The state of the housing market

In the United Kingdom, the housing market is a key part of the infrastructure of the economy, inextricably linked to the vagaries of interest rates and economic decisions taken by the government.

Property data insights and analytics company, TwentyCi, have published their Property & Homemover Report for the first quarter of 2024. The document helps to underline this position, with the company's analysis of the current state of the housing market. 

Rather than dwelling on sentiment - a measure that is often used by many companies in the property industry to indicate what might happen - the report is based on factual evidence looking at the latest  property data for both sales and rental, and additionally it covers the entire market, too.

TwentyCi makes the comparison between the first quarter of this year against the same period in 2023, and identifies some intriguing points of interest:

• At the start of 2023, the economy was still struggling to find its way back from the effects of mini-budget of Autumn 2022. 

The then-Chancellor's announcement saw the broad economy dip heavily in the wake of the impact on interest rates and therefore on the instruments of homebuying including mortgage lending rates and house prices, underlining the volatility of the financial system. 

The comparison with the same period in 2024 shows that sales agreed figures are now increasing and are 15% up on the previous year.

• Transaction levels (the sales and purchases of property) are showing signs of returning to those experience in the same period in 2022 before the financial strife.
• Looking over the past five years, the average price per square foot of real estate has gone up by almost a quarter, with Wales seeing the most significant rises, and, counter-intuitively, London has seen the least.

By comparison, the most recent Halifax House Price Index shows that growth in house prices is nevertheless slowing from the initial bounce-back from the financial turmoil, although Halifax Mortgages Director Kim Kinnaird points out that a monthly decrease in prices after almost half a year of rises shouldn't be unexpected in the face of the problems with inflation and that, in reality, house prices have shown remarkable resilience.

Colin Bradshaw, Chief Executive Officer of TwentyCi, commented on their own findings:

“The property market has, time and time again, shown how robust it is despite all the gloomy headlines and all that has happened in the wider economy. 

“The market momentum, certainly as measured by Sales Agreed, is gaining further positive pace which should be maintained throughout the year. 

“Whilst there are some risks arising from the changes in mortgage and employment rates, these are relatively small. 

“Overall prices and transaction levels are rising, so it's a rather rosy picture in the grand scheme of things.” 

In summary, there is real evidence that the housing market continues to stabilise.

This, of course, needs to be tempered with the problems of affordability and the pricing of houses taking them out of the reach of certain parts of society, but stability is a cornerstone of allowing those policies to be developed.

Found a home you want to buy? Keen to keep the other home-moving costs down, such as the legal side of things? Want to ensure that you are protected financially if the transaction falls through for any reason?

That's where Homeward Legal can really help with affordable but quality conveyancing services! 

They will start work on your planned purchase (and/or sale) as soon as you agree to the quotation and appoint them to represent you. 

Homeward Legal will also provide a quote that will not change - what you are quoted is what you pay for standard conveyancing process.

There are some unforeseen items that might arise during the purchase and/or sale, but the solicitor discusses these and their cost as they come up. 

In addition, to protect the homebuyer further, Homeward Legal operates a ‘no completion, no fee' promise, which ensures that, should the purchase or sale not go through as planned to completion status, no payment is required.

Call  to get your conveyancing quote started, or to discuss your concerns with your plans to move.

Or you can get a quick quote, using Homeward Legal's easy-to-use quote generator.