New research has claimed UK residential property transaction volumes fell by an average of 24% over the last six months compared to the previous six-month period, with some regions seeing a drop of as much as 32.5%.
This comes as Savills recently predicted a 28% nosedive in transactions for 2023 from pre-pandemic levels. This piece of research, however, suggests much of the decline has already taken place.
House Buyer Bureau analysed sales volume data from the Land Registry between January 2022 and June 2022, comparing it with activity between July 2021 and December 2021.
The research shows that in the last six months, an average of 61,651 homes have been sold across the UK on a monthly basis, 23.8% fewer than the 80,958 sold per month in the previous six months.
Every area of the UK market saw a decline in average monthly sales volumes at a regional level.
The North East has seen the largest decline with a 32.5% drop in transaction levels, while the North West has also seen a notable decline, down 28.3%, followed by Wales (-27.7%), the East Midlands (-27.1%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (-27.1%).
London, however, has been less susceptible to the current market slowdown. While all other regions have seen a decline of at least 20%, the London market has seen the average number of monthly transactions fall by just 8.4% in the last six months.
“While there has yet to be any notable decline in topline house prices, we’ve seen previous signs that mortgage approvals were stuttering and we’re now starting to see this translate to a drop in transaction levels,” said Managing Director of House Buyer Bureau Chris Hodgkinson, continuing:
“This decline is only going to intensify moving forward as the increased cost of securing a mortgage continues to climb to some of the highest levels seen in years. With more buyers being deterred from entering the market, sellers will start to find that they simply can’t expect to secure the same price as they would have during the dizzying heights of the pandemic market boom.
As this pendulum shifts, there’s no doubt that house prices will start to fall and it’s only a matter of time before this decline surfaces.”
