When it comes to 'property transaction' figures the timeline has to be considered - Comment on the HMRC property transactions for December from Adam Oldfield at Phoebus Software

31 January 2024

Please find a comment on this morning’s property transaction figures from Adam at Phoebus.

Adam Oldfield, chief revenue officer at Phoebus Software, says “In contrast to the more upbeat figures for mortgage approvals from the Bank of England yesterday, the latest residential transaction numbers are once again lower than the number of approvals would have us to believe. Of course, when it comes to transactions the timeline has to be considered. When most of these mortgages were approved in August or September, we were looking at a very different scenario. The base rate was still going up as were mortgage rates and inflation. If we look at the current number of approvals the outlook for the next few months is brighter than the picture painted by today’s figures.

“Of course, there is the question of what the Bank of England will do next. No-one expects rates to come down quite yet and, as we have seen, swap rates have started to climb again recently. Lenders have been bringing rates down with better fixed rate deals back on the table. How long that will be the case is a big question and brokers will need to work quickly to secure the best deals for their clients, especially those that have moved onto much higher variable rates.”