Today, I thought we’d take a look at April in full and how the property market in the UK is continuing to move at record levels. I’ve compared this month to the same period of 2019 as we can’t look back at April 2020 (well we can, but it would look rediculous!). 

Firstly, it is fairly clear that demand for purchasing property is not being driven by the various stamp duty incentives that are out there for buyers currently. Anyone trying to purchase a property currently should be well aware of the stamp duty deadlines. Most Solicitors and Estate Agents across the country are making buyers fully aware of timescales and are advising buyers to not proceed should they not have the money behind them to complete and pay land tax. 

However, stock levels of property coming to the market remains low. 

In April 2021, over 157,000 sales were agreed throughout the UK. This is 57% more than in April 2019. This really does show that demand in the market is not slowing down. This is slightly fewer sales than in March, but we have had the Easter bank holidays to contend with and therefore fewer working days. 

When we look at the total number of sales agreed for the first 4 months of 2021, compared to 2019, this chart is what we see:

FYI – the line in the chart plots the percentage increase from April 2019. 

Property is also selling a lot faster than in April 2019. In the first 4 months of 2019, 14% of property listed For Sale was agreeing a sale within the first 2 weeks of it being marketed. In 2021 so far, this averages at 27%. Almost double the number of properties are finding buyers in the first 2 weeks of being marketed!

Therefore we have with more buyers in the market, and properties agreeing sales much quicker. This is not just down to the Stamp Duty relief on offer. The market is exceptionally strong currently! As I’ve stated before, the real problem looks to be the lack of new property coming on to the market to fulfil the needs of all the buyers in the market.

Let’s see how May compares and whether these trends continue.

 

Source: TwentyCi