The housing market in August 2024 displayed a mixture of stability and subtle shifts, according Propertymark’s Housing Insight Report.
The average number of new prospective buyers registered per member branch remained static at 71, unchanged from the previous month. This steady interest is complemented by consistent average viewing numbers, which held firm at 91 per branch in August. The rise in the average number of viewings per available property, increasing to 3.8 compared to the previous month, suggesting growing competition among buyers.
The Q2 2024 mortgage statistics indicate an increase in gross mortgage advances and the value of new mortgage commitments. Nathan Emerson, CEO Propertymark commented:
“Although the year to date has seen the economy take a more stable footing, which has assisted in bringing an enhanced level of consumer confidence to the housing market, it is important to consider there are still challenges ahead. We remain at the very start of the trajectory regarding more favourable base rates and only at the starting blocks regarding the UK Government’s ambition regarding their new house-building targets. It remains imperative that immense effort is placed on upscaling a workforce to take the challenge of creating nearly 2m homes across the next five years.
The housing sector continues to suffer from a long-standing absence of available stock, within both the sales and rental sectors. This, in turn, continues to impact sales values and rental prices across many regions. With a new UK Government now in situ, there will be a mass evolution for the entire housing sector over the coming five years in terms of planning regulations, building safety, taxation, aspirations to achieve net zero and legislation such as the Renters’ Rights Bill.
Fundamentally the housing sector is about to embark on its biggest transformation for many decades and it remains important that all ambitions are objective and measurable and that they provide balance and fairness throughout. It remains critical that future direction is driven by data insight and wide-ranging stakeholder engagement to ensure housing remains accessible and workable for both residents and investors equally.”
What’s more, new supply, as measured by new sales instructions, stayed largely static compared to July 2024, with an average of 10 homes placed for sale per member branch. Despite the unchanged supply levels, the average number of sales agreed per branch saw a slight uptick in August, reflecting steady buyer interest and transactional activity.
The time it takes to exchange contracts continues to fluctuate month by month. In August, there was a marginal dip in the proportion of agents reporting that it takes 17 weeks or more to progress from offer acceptance to exchange.
