Neil Knight Spicerhaart on Housing Transaction Figures - We could be seeing a long-awaited correction of the market

24 April 2019

Neil Knight, Business Development Director of Spicerhaart Part Exchange & Assisted Move said:

“The latest non-seasonally adjusted HMRC property transaction data shows that there were 96,300 residential property transactions valued above £40,000 in March 2019, a rise of 17% compared with February’s figure of 82,200. It is also marginally above last March’s figure of 95,870.

“For the past few years, March has seen a rise on January and February, so that is not a huge surprise, but it is positive to see it has risen quite significantly and is up on last year, which could indicate that the market is starting to recover slightly.

“We know that first time buyers are still dominating, supported by figures also out this week from UK Finance which revealed the number of first-time buyer mortgages completed has risen for the fifth month in a row. They are up 4.1% on 2018; a stark contrast to the minimal 0.1% rise in the number of homemover mortgages competed in the same period.

“Figures from the ONS this week also showed that house price growth is slowing, and is in fact at its lowest level since September 2012, so what we could be seeing in these figures is a long-awaited correction of the market. As house price growth slows, first time buyers are more able to afford to get onto the housing ladder.

“Combine this with the stamp duty freeze, help to buy scheme and historically low-interest rates, it has never been easier for first-time buyers to purchase, particularly new build homes. Hopefully we will start to see construction of new build homes start to pick up pace now to keep up with demand.”