Market insight - agent predicts brisk end to stamp duty holiday

Demand from buyers is set to be strong for the rest of 2021 as the stamp duty holiday unwinds but uncertainty remains over supply levels, Knight Frank claims.

Property market analysis by the agent predicts that activity will be “brisk but not frenetic” as the stamp duty holiday comes to an end in October.

Knight Frank found the number of new prospective buyers registering in August was 24 per cent above the five-year average.

The number of offers accepted was 32 per cent higher over the same period.

Knight Frank says that supply is failing to keep up with the speed that properties are coming under offer and selling.

The average number of days between a sale being instructed and an offer being agreed in the UK was 111 in the first eight months of 2021, down from 128 in 2019.

However, the number of market valuation appraisals was eight per cent below the five-year average in August, according to the research.

In the first five working days of this month, the number of market valuation appraisals was 10.1 per cent higher than the same period in 2019.

But it was a quarter lower compared with the equivalent week in 2020.

In some cases, vendors are unable to find a suitable property for their onward purchase, Knight Frank warns.

Tom Bill, Knight Frank’s head of UK residential research, said: “Some prospective sellers will be encouraged by the brightening economic outlook, ultra-low mortgage rates, calmer market conditions after a frenetic first half and a sense that the worst of the pandemic is behind us.

“Less needs-driven owners will want more time to assess the wider social and economic fallout from Covid-19 and may see Christmas as a natural moment to reconsider.

“The question of how much supply builds, and the associated impact on prices and transaction volumes, will depend on the size of these two respective camps.”