New data from Zoopla shows seven regions of the UK seeing price rises and five seeing declines – but asking price reductions remain higher than average
House prices across the UK are down just 0.5% in a year as the housing market recovery continues.
New data from Zoopla shows seven regions of the UK seeing price rises and five seeing declines – but asking price reductions remain higher than average.
Buyer demand is 11% higher and sales agreed up 15% from a year earlier and on average estate agency branches are agreeing six sales a day – up from 5.2 a year earlier.
The supply of homes is 21% higher than a year ago and Zoopla now expects 1.1 million sales in 2024 – up from 1 million in 2023.
However Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at business consultancy Hargreaves Lansdown, cautions that the market still faces some serious hurdles.
She comments: Falling mortgage rates at the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024 made the key difference in boosting market optimism, and rates are beginning to rise again. They are still only roughly where they were a year ago – and the average two-year rate is still below 5.75% – but an increase may persuade some buyers to press pause. We also need to keep an eye on the balance of supply and demand.
We have more buyers around, but demand is far from fully recovered, there are more homes on the market now. With properties for sale up a fifth, the balance of power is likely to remain with buyers, who are still securing higher than average price reductions, she said.
The picture varies a great deal across the country. In the south, excluding London, we are seeing the impact of relentless eye-watering price hikes over the last few years, she said.
She added: As a result, affordability is a major problem, and we are still seeing asking prices drop significantly. London is an exception, because prices did not increase as far or as fast as elsewhere in the south, so incomes have caught up a bit. It is one of the strongest areas for sales right now. The rest of the country has seen prices increase over the last few years, just not quite so sharply or as high, so declines have been more limited.
