Revealing the monthly estimated figures for both residential and non-residential property transactions, HM Revenue & Customs property statistics for March 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 March 2018, the provisional seasonally adjusted UK property count was 92,270 residential and 9,650 non-residential transactions.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, whilst the estimate for the number of residential property transactions saw a month-on-month decline of 7.2%, this year’s level was 11.8% below the correspondent month in 2017.
When looking at the non-adjusted figures, March 2018 saw a monthly growth of 13.3%, with this year’s figure being 10.9% lower than the level in 2017.
For non-residential property transactions, the seasonally-adjusted estimate experienced a monthly decline of 7.9% in March 2018. In comparison to the correspondent month in 2017, this year’s figure is 12.1% 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.
The full dataset can be accessed here.
Neil Knight, Business Development Director of Spicerhaart Part Exchange & Assisted Move said: “The latest HMRC property transaction data shows that there were 92,270 residential property transactions valued above £40,000 in March 2018, a rise of 13.3% compared with February but 10.9% lower than March 2017.
“However, March 2017 was an exceptionally high for the time of year – 105,640 (26% higher than February 2017 maybe due to article 50 being triggered) and then transactions dropped right down 17% to 87,960 in April. So, the fact this March is lower than last year is not major cause for concern for the market in general.
“Nevertheless, I do think transactions will pick up again in the next few months. The summer months always tend to be the strongest for the residential housing market, plus I think we will also start to see some of the transactions buoyed by the Stamp Duty cut for first time buyers (up to £300,000) that came into effect in November come through now.”
