Revealing the monthly estimated figures for both residential and non-residential property transactions, HM Revenue & Customs property statistics for January 2018 were released today (21/02/18).
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 January 2018, the provisional seasonally -adjusted UK property count was 102,610 residential and 10,780 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 1.3% in January, it was 0.1% below the figure recorded for the correspondent month in 2017.
When looking at the non-adjusted figures, January 2018 saw a monthly fall of 23.3%, with this year’s figure being 2.6% higher than the level in 2017.
For non-residential property transactions, the seasonally-adjusted estimate experiences a monthly growth of 0.6% in January 2018. In comparison to the correspondent month in 2017, this year’s figure is 1.1% lower. As can typically be expected where the seasonal nature of purchases are concerned, non-adjusted transactions have observed peaks and falls on a monthly basis.
Commenting on the figures was Doug Crawford, CEO of My Home Move. He stated:
“Despite the odds, the residential property market has remained resilient as we enter the new year. The seasonally adjusted number of property transactions increased by 1.3% between December and January as volumes remain buoyant against the uncertain economic backdrop, which in the short-term shows little sign of fading away.
“For the time being, the housing market appears to be stable, but yearly comparisons show stagnant growth in transaction volumes despite increased demand from first-time buyers encouraged by the likes of the recent SDLT changes.
“The bottom line is that we need more houses. Property transactions will continue to appear stable while demand outstrips supply, but building is the only way we can properly jumpstart our industry to cater to the ever-growing pool of market hopefuls.”
The full dataset can be accessed here.
