. Today, we’ve completed the first flash update on how the property market is looking in the first 14 days of 2022 and comparing this to prior years.

 

Sale Market  

The following table displays volumes of instructions and sales agreed for the first 14 days of 2022 and compares these with prior years back to 2019 –

The headlines are that instruction volumes (supply) continues to fall by 2% on the prior year. Perhaps more importantly, volumes are far short of the last “normal” year of 2019, with a fall of over 12%.

Demand volumes in the sale market have fallen by 20% compared to 2021 and these are very early signs that we are approaching much more of a normal situation where historically, demand is c.75% of supply.

This said, demand is still up 15% compared to 2019, which is an encouraging sign for the industry.

 

Lettings Market

The following table displays volumes of instructions and lets agreed for the first 14 days of 2022 and compares these with prior years back to 2019 –

The headlines are that instruction volumes (supply) continues to fall by nearly 10% on the prior year. Perhaps more importantly, volumes are far short of the last “normal” year of 2019, with a fall of over 25%.

Demand volumes in the lettings market have fallen by 12% compared to 2021 and they are down on 2019 by over 15%.

The encouraging sign for the industry is that demand is falling less than supply, and whilst it is not as strong as it was, this is a good sign.

 

Comments on Accuracy

 

Whilst the above analysis is like for like in terms of it is 14 days and covers the same number of weekends and bank holidays. We do not know if the timing of the bank holiday in 2022, coming directly after the weekend has adversely affected the market. It is too soon to tell. However, we will endeavour to repeat this exercise and extract useful information after the month of January has passed.

 

Source: TwentyCi