Revealing the monthly estimated figures for both residential and non-residential property transactions, HM Revenue & Customs property statistics for April 2018 were released today.
Showing data for the UK and constituent countries, the publication is based on data from both HMRC’s Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) and the Scottish Administrations Land and Building Tax (LBTT) databases.
For April 2018, the provisional seasonally adjusted UK property count was 100,190 residential and 11,300 non-residential transactions.
On a seasonally-adjusted basis, whilst the estimate for the number of residential property transactions saw a month-on-month growth of 3.5%, this year’s level was 2.7% below the corresponding month in 2017.
When looking at the non-adjusted figures, April saw a monthly drop of 12.5%, with 2018’s figure being 2.0% lower than the level recorded last year.
For non-residential property transactions, the seasonally-adjusted estimate experienced a monthly growth of 7.6% in April 2018. In comparison to the corresponding month in 2017, this year’s figure is 6.6% higher. As can typically be expected where the seasonal nature of purchases are concerned, non-adjusted transactions have observed peaks and troughs on a monthly basis.
The full dataset can be accessed here.
In response to the latest housing transaction figures from HMRC released today, Neil Knight, Business Development Director of Spicerhaart Part Exchange & Assisted Move said:
“The latest HMRC non-adjusted figures show that there has been a drop in house sales compared to last month and compared to this time last year.
“A drop in housing transactions can be a sign of a downturn in the housing market as a whole, and we have seen asking prices drop in some areas. However, I don’t think we should read too much into it, as the market is still up on where it was in January and February.
“Going forward, I don’t anticipate any major change. On a positive note, last month’s construction output figures from the ONS for new-builds was strong, and this, combined with the continuing popularity of help to buy, and the fact things tend to pick up in the summer months could see new-build transactions start to rise.”
