Agency stock levels rise but 'market is changing direction'

Agents are getting more listings but it is taking longer for properties to go under offer, new figures show.

The latest Homemover Pulse property market summary by data company TwentyCi suggests the cost of living crisis and rising mortgage rates has started to put pressure on demand during October.

Its figures show there are currently 263,359 properties listed for sale across the UK, up 8.75% on September, with all regions of the UK seeing an increase.

There are 315,777 properties listed as sales agreed, a monthly decline of 3.62%, while completions were up 1.1% compared with September at 307,190 – mainly helped by activity in Scotland.

Scotland was the only region to demonstrate a slight increase in demand compared with last month, TwentyCi said.

The biggest downturns in demand were found in the East Midlands at 5.67% lower than than last month, and outer London with 5.53% less than in September.  

In the South East, completion numbers overtook sales agreed for the first time since March, which TwentyCi described as “a clear sign that demand is on the wane and the tide is turning in the UK’s housing market.”

There was an 18.94% monthly increase in completions for Scotland, according to the research.

Inner London was also strong with a 6.1% increase but overall 50% of UK regions experienced a monthly decline in completions and a further 15% had an increase of under 0.1%.

The blog post said: “There’s undoubtedly a change in the direction of the UK housing market which has consistently defied expectations for many months. 

“With interest rates expected to continue to rise sharply amid these uncertain times, we expect to see slower growth in the market over the coming months.”

https://news.twentyci.co.uk/blog/homemover-pulse-uk-property-market-october-2022